Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
in many different areas of business; this has been
complicated by the integration of IT into business
operations. Common ethical issues faced by IT
professionals include piracy, accuracy, property,
and accessibility (Mason, 1986). Among the is-
sues in the news lately is the issue of intellectual
property, and specifically software piracy, which
has been identified as a major problem facing the
$140 billion software market (Lau, 2003).
In spite of its undoubted value to users and
organizations, information technology (IT) poses
some risks and ethical issues, because its misuse
results in serious losses to business and society
(Marshall, 1999; Straub & Nance, 1990). From a
social and professional perspective, most business
professionals and IT users are concerned about
unacceptable, inappropriate, illegal, and unethi-
cal use of IT. Many recognize the potential harm
to society, the IT profession, and the economy
(Cappel & Windsor, 1998).
While software piracy has received much
interest (with an estimated $30 billion in lost
revenues in 2003) (First Annual Business Soft-
ware Alliance and IDC Global Software Piracy
Study, 2004), a new form of piracy has taken the
piracy spotlight and being called the next big
piracy arena (Bhattacharjee, Gopal, & Sanders,
2003). Referred to as digital piracy, it is defined as
“the illegal copying/downloading of copyrighted
software and media files.” According to the For-
rester Research Group (http://www.forrester.com),
lost revenues due to digital piracy could reach $5
billion alone from music and topic publishers in
the year 2005 (not counting losses from software
companies or cinema studios). The current piracy
target apparently will be Hollywood, as the Mo-
tion Picture Association of American (MPAA)
estimates that around 400,000 to 600,000 mov-
ies are being copied/downloaded on the Internet
everyday (MPAA Report, 2003).
To combat unethical behavior (piracy, privacy,
etc.), two popular methods have been employed:
preventives and deterrents. Preventives impede
unethical acts by making it very difficult to commit
the act. The idea is to make the culprits expend
so much effort that it will wear them down, and
eventually they will not want to do it. Deterrents,
on the other hand, use the threat of undesirable
consequences (mostly legal sanctions) to prevent
inappropriate and unauthorized behavior (Gopal
& Sanders, 1997). Unfortunately, given the rise
in inappropriate and unethical behavior; none of
the current strategies appear to be working.
Instead of relying solely on existing preventives
and deterrents, knowing what influences individu-
als to act unethically would be a more advanta-
geous path. This is especially important because
many studies have suggested that individuals do
not see piracy (and other inappropriate behavior)
as a crime or as unethical (Im & Van Epps, 1991;
Reid, Thompson, & Logston, 1992). For example,
Solomon and O'Brien (1990) examined attitude
towards piracy among business students and found
that they view piracy as socially and ethically
acceptable, and that piracy is widespread among
business students. Christensen and Eining (1991)
also found that individuals do not perceive piracy
as inappropriate and do not believe their friends
and superiors think it is inappropriate.
With the goal of curbing unethical behavior,
the overall objective of this research is to provide
a conceptual model, via synthesis of the literature,
of general ethical behavior which identifies and
provides a better understanding of the factors that
influence an individual's decision to act ethically or
unethically in an effort to curb unethical behavior.
While much of the previous research concentrated
on the unethical behavior and how to control it
(Conner & Rumlet, 1991; Moseley & Whitis, 1995;
Glass & Wood, 1996; Gopal & Sanders, 1997), this
chapter presents a survey of the ethics literature
summarizing models of IT ethical behavior and
presents a comprehensive ethical model based
on an inceptive meta-analysis of those models.
By examining and understanding the factors that
influence such behavior, measures and policy to
alter those factors can be implemented (and thus
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