Chapter 1 identified knowledge workers as a key economic resource of the twenty first century. If an employee leaves a company to work for a competitor, what types of knowledge could be ethical for the employee to share with the new employer and what types of knowledge would be unethical to share? The hardest thing to deal with being inside a company, is when you lose one of your employees to one of your competitors. You worry if that employee is going to give inside information that could cause harm to your company.Companies should play fairly in the competition game and not spy on one another, communicate with one another, and not causing harm to others. The information that is given out could hurt the other company and you need to understand what is considered acceptable and unacceptable information ethically.
If you are hired by a competitor, than what information will you be able to disclose? Knowledge that you have learned from a degree or trade school would not be considered insider trading.That information would be information that you have learned and are using in your field of work. New ways to do your work would not be considered insider trading. You as an employee should act honestly, communicate, and try not to cause harm to others (Bovee, Thill and Mescon, 2007, p. 65). For example if I were to be hired from Wells Fargo to Bank of America, I would not be discussing products that would have to do with my old company.
If I were to be hired on as a teller than I could use the practices that I learned from my old company and share them with my new company.For example ways to prevent loss of money, ideas to raise sells, and ways to raise team morale are all examples of acceptable information. This information would not harm my old company and are not considered trade secrets. If you are wondering what is right and what is wrong you need to think to yourself will the company benefit from this information? Is the information you about to give out legal? Will you personally benefit from giving out this information (Bovee, Thill and Mescon, 2007, p.
67).Employees should not be disclosing information about the other company such as insider trading information on patents, on stocks, and any other information that would benefit the company you work for and cause harm to the other company (Bovee, Thill and Mescon, 2007, p. 67). This would be considered conflict of interest because this would cause you to gain from this information and cause harm to other company. Continuing with the example of me going to another bank, if I were to give information about products that were coming out next year from my old bank, then I would be responsible for giving out insider trader information.
Another situation that I have learned from the code of ethics from work is that conflict of interest would be taking clients from your old job to your new job. You may have faithful clients that would follow you anywhere you go, but using information from your old job would be conflict of interest. Another example is that I open a business and use the bank information to get more clients. The information that is used inside the bank is supposed to be used only for bank purposes and not personal.
Each business should have its code of ethics and by looking at its code of ethics will help you understand what is wrong and what is right. Many big companies have code of ethic lines and if you are not sure what is considered right and wrong give that number a call and they can advise you on what to do. You should never do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. Be yourself and be honest, be truthful, and try not to harm others.
In conclusion, if you leave your job to go work for a competitor than you need to understand what information that you give out would be considered ethical for you to share.Information such as clients, products, patents, insider trading, and any information that would give the competing company a gain in profit and competitive advantage would be considered information that is ethically wrong to share. When you are unsure about the information that you are about to share you need to ask yourself is this information legal? Will this information harm the other company? And are you able to deal with the consequences if this information is given (Bovee, Thill and Mescon, 2007, p. 67). You should not do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable and be a good worker and it will pay off in the future. References:
