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162 Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise

SOME REAL-WORLD ETHICAL DILEMMAS
Information systems have created new ethical dilemmas in which one set of
interests is pitted against another. For example, many of the large telephone
companies in the United States are using information technology to reduce
the sizes of their workforces. Voice recognition software reduces the need for
human operators by enabling computers to recognize a customer’s responses
to a series of computerized questions. Many companies monitor what their
employees are doing on the Internet to prevent them from wasting company
resources on non-business activities. Facebook monitors its subscribers and
then sells the information to advertisers and app developers (see the chapter-
ending case study).
In each instance, you can find competing values at work, with groups lined
up on either side of a debate. A company may argue, for example, that it has a
right to use information systems to increase productivity and reduce the size
of its workforce to lower costs and stay in business. Employees displaced by
information systems may argue that employers have some responsibility for
their welfare. Business owners might feel obligated to monitor employee e-mail
and Internet use to minimize drains on productivity. Employees might believe
they should be able to use the Internet for short personal tasks in place of the
telephone. A close analysis of the facts can sometimes produce compromised
solutions that give each side “half a loaf.” Try to apply some of the principles of
ethical analysis described to each of these cases. What is the right thing to do?

4.3 THE MORAL DIMENSIONS OF INFORMATION

SYSTEMS

In this section, we take a closer look at the five moral dimensions of informa-
tion systems first described in Figure 4.1. In each dimension, we identify the
ethical, social, and political levels of analysis and use real-world examples to
illustrate the values involved, the stakeholders, and the options chosen.

INFORMATION RIGHTS: PRIVACY AND FREEDOM IN
THE INTERNET AGE

Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or
interference from other individuals or organizations, including the state. Claims
to privacy are also involved at the workplace: Millions of employees are subject
to electronic and other forms of high-tech surveillance. Information technology
and systems threaten individual claims to privacy by making the invasion of
privacy cheap, profitable, and effective.
The claim to privacy is protected in the U.S., Canadian, and German
constitutions in a variety of different ways and in other countries through
various statutes. In the United States, the claim to privacy is protected primar-
ily by the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and association,
the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure of
one’s personal documents or home, and the guarantee of due process.
Table 4.3 describes the major U.S. federal statutes that set forth the
conditions for handling information about individuals in such areas as credit
reporting, education, financial records, newspaper records, and electronic
communications. The Privacy Act of 1974 has been the most important of

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