Homework 6 Research Assignment on Richard Cook and NASA

Homework 6
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Q1.
Loyalty means being unwavering in commitment and truthfulness to a person or an organization because you believe in their vision, actions, and culture, which makes the experience of working for them satisfying. When one is committed to an organization, they conduct their duties efficiently and maintain an organization’s privacy and dealing with organizational problems within without publicizing them outside to help the company the best in their field.
Q.2
Divided loyalty occurs in organizations when demands among different relationships within an institution fail to reconcile, thereby causing an individual to develop more allegiance to some relationships while overlooking others. Divided loyalty also results in conflicts of decision making, as an employee has to attempt to balance decisions focusing on their interests, other departments and the organization’s as well. Because of reporting to different management officers, the conflict of receiving mismatched commands occasions (Tracy, 1993, p. 22-24).
Q.3
Richard Cook was loyal to NASA. First, he chose to solve the problem by becoming a loyal dissenter. Cook informed his superiors in the comptroller’s office about the possible leaking and the destruction of the rocket seal through a written memo before the catastrophic incident. Moreover, he provided evidence and potential impacts of the problem, thereby giving NASA the opportunity to verify his claims and solve the problem. Since they failed to listen to his warnings, his consequent move of whistle-blowing on NASA’s failure to take the warnings seriously was justified. Additionally, by doing so, he was exercising his ethical duties to prevent loss of life and victimization of innocent professionals.
Q. 4
The action of presenting an organization’s wrongdoings to external forces brings about benefits and consequences. The rewards of becoming a whistleblower include getting the satisfaction of making ethical decisions. Whistle-blowing enables the taking of actions to stop harm or theft of public utilities and instead ensure the upholding of integrity. Thus, one gets personal satisfaction. Whistle-blowing also provides an opportunity for financial benefits. In the federal False Claims Acts, a whistleblower can profit from a portion of funds recovered because of their information (Gotze, 2014). Additionally, the government has instituted various protection programs aimed at protecting whistleblowers. Hence, an individual receives protection from retaliation for doing the right thing.
Contrarily, not everyone looks at whistle-blowing as a noble action. Instead, some consider it a betrayal. Consequently, one can suffer the loss of employment, difficulty getting re-employed and loss of friends and colleagues. Whistle-blowing causes emotional problems. Individuals suffer from stress, nervousness, and fear of the repercussions of their actions. Additionally, it results in personal retaliation. In an attempt to discredit a whistleblower’s information, organizations try to discredit one, by punching holes into one’s professionalism, personal life, and choices (Gotze, 2014). For instance, in Cook’s case, NASA portrayed him ...