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Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems 177

lower organizational levels, have reduced the fears of power centralization in
government institutions. Yet much of the empowerment described in popular
business magazines is trivial. Lower-level employees may be empowered to
make minor decisions, but the key policy decisions may be as centralized as in
the past. At the same time, corporate Internet behemoths like Google, Apple,
Yahoo, Amazon, and Microsoft have come to dominate the collection and anal-
ysis of personal private information of all citizens. In this sense, power has
become more centralized into the hands of a few private oligopolies.

Rapidity of Change: Reduced Response Time to
Competition
Information systems have helped to create much more efficient national and
international markets. Today’s more efficient global marketplace has reduced the
normal social buffers that permitted businesses many years to adjust to competi-
tion. Time-based competition has an ugly side: The business you work for may
not have enough time to respond to global competitors and may be wiped out in
a year, along with your job. We stand the risk of developing a “just-in-time society”
with “just-in-time jobs” and “just-in-time” workplaces, families, and vacations.

Maintaining Boundaries: Family, Work, and Leisure
Parts of this book were produced on trains and planes, as well as on vacations
and during what otherwise might have been “family” time. The danger to ubiq-
uitous computing, telecommuting, nomad computing, mobile computing,
and the “do anything anywhere” computing environment is that it is actually
coming true. The traditional boundaries that separate work from family and
just plain leisure have been weakened.
Although authors have traditionally worked just about anywhere (typewriters
have been portable for nearly a century), the advent of information systems, cou-
pled with the growth of knowledge-work occupations, means that more and more
people are working when traditionally they would have been playing or commu-
nicating with family and friends. The work umbrella now extends far beyond the
eight-hour day into commuting time, vacation time, and leisure time.
Even leisure time spent on the computer threatens these close social
relationships. Extensive Internet use, even for entertainment or recreational
purposes, takes people away from their family and friends. Among middle
school and teenage children, it can lead to harmful anti-social behavior, such as
the recent upsurge in cyberbullying.
Weakening these institutions poses clear-cut risks. Family and friends his-
torically have provided powerful support mechanisms for individuals, and they
act as balance points in a society by preserving private life, providing a place
for people to collect their thoughts, allowing people to think in ways contrary to
their employer, and dream.

Dependence and Vulnerability
Today, our businesses, governments, schools, and private associations, such
as churches, are incredibly dependent on information systems and are, there-
fore, highly vulnerable if these systems fail. Secondary schools, for instance,
increasingly use and rely on educational software. Test results are often stored
off campus. If these systems were to shut down, there is no backup educational
structure or content that can make up for the loss of the system. With systems
now as ubiquitous as the telephone system, it is startling to remember that
there are no regulatory or standard-setting forces in place that are similar to

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