In information systems, many organizations have a code of ethical conduct to prevent from the unethical conduct. Ethics is consisted with value concepts such as good or bad, right or wrong. When we consider which is good or bad on certain behaviour, we can simply choose one. Then
why do we need the ethical code in the organization?. It is because of complexity on human environment. All people have their own life style and ethical choices are not always clear. And also people can make mistake on the ethical decision making.
Is profession code of ethic enough to control the ethical behaviour? The Professional code of ethic is little bit week to prevent people’s unethical conduct within their own decision and it can be the reason we need to develop the ethics in the systems design.
What are the ethical issues to be considered when we develop ethic into system design? The privacy, accuracy, accessibility, and effects on quality of life can be issues. Information such as customer profile can be transfer from one to another. This conduct should be considered in the system design. The accuracy involves with system input, output and process. For example, if one department responsible for all the accounting systems, there are possibility that they can make frauds. There should be segregation of duties exist in the organization. Accessibility is also very important in the system design. If all the employees can access to company’s important data, they can steal those data easily. There should be limited accessibility to those who responsible to certain tasks within data. Quality of life in the organization involves with quality of computer system. Generally, computers are intended to improve our life and it also influence to the workplace. If computer systems are old and not upgrading properly, people in the workplace can have dissatisfaction of their working place. It can be cased to employee to have stress or reasons of productivity reduction. If people have no satisfaction on their work environment, their performances usually decline.
Are there any system design methods in our lives? There are two methods are commonly used. They are SSADM and CATWOE methods. While SSADM method focuses on the technical issues more than human issues, CATWOE method focuses on the human issue. We can identify who is doing what for whom through the CATWOE; however, it can support ethical concerns strictly.
In my opinion, ethic is very hard to be narrowed and put them into the system design because of wideness human nature. If we consider such ethical issues of peoples’ privacy, accuracy, accessibility and our quality life, we can develop certain ethical policies into organizations’ system design. By the impact, unethical conduct will be declined and positioned with good reputation.
http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics
www.google.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I feel like I finally understand the ethics. I wanted read this blog when I was taking auditing. Then my mark would be better.
I like the way you switch your discussion from ethical issues of accounting to computer. I think same way as you do. Unfortunately, these issues could be happened naturally in real life. To avoid this situation, we need to have system design ethics.
When I wrote my blog about ethics in system design, I forgot to mention segregation of duties. I feel that you are right in saying that it can help reduce unethical behaviour. For example take a look at one of my favourite restaurants, Hon’s (http://www.hons.ca/ if you haven’t been there check it out, so delicious). When it is busy there you will find that every task has a separate person conducting it. There is the host, then someone to bring your menus, then someone else to bring you tea, then someone else to take your order, then a different person to deliver your food, another to bring your bill, and finally another to take your cash. By separating the duties, everyone’s work has been double checked and I imagine it would be very difficult for an employee to act unethically (steal money, serve free food, or make a dish not to standard).
Hi Eric,
I found your blog interesting. I hadn’t really thought of security measures within an organization’s IT as ethics built into the design of the system. I think that it is a simplified way in which you can ensure that employees within your organization are acting ethically. It takes some of the worry out of business because although an organization may take measures to try to have ethical employees there is no way to know how an individual will act if they are given an opportunity to gain financially from acting unethically. For example, doctors and nurses take oaths to keep patient information confidential but that does not ensure that they will not share the information. Take the case with George Clooney, last week in the news it came out that while he was in the hospital, members of the staff of the hospital which included some doctors, looked at his chart. The hospital took measures to discipline the employees, but it is not certain that those employees will no act unethically in the future if given the opportunity.
- Brenda
Post a Comment