Ethical Issues in
Information Technology
Structure of IT- ITES industry
• IT Services
• IT Enabled Services
IT services
• IT Services is the dominant sector of the
industry in terms of revenues as well as size.
This particular sector can be understood in
terms of the value chain of services it offers to
its customers.
• IT Services Tier I: Consultancy and Product
Development
• IT Services Tier II: Infrastructure Management
and Systems Integration
• IT Services Tier III: Application Development
and Maintenance
IT enabled services
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the practice of
contracting a third party, by an organization, to carry out
a specific activity or process of its business. Broadly,
BPO operations can be of two types:
• Outsourcing front office
• Back office processes.
Front office operations include customer service,
marketing etc. Examples of back office operations are
logistics, supply chain management etc.
Unique characteristics of
IT-ITES industry
• Technology and the Medium of Operation
• IT Industry’s workforce
• IT Industry’s output process: Information
and tools
Ethical perspective of IT-ITES
industry
• Information security: Lack of information
security processes; disclosure of
confidential information about customers
to unauthorized people; forcing of
customers to part with confidential
information; hacking; cookies; conspiracy
among IT employees/organizations to help
clients perform unethical transactions
• Intellectual property rights: software
piracy; violation of EULA (End-user license
agreement); illegal use of intellectual
properties; reverse engineering of
programs to gain access to the business
logic and intellectual property of the
vendor company.
• Work culture and environment: leakage of
recruitment test question papers; wastage of
company time and resources; breach of
employment agreements; fraudulent bills;
poaching of employees from competitors;
unethical means of retaining the employees;
unrealistic estimations and plans; breach of
privacy of the employee; non-ergonomic working
conditions
Computer ethics
“Computer ethics” is the analysis of the
nature and social impact of computer
technology and the corresponding
formulation and justification of policies for
the ethical use of such technology.
IT Ethics Can Span a Broad
Range of Concerns
• Information Security
– “Ethical hacking”?
• Assumptions of Information Privacy
– Regulatory compliance
• Ethics as Information Security
– When do you say “No” to a customer?
• Admin Rights as Ethical Quandary
– “Just because you can do a thing…”
Ethics in Information
Technology
• Public concern about the ethical use of
information technology includes:
– E-mail and Internet access monitoring
– Peer-to-peer networks violation of copyright
– Unsolicited e-mail
– Hackers and identify theft
– Plagiarism
– Cookies and spyware
Ethics in Information
Technology
• The general public has not realized the critical importance of
ethics as applied to IT
• Important technical decisions are often left to technical experts
• General business managers must assume greater responsibility
for these decisions
• They must be able to make broad-minded, objective, ethical
decisions based on technical savvy, business know-how, and a
sense of ethics
• They must also try to create a working environment in which
ethical dilemmas can be discussed openly, objectively, and
constructively
Corporate ethics officer
– Is a senior-level manager
– Provides vision and direction in the area of
business conduct
– Tries to establish an environment that
encourages ethical decision making
Corporate ethics officer
• Responsibilities include:
– Complete oversight of the ethics function
– Collecting and analyzing data
– Developing and interpreting ethics policy
– Developing and administering ethics
education and training
– Overseeing ethics investigations
Conducting Social Audits
• Social audit
– Identifies ethical lapses committed in the past
– Sets directives for avoiding similar missteps in
the future
Requiring Employees to Take
Ethics Training
• Comprehensive ethics education program
encourages employees to act responsibly
and ethically
– Often presented in small workshop formats
• Principle-based decision making is based
on principles in corporate code of ethics
When Good Ethics Result in
Short-Term Losses
• Operating ethically does not always guarantee
business success
• Organizations that operate outside the United
States
– Deal with a “business as usual” climate
– Are placed at a significant competitive disadvantage
• Good ethics will prove to be good business in
the long term
How Management Can Affect
Employees’ Ethical Behaviour
Manager’s Checklist
