The Ethics of Knowledge Transfers and Conversions: Property or Privacy Rights?

Closely related to organizational learning, knowledge creation, knowledge codification, and knowledge reuse, knowledge transfers of tacit knowledge between individuals and conversions of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge raise important issues regarding the use of ethics and self-interest as counter determinants. Do organizations "own" the knowledge of their employees, or is this knowledge an "attribute" of an autonomous individual and subject to protection under human rights to privacy or security-of-person? This paper explores these opposite viewpoints from the perspectives of knowledge management and human rights. Consequently, organizational knowledge may fall under the intellectual property theory and organizations have the right to buy, sell and use their corporate knowledge as it suits their needs, while personal knowledge may fall under the personal privacy theory and individuals have the right to protect the security of their personal knowledge. Thus, knowledge management practices may differ with regard to the two types of knowledge.