Ethical Decision-making and High Technology - Essay Example

A wealth of literature addresses inappropriate and illegal use of technology in industry. Misuse of technology has resulted in significant corporate losses. Activities and behaviors causing these losses vary and include criminal activities such as hacking into systems, fraud and theft (Kreie and Cronan, 1999). Monetary losses to businesses are estimated to be in excess of billions of dollars annually and, too often, these misuses are carried out by the companys own employees. Reportedly, up to 80% of bandwidth use at some workplaces is due to non-work related electronic exchange of materials (Conlin, 1997).

Accordingly, most businesses monitor how their employees use the Internet. This means that employers know, or can easily determine, what Web sites their employees are accessing while at work. According to a survey conducted by the American Management Association, 73% of U.S. businesses monitor their employees Internet use and largely due so to reduce loss and enforce ethics compliance (Conlin, 1997). Several business studies conclude that educating employees about what the organization views as ethical behavior might have some positive influence on activities (Pearson, Crosby and Shim, 1997).

Pearson et al. (1997) argue that should older, more experienced IS professionals act as mentors to identify and teach the ethical views of their organization to less experienced personnel, violation of information security and computing ethics policies will decrease. The term “computer ethics” was coined in the mid 1970s by Walter Maner to refer to the field of applied professional ethics dealing with ethical problems created by computer technology. The term has acquired a broader sense that includes applied ethics, sociology of computing, technology assessment and computer law.

This broader scope of computer ethics examines the impact of computing and information technology upon human values using concepts, theories and procedures