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Whistleblowing and the ImpactCS grid in Hughes

This document presents an overview of the ethical issues associated with the whistleblowing case of Hughes Aircraft. If we use the ImpactCS framework (see below) the Hughes case highlights some important issues in five of the seven columns of ethical issues defined by the framework. In addition, some of these issues need to be addressed as more than simple individual ethical decisions about whether to blow the whistle or not; we will need to look to the group and national level issues involved.

The ImpactCS approach to ethical analysis was devised by a panel of ethicists, computer scientists, and social scientists. The point is that any particular computing system can be analyzed from both the perspective of social analysis and of particular ethical issues. The grid you see below was designed by the panel to serve as an analytic tool in thinking about any system. The idea is that each of the ethical issues can be analyzed at each of the levels of social analysis. If you click on the colored cells in the framework, you will be linked to a discussion of that ethical issue in the Hughes case.

This case is primarily about the extreme case in ethical dissent, whistleblowing. There is no column among the ethical issues for whistleblowing, but the ImpactCS approach allows us to see the complex issues of whistleblowing based on its component parts. It frames the ethical issues associated with whistleblowing as a complex mix of different ethical issues at several different levels of social analysis. Specifically, whistleblowing is about the use of power in service of some (ethical or unethical) end. Goodearl and Ibarra cite their concern for the safety of military personnel, but there is also a basic issue about fraud which falls under the Honesty and Deception column. Thus, for Goodearl and Ibarra, whistleblowing was about getting a powerful ally on their side in their struggle to influence Hughes Aircraft to properly test their chips.