Business Ethics: Case Study On Confidential Information

Governing Issue

The competition in the market is very high these days, everybody is running for more. Even few are ready and even few are already doing wrong deeds to achieve overnight success. Therefore it is must for every company to established code of conduct and policies, so that no one can make misuse of available resources and no third party could ever harm the confidential assets of any company. The main fundamental issues in this scenario are integrity and trust (Rebbica & Covey 2006).

• Integrity: Integrity means one should conduct your business deeds with honestly and treats your every customer fairly. Now in this scenario Michael Boss break the hierarchy and integrity. When customers feel that a company is display continuous commitment to ethical business practices and high level of trust can established between the business and the people it seeks to serve. A relationship of trust between you and your customers probably the main point deciding company success (Soloman & Martin 2006).

Businesses are expected to be completely follow the environmental laws, state safety policies, economic statutes and all applicable civil rights laws in the company. Here Michael’s boss has break the policy of civil right law by getting confidential papers of competitive company which he does not meant to do at all.

• Behavior of Michael Boss is an ethical issue. He is taking wrong step for the betterment of their own company(William 1979).
• If in case the other company comes to know about this theft , that their rivals stole the confidential papers then there could be any legal step they could take which ruined the image of the company in the market and trust over their customers and in the market they have.
• There are many things a company can do to note down to understand the strategies followed by the competitive company like there growth chart, newspaper, magazines, published article about the company . One can collect the analysis report but taking this step to steal the very important and confidential papers of company is a illegal step.

Michael should take immediate action and an investigation about such activities internally in the company to verify. Michael should take internal IT Security department or an outside IT security/forensic specialist to assess and remedy the data breach, and make sure that the Company has a full understanding of what data and/or documents were accessed and transferred, as well as to preserve the electronic evidence of the incident. He should go to the boss and clarify to him that in future he should not pass any such information to him as you feel uncomfortable and don’t feel ethical to use such information for company benefits if boss threatens Michael then Michael also reply to leak the news to the press. HE should go and set up a meeting privately and let him know that you are uncomfortable after knowing the whole scenario of getting these documents. As it tell about the company’s culture and Michael was not feeling good after knowing all this and using such information and taking such steps could harm public relation sector badly.

Michael should talk to the company legal department and do call the society of competitive intelligence professional and ask about the guidance to what to do further. With all the collective information go and confront your boss (Ghillyer 2011).

What Michael boss has done is totally unethical, this should not be done. Moreover this is not a long term solution of any problem, how many times one can steal the documents because companies continuously changing their strategies and schemes. This is against business rules. If in case from anywhere the competitor’s came to know about this theft they could take any legal action and could make the condition worst. One cannot use company assets and technology for wrong means. Moreover  as his boss has break the security barrier and get the information from the server , everything must be recorded in the system as who and how many times the system go login , if in case any body came to know about this step they could get the information from the server and used is as proof , so such kind of steps are very disastrous for the image of company. For few short term motive company can loose his image in the market forever.

Michael’s Course of Action

Whistle blowing : Whistle blowing is defined as  the reporting of any misconduct of other employee in the company. There are many laws has been made to protect the one who blows the whistle in the company to be fired or mistreated in future for reporting the misbehavior with the whistle blower. It’s about information the authority about the wrong doings in the company. Its about any illegal act has been carried out in the company by any individual be it supplier, be it any employees, contractors, clients or any individual>

Here Michael is the whistle blower.

A whistleblower is a person who confront any kind of information and wrong doing that is illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization. Before whistle blowing a person should have detailed knowledge of whistle blowing policies and seek advice.

Yes Michael should do the whistle blowing as first reason is he himself is not comfortable , this means his conscience is not allowing him to use that information , second as such kind of acts are ruining the company’s culture, it gives wrong impact on juniors and other employees and gives wrong learning to the juniors which harms the decorum and work culture of company. If this time micheal did not confront his boss and don’t do this whistle blowing he can (boss) use micheal in future too. And this is threatening to Michael’s image in company (Ghillyer 2008).

Whistle blow is a good program to motivate employees and stand up against any wrong doing in the company. We have always  some whistleblowers around us in our society. Which feels to stand up against if something wrong is happening and which they don’t feel ethical.

• The internal sense of justice and integrity motivates one to blow the whistle. They feel it’s the right thing to do by taking this step. It gives them a sense of satisfaction internally. Such characteristics are commonly seen in a whistleblower . The one who reports on the illegal steps of the senior management I called as the corporate insider. The most common factor that the whistleblower seeks justice to hold the wrongdoer. The mina motive is to halt the unethical behavior prevailing in the organization.
• Another thing motivates a whistleblower is self preservation. To explain this more we can take an example of a case that recently get high press coverage as, the Star-Ledger as the whistleblower was a disabled Vietnam skilled named Richard West, who has muscular disorder in which a tissues is waste way. Richard need 6 hours of home care daily and he found one day that he was being rejected dental work because his medical benefits were finished. After investigation government found out that that billed the medicine which he never used. And Richard highly needs medicine which could led him to die. So whistleblower is the last option to survive. So here money is the motivation behind whistle blowing otherwise evidence suggest who is the whistleblower. Many times the initial motivation is money but sometimes it was the justice they want against misconduct and any illegal act in the organization(McAdams 1986).
• As with time the management and companies should understand the value whistleblowers . Because such people in an organization take their concerns very seriously and authority should appreciate their courage to stand up rather then banishing them.
• If authority discourage the whistleblower then it could make company suffer and whistleblower too.
• The objective of a whistleblower is to diminished the wrong doings and bring the positive change in the society.

A useful whistleblower program would find out eligible whistleblowers and award them .Organization should make their efforts publicize. 

Circumstances under which is whistle blowing morally justified:

• the act of whistle blowing would not  harm to the public
• the employee has reported the act to their immediate supervisor
• Employee should not break the hierarchy of the organization.
• Whistle blowing would not affect the performance.
• If the unethical activity persists the whistle-blower should go public.

But at the same time there are many cases whistle blowing which are not found out justified and fraudulent.

Ethics or we can say good ethics make the base point strong of any company, they are the key points of success and growth for any company. It is integral part of success to any company. Ethics are fundamental principles administrating the right conduct of a person. Maintaining good ethics helps to achieve business goals which are planned in past.  Ethics are way to judge the human conduct what is right and what is wrong. Below are points which defines the importance of ethics in an organization and how they help to achieve bigger objectives of a company.

• Ethics are about one’s judgment about right and wrong.Ethical behavior and corporate social responsibility CSR bring essential merits to a business.
• Good ethics are fundamental of any business , and there is a lot of difference between doing the business and doing the business in right way using right fundamentals.
• Ethics are much needed essential of leadership , an ethical leader can guide his employees to take crucial decisions. It gives a long lasting positive impact on company.
• It enhance the ability to attract and keep talented  individuals and building and maintaining the positive reputation and decorum in the company.
• Running a business having high ethics make the up-down hierarchy of employee bond stronger.
• Employee make faster decision and right decision. It increases the productivity of employees.
• IT provides short term and long term profitability to the company. If the reputation is good and morals are high of a company it automatically attracts more investors(Weiss 2014).

Conclusion

In this case study we find out Michael boss has low morals he can go uop to any level and misconduct to achieve goals which are benefiting to the company. This si the way and it is not going to be successful in long run , it could harm the reputation of the company and ruin the image in the market.

One should have strong ethics to achieve long term goals and success to the company. We are proud of Michael for his behavior and not accepting the files which his boss provides. It shows his conscience was not allowing him to do the wrong thing.

Ghillyer, A 2008, Business Ethics: A Real World Approach.

Ghillyer, A 2011, Business Ethics Now.

McAdams, T 1986, Law, Business, and Society.

Rebbica, M & Covey, S 2006, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything.

Soloman, R & Martin, C 2006, Honest Work: A Business Ethics Reader.

Weiss, J 2014, Business Ethics, <https://san.edu.mn/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Business-Ethics-Weiss-Joseph-W_.pdf>.

William, S 1979, Moral issues in Business.