Name: Moses Briggs Department: Sociology SOC 109 Assignment Whistleblowing is the act of drawing public attention, or the attention of an authority figure, to perceived wrongdoing, misconduct, unethical activity within public, private or third-sector organizations. Corruption, fraud, bullying, health and safety violation, cover-ups and discrimination are common activities highlighted by whistleblowers. Organization development (OD) is the study of successful organizational change and performance. OD emerged from human relations astudies in the 1930s, during which psychologists realized that organizational structures and processes influence worker behavior and motivation. More recently, work on OD has expanded to focus on aligning organizations with their rapidly changing and complex environments through organizational learning, knowledge management and transformation of organizational norms and values. Key concepts of OD theory include: organizational climate (the mood or unique “personality” of an organization, which includes attitudes and beliefs that influence members’ collective behavior), organizational culture (the deeply-seated norms, values and behaviors that members share) and organizational strategies (how an organization identifies problems, plans action, negotiates change and evaluates progress). A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public. The information of alleged wrongdoing can be classified in many ways: violation of company policy/rules, law, regulation, or threat to public interest/national security, as well as fraud, and corruption. Those who become whistleblowers can choose to bring information or allegations to surface either internally or externally. Internally, a whistleblower can bring his/her accusations to the attention of other people within the accused organization such as an immediate supervisor. Externally, a whistleblower can bring allegations to light by contacting a third party outside of an accused organization such as the media, government, law enforcement, or those who are concerned. Whistleblowers, however, take the risk of facing stiff reprisal and retaliation from those who are accused or alleged of wrongdoing. Because of this, a number of laws exist to protect whistleblowers. Some third party groups even offer protection to whistleblowers, but that protection can only go so far. Whistleblowers face legal action, criminal charges, social stigma, and termination from any position, office, or job. Two other classifications of whistleblowing are private and public. The classifications relate to the type of organizations someone chooses to whistle-blow on: private sector, or public sector. Depending on many factors, both can have varying results. However, whistleblowing in the public sector organization is more likely to result in criminal charges and possible custodial sentences. A whistleblower who chooses to accuse a private sector organization or agency is more likely to face termination and legal and civil charges. Deeper questions and theories of whistleblowing and why people choose to do so can be studied through an ethical approach. Whistleblowing is a topic of ongoing ethical debate. Leading arguments in the ideological camp that whistleblowing is ethical maintain that whistleblowing is a form of civil disobedience, and aims to protect the public from government wrongdoing. In the opposite camp, some see whistleblowing as unethical for breaching confidentiality, especially in industries that handle sensitive client or patient information. Legal protection can also be granted to protect whistleblowers, but that protection is subject to many stipulations. Hundreds of laws grant protection to whistleblowers, but stipulations can easily cloud that protection and leave whistleblowers vulnerable to retaliation and legal trouble. However, the decision and action has become far more complicated with recent advancements in technology and communication Whistleblowers frequently face reprisal, sometimes at the hands of the organization or group they have accused, sometimes from related organizations, and sometimes under law. Questions about the legitimacy of whistleblowing, the moral responsibility of whistleblowing, and the appraisal of the institutions of whistleblowing are part of the field of political ethics. 3 - Who is a Whistleblower? A whistleblower is a person who voluntarily discloses to the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, a possible misconduct or violation that has occurred, is ongoing, or is about to occur with specific concerns which are in the public interest. 4 - What type of information can be submitted? Examples include: 1. Violation of Government’s financial regulations e.g. failure to comply with the Financial Regulations Act, Public Procurement Act and other extant laws. 2. Mismanagement or misappropriation of public funds and assets (e.g. properties and vehicles). 3. Information on stolen public funds. 4. Information on concealed public funds 5. Financial malpractice or fraud. 6. Theft. 7. Collecting / soliciting bribes. 8. Corruption. 9. Diversion of revenues. 10. Underreporting of revenues. 11. Conversion of funds for personal use. 12. Fraudulent and unapproved payments. 13. Splitting of contracts. 14. Procurement fraud (kickbacks and over-invoicing etc.) 15. Violation of public procurement procedures. In the last two and half decades, whistle blowing has been a practice that dominated contemporary philosophical discussion. It continues to provoke debate among academics because of its controversial nature. This study therefore examined the possible effects of whistle blowing practices on organizational performance in the public sector. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted in the study. Data for the study were gotten from both primary and secondary sources. A total of 700 questionnaires were administered using simple random technique. A total of 672 of the administered questionnaires were retrieved and found useful for data analysis. Three hypotheses were stated to guide the study. Simple frequency table, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and descriptive statistics were used for various analysis of the study. The result of the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between whistle blowing practices in the public sector at r equals 0.363, n=672, p<0.01. The result of the study also revealed that there is a significant relationship between protection of whistle blowers and performance in the public sector at r equals 0.511, n=672, p<0.01. The result of the third hypothesis showed that there is a relationship between disclosure of unethical practices and the performance in the public sector at r equals 0.840, n=672, p<0.01. Findings from the study showed that respondents disagreed to the fact; that employees feel confident to report unethical practices within the organization to external bodies. The study recommended that public organizations should promote culture of whistle blowing that broadly needs to be supported and articulated throughout the organization. The study therefore concludes that whistle blowing should be encouraged and not discouraged in the context of the organization. Businesses nowadays are operating in a turbulent environment where organisations are searching for measures that will allow them to improve their performance and competitiveness (Dodd, 2003). Conflict is generally regarded as disagreement regarding interests or ideas (Esquivel and Kleiner, 1997). In addition organisational conflict is regarded as the discord that occurs when the goals, interests or values of different individuals or groups are incompatible with those of individuals or groups block or frustrate each others in an attempt to achieve their objectives. Conflict are inevitable part of organisational life since the goals of different stakeholders such as managers and staff are often incompatible (Jones et al., 2000). In addition, Loomis and Loomis (1965) argue that Conflict is an ever- present process in human relations. That is why various organisations have changed their approaches to enable them to manage their organisations effectively to avoid conflicts at all costs. Conflict is a fact of life in any organisations as longer as people compete for jobs, resources, power, recognition and security. In addition, dealing with conflicts is a great challenge to management (Adomi and Anie, 2005). Conflicts commonly arise when employees interact in organisations and compete for scarce resources. Employees in various organisations are organized into manageable groups in order to achieve common goal, therefore, the probability of conflicts to arise is very high. Nowadays, most serious conflicts make headlines in the newspapers, which might affect the public image of the company. Conflicts have both negative and positive outcomes to the individual employees and the organization at large. There is no one source of conflicts which occurs in organisations at all levels of management (Barker et al., 1987). In social life, conflicts do occur but they are managed by family members, friends and relatives. The same case applies to organisations, when conflicts arise; it needs to be resolved by management for the sake of the organisational growth, survival and enhance performance. However, conflicts are rarely resolved easily, to a certain