Home | | Professional Ethics in Engineering | Employee Role of Confidentiality

Chapter: Professional Ethics in Engineering : Responsibilities and Rights

Employee Role of Confidentiality

Confidentiality or confidential information: · Information considered desirable to be kept secret.

THE EMPLOYEE ROLE OF CONFIDENTIALITY:

 

Confidentiality or confidential information:

 

·        Information considered desirable to be kept secret.

 

·        Any information that the employer or client would like to have kept secret in order to compete effectively against business rivals.

 

·        This information includes how business is run, its products, and suppliers, which directly affects the ability of the company to compete in the market place

 

·        Helps the competitor to gain advantage or catch up


Privileged information, Proprietary information and Patents:

 

Privileged information:

 

·        Information available only on the basis of special privilege‟ such as granted to an employee working on a special assignment.

 

Proprietary information:

 

·        Information that a company owns or is the proprietor of.

·        This is primarily used in legal sense.

 

·        Also called Trade Secret. A trade secret can be virtually any type of information that has not become public and which an employer has taken steps to keep secret.

 

Patents:

 

·        Differ from trade secrets.

 

·        Legally protect specific products from being manufactured and sold by competitors without the express permission of the patent holder.

 

·        They have the drawback of being public and competitors may easily work around them by creating alternate designs.

 

Obligation of Confidentiality:

1. Based on ordinary moral considerations:

I. Respect for autonomy:

 

·        Recognizing the legitimate control over private information (individuals or corporations).

·        This control is required to maintain their privacy and protect their self-interest.

II. Respect for Promise:

 

·        Respecting promises in terms of employment contracts not to divulge certain information considered sensitive by the employer

 

III. Regard for public well being:

 

·        Only when there is a confidence that the physician will not reveal information, the patient will have the trust to confide in him.

 

·        Similarly only when companies maintain some degree of confidentiality concerning their products, the benefits of competitiveness within a free market are promoted.

 

2. Based on Major Ethical Theories:

 

·        All theories profess that employers have moral and institutional rights to decide what information about their organization should be released publicly.

 

·        They acquire these rights as part of their responsibility to protect the interest of the organization.

 

·        All the theories, rights ethics, duty ethics and utilitarianism justify this confidentiality but in different ways.

 

Effect of Change of Job on Confidentiality:

 

·        Employees are obliged to protect confidential information regarding former employment, after a change of job.

 

·        The confidentiality trust between employer and employee continues beyond the period of employment.

 

·        But, the employee cannot be forced not to seek a change of job.

 

·        The employer‘s right to keep the trade secrets confidential by a former employee should be accepted at the same time, the employee‘s right to seek career advancement cannot also be denied.

 

Study Material, Lecturing Notes, Assignment, Reference, Wiki description explanation, brief detail
Professional Ethics in Engineering : Responsibilities and Rights : Employee Role of Confidentiality |


Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, DMCA Policy and Compliant

Copyright © 2018-2023 BrainKart.com; All Rights Reserved. Developed by Therithal info, Chennai.