Intellectual Property and Co-operation in the Workplace Essay

Introduction

Today’s expanding business environment has seen many employers rely heavily on consultants, programmers and specific employees who posses highly specialized training and knowledge. This reliance has exposed employers to a vast nature of intangible and valuable intellectual property to tap from. Intellectual property right is a company’s most important and sensitive asset, which unfortunately a number of employers have taken no precautions to secure and protect.

Protecting a firm’s intellectual property rights from exploitation by competitors or from personal gain by employees is the ultimate goal of any employer. This protection can only be done by effective workplace cooperation. This paper discusses intellectual property rights and looks at various issues influencing workplace cooperation.

Intellectual property refers to the property of the intellect, an invention, an original design or a practical application of a good idea, or even a trademark that sells a company.^[1] In the business fields it refers to the proprietary knowledge and the key component for the success of a business.^[2]

Intellectual properties are of seven major types, that is; patents, trademarks, designs, copyright, circuit layout rights, plant breeder rights, and confidentiality or trade secrets. Patents are applicable for new or renovated products or processes, whereas a trademark refers to the aspects of packaging of a product.

These aspects include the words used, sounds, smells or even shapes that distinguish goods from various competitors. Design form of intellectual property refers to the appearance and shapes of the manufactured goods. Copyrights on the other hand are applicable for original material either in artistic or musical work, computer programs and multimedia works, among others.

In intellectual property law, the owners of the creations of the minds are granted certain select rights to a given number of intangible assets. These selected rights allow them to benefit from the property they have created, either financially by the provision of incentives or in any other way in which they can be acknowledged as the owners of the invention.

Cooperation in the workplace refers to a situation in which the workers and managers resolve their issues of common concern, through discussions and consultations.^[3] Workplace cooperation has a number of characteristics, for example; it is a voluntary process in which the employees and the employer choose to work together as one team.

In this team, each of them places a greater emphasis on the success of their relationship and the building of the company as opposed to emphasis on their individual rights in the company. Workplace co-operation can be supported by a legal framework which can either be facilitative or prescriptive.

Workplace co-operation involves open communication where the employer and his employees talk to one another, listen to one another and even share information together. Cooperation in the workplace also aims at coming up with a common approach that is acceptable to both the workers and the management in the company in terms of how it handles issues concern both of them.

It is an effective tool in overcoming workplace problems, since it builds on the formation of partnerships that are based on genuine cooperation between the employees and the management. This cooperation encourages ownership of the company by the employees, since it devolves authority and responsibility, and stimulates engagement in the company’s business.

For workplace cooperation to be effective employers need to let go of outdated and Middle Aged command and control models which lead to suspicions and tensions in the work environment. The employers on the other hand, also need to let go the outdated and impracticable industrial age suspicion of employers’ intentions in the workplace. Both the employer and the employees should then take up opportunities that will enable them to get involved whenever they are presented.

In the workplace environment, chances occur in which the employees can have access to vital intellectual property information of the employer. For example, in an engineering company one engineer could ask his colleague about a given design standard and the colleague might offer him the documentation.

The other engineer can decide to use the information received for his own personal gain, which could be detrimental to the company. Another case can occur when an employee, due to his position in the company, receives information about an idea the company was planning to develop.

Due to recession period, the plan is shelved but not dismissed, and eventually when the employee is relieved of his duties with the company, he goes ahead to develop the idea and make money from it. These risks bring about the conflicts in intellectual property rights, employers’ demands and employee practices. To prevent further infringement of intellectual property rights, certain ethics exist to guide the conduct of employees and employers in the workplace, and the use of intellectual property.

General Ethics of Intellectual Property and Co-Operation in the Workplace of an Engineering Company

Since in one way or another, the employees of an organization will interact with the firm’s intellectual property, ethical standards have to be adhered to on how such vital information should be handled. Ethics generally refers to a collection of values, beliefs and behaviors, which the public feels is moral to uphold.^[4] Ethics also refers to the name people generally give to values or good behavior^[5].

Positive work ethics, which is a collection of all the values, actions, and behaviors people feel are appropriate in the workplace, guides co-operation in the workplace.^[6] Some of the acceptable workplace cooperation ethics are:

• Proper attendance for nearly ninety percent or more of the required work time, and prior notification in case of anticipated absenteeism. Attendance also involves participation in workplace activities including, meetings, seminars, exhibitions among others. It also involves the proper and appropriate use of work time to the employer’s standards.
• Display of an acceptable character that comprises of honesty in all situations, trustworthiness and responsible behavior. The acceptable character should also portray loyalty, dependability, initiative, reliability, and self discipline.
• Display of a teamwork spirit to encourage and facilitate cooperation, foster commitment and team spirit, and enhance cooperativeness.
• Display of a presentable, neat, and clean appearance including the use of appropriate verbal and unwritten etiquette in every circumstance.
• Display of a positive attitude, self confidence and a willingness to cooperate and accept constructive criticism.
• Display of a cooperation skill that includes maintaining appropriate relationships with employers and fellow employees. This character should also include an ability to handle criticism, conflicts, and complaints effectively.

Ethics relating to intellectual property include:

• Every company should set up measures that will ensure it protects and secures its intellectual property. The intellectual property includes its key ideas, computer programs, software programs, any literary work, research and development data, designs, and inventions.
• Any employer of the company who has been granted access to sensitive information is obligated to protect and maintain the competition possessed by such vital information.
• Every employee is required to act responsibly with whatever he/she knows about the company. Staff members are required to respect the ethical privacy of their fellow employees and the organization, both within and without the company.
• Employees are also required to keep trade secrets of the company confidential, and use the company’s data only for purposes in which they are intended.
• An employee leaving his current employment for another should not engage in any venture during his current employer’s time to further his own desires. These ventures could include acts of soliciting his employer’s clients while still in his service.
• The employer should also not copy or memorize confidential information or trade secrets.
• The employer should also take measures to manage his intellectual property, like clearly identifying all his intellectual property rights and those of third parties. After such identification, he can educate his workforce on the importance of that intellectual property.^[7]

Knowledge Sharing Between Employees

Knowledge sharing refers to the activity through which information, expertise or even skills are exchanged among members or employees of the same organization.^[8] It also refers to a set of behaviors and practices that involve the exchange of information or offering assistance to others.

Knowledge is a valuable intangible asset available to every organization for the creation and sustenance of competitive advantage over competitors. It is normally shared through knowledge management systems and is affected by technology, organizational culture and trust, and other available incentives among others.

There are two major ways of knowledge sharing within an organization: closed network sharing, which involves person-to-person sharing and open-networking sharing, which is sharing through a central open repository. In a closed sharing model, each employee has the freedom to decide the mode of sharing knowledge and to choose the partners with whom to share such knowledge.

This model creates room for more personal touch and a more direct sharing. The open networking model refers to the sharing of knowledge among the members of a given workgroup using a knowledge management system, which is preferably a central database system. This approach is applicable where multiple individuals share multiple forms knowledge in the system.

A major obstacle to information sharing is the fact that knowledge is a property and its ownership is very vital. This obstacle has become evident in instances where employees resist sharing their knowledge with the rest of the employees in the company they work for. To counteract this obstacle, many employers have been forced to continually assure their employees that they will receive some form of incentives.

These incentives are either in form of a pay rise, a boom, or a promotion, in case they disclose information which can lead to increased revenues for the company. The only problem of rewarding individuals for the information they share is that they get paid for what they already know and not what they actually shared.

When knowledge is not shared, negative implications like isolation and resistance to new ideas are likely to be manifested in the work place.^[9] Apart from the incentive approach, the organization can use a technology based approach to enhance knowledge sharing. In this approach, technology is taken as the main facilitator of knowledge sharing practices within the company.

Such technology can be through use of information system, email and online information databases, among others. Alternatively the company can employ an organizational-based approach in which the management style, the structure and processes are manipulated to simplify the application of knowledge sharing performances.

The benefit of knowledge sharing within the organization is that it offers a variety of perspectives and avails various solutions to problems. In addition, knowledge sharing is vital for creating new knowledge that can enable the company achieve a competitive advantage. Knowledge sharing also becomes important in the increasing turnover of workforce.

This importance is realized by the fact that people do not keep the same job for life, and whenever they leave the organization, their knowledge leaves with them. If he had shared his knowledge within the organization, it could still be carried on within the organization through the carrying out power of knowledge sharing. A new employee who occupies his space comes in with new knowledge.

Sharing of information also allows the company and its employees to not only retain information, but also amplify and increase it through the process of exchange. Apart from the increase and amplification, sharing provides the company with an opportunity to discuss the knowhow and know-what practices that can direct it towards future growth and developments.

Every organization should promote knowledge sharing through the removal of obstacles that prevent it and encouraging an organizational culture of innovation and discovery. These obstacles include functional silos, poor means of communication, individualism, inadequate technology, and internal competition among others. These obstacles can be removed through a blend of co-operation, commitment and competition within the company.

How Companies Promote One Employee per Division

Promotion refers to the advancement or appointment of a worker from a given job position to another that has a higher salary range and requires greater skills, and involves a higher level of responsibility.^[10] A promotion is a form of acknowledgment for the employee who does significant and effective work contributions in the company.

Each employee in a given division of a company is eligible to apply for promotion after completing twelve months of service in his present positions. Before promoting any employee companies usually come up with a plan of succession, which normally establishes a process for recruiting employees, developing their competences and preparing them for advancements. Before any company promotes its employees, it considers a number of factors which are:

• Developing a profile of key positions that are available by benchmarking the required competencies for the job.
• Identifying the skills, experiences and qualifications of the current employees in the organization.
• Identifying who among the employees of the company is fit to be promoted. This can be done by selecting one person from two or even more that two qualified people.
• Ensuring that the employees in the company know the parameters for promotion and monitoring how they match up through formal annual reviews or on an ongoing basis.
• Tracking the progress of each employee through the application of meaningful employee appraisals.

Effect of Promotion of One Employee per Division on Knowledge Sharing and Teamwork

Promotion of employees has both negative and positive influence on other employees and more specific on knowledge sharing and teamwork. Some of the positive effects of this promotion include:

• The experienced worker who has been promoted in the division will transfer his knowledge to the less experienced workers in the same division. This transfer of knowledge will improve performance and create more opportunities for growth and advancements.
• Positive employee relationship can be fostered and be used to strengthen the employee-employer relationships within the organization.
• Promotion after shared knowledge has resulted into increased revenues boosts the employees’ confidence and makes them feel appreciated and part of the company.

Promotion can also impact negatively on the employees specifically if it was done on favoritism rather than merit. Its effects include:

• It demoralizes employees, specifically the hardworking ones who anticipated a reward of their efforts.
• It leads to breakdown of knowledge sharing and leads to the formation of small work groupings which can lead to the fall of the company.
• It leads to decline in productivity and negatively impacts teamwork in the company.

Conclusion

Intellectual property is an asset that each company should guard jealously and employ every effort to ensure its security. If this intangible asset falls in the hands of competitors or ill-motive employees it can cost the company billions in terms of revenues.

Intellectual property can also be acquired through knowledge sharing between the employees, and can be encouraged through promotion of the innovative employees. Intellectual property of companies can be protected if both the employees and employer adhere to the guiding ethical standards.

Bibliography

BONTIS, N., KEOW, WILLIAM C. C., and RICHARDSON, STANLEY, ‘Intellectual Capital and Business Performance in Malaysian Industries’, Journal of Intellectual Capital, 1/1 (2000), 85-100.

BILLINGS, DIANA M. and HALSTEAD, JUDITH, Teaching in Nursing: A Guide for Faculty (Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2005).

FERRELL, O. C., FRAEDRICH, JOHN, and FERRELL, LINDA, Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases (edn., Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2010).

FORSSELL, DAG, Management and Leadership: Insight for Effective Practice (Hayward, CA: Living Control Systems Publishing, 2008).

HUYSMAN, M., and WIT, DIRK, Knowledge Sharing in Practice (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002).

REECE, BARRY, Human Relations (Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2011).

SHEEDY, MARGIE, The Small Business Success Guide (Milton, QLD: Wrightbooks, 2010).

STRAZZARI, S., and TREVALION, DEBORAH, Design and Technology, (Singapore: Vivienne Petris Joannou, 2003).

Footnotes

1. S. Strazzari and Deborah Trevalion, Design and Technology (Singapore: Vivienne Petris Joannou, 2003), 184.
2. Margie Sheedy, The Small Business Success Guide (Milton, QLD: Wrightbooks, 2010), 185.
3. Dag Forssell, Management and Leadership: Insight for Effective Practice (Hayward, CA: Living Control Systems Publishing, 2008), 85.
4. O. C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich, and Linda Ferrell, Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases (8th edn.; Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2010), 278.
5. Barry Reece, Human Relations (Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2011), 81.
6. Ibid., 89
7. Nick Bontis, William Chua Chong Keow, and Stanley Richardson, ‘Intellectual Capital and Business Performance in Malaysian Industries’, Journal of Intellectual Capital, 1/1 (2000), 85-100.
8. Marleen Huysman and Dirk de Wit, Knowledge Sharing in Practice (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002), 41.
9. Ibid., 45.
10. Diana McGovern Billings and Judith A. Halstead, Teaching in Nursing: A Guide for Faculty (Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2005), 10.