Abstract:

The paper attempts a moral consideration on confidentiality and office administration. Confidentiality is seen as a major theme and ethical code in office administration cum public administration; it is a duty an administrator not to disclose or relate some confidential information to public or third party without receiving the consent of the higher or topmost officer (issuer of the information) of the organization. It could be infer from the foregoing that duty of confidentiality constitutes a moral dilemma in office administration especially public office where conflict of interest emerges between the employer and employee, and the relationship between one employee and the other is of great essentiality. Now, the question is, what obligation an office officer/administrator has to protect the image of the organization? What role should one play on duty of confidentiality as an administrator where there is conflict of interest; for instance, a situation when an office secretary was asked to type a retrenchment letter for his husband who happens to be an employee in same organization? What should be an action of this officer? In this regard, this paper thrust is to critically examine the paradox of the duty of confidentiality and, the justification for the duty of confidentiality. Also, we will discuss various limitation to the duty of confidentiality on office administration. For methodological purpose, the paper shall employ critico-expository approach to examine the subject matter, since man is a product of his experience.