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Today’s Topics

Today’s Topics. Whistleblowing Meaningful Work. Whistleblowing. Recall the case of General Dynamics and the LTV brake (p. 129) Should the engineer involved have blown the whistle? Did he? . What, exactly, is whistleblowing?.

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Today’s Topics

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  1. Today’s Topics Whistleblowing Meaningful Work

  2. Whistleblowing • Recall the case of General Dynamics and the LTV brake (p. 129) • Should the engineer involved have blown the whistle? • Did he?

  3. What, exactly, is whistleblowing? • The action of an employee or former employee who makes public information about a product or practice that threatens to produce harm to the public or to individuals. • An attempt by an employee or former employee to disclose (perceived) wrongdoing by the organization.

  4. A Few Distinctions: • Internal External • Personal Impersonal • Current Alumni • Open Anonymous

  5. ALL Whistleblowing is Morally Problematic Because: • It is contrary to the duties of loyalty and trust • It violates the social norm against ‘ratting’ • It subject the whistleblower to serious risks

  6. DeGeorge On the Criteria for Legitimate Whistleblowing

  7. Conditions that Justify Blowing the Whistle: • The threatened harm must be serious. • The threat has been reported internally. • Internal reporting has produced no changes.

  8. Conditions that REQUIRE Blowing the Whistle: • Documented evidence that the product or practice poses a serious, likely danger to the public • There is a good reason to believe that ‘going public’ will result in changes in the organization.

  9. James Challenges DeGeorge’s Criteria as Too Strict: • Would Ford engineers, using DeGeorge’s criteria, have been required to blow the whistle on the Pinto? Maybe not. • Don’t we have a duty to warn people of risks, even though they may ignore our warnings? • Yes, this is simply supplying them with relevant information.

  10. The presumption should be in favor of disclosing relevant information, with some constraints and restrictions.

  11. What Is the Meaning of Work? • Old testament--Work as punishment. • St. Paul--Work is a necessary evil. • Calvin & Reformation--Work defines character. Work is a calling. • Today--It is a curse to be unable to work.

  12. Work and Self Definition and Self Identification

  13. Work and Self Definition and Self Identification • Sisyphus

  14. Work and Self Definition and Self Identification • The Labor Theory of Value • The Evil of Non-Productive Work • “Real Work” versus Knowledge Work

  15. Alienated Labor and the Unhappy Worker • Labor/Management relations, the need for unions • Alternative models

  16. Work As a Good • Extrinsic (Instrumental) goods • Intrinsic goods

  17. Work, Time and Leisure • Modern work and poorly spent time (meetings) • “Doing your job” and “wasting time” • Work time, wasted time, leisure time • We need to study leisure and learn how to relax

  18. Management Responses to the Need for Meaningful Work • Our Workers Are Our Most Valuable Resource • Modern Workers Want Interesting, Challenging, Rewarding Work

  19. TQM, QWL, Quality Circles, CQI, ISO 9000 Are All Responses to the Problem of Making Work Meaningful

  20. TQM • Gives workers a voice in the company • Extends growth and participation in the company • Lets the people who know the job manage the job

  21. Is TQM Really Beneficial

  22. Divisiveness Results from TQM Strategies • Plants within a company are pitted against one another • Workers within a plant pitted against one another • QWL is a preferred tool of union busters • QWL is disguised trickle down

  23. Is “Meaningful Work” a Myth? • Do workers desire “meaningful work? • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs--Is Self-Actualization Everyone’s Goal?

  24. Most Workers Like Their Jobs • “More interesting,” “more challenging,” and “less boring” are not the things they would change • 85% DO NOT identify with their work

  25. Meaningful Work Satisfies the Needs of a Narrow Cross Section of Workers--Members of the Symbolic Analytic Class

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