Ethical Issues in IRM, IT, KM By Daniel P. McAlerney.

Ethical Issues in IRM, IT, KM

By Daniel P. McAlerney

Ethics in IRM, KM, IT

• What are Ethics?

• Why should we study ethics?

• Four ethical issues of the information age.

• Developing a code of ethics.

• Ethics and culture.

• Standards.


• What are Ethics?• Why should we study ethics?




• Standards.

Defining Ethics

“…involving the systematic application of moral rules, standards, or principles to concrete problems.”

-Davison

Defining Ethics

Legal vs. Ethical vs. Moral –

Delineation between the three becomes cloudy depending on the particular situation and individual’s interpretation

-Forcht

Defining Ethics

Legal –

Laws vary over different societies and different times.

Laws have no grey area.

Defining Ethics

Moral-

Religious convictions provide moral fiber that separate:

“right” and “wrong”

“good” and “bad”

Defining Ethics

Ethical-

“Ethics becomes the “melting pot” of those grey areas not covered with formal sanctions such as laws, or religious convictions.”

-Forcht

Morality LegalityEthics

Defining Ethics



• Why should we study ethics?• Four ethical issues of the information age.



• Standards.

Why should we study computer Ethics?

Maner describes 6 levels of justification for the study of computer ethics.

Listed from Weakest to Strongest.

Six justifications for the study of Computer Ethics.

1. Studying ethics will make us behave like responsible professionals.


2. Studying ethics will teach us how to avoid computer abuse and catastrophes.


3. We should study ethics because advance of computing technology will continue to create temporary policy vacuums.


4. We should study ethics because the use of computers in information transfer opens up new ways to exploit, covet, and hide information.


5. We should study computer ethics because the use of computing technology will create ethical issues that require special study.


6. We should study ethics because the set of novel and transformed issues is large enough and coherent enough to define a new field.







• Standards.

Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age (PAPA)

• Privacy

• Accuracy

• Property

• Accessability

-Dejoie, Fowler, Paradice

Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age

Privacy –

What info about ones self must a person reveal to others, and under what conditions and safeguards?


Accuracy –

Who’s responsible for authenticity, fidelity, and accuracy of information?

Who’s held accountable for errors?


Property-

Who owns information and what are just and fair prices for its exchange?


Accessibility-

What information does a person or an organization have a right or privilege to obtain?





• Developing a code of ethics.• Ethics and culture.

• Standards.

Developing a Code of Ethics

A code of ethics is a formalization of rules and expected behaviors that provide clarifications about the acceptable conduct in client-professional relationships.

-Davison, 2000

Codes of EthicsWhy do we need codes of ethics?

•Common way to address ethics concerns.

•To clarify responsibility.

-Harrington

*note Doctors and Lawyers have ethics codes

Codes of EthicsWhy do we need codes of ethics?

•Develop Standards

Codes of EthicsIs a code of ethics the answer?

There are drawbacks to universalizing ethical behavior over a large professional field.

Codes of EthicsIs a code of ethics the answer?

When developing a code of ethics, one must take into account the culture to culture incompatibility of morals, laws, and professional conduct.






• Ethics and culture.• Standards.

Ethics and CultureWhat is taken into account when developing

ethical standards?

• Gender• Race• Economic class

• Reference groups• Religious belief

Ethics and Culture

Is a global ethical code the answer?

“There is a danger in instilling, marketing, or imposing any national or global code of ethics upon our graduates. Such attempt would be so blunt that it would prohibit access to genuine interactive ethical issues that the current ethical debate never attempted before.”

-Abi Raad, 1999

Standards

Standards, like ethics emcompass preffered practices and specific requirements.

• IEEE

• ISO 9000

• ISO 14000







• Standards.

Standards

IEEE objectives• To develop and publish broadly accepted standards that

will advance the theory and practice of electrical engineering, electronics, computer science and other engineering

• To work with other standardizing bodies, both national and international and make available needed standards in the field of electrotechnology.

-IEEE Website

Standards

ISO 9000The ISO 900 family is concerned with “quality management”

or what the organization does to fulfill

*the customers quality requirements

*Applicable regulatory requirements while aiming to enhance customer satisfaction

*achieving continual improvement of its performance in pursuit of these objectives.

-ISO website

Standards

ISO 14000The ISO 14000 is an Environmental Management

System that helps organizations both manage better the impact of their activities on the environment and demonstrate environmental management.

-ISO website

Ethical Dilemmas

Lets Discuss some situations where there are ethical dilemmas at stake.

*Computer Scientist and Funding

*Information Security Manager monitoring email.

-Communications of ACM

Ethical Dilemmas #1

A computer Scientist was the manager of two related research projects. He worked hard on both projects but funding was decreased before final reports had been written. Believing that each project benefitted from the work done on the other, he allowed his assistants to charge the time required to complete the first project to the second one but did not inform his manager. He did however completed the second project by doing unpaid overtime work. Both projects were finished.

Ethical Or Un-Ethical?

Ethical Dilemmas #2

The information security manager in a large company was also the access control administrator of a large e-mail system operated for company business among employees. She discovered that a number of employees used the e-mail for personal purposes like love letters, disagreements in marriage, and a foot ball betting pool. She informed the human resources dept director and gave them a printed list of the employees. They were punished by getting their email monitored. They complained by saying they had the same right of privacy as they had using the telephones and interoffice mail.

Ethical Or Un-Ethical?

What have we learned?

*Ethics vs. Legality vs. Morality

*The importance of studying ethics

*four ethical issues facing us in the IT world

*Pro’s and Con’s of a Code of ethics

*Ethics cannot easily include all cultures

*standards are here to help

Ethical Issues in IRM, IT, KM By Daniel P. McAlerney.

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