Ethical Issues in Information Technology

Author(s):  
Barrie E. Litzky ◽  
Effy Oz

This research examines the impact of education on the ethical decision-making outcomes of adult learners in the area of information technology (IT). This study sheds light on the research question “Does IT ethics education make a difference?”, and more specifically, “Do ethics courses influence decisions regarding IT ethical issues in adult learners?” In a field study of 78 pre- and post-test surveys, we found that graduate students who took a course in IT ethics made different decisions than those made at the start of the term, for 2 of 6 ethical issues. The ethical issues described in this article are particularly relevant in today’s knowledge economy. Implications for IT ethics education and future research in the area are discussed.

Author(s):  
Kenneth S. Pope

This chapter examines how ethical issues are approached differently by two prominent psychological associations, how they are encountered by psychologists, the formal complaints they give rise to, and how they can be approached systematically to avoid missteps. Included are basic assumptions about ethics; the unique approaches to developing a ethics code taken by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), and what each of these two codes provides; empirical data about what ethical problems psychologists encounter and what formal complaints they face; four major sets of ethical issues that are particularly complex and challenging (confidentiality, informed consent, competence, and boundaries); an area of major controversy (clinical psychology and national security); steps in ethical decision-making; and four possible lines of future research.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey Gauthier ◽  
Chris Meyer ◽  
David Cohen

This paper develops and clarifies social intrapreneurship theory by examining the “how” of effective intrapreneurial championing. More specifically, the authors consider the following research question: How does the manner in which middle managers frame sustainable practices influence successful championing outcomes? The authors integrate the natural-resource-based view of the firm with research on middle management championing behaviors and issue-contingent models of ethical decision making to propose a model of sustainability championing for social intrapreneurs. To that end, propositions are developed concerning the relationship between the types of sustainable practice championed, how the argument for a given practice is framed, and successful championing outcomes. This paper contributes to a growing body of literature on social intrapreneurship, providing insight into how intrapreneurial championing can be more effective and building a foundation for future research.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1510-1526
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Gauthier ◽  
Chris Meyer ◽  
David Cohen

This paper develops and clarifies social intrapreneurship theory by examining the “how” of effective intrapreneurial championing. More specifically, the authors consider the following research question: How does the manner in which middle managers frame sustainable practices influence successful championing outcomes? The authors integrate the natural-resource-based view of the firm with research on middle management championing behaviors and issue-contingent models of ethical decision making to propose a model of sustainability championing for social intrapreneurs. To that end, propositions are developed concerning the relationship between the types of sustainable practice championed, how the argument for a given practice is framed, and successful championing outcomes. This paper contributes to a growing body of literature on social intrapreneurship, providing insight into how intrapreneurial championing can be more effective and building a foundation for future research.


Author(s):  
Kenneth S. Pope

This chapter examines how ethical issues are approached differently by two prominent psychological associations, how they are encountered by psychologists, the formal complaints they give rise to, and how they can be approached systematically to avoid missteps. Included are basic assumptions about ethics; the unique approaches to developing a ethics code taken by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), and what each of these two codes provides; empirical data about what ethical problems psychologists encounter and what formal complaints they face; four major sets of ethical issues that are particularly complex and challenging (confidentiality, informed consent, competence, and boundaries); an area of major controversy (clinical psychology and national security); steps in ethical decision-making; and four possible lines of future research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (special) ◽  
pp. 60-68
Author(s):  
Ascaryan Rafinda ◽  
Tímea Gál ◽  
Putri Purwaningtyas

This research aims to identify and measure the effectiveness of business ethics courses on student Moral Reasoning. In-depth interview and a pilot test were conducted to examine the understandability of the experimental instrument. Quasi-experimental methods were conducted on students who join a business ethics course. One hundred twenty-two participants were valid from the manipulation check of pre-test and post-test. Paired T-Test was used to test the score between pre-test and post-test. Moral reasoning was measured using a defining issue test (DIT) to categorise High and Low Moral Reasoning on Participants. The result shows no difference in moral reasoning score between pre-test and post-test on a student who joins the business ethics course. This study finds that student moral reasoning does not improve by joining a business ethics course at university. These results imply that we should evaluate and re-examine the business ethics course syllabus for future research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Malcom ◽  

This paper will describe various leadership theories and how they were formed, current leadership perspectives for information technology (IT) and the impact they can have on an IT workforce due to negative impressions and conditions. It will then relate current ethical issues faced by Information Technology to the key driving forces behind IT today along with detailing the current ethical issues faced by IT Leadership. Finally it will recommend some future research to help IT Leadership navigate the ethical and leadership issues faced today and to prepare for the future issues that will appear as technology advances.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahid Shamim ◽  
Lubna Baig ◽  
Adrienne Torda ◽  
Chinthaka Balasooriya

Abstract Background Complexities of ethics education, combined with socio-cultural issues specific to the medical curricula of the developing country context, have created resource constraints that impact medical ethics education delivery in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. These constraints include the dearth of contextually relevant texts, shortage of trained teachers and confines in institutional regulations in the regions. Focused strategies are required to address these constraints. Workbook-based ethics learning (WBEL) is one such strategy based on a contextually relevant ethics education model. Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics education, delivered through the WBEL strategy, on students’ learning and satisfaction in medical colleges of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Methods A pre-post-test intervention study was conducted in two medical colleges, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Pakistan and King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. An ethics course was structured using the WBEL strategy and delivered to early clinical years medical students. The impact on student learning was measured by pre-and-post administration of a set of Key Feature Questions (KFQ) and a Script Concordance Test (SCT). A twenty-eight-item course feedback questionnaire was developed to collect students’ perceptions regarding the WBEL strategy. Results Of the total 125 students who consented, 90 (72%) completed the pre-and post-test measures, and 103 returned the feedback forms at the two sites. The post-test scores in KFQs were significantly higher than pretest scores in both Pakistani and Saudi students (p-value < 0.001). There was no significant pre-to-post difference in overall SCT scores (p = 0.057). The majority of participants considered the overall course to be valuable. They provided positive feedback on the Workbook’s usefulness and the enhancement of critical thinking within the course. Ethics case discussions, classroom quizzes, and reflective writing were considered most effective for learning during the course. Conclusion The findings suggest that the WBEL is a promising way forward in medical ethics education as it resulted in a notable increase in participants’ knowledge and ethical decision-making skills. The study also provides evidence of feasibility for using the WBEL strategy for teaching ethics in resource-limited regions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Liza Lee ◽  
Hsiao-Yun Chang

This research investigated how children aged five to six performed in social interactions and participation by learning American English through music technology activities in an inclusive class. The purposes of this research were to analyze, through music technology activities, the social interactions and participation of children in the inclusive class. Therefore, the research question was as follows: can music technology activities significantly improve children’s social interactions and participation in an inclusive class? There were two themes for the research teaching, each of which included seven weeks of instruction. The teaching content involved three stages, which were pre-test, implementation, and post-test. The research teaching was given 40 min per session twice a week and continued for 14 weeks with 28 teaching times. The methodology primarily consisted of a qualitative assessment of participation, observations, and interviews. In addition to collecting and analyzing qualitative data, quantitative data were also employed in the study. Data sources were semi-structured observation forms, anecdote records, language test scales and interview records, and feedback forms. The results indicated that all children had positive performance in social interactions and participating motivation, as supported by statistical results of social validity. Furthermore, the children’s cooperation and communication effectively improved through music technology activities. Nevertheless, the limitation of the study is the insufficient number of participants involved in the evaluation. For future research, utilizing more than 30 samples would be more appropriate and would supplement the social network analysis to carry out more in-depth investigations and discussions.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nor Azah Abdul Jalil ◽  
Hasnah Haron ◽  
Muhammad Bin Muda

The importance of developing a good curriculum for accountancy programs is due to the call of needs to ensure the safeguarding of the profession in the future. This paper tends to review the curriculum structure; emphasis on ethics and personal values (religiosity), which is presumed to have an impact on the conduct of accountants in their practice. Based on prior study, some ethics education programs have reported measurable success where it was found that ethics courses do improve students’ ability to recognize ethical issues and had a higher level of moral reasoning abilities after taking ethics courses. This review hopes to add value to the existing literature on perceptions of ethics and personal values impact for accountants’ behavior in their profession. Included in the review, are issued on the competency of the accountants.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
Samer Alhawari ◽  
Amine Nehari Talet

Information Technology (IT) is a new tool in education that continually changes and offers new opportunities for teaching and learning. In general, the effects of IT are complex and depend upon people’s decisions about development and use. This study investigates the ethical issues in education in terms of Information Systems students’ attitudes at Saudi universities towards digital piracy. The differences in the ethical decision-making process, ethical awareness, and intention to perform questionable acts is examined. The authors tested for differences in attitudes toward eighteen different questionable actions by using three different factors (gender, age, and university level). The measures of awareness capture the extent to which respondents felt that a particular action was unethical according to each of several ethical criteria. This work explored information technology ethics in several ways. The work analyzed whether information technology use is viewed by individuals as an ethical topic and demographic differences were explored. Significant differences were found in many cases between demographic groups based on ethical issues. These findings can be used to target and address ethical issues and enforcement in information systems curriculum.


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