Abstract : Secrecy and ethics are often seen as opposing forces within organizations. Secret work is viewed as unethical, as it excludes others from knowing and is associated with self-interested behavior. We contend that this view does not account for the dynamic inherent to secrecy and to the fact that ethics is embedded in social relations. This paper suggests an alternative view. We  consider secrecy as a social process which allows employees to maintain their ethics when faced with managerial policies that affect the quality of their work. Building on an in-depth case study of a team of journalists who worked in secret after their managers decided to prioritize the interests of shareholders and advertising firms, we show how these journalists managed to maintain collective ethics through secrecy and to do their work according to their own moral principles.

Ref: Younes, D., Courpasson, D. & Jacob, MR., (2018, forthcoming). Ethics from Below: Secrecy and the Maintenance of Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-16.

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4029-5

Link : https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-018-4029-5