AN OVERVIEW OF ETHICS

University of Benghazi
Faculty of Information Technology
Computing Ethics and Society (IT301)
PREPARED BY: SAMI BENAMER (MSc CS)
Reference: ETHICS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY-Sixth Edition BY George W. Reynolds
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
As you read this chapter, consider the following questions:
1. What is ethics?
2. What trends have increased the likelihood of an unethical behavior?
3. What is corporate social responsibility, and why is fostering good business ethics
important?
4. What measures can organizations take to improve their business ethics?
5. How can you include ethical considerations in your decision making?
6. What trends have increased the risk that information technology will be used in an
unethical manner?
 WHAT IS ETHICS?
▪ Ethics is a code of behavior that is defined by the group to which an individual belongs.
▪ Ethical behavior conforms to generally accepted norms, which may change over time to meet the
evolving needs of the society or a group of people who share similar laws, traditions, and values
that provide structure to enable
▪ Morals are the personal principles upon which an individual bases his or her decisions about what is
right and what is wrong.
▪ They are core beliefs formed and adhered to by an individual. For example, many of us have a
core belief that all people should be treated with respect and this belief governs our actions toward
others. them to live in an organized manner.
▪ Although nearly everyone would agree that certain behaviors such as lying and cheating are wrong,
opinions about what constitutes right and wrong behaviors can vary dramatically. For example,
attitudes toward software piracy a form of copyright infringement that involves making copies of
software or enabling others to access software to which they are not entitled range from strong
opposition to acceptance of the practice as a standard approach to conducting business.
 WHAT IS ETHICS?
▪ Although nearly everyone would agree that certain behaviors such as lying and
cheating are wrong, opinions about what constitutes right and wrong behaviors can
vary dramatically.
▪ For example, attitudes toward software piracy a form of copyright infringement that
involves making copies of software or enabling others to access software to which
they are not entitled range from strong opposition to acceptance of the practice as a
standard approach to conducting business.
▪ Individual views of what behavior is moral may be impacted by a person’s age,
cultural group, ethnic background, religion, life experiences, education, and gender
along with many other factors.
 WHAT IS ETHICS?
▪ Life is complex, and on occasion, you will encounter a situation in which the ethics of
the group to which you belong are in conflict with your morals, as highlighted in the
following two examples:
▪ The ethics of the law profession demand that defense attorneys defend an accused
client to the best of their ability, even if they know that the client is guilty of the most
heinous and morally objectionable crime one could imagine.
▪ The ethical standards of the medical profession do not allow a doctor to euthanize a
patient, even at the patient’s request. However, the doctor may personally believe
that the patient has a right, based on the doctor’s own morals.
 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MORALS,
ETHICS, AND LAWS
▪ Law is a system of rules that tells us what we can and cannot do. Laws are enforced by a
set of institutions (the police, courts, law-making bodies). Violation of a law can result in
censure, fines, and/or imprisonment.
▪ laws are not static; new laws are constantly being introduced and existing laws repealed
or modified. As a result, the precise meaning of a particular law may be different in the
future from what it is today.
▪ Legal acts are acts that conform to the law.
▪ Moral acts conform to what an individual believes to be the right thing to do

▪ Laws can proclaim an act as legal, although many people may consider the act immoral
▪ for example, abortion. Laws may also proclaim an act as illegal.

▪ although many people may consider the act moral

▪ for example, using marijuana to relieve stress and nausea for people undergoing
chemotherapy treatment for cancer
 ETHICS IN THE BUSINESS WORLD
▪ Ethics has risen to the top of the business agenda because the risks associated with
inappropriate behavior have increased, both in their likelihood and in their potential
negative impact.
▪ collapse and/or bailout of financial institutions such as Bank of America, CitiGroup, and
American International Group (AIG) due to unwise and/or unethical decision making
regarding the approval of mortgages, loans, and lines of credit to unqualified individuals
and organizations.
▪ numerous corporate officers and senior managers sentenced to prison terms for their
unethical behavior,
▪ Stewart Parnell, former CEO of Peanut Corporation of America, who was sentenced
to 28 years in prison for knowingly shipping contaminated food product, resulting in a
salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened more than 700.
▪ Clearly, unethical behavior in the business world can lead to serious negative
consequences for both organizations and individuals.
ETHICS IN THE BUSINESS WORLD
▪ Several trends have increased the likelihood of unethical behavior.
▪ First, for many organizations, greater globalization has created a much more complex
work environment that spans diverse cultures and societies, making it more difficult to
apply principles and codes of ethics consistently.
▪ numerous U.S. companies have moved operations to developing countries, where
employees or contractors work in conditions that would not be acceptable in the
most developed parts of the world.
▪ Second, in today’s challenging and uncertain economic climate, many organizations
are finding it more difficult to maintain revenue and profits.
ETHICS IN THE BUSINESS WORLD
▪ Here are just a few examples of lapses in business ethics by employees in IT
organizations:
▪ Volkswagen has admitted that 11 million of its vehicles were equipped with software
that was used to cheat on emissions tests. The company is now contending with the
fallout.
▪ Toshiba, the Japanese industrial giant whose diversified products and services include
information technology and communications equipment and systems, disclosed that it
overstated its earnings over a seven-year period by more than $1.2 billion.
▪ Amazon has the second highest employee turnover rate of companies in the Fortune
500 and has been criticized by some for creating a high pressure work environment in
which bosses’ expectations were almost impossible to satisfy and jobs were
threatened if illness or other personal issues encroached on work.
ETHICS IN THE BUSINESS WORLD
▪ Even lower-level employees and ordinary individuals can find themselves in the
middle of ethical dilemmas, as these examples illustrate:
▪ Edward Snowden, working as a Dell contractor at the National Security Agency
(NSA), copied thousands of classified and unclassified documents that revealed
details about the capabilities and scope of operations of the NSA and other foreign
intelligence agencies.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
▪ Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is
the concept that an organization should
act ethically by taking responsibility for
the impact of its actions on its
shareholders, consumers, employees,
community, environment, and suppliers.
▪ An organization’s approach to CSR can
encompass a wide variety of tactics from
donating a portion of net profit to charity
to implementing more sustainable
business operations or encouraging
employee education through tuition
reimbursement.
▪ Setting CSR goals encourages an
organization to achieve higher moral and
ethical standards.
WHY FOSTERING CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY AND GOOD BUSINESS
ETHICS IS IMPORTANT ?
▪ Organizations have at least five good reasons to pursue CSR goals and to promote a
work environment in which employees are encouraged to act ethically when making
business decisions:
▪ Gaining the goodwill of the community
▪ Creating an organization that operates consistently
▪ Fostering good business practices
▪ Protecting the organization and its employees from legal action
▪ Avoiding unfavorable publicity
HOW ORGANIZATIONS CAN
IMPROVE THEIR ETHICS
▪ Research by the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) found that 86
percent of the employees in companies with a well-
implemented ethics and compliance program are likely to
perceive a strong ethical culture within the company, while
less than 25 percent of employees in companies with little to
no program are likely to perceive a culture that promotes
integrity in the workplace.
▪ A well-implemented ethics and compliance program and a
strong ethical culture can, in turn, lead to less pressure on
employees to misbehave and a decrease in observed
misconduct.
▪ It also creates an environment in which employees are more
comfortable reporting instances of misconduct, partly
because there is less fear of potential retaliation by
management against reporters (for example, reduced hours,
transfer to less desirable jobs, and delays in promotions).
HOW ORGANIZATIONS CAN IMPROVE
THEIR ETHICS
1. Appoint a Corporate Ethics Officer
▪ A corporate ethics officer (also called a corporate compliance officer) provides an
organization with vision and leadership in the area of business conduct. This
individual “aligns the practices of a workplace with the stated ethics and beliefs of that
workplace, holding people accountable to ethical standards.
2. Require the Board of Directors to Set and Model High Ethical Standards
▪ The board of directors is responsible for the careful and responsible management of
an organization. In a for-profit organization, the board’s primary objective is to oversee
the organization’s business activities and management for the benefit of all
stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and the
community.
HOW ORGANIZATIONS CAN IMPROVE
THEIR ETHICS
3. Establish a Corporate Code of Ethics
▪ A code of ethics is a statement that highlights an organization’s key ethical issues and
identifies the overarching values and principles that are important to the organization
and its decision making.
▪ Codes of ethics frequently include a set of formal, written statements about the
purpose of an organization, its values, and the principles that should guide its
employees’ actions.
▪ An organization’s code of ethics applies to its directors, officers, and employees, and it
should focus employees on areas of ethical risk relating to their role in the
organization, offer guidance to help them recognize and deal with ethical issues, and
provide mechanisms for reporting unethical conduct and fostering a culture of honesty
and accountability within the organization.
 HOW ORGANIZATIONS CAN IMPROVE
THEIR ETHICS
4. Conduct Social Audits
▪ An increasing number of organizations conduct regular social audits of their policies and
practices. In a social audit, an organization reviews how well it is meeting its ethical and
social responsibility goals and communicates its new goals for the upcoming year.
▪ This information is shared with employees, shareholders, investors, market analysts,
customers, suppliers, government agencies, and the communities in which the
organization operates.
5. Require Employees to Take Ethics Training
▪ The ancient Greek philosophers believed that personal convictions about right and wrong
behavior could be improved through education.
▪ Thus, an organization’s code of ethics must be promoted and continually communicated
within the organization, from the top to the bottom. Organizations can do this by showing
the employees examples of how to apply the code of ethics in real life. One approach is
through a comprehensive ethics education program that encourages employees to act
responsibly and ethically.
HOW ORGANIZATIONS CAN IMPROVE
THEIR ETHICS
6. Include Ethical Criteria in Employee Appraisals
▪ Managers can help employees to meet performance expectations by monitoring employee
behavior and providing feedback; increasingly, managers are including ethical conduct as
part of an employee’s performance appraisal.
7. Create an Ethical Work Environment
▪ Most employees want to perform their jobs successfully and ethically, but good employees
sometimes make bad ethical choices.
▪ Employees in highly competitive workplaces often feel pressure from aggressive
competitors, cutthroat suppliers, unrealistic budgets, unforgiving quotas, tight deadlines,
and bonus incentives.
▪ Employees may also be encouraged to do “whatever it takes” to get the job done. In such
environments, some employees may feel pressure to engage in unethical conduct to meet
management’s expectations, especially if the organization has no corporate code of ethics
and no strong examples of senior management practicing ethical behavior.
INCLUDINGE THICAL CONSIDERATIONS
IN DECISION MAKING
▪ We are all faced with difficult decisions in our work and in our personal life. Most of us
have developed a decision-making process that we execute automatically, without
thinking about the steps we go through. For many of us, the process generally follows
the steps
INCLUDINGE THICAL CONSIDERATIONS
IN DECISION MAKING
1. Develop Problem Statement
▪ A problem statement is a clear, concise description of the issue that needs to be
addressed. A good problem statement answers the following questions: What do
people observe that causes them to think there is a problem? Who is directly affected
by the problem? Is anyone else affected? How often does the problem occur? What is
the impact of the problem? How serious is the problem?
2. Identify Alternatives
▪ During this stage of decision making, it is ideal to enlist the help of others, including
stakeholders, to identify several alternative solutions to the problem. Brainstorming
with others will increase your chances of identifying a broad range of alternatives and
determining the best solution.
INCLUDINGE THICAL CONSIDERATIONS
IN DECISION MAKING
3. Choose Alternative
▪ Once a set of alternatives has been identified, the group must evaluate them based on
numerous criteria, such as effectiveness of addressing the issue, the extent of risk
associated with each alternative, cost, and time to implement.
▪ An alternative that sounds attractive but that is not feasible will not help solve the
problem.
4. Implement the Decision
▪ Once an alternative is selected, it should be implemented in an efficient, effective, and
timely manner.
▪ This is often much easier said than done, because people tend to resist change. In
fact, the bigger the change, the greater is the resistance to it.
▪ Communication is the key to helping people accept a change.
INCLUDINGE THICAL CONSIDERATIONS
IN DECISION MAKING
5. Evaluate the Results
▪ After the solution to the problem has been implemented, monitor the results to see if
the desired effect was achieved and observe its impact on the organization and the
various stakeholders.
▪ Were the success criteria fully met? Were there any unintended consequences? This
evaluation may indicate that further refinements are needed. If so, return to the
problem development step, refine the problem statement as necessary, and work
through the process again.
ETHICS IN INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
▪ The growth of the Internet and social networks; the ability to capture, store, and
analyze vast amounts of personal data; and a greater reliance on information systems
in all aspects of life have increased the risk that information technology will be used
unethically. In the midst of the many IT breakthroughs in recent years, the importance
of ethics and human values has been underemphasized with a range of
consequences.
ETHICS IN INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
Here are some examples that raise public concern about the ethical use of information
technology:
▪ Governments around the world have implemented various systems that enable the
surveillance of their citizens and are struggling to achieve the proper balance between
privacy and security.
▪ Many employees have their email and Internet access monitored while at work, as
employers struggle to balance their need to manage important company assets and
work time with employees’ desire for privacy and self-direction.
▪ Millions of people have downloaded music and movies at no charge and in apparent
violation of copyright laws at tremendous expense to the owners of those copyrights.
ETHICS IN INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
▪ Organizations contact millions of people worldwide through unsolicited email and text
messages in an extremely low cost, but intrusive marketing approach.
▪ Hackers break into databases of financial and retail institutions to steal customer
information and then use it to commit identity theft—opening new accounts and
charging purchases to unsuspecting victims.
▪ Students around the world have been caught downloading material from the web and
plagiarizing content for their term papers.
▪ Websites plant cookies or spyware on visitors’ hard drives to track their online
purchases and activities.