 An employee is an agent of his or her

employer. An agent is a person engaged to

act in the interest of another person, who is
known as the principal. Employees are
legally agents of their employers. As
agents, they are obligated to work as
directed, to protect confidential
information, and, in general, to act in the
principal’s best interest.
 Although the whistle-blower might appear
to be a disloyal agent, the obligations of an
agent’s loyalty has limits. Whistle-blowing,
therefore, is not incompatible with being a
loyal agent. Two limits on the obligation of
agents are especially important.
 An agent has an obligation to obey only
reasonable directives of the principal, and
so an agent cannot be required to do
anything illegal or immoral.
 The obligations of an agent are confined to
the needs of the relationship. Thus, an
employee is not obligated to do anything
that falls outside the scope of his or her
employment.
 The meaning of loyalty. The law of
agency aside, whistle-blowing is not
always an act of disloyalty in the
ordinary meaning of the word. If
loyalty is viewed as a commitment to
the true interests or goals of an
organization, rather than merely the
following of orders, then many whistle-
blowers are loyal employees.
 Sociological studies have shown that whistle-
blowers are often loyal employees who
choose to expose wrongdoing in the belief
that they are doing their job and acting in the
best interest of the company. In the book
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, Albert O. Hirschman
holds that speaking out (voice) and leaving
(exit) are the main options for dissatisfied
organization members and that those who
exercise the voice option are generally more
loyal than those who decide to exit.