Can good people take bad actions? Can good organi- zations commit unethical acts? How can these events happen if the correct process and method of ethical analysis are in place and used? Scholars have begun to recognize empirical limits to moral behavior. Among these limitations are (1) a bounded moral rationality, which limits the precision of calculating “best outcomes” [4], (2) uncertainty in new situations that require different responses from past ones, (3) situational specificity in which each situation is unique, so that the existing set of rules is inapplica- ble, and (4) opportunism caused by other actors “gaming” the situation, taking extreme positions that do not reflect their expected outcomes (especially harmful to consequentialist positions). Many of these limitations are the same as those posited in transac- tion economics [25], and the similarities are deliber- ate insofar as the moral contractor faces the same limitations as the economic contractor.
For an IT ethics, these are important considerations. They suggest, for instance, that good people and good organizations, following good procedures, will never- theless make mistakes—perhaps more as technological environments become uncertain and new situations so commonplace.Nevertheless,individualsandcollectivi- ties remain accountable, and damages may be assessed for mistakes under these conditions.