Thomas works for an internationally-renowned computer company. As a condition of his employment, Thomas signed a confidentiality agreement, in which he agreed not to disclose any trade secrets of the firm. The company has been researching a new computer

Question

advancement, and is on the brink of introducing this product to the buying public. Before the official product release, Thomas is considering offering information related to this new advancement to one of his company's competitors for a price. What categories of ethical behavior might be impacted by Thomas' decision to disclose this information to his employer's competitor?

Answer 1

?All of the categories of ethical behavior would be impacted by Thomas' decision to sell his employer's proprietary information to a competitor. The categories of ethical behavior include: 1 ) Integrity and Truthfulness; 2 ) Promise-Keeping; 3 ) Loyalty-Avoiding Conflicts of Interest; 4 ) Fairness; 5 ) Doing No Harm; and 6 ) Maintaining Confidentiality. In terms of the first category of ethical behavior, Thomas would compromise his integrity by disclosing corporate trade secrets, and he would be untruthful in the sense that he would violate the confidentiality agreement with his firm in doing so. Second, his promise related to the confidentiality agreement would be broken. Third, selling such proprietary information would be a classic conflict of interest, in the sense that he would be benefiting himself (financially) to the detriment of his employer. Fourth, disclosure would not be fair, as it would breach the confidentiality agreement with his employer and deprive his employer of its diligently-worked-for competitive advantage. Fifth, disclosure would harm his employer and other stakeholders of the firm, since it would deprive the firm of its competitive advantage and the financial benefits of such an advantage. Finally, confidentiality would be violated.