How to handle situation when u realise u have developed something and some one else is getting credit of that development?
When the situation is already happened, suggest you to do the following:
report the incident to the authority / top management that can perform the arbitration fairly instead of to your direct management that was getting the credit of the development.
provide evidence / artifacts that you'd the first one who developed the something.
accept the arbitration outcome & plan for the next step even though the outcome is not up to your expectation - you might need to plan for the worst scenario & chart out the appropriate next step.
When the situation has not happened yet, suggest to perform the following:
like what Subhesh has suggested - communicate & level set the expectation with all the needed parties from the beginning to the end of the project (over communications are better than lack of it)
use actual action to demonstrate you are the actual / first party that has developed the something & recording it down as evidence e.g. your development have been demonstrated to all the needed to know parties & acknowledged by then, you have presented / published your development in conference / journal etc.
try to work hard & work smart - proactively monitor your own progress as well as others so that any significant development / discovery achieved by you need to be reported as soon as possible - e.g. there can be situations that other researchers unknowing are doing the same research as yours. However, only the first party that has developed & reported the same findings will be recognized. Hence, periodically presenting your development / achievement as well as attending other meetings / conference / seminars can help you to monitor where you are e.g. whether you are too early or too late in the competition.
I agree with the contributions above and handling it a professional rather than confrontational way as discussed in the attached. You learn from the experience and take all the necessary precautions from repeating the experience.
As others have suggested recognize this is not an uncommon occurrence. It is best to not personalize it as something you have done wrong or it only happens to you. You need to assess how important credit for your part in the project is to you and your career. That should determine how much energy and fight you want to engage in to get the credit. If this is common practice in your organization and you do not have an advocate for your work, consider finding a difference place of employment.
Be clear on your career goals and find a place that supports you.
It is really happening in our professional life.One must learn from ones mistakes,and try to find out such fellows,and try to be careful while dealing/communicating with such fellows.Such practices cant be stopped.But these occurences can surely be curtailed.In an ethical organisation,such practices are not there.
Dr. Meenaji. i do appreciate your kind gesture which we all are facing in this professional world. For me the answer is typical but straight forward. To handle situation when u realise u have developed something and some one else is getting credit of that development will be believe in yourself and move ahead in Life. The quality and knowledge that you posses will not be taken by any one, that is sure. Some one can take a software or project or presentation from you but your knowledge domain is quiet intact and it is most perfect brain of the world. If it is not so, why the other are trying to copy you or to steal your credit. Yes, from our end there is some laziness or we are not cautious so that someone is taking advantage of the situation. So keep yourself more agile, cautious but focused. Dont get distracted by the invasion so so called knowledge Robbers. Let me end with one of the Chaupai of Ramcharitmanas.. Goswami tulsidas says.. Kou naa kabahau dukh sukhkar data.. niz niz karm, bogahih sab bratha.. That in this world no one is responsible for our sukh and dukh in life. it is our actions which results into sorrow or happiness. So i do hope that it will be somewhere what you are looking for. With warm regards. Prof. Abhay
There are people like that. You must now consider what happened as part of experience, where you learn something. If you don't want it to happen again, do strategies so that it will not happen again like not confiding a novel idea with some one not worth trusting or by making your idea happen by yourself.
To encourage candidates to be more explicit in interview, questions such as " Don't be too modest-give yourself due credit for getting the job done?" are asked.
This scenario become more complicated with persons having a shy, calm and modest attitude in life. So, these persons need more encouragement than others. in such situation develop a balanced confidence to express your contribution in front of others as the project or job progressed. in my view, tell your boss about your progress daily.
Stealing others` efforts and thoughts may destroy motivation and innovations. When we realize that we have developed something and somebody else is getting credit of that development, we should ask him to stop that and we may follow go for legal protection in that situation.
If you cannot trust your colleagues, then you have to hide some key features (something that ONLY YOU know about them) in your work, then if someone plagiarized your scientific work you would simply reveal your ace! but personally I think you should be careful and chose your research team from trustworthy people before project's start time.
In real life many a times it is seen that somebody is taking credit for some other person's work. No wonder that there is a proverb: “success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan”. One must prevent recurrence of the same through development of adequate security system, by incorporating unique features that is difficult to copy or claim, as well as making the work carried out known to specialists in the same field / peers / superiors. It is not possible for us to change all the unscrupulous and manipulative persons, but we can certainly change our approach to tackle the menace.