Section 4.1- Ethics{0}
Technology impacts the way we do business. The article, “Business Ethics: Steering Clear of Scandal” explores the world of ethics and how it relates to IT. The increase in technology has forced businesses to take a hard look at how technology is affecting ethical behavior. Everyday business is threatened by people who use information and technology for the wrong reasons. For example, a marketing team for a phone company complied a list of names who were associated with the D.C. area. Their intent was to sell the list to marketers for profit, which was strictly against company policy. The executives of the company learned about the list before it was sold and prevented the transaction, but not before losing millions of dollars and firing the entire marketing team. What a mess! If they had had a ethics policy and a way to regulate it, they could have saved a lot of money and time.
Ethics in business touches on many aspects, from “community commitment to sustainability”, and technology can play a key role in helping enforce ethics. Intel is a great example of a company who not only meets regulatory requirements, but exceeds them. One example is a system designed to track energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. This is just one way that the IT staff can branch out and use technology to improve ethics in business. The author states “CIOs have the opportunity to show how technology can further their companies’ ethics objectives”.
Currently, “only a few companies are advanced enough to use information and technology to further their ethical agenda,” according to John Stevenson (a former CIO). Companies are beginning to realize how crucial the IT department is and how they play a major role in shaping, enforcing, and even encouraging ethical behavior.
This article relates to the material in chapter 4.1 on ethics in business. The article covered ethical standards and also elaborated on how technology can be harmful or beneficial when it comes to ethical behavior. It was easier to understand how ethics and IT go hand in hand with examples from actual companies and real life situations.
Pratt, Mary (2009).Business Ethics: Steering Clear of Scandal. Retrieved on September 22, 2010 from http://www.cio.com/article/500365/Business_Ethics_Steering_Clear_of_Scandal.