Management Information Systems Laudon Chapter 4

4-1© 2011 Pearson Canada Inc.

Social, Ethical, and Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues in the Legal Issues in the

Digital FirmDigital Firm

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Management Information SystemsManagement Information SystemsChapter 4 Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues in the Digital FirmChapter 4 Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues in the Digital Firm

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:

• What ethical, social, and political issues are raised by information systems?

• What specific principles for conduct can be used to guide ethical decisions?

• Why do contemporary information systems technology and the Internet pose challenges to the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property?

• How have information systems affected everyday life?



• Challenge: Piracy of software costs organizations billions of dollars

• Solutions: Tech Data launched an anti-piracy awareness/education program to educate customers and its own sales force.– Program is supported by Microsoft– Program is successful in reducing piracy

Tech Data Helps to Fight Software Piracy



Ethics

• Principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviours

Understanding Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues Related to Systems



A model for thinking about ethical, social, and political issues


• Society as a calm pond

• IT as a rock dropped in pond, creating ripples of new situations not covered by old rules

• Social and political institutions cannot respond overnight to these ripples — it may take years to develop etiquette, expectations, laws

• Requires understanding of ethics to make choices in legally gray areas



Five moral dimensions of the information age

• Information rights and obligations

• Property rights and obligations

• Accountability and control

• System quality

• Quality of life













Ethics in an Information Society

Basic concepts: responsibility, accountability, liability – Responsibility: Accepting the potential costs,

duties, and obligations for decisions– Accountability: Mechanisms for identifying

responsible parties– Liability: Permits individuals to recover damages

done to them – Due process: Laws are well known and

understood, with an ability to appeal to higher authorities



Ethical Analysis1. Identify and clearly describe the facts

2. Define the conflict or dilemma, and identify the higher-order values involved

3. Identify the stakeholders

4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take

5. Identify the consequences of your options




Candidate ethical principles1. Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have

them do unto you

2. Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative: If an action is not right for everyone to take, then it is not right for anyone

3. Descartes’ rule of change: If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, then it is not right to be taken at any time


Continued ….



Candidate ethical principles (continued)

4. Utilitarian Principle: Take the action that achieves the greatest value for all concerned

5. Risk Aversion Principle: Take the action that produces the least harm or incurs the least cost to all concerned

6. Ethical “no free lunch” rule: Assume that all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else, unless there is a specific declaration otherwise




Professional Codes of Conduct• Promises by professionals to regulate themselves

in the general interest of society• Promulgated by associations such as the

Canadian Medical Association (CMA), the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), and the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS)




The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

Information rights: Privacy and freedom in the Internet Age– Privacy: Claim of individuals to be left alone, free

from surveillance or interference from other individuals, organizations, or the state.

– Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) establishes principles for collection, use, and disclosure of personal information

– Provinces have parallel legislation




Internet Challenges to Privacy:– Ability to collect data on online activities– Cookies are used to collect information

from Web site visits– Web bugs and spyware can be installed

surreptitiously

Opt-in versus opt-out models of informed consent




Figure 4-3




Figure 4-4




Technical Solutions• Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)

– Enables automatic communication of privacy policies between an e-commerce site and its visitors

– Privacy policy can become part of the page’s software




Figure 4-5



Property rights

• Intellectual property is intangible property created by individuals or corporations

• Protected by:• Trade secrets• Copyright• Patents





Trade secret: Intellectual work or product belonging to business, not in the public domain

Supreme Court test for breach of confidence:1. information conveyed must be confidential2. information must have been communicated

in confidence3. information must have been misused by the

party to whom it was communicated




Copyright: Statutory grant protecting intellectual property from being copied for at least 50 years

Canadian copyright law protects original literary, musical, artistic, and dramatic works. It also includes software, and prohibits copying of entire programs or their parts.




Patent: A grant to the creator of an invention granting the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for between 17 and 20 years

Patent law grants a monopoly on underlying concepts and ideas of software

Originality, novelty, and invention are key concepts



Challenges to Intellectual Property Rights• Perfect digital copies cost almost nothing• Sharing of digital content over the Internet

costs almost nothing• Sites, software, and services for file trading

are not easily regulated. • A web page may present data from many

sources, and incorporate framing




Accountability, Liability, and Control• Computer-related liability problems• System quality

• Data quality and system errors• No software program is perfect, errors will be

made, even if the errors have a low probability of occurring

• Software manufacturers knowingly ship “buggy” products

• At what point should software be shipped?


Continued …




Accountability, Liability, and Control (continued)

• Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries• Balancing power: Centre versus periphery• Rapidity of change: Reduced response time to

competition• Maintaining boundaries: Family, work, and leisure• Dependence and vulnerability

Continued …




Accountability, Liability, and Control (continued)

• Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries (continued)• Computer crime and abuse• Employment: Trickle-down technology and

reengineering impact job loss• Equity and access: Increasing racial and social

class cleavages• Health risks: RSI, CVS, and Technostress






What Should We Do about Cyberbullying? (continued)

• Should there be stronger laws outlawing cyberbullying? Why or why not?

• Does a social networking site catering to teens such as Facebook or MySpace respresent an ethical dilemma? Why or why not?




Read the Window on Management, Flexible Scheduling at Walmart: Good or Bad for Employees?, and then discuss the following questions:

• What is the ethical dilemma facing Walmart in this case? Do Walmart’s associates also face an ethical dilemma? If so, what is it?

• What ethical principles apply to this case? How do they apply?

• What are the potential effects of computerized scheduling on employee morale? What are the consequences of these effects for Walmart?



Social, Legal, and Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in the Ethical Issues in the


Social, Legal, and Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in the Ethical Issues in the


ChapterChapter 44