Ethical issues in competitive intelligence practice: Consensus, conflicts, and challenges

An outline of the ethical situation in this competitive intelligence activity is based on an interview with the author and various CI experts. They believe that some organizations take CI ethics very seriously, but most CI practitioners feel independent and feel their personal background and intuition to make difficult ethical decisions It depends on. Current moral guidance is too ambiguous for actual functioning. In addition, employers, trade associations, the CI industry need to offset pressure and motivation across ethical boundaries. The author 's analysis identifies conflicting expectations with some ambiguous questions, and there is no current consensus in the industry, such as misrepresentation due to omission (not commission). Another concern is the possibility of conflicts of interest in consultants and their work. Finally, the authors present several suggestions to support ethical CI practices. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

A summary of the classic and current thinking of information gathering and ethics is first offered to understand the fundamental problems that arise. Next, in this article we will explore the concrete challenges confronting intelligence agencies in the international security environment of the 21st century to explore the important ethical dilemma currently existing in agencies and governments. This paper concludes with a discussion on the future of ethical information collection practices.

An outline of the ethical situation in this competitive intelligence activity is based on an interview with the author and various CI experts. They believe that some organizations take CI ethics very seriously, but most CI practitioners feel independent and feel their personal background and intuition to make difficult ethical decisions It depends on. Current moral guidance is too ambiguous for actual functioning. In addition, employers, trade associations, the CI industry need to offset pressure and motivation across ethical boundaries. The author 's analysis identifies conflicting expectations with some ambiguous questions, and there is no current consensus in the industry, such as misrepresentation due to omission (not commission). Another concern is the possibility of conflicts of interest in consultants and their work. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc