SOME REAL-WORLD ETHICAL DILEMMASInf

SOME REAL-WORLD ETHICAL DILEMMAS
Information systems haves created new ethical dilemmas in which one set of interests is pitted against another. For example, many of the large telephone companies in the United States are using information technology to reduce the sizes of their workforces. Voice recognition software reduces the need for human operators by enabling computers to recognize a customer’s responses to a series of computerized question. Many companies monitor what their employees are doing on the Internet to prevent them from wasting company resources on non-business activities. Facebook monitors its 225 million American subscribers and then sells the information to advertisers and app developers.
In each instance, you can find competing values at works, with groups lined up on either side of a debate. A company may argue, for example, that it has a right to use information systems to increase productivity and reduce the size of its workforce to lower costs and stay in business. Employees displaced by information systems may argue that employers have some responsibility for theirs welfare. Business owners might feel obligated to monitor employee e-mail and Internet use to minimize drains on productivity. Employees might believe they should be able to use the Internet for short personal tasks in place of the telephone. A close analysis of the facts can sometimes produce compromised solutions that give each side “half