The Ethics of Organizational Secrets

Abstract

Most organizations are holders of sanctioned and unsanctioned secrets. While some secrets such as product formulas are necessary and ethical, others such as hiding the negative health effects of smoking tobacco are unethical. We examine secrets along two dimensions: The first one examines the beneficiaries and victims/targets of a secret while the second focuses on whether the secret was sanctioned by the secret holders, the organization, or society. Thinking about secrets along these two dimensions helps provide a handle on the complexities involved in understanding the ethics of organizational secrets.