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.
Related Topics
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