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156 Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise

FIGURE 4.1 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHICAL, SOCIAL, AND
POLITICAL ISSUES IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY

The introduction of new information technology has a ripple effect, raising new ethical, social, and
political issues that must be dealt with on the individual, social, and political levels. These issues have
five moral dimensions: information rights and obligations, property rights and obligations, system
quality, quality of life, and accountability and control.

• Information rights and obligations. What information rights do individuals and
organizations possess with respect to themselves? What can they protect?
• Property rights and obligations. How will traditional intellectual property
rights be protected in a digital society in which tracing and accounting for
ownership are difficult and ignoring such property rights is so easy?
• Accountability and control. Who can and will be held accountable and liable for
the harm done to individual and collective information and property rights?
• System quality. What standards of data and system quality should we demand
to protect individual rights and the safety of society?
• Quality of life. What values should be preserved in an information- and
knowledge-based society? Which institutions should we protect from
violation? Which cultural values and practices are supported by the new
information technology?
We explore these moral dimensions in detail in Section 4.3.

KEY TECHNOLOGY TRENDS THAT RAISE ETHICAL
ISSUES

Ethical issues long preceded information technology. Nevertheless,
information technology has heightened ethical concerns, taxed existing social
arrangements, and made some laws obsolete or severely crippled. There are

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