CODE OF ETHICS

Case Study 1 - Health & Safety : Hazardous

Materials
• A condensed matter experimentalist and his students were conducting experiments on
thin films of common metals such as aluminum and tin. They realized that they could
substantially enhance their work by switching the samples to the metal beryllium, which
is highly toxic and can bring about irreversible poisoning.

• The procedures that they are employing with aluminum and tin would not be suitable for
a toxic material such as beryllium.

• Questions • What responsibility does the PI have in considering the new, potentially
dangerous material for the research? • What role should the students have in making this
decision? • If there is a decision to go ahead with the work, what is the PI’s responsibility
in terms of providing information and training? • How should he or she proceed?
 ETHICS
• moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting
of an activity.
• A code of ethics and professional conduct outlines the ethical
principles that govern decisions and behavior at a company or
organization. They give general outlines of how employees should
behave, as well as specific guidance for handling issues like
harassment, safety, and conflicts of interest.
• Engineers should uphold and advance the integrity, honor and dignity
of the Engineering profession by:

• Using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of human

welfare
• Being honest and impartial, and serving with fidelity the public, their
employers and clients
• Striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering
profession
 Model of Ethics
• Professional Engineers shall conduct themselves in an honourable and
ethical manner (elaborate)

• The basic framework for ethical judgment of a concerned professional

is the primary aspect of code of ethics.
 Why is Having a Code of Ethics Important?
• Having a code of ethics in place is essential because it outlines the
guiding principles that employees should be holding themselves to
every day.
• Furthermore, the code serves as a permanent reminder of these
values, one which the employee has to acknowledge they will abide
by.
• If the code of ethics is violated, a range of consequences might occur,
including a warning, a review by the ethics committee, or termination
depending on the severity of the infraction. 
• Professional code of ethics reflect basic “norms” of conduct that exist
within a particular profession and provide general guidance relating to
a variety of issues.
 What is the Purpose of a Code of Ethics?

• The purpose of a code of ethics is to inform those acting on behalf of

the organization how they should conduct themselves. A code of
ethics reiterates the organization’s values and morals so that
employees and third parties understand the standards they are
accountable to uphold. 
 Positive Roles of Ethical Codes
• The concept of code for engineering societies came into existence in
the late 19th century.
• These codes formulate basic principles for the proper conduct of
business activity in the current century.
• Support
• Education and Mutual Understanding
• Public Image about Profession
• Inspiration and Guidance
• Protecting the Status Quo
• Promoting Business Interests
 What is an Example of a Code of Ethics in an Organization?

•A commonly used ethical standard is the 

UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles, which covers human rights, labor,
the environment, and anti-corruption. The ten principles that fall
under these categories explain how businesses should conduct
themselves. By integrating these ideals, or ones similar, into policies,
an organization can build a culture of integrity, upholding
responsibilities to society at large, but establish guiding principles for
long-term success.
The Ten Principles of the UN Global
Compact
• The Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact are derived
from: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Labour
Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at W
ork
, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the 
United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
• Human Rights
• Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of
internationally proclaimed human rights; and
• Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights
abuses.
• Labour

• Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and

the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
• Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory
labour;
• Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and
• Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of
employment and occupation.
• Environment

• Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to

environmental challenges;
• Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental
responsibility; and
• Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally
friendly technologies.
• Anti-Corruption

• Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its

forms, including extortion and bribery.
 ACM Code of Ethics and Professional
Conduct
• Computing professionals' actions change the world. To act
responsibly, they should reflect upon the wider impacts of their work,
consistently supporting the public good. The ACM Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct ("the Code") expresses the conscience of the
profession.
• The Code is:
• designed to inspire and guide the ethical conduct of all computing
professionals, including current and aspiring practitioners, instructors,
students, influencers, and anyone who uses computing technology in an
impactful way.
• serves as a basis for remediation when violations occur.
• Section 1 GENERAL ETHICAL PRINCIPLES.
• A computing professional should...

• 1.1 Contribute to society and to human well-being, acknowledging that all

people are stakeholders in computing.
• 1.2 Avoid harm.
• 1.3 Be honest and trustworthy.
• 1.4 Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
• 1.5 Respect the work required to produce new ideas, inventions, creative
works, and computing artifacts.
• 1.6 Respect privacy.
• 1.7 Honor confidentiality.
• Section 2 PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES.
• A computing professional should...
• 2.1 Strive to achieve high quality in both the processes and products of professional work.
• 2.2 Maintain high standards of professional competence, conduct, and ethical practice.
• 2.3 Know and respect existing rules pertaining to professional work.
• 2.4 Accept and provide appropriate professional review.
• 2.5 Give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of computer systems and their impacts, including analysis
of possible risks.
• 2.6 Perform work only in areas of competence.
• 2.7 Foster public awareness and understanding of computing, related technologies, and their consequences.
• 2.8 Access computing and communication resources only when authorized or when compelled by the public
good.
• 2.9 Design and implement systems that are robustly and usably secure.
• Section 3 PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES.
• A computing professional, especially one acting as a leader, should...
• 3.1 Ensure that the public good is the central concern during all professional computing work.
• 3.2 Articulate, encourage acceptance of, and evaluate fulfillment of social responsibilities by
members of the organization or group.
• 3.3 Manage personnel and resources to enhance the quality of working life.
• 3.4 Articulate, apply, and support policies and processes that reflect the principles of the Code.
• 3.5 Create opportunities for members of the organization or group to grow as professionals.
• 3.6 Use care when modifying or retiring systems.
• 3.7 Recognize and take special care of systems that become integrated into the infrastructure of
society.
• Section 4. COMPLIANCE WITH THE CODE.
• A computing professional should...
• 4.1 Uphold, promote, and respect the principles of the Code.
• 4.2 Treat violations of the Code as inconsistent with membership in
the ACM.
SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND
RIGHTS
 SAFETY AND RISK
• Safety was defined as the risk that is known and judged as acceptable.
• But, risk is a potential that something unwanted and harmful may
occur.
• It is the result of an unsafe situation, sometimes unanticipated, during
its use.
• Probability of safety = 1 – Probability of risk
• Risk = Probability of occurrence × Consequence in magnitude
 Responsibility of Engineers
• Loyalty to corporations, respect for authority, collegiality and other
teamwork are a few important virtues in the field of Engineering.

• Professionalism in engineering would be threatened at every turn in a

corporation driven with powerful egos.

• Robert Jackall, a Sociologist criticizes professionalism saying, “what is

right in the corporation is what the guy above you wants from you.
That’s what morality is in the corporation.”
• Consider this checklist of our responsibilities to each of the stakeholder
groups:
• Our responsibility to the Engineering Profession
• Responsibility to our Employer
• The particular responsibility of Design Engineers
• Responsibility to the client

• Responsibility to the community is of paramount importance in all field

of engineering.
 Risk-Benefit Analysis (RBA)
• Every day when you leave your house you're taking a risk. When you cross the
street, you might get hit by a car. When you drive down the highway, you never
know what other drivers are going to do. When you get to school, if you sit at
your desk all day that might affect your health. So if all these things are risky,
why do we do them?

• Well, we do them because we feel the benefits outweigh the risk. If adults
stopped going to work because they were afraid of getting into a car accident,
the economy would collapse. If you refused to eat anything that might turn out
to be bad for you after more research 50 years from now, there would be hardly
anything you could eat. Everything we do is a balance between the risks and
benefits, even when we don't know it.
• A risk-benefit analysis is a comparison between the risks of a situation and its benefits. The
goal is to figure out whether the risk or benefit is most significant.

• It's used often in medicine, because every medical procedure has risks associated with it, and
some procedures that could be beneficial actually turn out to statistically cause more harm
than good. That's how medical researchers figure out whether certain procedures are worth
doing and what types of people will benefit.

• But risk-benefit analyses are useful for everyone. Most of us make our decisions fairly
subconsciously. By actually thinking about the risks and benefits, we can make better decisions
about our lives. To complete a risk-benefit analysis, there are four main pieces of information
you need:
• What are the risks?
• How likely are the risks to happen?
• What are the benefits?
• How likely are the benefits to happen?
• Risk-benefit analysis consists of evaluating a proposed action in terms
of the monetary values assigned to each of the various risks and
benefits associated with the action.

• Many of the important ethical problems associated with RBA concern

how to assign a numerical or monetary value to each of the risks,
costs and benefits associated with a proposed action e.g. transporting
hazardous materials by railroad cars.
• RBA has been attacked on ethical grounds because of its
presupposition, that the distributive effects of an action can be
ignored.

• Another fundamental ethical controversy is whether RBA errors in

presupposing: that benefits and risks are defined in terms of
individual preferences and egoistic hedoism.
 Ethical Issues in Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Professor Edwin Levy of the University of British Columbia and
Professor David Copp of Simon Fraser University pointed out several
ways in which ethical and value considerations enter into risk
assessments and cost-benefit analysis.
• Cost-benefit analysis (or, as it is usually called in the U.S.: benefit-cost analysis)
is not an altogether unambiguous concept. To be-gin with one can distinguish
between two kinds of cost-benefit analysis.

• On the one hand, there is the specifically economic kind of analysis, which
emerged together with microeconomics during the 19th century. In this case
the value or significance of everything needs to be ex-pressed in monetary
terms and based on (actual or virtual) market values.

• On the other hand, there is a broader kind of analysis, which is not exclusively
economic in this sense, but includes assessments with at least some
descriptions of costs and benefits expressed in non-economic and qualitative
terms.
• Cost-benefit analysis has been criticized both for its conception of
value, and for the decision rule.

• We have three kinds of criticism

1. Those directed at the behavioral and monetary standards of value
embodied in revealed preference theory
2. Those directed at the methodological individualisms
3. Those directed at the decision rule
 Reducing Risk
• Sometimes engineers are faced with some terrific tasks that are very
difficult to achieve. Such a designing and producing safe products,
giving a fair accounting of benefits and risks, meeting the production
schedules and helping the company to maintain profits.

• Faulty assumptions about safety

 Conflict of Interest
• A conflict of interest arises when what is in a person's best interest is
not in the best interest of another person or organization to which
that individual owes loyalty.

• For example, an employee may simultaneously help himself but hurt

his employer by taking a bribe to purchase inferior goods for his
company's use.
• A conflict of interest can also exist when a person must answer to two different individuals
or groups whose needs are at odds with each other. In this case, serving one individual or
group will injure the other.

• Conflicts of interest can appear in any decision-making process where the individual making
the decision has multiple interests at stake. Some common situations could include:
• Hiring an unqualified friend or relative to fill a position instead of the most qualified candidate.
• Preferentially awarding a government contract to an organization in which you or someone you know
owns stock.
• Performing part-time or contract-based work for a competitor organization

• A famous conflict of interest took place in 1967 when a group of Harvard scientists were
paid by the Sugar Association to publish a paper that minimized the relationship between
heart health and sugar consumption. These scientists violated their obligation to publish
truthful and reputable research in order to support their personal financial interests. 
 Occupational Crime
• Imagine that you answer phones at a large accounting firm. One day,
you hear a couple of high-level executives discussing a possible
merger with another large firm. You do some snooping, and soon
realize that the company is poised to be sold. You think that this sale
will cause stock prices to go up substantially, so you rush home to tell
your family and friends to invest in the company.
• As the snarky saying goes: 'No good deed goes unpunished.' What
you assume was a just friendly tip to help your pals makes some easy
money may have actually constituted the commission of an
occupational crime. 

• Occupational crime refers to a crime committed by someone during

the course of his or her employment. Also known as workplace crime,
occupational crime encompasses a wide variety of criminal acts
including: theft or embezzlement, money laundering, and the misuse
of company property or information.
 Industrial Espionage

• The term industrial espionage refers to the illegal and unethical theft
of business trade secrets for use by a competitor to achieve a 
competitive advantage.

• This activity is a covert practice often done by an insider or an

employee who gains employment for the express purpose of spying
and stealing information for a competitor. Industrial espionage is
conducted by companies for commercial purposes rather than by
governments for national security purposes.
 Price Fixing
• Price fixing is an agreement between participants that operate on the
same level of a supply chain
• (i) to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity at fixed prices, or
• (ii) to maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a
given level by controlling supply and demand.

• Price fixing disrupts the normal laws of demand and supply. It gives

monopolies an edge over competitors. It's not in the best interest of
consumers. They impose higher prices on customers, reduce incentives to
innovate, and raise barriers to entry. Overcharging costs consumers in
developing countries as much as their countries receive in foreign aid. 
Intellectual Property Rights
Introduction
• Intellectual property rights protect the intellectual
creations of inventors, artists, designers, architects,
musician, producers and other creative persons.
• By protecting their intellectual creation, they
compensate for the time, effort and recourses that
they would have invested towards such creations.
Broadly IPR includes 2 types of rights
- Industrial property : use of IPR within industry
or business organization.
Includes: patents, trademarks, design,
Geographical indication etc.

- Copyrights: Protection for the creative work of the

authors, artist and other creative person(copyrights)
as well as rights of the performers, phonogram
producers and broadcasters
• Scope of Intellectual property Rights : decided by
international treaties, conventions, protocols etc.
- WIPO determined the scope of IPRs during the
convention establishing the World Intellectual Property
Organization concluded on 14th July 1967.
- Article 2(viii) of this convention provides that:
IP shall include rights relating to the following fields.
Need for IPR
• IPR is essential for better identification, planning,
commercialization, rendering, and thus the preservation of
inventions or creativity. Each industry should develop its
speciality based on its IPR policies, management style,
strategies, and so on.

• IPR is a strong tool, to protect the investment, time, money, and

effort invested by the inventor/creator of the IP, as it gives the
inventor/creator an exclusive right for a certain period of time
for the use of its invention/creation. Thus, IPR affects the
economic development of a country by promoting healthy
competition and encouraging industrial growth and economic
growth.
 Why promote and protect Intellectual Property?
• There are several reasons for promoting and protecting
intellectual property. Some of them are:
• Progress and the good of humanity remain in the ability to create
and invent new works in the field of technology and culture.
• IP protection encourages publication, distribution, and disclosure
of the creation to the public, rather than keeping it a secret.
• Promotion and protection of intellectual Property promote
economic development, generates new jobs and industries, and
improves the quality of life.
• Intellectual Property helps in balancing between the innovator’s
interests and public interest, provide an environment where
innovation, creativity and invention can flourish and benefit all.
Kinds of intellectual Property
• The subject of intellectual property is very broad.
There are many different forms of rights that together
make up intellectual property.

• It mainly consisted of patents, trademarks, and

designs. Now, the protection of industrial property
extends to utility models, service marks, trade names,
passes, signs of source or origin, including
geographical indications, and the suppression of
unfair competition. It can be said that the term
‘industrial property” is the predecessor of ‘intellectual
property”.
Copyright
• Copyright law deals with the protection and exploitation of the expression of
ideas in a tangible form.

• In the modern world, the law of copyright provides not only a legal framework
for the protection of the traditional beneficiaries of copyright, the individual
writer, composer or artist, but also the publication required for the creation of
work by major cultural industries, film; Broadcast and recording industry; And
computer and software industries.

• It resides in literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works in ”original’ cinematic

films, and in sound recordings set in a concrete medium. To be protected as
the copyright, the idea must be expressed in original form. Copyright
acknowledges both the economic and moral rights of the owner. The right to
copyright is, by the principle of fair use, a privilege for others, without the
copyright owner’s permission to use copyrighted material. By the application
of the doctrine of fair use, the law of copyright balances private and public
interests.
 Patent
• Patent law recognizes the exclusive right of a patent holder to derive commercial benefits from his
invention. A patent is a special right granted to the owner of an invention to the manufacture, use, and
market the invention, provided that the invention meets certain conditions laid down in law.

• Exclusive right means that no person can manufacture, use, or market an invention without the consent
of the patent holder. This exclusive right to patent is for a limited time only.

• To qualify for patent protection, an invention must fall within the scope of the patentable subject and
satisfy the three statutory requirements of innovation, inventive step, and industrial application. As long
as the patent applicant is the first to invent the claimed invention, the novelty and necessity are by and
large satisfied.

• Patents are not allowed for any idea or principle.

• The purpose of patent law is to encourage scientific research, new technology, and industrial progress.
The economic value of patent information is that it provides technical information to the industry that can
be used for commercial purposes. If there is no protection, then there may be enough incentive to take a
free ride at another person’s investment. This ability of free-riding reduces the incentive to invent
something new because the inventor may not feel motivated to invent due to lack of incentives. 
 Trademark
• A trademark is a badge of origin. It is a specific sign used to make the
source of goods and services public in relation to goods and services and
to distinguish goods and services from other entities. This establishes a
link between the proprietor and the product. It portrays the nature and
quality of a product. The essential function of a trademark is to indicate
the origin of the goods to which it is attached or in relation to which it is
used. It identifies the product, guarantees quality and helps advertise
the product. The trademark is also the objective symbol of goodwill that
a business has created.
• Any sign or any combination thereof, capable of distinguishing the goods
or services of another undertaking, is capable of creating a trademark. It
can be a combination of a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design,
image, shape, colour, personal name, letter, number, figurative element
and colour, as well as any combination representing a graph. Trademark
registration may be indefinitely renewable.
 Geographical indication
• It is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a geographic location or origin of the
product, the use of geographical location may act as a certification that the product possesses certain
qualities as per the traditional method.

• Darjeeling tea and basmati rice are a common example of geographical indication. The relationship
between objects and place becomes so well known that any reference to that place is reminiscent of
goods originating there and vice versa.

• It performs three functions.

• First, they identify the goods as origin of a particular region or that region or locality;
• Secondly, they suggest to consumers that goods come from a region where a given quality, reputation, or other
characteristics of the goods are essentially attributed to their geographic origin, and
• third, they promote the goods of producers of a particular region. They suggest the consumer that the goods come
from this area where a given quality, reputation or other characteristics of goods are essentially attributable to the
geographic region.

• It is necessary that the product obtains its qualities and reputation from that place. Since those
properties depend on the geographic location of production, a specific link exists between the products
and the place of origin. Geographical Indications are protected under the 
Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.
Industrial design
• It is one of the forms of IPR that protects the visual design of the
object which is not purely utilized. It consists of the creation of
features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation or
composition of lines or colours applied to any article in two or
three-dimensional form or combination of one or more features.

• Design protection deals with the outer appearance of an article,

including decoration, lines, colours, shape, texture and
materials. It may consist of three-dimensional features such as
colours, shapes and shape of an article or two-dimensional
features such as shapes or surface textures or other
combinations.
Relevance of IPR In Today's Time
• IPR is a significant tool in today's era. The risk of an
innovation getting infringed without the knowledge of
the inventor stands very high. With the increase in the
importance of IP, instances of IP crimes have become
the part and parcel of the digitized era sometimes
even leading to failure of businesses. 
ENVIRONMENTAL
ETHICS
• Environmental ethics is a branch of ethics that studies the relation of
human beings and the environment and how ethics play a role in this.
Environmental ethics believe that humans are a part of society as well
as other living creatures, which includes plants and animals. These
items are a very important part of the world and are considered to be
a functional part of human life.
 IKEA and Environmental Ethics
• Introduction
• In 2013, the Tempe outlet of IKEA won the Sustainability Leadership Award for its energy and water
efficiency. The building featured a huge one-megaliter tank – installed for the purpose of irrigation,
cooling, and toilet flushing – along with other energy efficient procedures such as sensor lighting,
skylights, CFL and LED lights, and solar hot water. Analysts felt that the global furniture retail chain had
made a lot of progress on the environmental sustainability front. As of February 2014, IKEA had
renewable energy sources equivalent to any energy company. It owned 157 wind turbines and 550,000
installed solar panels, which could generate energy of 345megawatts and 90 megawatts respectively.
•

The iconic IKEA, founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, had grown to become the world’s largest furniture
retailer. The Sweden-based company’s business concept in all its markets was to offer furniture of
simple designs at affordable prices. Though the company designed its own furniture and other items, it
manufactured only a minimal portion; most of the supplies were made through a global network of
contract manufacturers. IKEA did not have its own manufacturing facilities. Instead, it used
subcontracted manufacturers in different parts of the world for its supplies. IKEA strove hard to project
itself as an environmentally conscious, ethical company. It took measures to ensure that the materials it
used were sustainably sourced and the labor it employed met international labor regulations......
 Affecting Environment
• Acid Rain

• Greenhouse effect

• Solar Radiation
 Engineers as Managers
• Most of the engineers are experiencing the best methods of technical
training like other professions.

• Many of the engineers move into managerial jobs.

• Managers acting as Professionals

• The engineer-managers should have two responsibilities promoting an ethical
climate and resolving conflicts.
• Promoting an ethical climate
• An ethical climate can be established by a combination of formal organization
and policies, informal practices and also personal attitudes and obligations.

• Management of Conflicts
• An important managerial job in guiding and integrating the employees work is
dealing with conflicts in an effective manner.
 Role of Engineers
• The goal of these guideline is to provide general advice to engineers.
1. Establish a clear technical foundation
2. Keep your arguments on a high professional place, as impersonal
and objective as possible, avoiding extraneous issues and
emotional outbursts
3. Try to catch problems early and keep the argument at the lowest
managerial level possible
4. Use organizational dispute resolution mechanisms
5. Keep records and collect paper
6. Resigning

7. Anonymity

8. Outside resources
 IEEE Code of Ethics
The members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of the technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world,
and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves
to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:
• I. To uphold the highest standards of integrity, responsible behavior, and ethical conduct in professional activities.
• 1. to hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public, to strive to comply with ethical design and sustainable
development practices, to protect the privacy of others, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the
environment;
• 2. to improve the understanding by individuals and society of the capabilities and societal implications of conventional and
emerging technologies, including intelligent systems;
• 3. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;
• 4. to avoid unlawful conduct in professional activities, and to reject bribery in all its forms;
• 5. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, to be honest and realistic in
stating claims or estimates based on available data, and to credit properly the contributions of others;

• 6. to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training
or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;
• II. To treat all persons fairly and with respect, to not engage in harassment or discrimination, and to avoid injuring
others.

• 7. to treat all persons fairly and with respect, and to not engage in discrimination based on characteristics such as
race, religion, gender, disability, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression;

• 8. to not engage in harassment of any kind, including sexual harassment or bullying behavior;
• 9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious actions, rumors or any
other verbal or physical abuses;

• III. To strive to ensure this code is upheld by colleagues and co-workers.

• 10. to support colleagues and co-workers in following this code of ethics, to strive to ensure the code is upheld, and
to not retaliate against individuals reporting a violation.

• 
 Rights of Engineers

• Professional Rights
• The rights that engineers have as professionals are called Professional
Rights. These professional rights include −
• The basic right of professional conscience.
• The right of conscientious refusal.
• The right of professional recognition.
 Employee Rights

• An employee right can be any right, moral or legal, that involves the
status of being an employee.

• Privacy
• Equal Opportunity – Non-discrimination
• Equal Opportunity – Sexual Harassment
• Equal opportunity – Affirmative Action
• Intellectual Property Rights
 Whistleblowing

• Whistleblowing occurs when an employee or former employee

conveys information about a significant moral problem to someone in
a position to take action on the problem and does so outside
approved organizational channels (or against strong pressure).
• Concerns of Whistleblowing
• It is generally believed to be permissible and obligatory to whistleblow if the
following conditions are met −
• The actual or potential harm reported is serious.
• The harm has been adequately documented.
• The concerns have been reported to immediate superiors.
• After not getting satisfaction from immediate superiors, regular channels
within the organization have been used to reach up to the highest levels of
management.
• There is reasonable hope that whistleblowing can help prevent or remedy the
harm
• Internal whistleblowing is when someone makes a report within an
organisation. Often companies implement internal whistleblowing
channels for this purpose so that employees and other stakeholders can
speak up if they become aware of misconduct. Employees can also report
to their line manager.

• External whistleblowing is when a person blows the whistle publicly,

either to the media, police or via social media channels.  People often
choose the public option if they have little faith in their organisations
investigation or reporting procedure, have tried speaking up internally
with no result or if there is no whistleblowing system in place.