Additional Suggestions for Management to Respond to Ethical Issues Raised by Technological Change

IntroductionThe accelerating rate and complexity of technological developments create a variety of issues and challenges for managers, including ethical issues (Velasquez, 1992; Beauchamp and Bowie, 1993; Dean, 1993; Quan, 2003). Managers have several responsibilities related to technological developments. They must foster and incorporate technological change into their organizations' daily operations, while simultaneously staying alert to the potential effects of technological change on their workers, their customers, and society. The pace of technological change creates unique and ever-increasing burdens on managers' decision-making. This paper discusses six technology-related ethical issues and suggests methods to increase managers' effectiveness in confronting them. The paper updates an earlier work (Cordeiro, 1 997) by addressing several emerging issues related to personal privacy.Ethical Issues and TechnologyWork, especially work performed by employees of organizations, often raises ethical issues. Discussions of ethical issues usually focus on utilitarian analyses of organizational assets, both tangible and intangible (e.g., image and reputation):* The organization's right to secure and protect its assets,* The employee's duty to preserve, protect and enhance the value of the organization's assets,* The organization's right to use its assets for its benefit.Early ethical principles acknowledge powerful rights of organizations, often ignoring employees' rights. Ethical analysis applies cost/benefit analysis, with a goal of increased economic efficiency (Bentham, 1 789; Samuelson, 1947; Sidgwick, 1962). In the last 40 years, organizations' property rights have been questioned, attacked, and qualified. The unadulterated applications of utilitarian cost/benefit analyses have been severely criticized (Glover, 1977; MacIntyre, 1977). Especially in the USA, society now expects organizations to recognize the rights of individuals and of outside organizations and many stakeholders (Rawls, 1971; Tuck, 1979; Stoijar, 1984). Society expects organizations to employ their assets in socially responsible ways by adhering to ethical principles concerning their competitors, suppliers, customers, employees, and general society (French, 1979; Evan and Freeman, 1993).The development of technology raises an array of ethical issues related to work. Many of these are old, surfacing under new guises (Argandona, 2003; Wilder and Soat, 2001). Technology has not changed the issues, but technol- ogy may make the issues' analysis and application more complex. Consultant David Gebler notes that technology raises "issues that may have existed before, but not in such stark reality" (Wilder and Soat, 2001). Some examples of old ethical problems made more complex by modern technology are the sale of "safe" consumer products, the psychological effects of advertising, the use of security systems to protect property, and the protection of the natural environment.In other areas, technology raises new ethical concerns for organizations and employees: these include computer crime, an over-reliance on computer controlled systems, bio-technical developments, degradation of workplace quality-of-life, new categories of work-related injuries, and personal privacy of customers/clients and employees (Biggs, 2000). Each area leads to a series of technology-related ethical challenges for managers:Computer CrimeComputer technology, often termed Information Technology (IT), generates many ethical issues and dilemmas. Most involve the proper use of IT by organizations, by their employees, or by outsiders. Some examples of IT issues are software theft or bootleg copying, intellectual property rights (e.g., software that allows the downloading and "trading" of music and video contents), software design and touch/feel concepts, hacking or the invasion of systems by outsiders, disabling computers through "viruses" and the illegal use of computers for transaction fraud, airline ticket fraud, and academic transcript fraud. …