MGT 495
Case Study #2 “The Whistleblowers” 1) The Whistleblower Protection Act, gives a legal protection to those employees who engage in Whistleblowing. It provides privacy and protection from reprisal to federal employees, former employees or any others who report a claim of mishandle of gross, fraudulence, or misuse of power. This Law was enacted in 1989 and its primary purpose was to strengthen and make better the defense and security for the rights of federal employees to avoid any unfair treatment, and terminate all the lawbreaking and crime that occurs inside the government entities. It enhances the protection of employees to prevent future suffering and unfavorable consequences as a result of their act. Protection from discrimination, workplace safety and health. 2) Rowley was a 48 years old women who worked as an FBI agent in the city of Minneapolis. She was the women who predicted the linkage of Zacarias Moussaoui with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Her office started to investigate the relationship between Moussaoui with the islamic groups and Osama bin laden. With this knowledge she approached the FBI superiors to get a warrant against Moussaoui and her request was denied, The lack of cooperation between the intelligence of the FBI made them less likely to appreciate the potential consequences of their actions. Cooper was a 38 years old internal auditor at the WorldCom, with her years of experience she was able to anticipate and alert the telecommunications firm’s board of directors about a $3.8 billion in accounting impropriety. Just a month after her concern, the company announced the biggest corporate bankruptcy in the history of the United States. The company had exposed a $9 billion in accounting fraud made by their own CEO and CFO. Watkins was a 43 years old vice president of Enron. She alerted the chairman Kenneth Lay that the firm could fall down because of the amount of false accounting information. Her input was not taken into consideration and the company fell through and wasn’t able to recover. B)This women had in common the courage, motivation, determination, self confidence, passion, love for their companies ideals and loyalty to their morals and ethics. They were from small towns, descendants from families of very low income, first borns, and all three are also married. They decided to break the silence and do what many people are afraid of doing which it is to speak up for themselves and reveal what others ignore to know for fear of loosing their jobs. They all acted based on their instinct of what is right to do. Their unusual behavior made them a role model and a perfect example of courage. C) What motivated them to do the right thing and blow the whistle on their employers was their commitment to their job and obedience to their morals and ethics. They felt the need to do what their Job demanded and it was to stand up for the best of their company. Taking immediate action upon a wrongful situation was the urgency of these women, they forgot about what consequences it might of bring to them in the future, but their set of values were strong enough to get them through this. D) These are very strong women, who are very decisive and strong minded. If they were put in another situation like this where they had to decide weather to blow the whistle or not they will definitely do it again. This is something that goes beyond their fear, it is inside their set of values, ethics and morals demand to act the right way and if that requires of reporting a wrongdoing situation there would be no doubt that they