Ethics in the Business World

There is a thin line between what is considered ethical and unethical when it comes to the sharing and dispersal of knowledge. Everyone has their own perception of what is considered ethical and what isn't. Because of this, someone may step over the thin line without realizing it. A good way to keep you on the ethical side of the line is to stay informed and keep knowledgeable on the situation as a whole. Be in the know; know what's going on and what other people are doing around you.

Companies cannot make decisions; only people within the company can, so before you share any information, you should think about a few things first (Bovee, Thill, & Mescon, 2007, p. 63). Before you share or release any information you should ask yourself "is it ethical for me to share this information with this company?" Think long and hard about the answer, if you are 100% confident that it is ethical, than go ahead and share the information. If you are just a little bit unsure about the ethics in the information, keep it to yourself.

I have never been in a situation where either the ethical or unethical sharing of information mattered, as I have never worked for competing employers. I have, however, worked with people that were put in that situation. I currently work for a company that builds power inverters for solar panels. We produce small household inverters all the way up to very large inverters that are meant to power large buildings and even cities. One of my coworkers I worked with informed me that he used to work for one of our competitors and if he was allowed to move to the section that assembled the large units, he would be able to show them a few tips and shortcuts they could use to reduce the amount of time it took to assemble a unit. He eventually switched departments and shared this information. I believe that this is an ethical bit of information to share, as our company already possessed the technology and hardware to produce the units, it just took us a little longer than other companies to put them together.

One of my previous jobs was with the Air Force. Every now and then we would get a person that got stationed here from another base. Occasionally they would tell us how their previous base handled certain situations and time sensitive events such as safety drills and exercises. We would use this information to make our shop better and more efficient. I feel that this is also ethical information to share, mainly because we weren't seeking any kind of profit from this information. The unethical sharing of information would be someone that shares data, new technology, and hardware with a competing company. An example of this would be if Company A recently created brand new technology for their product line and an employee went to Company B sharing this information prior to it being released to the public. There have been several scandals that have proven unethical behavior