research paper

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From: To: Professor Palermo Subject: Whistleblowing: Edward Snowden

Whistleblowing is defined as ‘‘the disclosure by organization members (former or

current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to

persons or organizations that may be able to effect action.”1 Over the last couple of decades there

have been very public cases such as the Maddoff scandal in which an employee within the

organization blew the whistle on the corrupt and unethical acts that occurred within the

organization. It's not as easy as it seems, as there are a variety of steps an individual must take

before making any accusations; in a lot of cases the employee faces major backlash and even

termination, as seen by the case of Edward Snowden. It is important that an individual is

properly trained in ethics and whistleblowing, so that they know the proper procedures in order

to protect themselves if they are faced with the ethical dilemma on whether or not they should

blow the whistle.

When deciding if you should blow the whistle, you must first decide if it is a serious issue

that can harm many people including the stakeholders of the organization. Stakeholders include

employees within the organization and their families, customers, shareholders, the community

the organization exists in, and the rest of society. Some issues such as fudging numbers one time

on a report are small enough to be dealt with internally. “Issues that involve values such as truth,

employee or customer (or other stakeholder) rights, trust, fairness, harm, your personal

reputation or the reputation of your organization, and whether the law is being broken or

                                                             1  Kaptein, Muel. "From Inaction To External Whistleblowing: The Influence Of The Ethical Culture Of

Organizations On Employee Responses To Observed Wrongdoing." Journal Of Business Ethics 98.3 (2011): 513- 530. Business Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. 

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compromised”2 are all different types of issues that are serious enough to be raised beyond your

immediate manager. Once an issue is believed to be serious enough to call it to someone’s

attention, there are a variety of steps that must be taken in order to protect yourself and make it

as smooth of a process as possible.

When it comes to voicing your values at work, it takes a great amount of courage. Not

everyone shares the same values and beliefs, but a good understanding of what your values are

helps you better deal with any ethical dilemmas that may arise in the workplace. Kathleen

Reardon developed six steps that should be taken before the whistle is blown; you should ask

yourself how strongly you feel about the particular issue, make sure your intentions are for the

greater good over your own personal agenda, consider the power you have in the organization

and if you have established trusted relationships over time, weigh the risks and benefits of the

action, consider timing, and develop any possible alternatives.3 It is crucial to the whistleblowing

process that these six steps are considered in order for it to be as successful as possible. In some

whistleblowing cases, employees are terminated not for blowing the whistle but for how the

message was communicated. An employee should first raise concerns with management and

exhaust all alternatives internally before going public with information. Some companies even

have hotlines where issues can be discussed anonymously.

With the increasing rise in the number of whistleblowers, many organizations have begun

to provide their employees with resources that encourage them to blow the whistle internally,

known as intrinsic whistleblowing. Organizations prefer intrinsic whistleblowing as opposed to

external whistleblowing in which the employee raises concerns with an entity outside of the

                                                             2  Treviño, Linda Klebe. "Chapter 4: When All Else Fails: Blowing the Whistle."Managing Business Ethics. Straight

Talk about How to Do It Right. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2014. 136-44. Print.  3  Treviño, Linda Klebe. "Chapter 4: When All Else Fails: Blowing the Whistle."Managing Business Ethics. Straight

Talk about How to Do It Right. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2014. 136-44. Print.  

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organization, because it allows them to correct the problem privately in a way that helps them

preserve their reputation. If an employee blows the whistle outside of the organization and makes

accusations that prove to be false, this could still tarnish the company’s reputation. If the

employee is already considering blowing the whistle, then they must already have the company’s

best interest in mind. For the greater good of the company, external whistleblowing should be the

last resort.

The proper way to blow the whistle begins with your immediate manager, unless he or

she are the individuals involved in the misconduct. Your manager will be able to tell you the

proper procedure for moving on, or they might be able to resolve the problem immediately. If the

manager isn’t helpful, it’s best to then contact their manager. This is where problems can arise if

your manager feels that you are going around them. It’s best to ask your immediate manager as

well as their manager for a meeting where the problem can be discussed and resolved as a team.

This method helps strengthen the trust between yourself and your manager, as well as yourself

and the upper-level manager. If the problem still isn’t resolved, the next step is to contact the

company’s ethics officer or find out if your state has policies in place that protect the

whistleblower if illegal activity is occurring. You can also try contacting human resources, or

legal departments within the organization, if there is one. If the problem still isn’t resolved and it

is in the stakeholders’ best interest to make this information public then the next step would be to

blow the whistle externally.

Once the decision to blow the whistle externally has been made, the employee is faced

with either praise or backlash. “Some see whistleblowers as traitorous violators of organizational

loyalty norms; others see them as heroic defenders of values considered to be more important

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than company loyalty (for example, public health, truth in advertising, environmental respect).”4

In some organizations, reporting ethical misconduct is not welcomed as it is viewed as a

challenge to management, who should be trusted. This is the main reason why organizations

retaliate against the whistleblower. Whistleblowers can also appear to be disloyal to their

coworkers and to the company as a whole, which is sometimes viewed as even worse than the act

initially in question. Edward Snowden is a great example of the negative consequences

associated with whistleblowing.

Edward Snowden, the man responsible for blowing the whistle on the U.S. National

Security Agency for their surveillance programs in 2013, received major backlash among the

public and the media. Snowden, an employee for Booz Allen Hamilton, a contractor for the

government, has gone on the record stating, "I can't in good conscience allow the U.S.

government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world

with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."5 President Barack Obama and

his administration have assured citizens that the surveillance programs were intended to seek out

terrorists, which actually ends up protecting the citizens. Interestingly, Snowden genuinely

thought what he was doing was for the greater good, and some still view him as a hero. On the

other hand, critics have argued that he is a traitor and should have let the government do their

job. After the whistle was blown, Snowden was soon fired for violating the company’s code of

conduct and core values. In anticipation of public backlash, Snowden has fled the country and

currently resides in Russia where he has temporary asylum. He most likely will never return to

                                                             4  Banerjee, Shivaji, and Shaunak Roy. "Examining The Dynamics Of Whistleblowing: A Causal Approach." IUP

Journal Of Corporate Governance 13.2 (2014): 7-26. Business Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.  5  Starr, Barbara, and Holly Yan. "Man behind NSA Leaks Says He Did It to Safeguard Privacy, Liberty." CNN.

Cable News Network, 23 June 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/politics/edward- snowden-profile/>. 

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the United States due to the charges he faces for illegally obtaining and releasing classified

information.

This is a peculiar case of whistleblowing, in that the precautionary steps above most

likely would not have been helpful in avoiding the mess that Snowden has created. Since it is the

United States government involved, there is no one for Snowden to internally report the

supposed misconduct, as it would have been very difficult for him to resolve the issue in a

private manner. It is clear that Snowden values trust, transparency, as well as privacy; these

values were most likely the driving force behind his motivation to blow the whistle. Snowden

genuinely believed the government was violating the trust and privacy of its citizens, and they

had a right to know what was going on. It is possible that Snowden considered Reardon’s steps

before blowing the whistle; he felt strongly about the issue, he had good intentions, he weighed

the risks and benefits, he felt the timing was right, and probably believed there weren’t any other

viable alternatives. The one step that Snowden should have placed a more significant emphasis

on, and probably could have had alternative outcomes, was the consideration of power and

influence.

The consideration of power and influence are critical before blowing the whistle, and it is

apparent that Snowden didn’t place much emphasis on them. Since Snowden had only worked

for the company for three months, he had virtually no power and influence in the company or the

government. He wasn’t in a position to make a decision for the organization on what was ethical

or unethical, and he wasn’t employed long enough to build a trusting relationship. Booz Allen

Hamilton is a company that provides management and technology consulting services to the

government. In this case, it was up to the higher level of executives to raise their concerns with

the government directly, since that is the entity they work for. If Snowden was in a more

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prominent position within the company and had more power and influence, it’s likely that he

could have discussed the issue with the NSA or the Obama Administration directly, without

turning to the media. He should have at least tried to encourage senior executives to discuss the

issue with the government, before anonymously releasing private information, an illegal act in

itself.

All companies, including Booz Allen Hamilton, should take the necessary steps in order

to avoid a whistleblowing disaster like the case of Edward Snowden. They need to first establish

effective whistleblowing procedures. There are four pillars to creating a successful

whistleblowing environment: “(1) hire and develop potential whistleblowers, (2) educate

employees, (3) promote reporting of wrongdoing, and (4) analyze and respond appropriately to

all reports. A weakness in any pillar reduces the effectiveness of the entire system.”6 Companies

need to first start by hiring the right people; they need to focus on the individual’s character and

professional identity. Hiring the right people reduces the likelihood of hiring loose cannons.

They also need to create a culture that emphasizes loyalty to the company, as well as the

expectation that all employees, including senior executives, should act with integrity. It is

extremely important that employees are given the resources to properly raise concerns internally,

before they feel it’s necessary to blow the whistle externally. It’s also important that the

company responds to all concerns in order to make employees feel like their concerns are being

heard, and that they matter. These four pillars are crucial to avoiding a whistleblowing disaster;

had Booz Allen Hamilton had a whistleblowing procedure similar to this one it is likely that

Snowden would have tried other alternatives before turning to the media.

                                                             6  MacGregor, Jason, Michael Robinson, and Martin Stuebs. "Creating An Effective Whistleblowing

Environment." Strategic Finance 96.3 (2014): 35-40. Business Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

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When making the decision to blow the whistle, it is important that an individual considers

Reardon’s six steps in order to ensure that they are making the right decision. An employee

should first turn to their immediate manager in order to resolve the issue internally with little to

no consequences. The employee should also determine if the magnitude of the issue is great

enough to be made public; this can usually be determined by the number of people who are

harmed by the misconduct. As illustrated by the case of Edward Snowden, even in cases where

the employee has great intentions, and the misconduct affects an overwhelming amount of

people, it can still lead to dire consequences. Whistleblowers are often perceived to be disloyal to

both the company and their coworkers. They face retaliation which could include termination.

External whistleblowing is also disastrous for the company, whose reputation is tarnished

through the process. As stakeholders, they should also take precautionary measures in order to

protect themselves from a disastrous whistleblowing event.

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Works Cited

Banerjee, Shivaji, and Shaunak Roy. "Examining The Dynamics Of Whistleblowing: A Causal Approach." IUP Journal Of Corporate Governance 13.2 (2014): 7- 26. Business Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

Kaptein, Muel. "From Inaction To External Whistleblowing: The Influence Of The

Ethical Culture Of Organizations On Employee Responses To Observed Wrongdoing." Journal Of Business Ethics 98.3 (2011): 513-

530. Business Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.  

MacGregor, Jason, Michael Robinson, and Martin Stuebs. "Creating An Effective Whistleblowing Environment." Strategic Finance 96.3 (2014): 35-40. Business Source Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

Starr, Barbara, and Holly Yan. "Man behind NSA Leaks Says He Did It to Safeguard Privacy, Liberty." CNN. Cable News Network, 23 June 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/politics/edward-

snowden-profile/>.  

Treviño, Linda Klebe. "Chapter 4: When All Else Fails: Blowing the Whistle."Managing Business Ethics. Straight Talk about How to Do It Right. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2014. 136-44.