Ethical Issues in Knowledge Management (Km) Essay Example

if you had given a $20 note.But, in fact you had given him a $10 note. So, based on factors like the way you are raised, your faiths and beliefs, your conscience, you are the one who should be able to determine that keeping the money from the cashier’s mistake is right or wrong. (Groff & Jones 2003: 145) Of course, KM ethics are rarely this simple.

Consider this example. The Wagon Wheel Bar at Silicon Valley, USA has achieved an ill repute for the fact that employees from competing companies can indulge in an informal kind of ‘knowledge-trading’ and in many cases, the employing firm is unaware about it.In such a give and take situation, employees are able to illegally access a kind of knowledge that is generally not available within their respective organisations. The Wagon Wheel Bar offers slight purchase to priority claims or Intellectual Property Rights. The clients of the Wagon Wheel Bar conduct their knowledge trades according to logic of knowledge trading whereas; it should actually be conducted in a manner of the usual commercial exchange.

Such incidents shorten the life of proprietary knowledge. The bar is now closed. (Boisot & Griffiths 2001: 211)What we can learn from the above example is that knowledge sharing was an issue at the Wagon Wheel Bar. The process of informal knowledge trading shows us the ways in which Intellectual Property of the organisation for which they are working for can be traded or even sold.

A typical ethical decision making cycle in an organisation transpires like this (Awad & Ghaziri: 404): Ethical Decision Cycle KM has various ethical issues which are pertaining to Intellectual Property Rights and

New Technology. Intellectual Property Rights “Intellectual Property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary nd artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. ” (WIPO 2007). The management of Intellectual Property Rights and knowledge are resolutely linked (Land et al 2007). In today’s organisations, both, employers and employers are faced by questions related to ethical behaviour. In fact, some employers may unfairly take advantage of an employee’s knowledge. Employers do not provide recognition or even reward employees for contributing their own knowledge.

Some employees may use other employees’ knowledge and claim it to be their own knowledge.This is where the issue of trust arises and employees are reluctant to share their knowledge. Outside the organisation, some firms may use other firms’ logos, names or taglines. This can lead to copyright infringements and trademarks violations. Intellectual Property Rights chiefly consist of two core elements:

1. Copyright
2. Trademark

Copyright

Copyright means the ownership of an original work created by creator or author. (Awad & Ghaziri 2003: 393) It is a form of intellectual property that we can feel and take a look at. The contents comprise of printed media like newspaper articles, textbooks, movies, music etc.Copyright Law means that the creator or the author of that particular product has full rights to prohibit others from reproducing and distributing his/her work of the original creator. (Awad & Ghaziri 2003: 393) This is the reason why there is a “©” logo on every book or article.

If the users of such articles reproduce the original document or the like, without the creator’s permission or knowledge, the creator can sue the user on the terms of copyright infringement.

Trademark

According to Microsoft’s

Encarta 96 Encyclopaedia, Trademark means any word, symbol, or an image that represents a company or a product.It is represented by the symbol “™” after the company’s name or the product’s name. It is used to distinguish the good from other products or business name in the market. It means that the same name can’t be used by any other company and if they use it, it is unethical or illegal.

Trademark violation is a very severe legal issue. An example of unfair use of someone else’s Intellectual Property is Piracy. We have seen and heard about pirated CDs, DVDs of Music, Movies and Software. Principally, piracy means using someone else’s knowledge and making a duplication of it and selling it.

Artistes (in case of music) write his/her/their own lyrics or compose music with a lot of effort. This is their tacit knowledge which they are converting in forms of Audio CDs i. e. explicit knowledge. These CDs are made available to the general public in stores. But, there are also people that purchase these CDs, make numerous copies of them and sell it.

They are actually misusing someone’s Intellectual Property without their consent and using someone else’s knowledge to make money. The same is in the case of softwares. Softwares are very easy to duplicate. They can just be stored in a computer, and later, be copied onto a CD.Software piracy is illegal and can lead to legal issues if the duplicator is caught. This is because it is a theft.

Examples of Software piracy are (Adobe 2007): ? Using one licensed copy to install a program on multiple computers or servers ? Copying disks for installation and

distribution ?Acquiring academic or other restricted software to use for an unqualified purpose ? Swapping disks inside or outside of the workplace. There are various KM activities in a firm which include discovering new knowledge, generating that knowledge, evaluating knowledge, sharing knowledge and leveraging knowledge. These activities are constituents of a continuous cycle. This cycle is termed as the KM Cycle. (Jashapara 2004: 5) Out of many such KM activities, one activity is creation of a new encyclopaedia. (Land et al 2007) An ideal example would be Wikipedia, a free online web site/encyclopaedia where anyone can contribute their knowledge and add to its evolution. The contributors receive no mention or reward for sharing their knowledge.

The ethical issue with respect to KM is that Wikipedia is ignoring the aspect of Intellectual Property rights. (Land et al 2007) Technology One of the most important and fast growing areas of KM is Technology. Technology is integrated with KM so that knowledge sharing becomes easy and quick. Everyone can share their own knowledge and also see other people’s knowledge in the organisation. Technology, of course, has its advantages, but, it also has a flip side.

Two main areas where unethical issues can occur when technology is integrated with KM are: 1. Internet Domain Name Disputes 2. Web Linking 1. Internet Domain name disputes A domain name is the address of a web site that is projected to be easily recognisable and easy to remember.

For example, google.com or yahoo.com. Internet Domain disputes can arise because of a concept called cybersquatting (WIPO 2007), which involves pre-emptive registration of trademarks by third parties as domain names. Individuals register domain names of firms and

then try to resell the domain name to the original firm for profit. Such issues arise because there is not pre-agreement within the Internet commune which would allow the organisations that register domain names to pre-screen the filling of names which could cause problems.

In 1992, the U. S. government had a contract with the InterNIC (Internet Network Information Center), to manage top-level domains.What happened after this contract was that domain names were initially assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis. But, later on, companies and individuals had to register for domain names that they had no use for whatsoever and keep them for future sale at very high prices. (Awad & Ghaziri 2003: 398) Cybersquatters take advantage of the US$70-100 registration fee for a domain name and hold hundreds of such domain names and then, sell them at very expensive prices.

Cybersquatters then put up the domain names for auction or offer them for a direct sale to companies or individuals. WIPO 2007) The InterNIC is taking necessary steps so that such instances don’t occur. But, such unethical activities still exist.

Web Linking Nowadays, almost everyone uses the Internet for various purposes. There are certain hyperlinks-certain text or an image whose web page address can be linked to another page for reference. (Awad & Ghaziri 2003: 397) What actually happens in web linking is that when a person clicks on the referred link, it automatically gets transferred from the original web page to the attached web page. Such ‘linking’ can cause legal issues like (Awad & Ghaziri 2003: 397): Giving reference to a linked site without acquiring permission from the owner of the web site. Retrieving or downloading

certain information from the linked web site without ant reference or permission ? Illegal use of the company’s registered trademarks, and ? Adding a web software/program to an organisation’s web site without approval If a company wants to use other company’s web links, it should acquire proper rights and full consent of the other company and it should be relevant to what the user of internet is seeking.

How Can All These Ethical Issues Be Dealt With Or How Can We Improve Business Ethics?

We have discussed about some of the legal and ethical Issues that can and have arisen in KM. Surely, we can do something to curb such instances from occurring in an organisation and society.

Managers/Leaders can promote an ethical behaviour in the company in four important areas (Groff & Jones 2003: 148):

Prevention:

Every company should have a code of conduct/ethics. These are formal statements of what an organisation expects in the way of ethical behaviour. (Ferrell et al 2002: 183) They provide rules and guidelines to be followed.It reflects the management’s desires for strict observance with relation to values, rules and policies in support of an ethical climate in the organisation. (Ferrell et al 2002: 184) The senior management should honour the past communication successes and actions that promote company’s values.

Detection:

Integrated systems should be setup to help implement sharing of key knowledge and also to monitor ethical compliance. Automation is also an important step. The management should implement IT systems that maintain standards as well as verify the appropriate and just use of company’s assets.

Reporting:

All organisations in today’s world should maintain an ethics reporting system that will enable reporting of criminal conduct

by others and also in turn receive guidance in solving ethical issues which arise. Training and clear communication must be used to make sure that all the employees are aware of the reporting options that available to them. But, an organisation must ensure that the reports that they receive should be confidential.

Investigation:

The fact remains that no matter how excellent an organisation’s policies or code of ethics are, not all ethical issues can be identified, stopped or tackled.But, investigation can certainly help to detect a probable ethical violation. Investigation helps to determine whether a violation has occurred and to collect data to inform decisions regarding the steps to curative actions. Investigations are controversial in nature. Therefore, outside assistance is required in the organisation which provides fairness, impartiality and thoroughness in the firm. Learning organisations can take several approaches to improve ethical environment in the firm as a whole (Awad & Ghaziri 2003: 406): The top management should be the role model to ensure that ethical behaviour is being practised throughout the firm.

A specific code of ethics should be set up, considering the state of technology of the organisation. The goals must be realistic, achievable and approved by the employees. Each level in the organisation should create an acting ethics program with the company’s code of ethics and its must benefit the character of the operation.  Unethical behaviour should be promptly dealt based on the criteria and procedure set in advance. The firm should establish and espouse a strong ethics program for new employees and reinforce the code of ethics on a regular basis.The abovementioned measures and approaches can assure of a complete unethical behaviour in

a firm with full cooperation from employees and management.

Conclusion

This discussion is an effort to shed light on some of the known ethical issues in KM like Copyright and Trademark violations, piracy, and illegal knowledge sharing etc.. As pointed out, KM is quite a new concept and which is still in the process of advancement. Basically, the question of one’s morals is neither permanent nor universal. Moral values are deeply ingrained in an individual and his/her way of being raised, values and principles learnt and also their professional settings.

Bulinge 2002) Employees in an organisation should avail themselves of the company’s resources and not abuse the gratis access to information that is accessible to them. The trust factor is the chief reason why many employees today hoard their knowledge, because they fear that their knowledge may be maltreated by a co-worker for his personal development in the organisation. In turn, they become hesitant and do not share their knowledge which could have led to the betterment of the society. KM should be used as an important pedestal in the growth of an organisation.Management must ensure that employees are assured of safe and secure knowledge sharing and also a code of ethics needs to exist in every firm.

References

1. Adobe (2007), ‘Adobe anti-piracy initiative’-Types of software piracy, (27/10/2007),
2. http://www. adobe. com/ap/aboutadobe/antipiracy/types. html Awad, E. M.& Ghaziri, H. M. (2003)
3. Knowledge Management, New Jersey, Pearson, Prentice-Hall Boisot, M. & Griffiths, D.(2001)
4. ‘To Own or to Possess? Competence and the Change of Appropriability’ in R. Sanchez (ed), Knowledge Management and Organizational Competence, Oxford, Oxford University Press.Bulinge, F. (2002)
5. ‘Ethical Dimensions of KM in Professional Settings’, (22/10/2007)
6. https://www. ceramexpert. net/tikiwiki/tikiindex.php? page=Articles+et+publications+CE+IEKM. Ferrell,
   

O. C. , Fraedrich, J.& Ferrell, L. (2001)