On the Ethical Management

In the present-day competitive atmosphere, organizations and entrepreneurs have figured out that they must shift the focus from the material source to their intangible knowledge and sources in order to be able to compete with their rivals in the present status. So for the management, proper use and utilization of these intangible sources, organizations need to use a concept named knowledge management whose application brings them a competitive advantage.
With paying little attention to the special nature of knowledge and also that today the very knowledge determines power and power is at the hand of someone or a group which possesses the knowledge, there are many ethical issues around knowledge and knowledge management. Privacy protection, intellectual property, data protection against theft and distortion, trust, fairness, justice, accuracy, accessibility, intellectual capital protection, freedom of information, national security, etc. are among the issues that can be mentioned.
From another aspect, it can be mentioned that knowledge management is a systematic concept whose successful administration needs a comprehensive and holistic look. For this, in addition to paying attention to its positive features, applications and advantages, one must also pay a special attention to another aspect of knowledge management, i.e. ethical issues. In fact, in today’s world it is information and knowledge that is the source of strength for people and organizations, and, inevitably, it involves subversive and immoral acts whenever it comes to power.
It should be mentioned that many studies have been done in different countries about the ethical issues of knowledge management; however, little research has been done on this in our country, Iran.
Regarding the aforementioned, the researcher tries in this study to examine the available texts, documents, articles and books on the ethics in the field of knowledge management in Iran and at the international level.