AUTHOR
Mary Prior

ABSTRACT

Background

The paper will present findings from the author’s continuing work in the area of workplace surveillance.

The use of ICT to monitor employees’ activities has attracted an increasing amount of attention from researchers over the past decade. New technologies have made it possible to continuously monitor activities in ways more intrusive than was ever possible using more traditional means. All too easily, ‘monitoring’ work can become ‘surveillance’ of workers.

In the industrial sociology literature, Sewell and Wilkinson (1992) present a view of workers being disempowered by being increasingly subjected to electronic surveillance; while Thompson and Ackroyd (1995) suggest that this view underestimates workers’ powers of resistance. From an ethical standpoint researchers are concerned with the attack on employees’ privacy and autonomy that electronic monitoring systems appear to represent (Brey 1999, Moore 2000, Hartman 2001). Others have investigated possible effects on the workforce such as stress (Smith et al. 1992, Aiello, 1993, Aiello and Kolb, 1995).

More recently, there have been some findings which challenge previous work in this area. One of the more surprising findings of the work undertaken by Mason et al. (2002) was that employees in their case studies appeared relatively unconcerned about privacy aspects of ‘surveillance-capable technologies’ in the workplace. They also challenge the ‘worker disempowerment’ vs ‘worker resistance’ debate; their case studies suggest that a more complex reality exists in the workplace than a confrontational ’employer vs employee’ relationship. Employees and their supervisors can collaborate to meet the organisation’s goals, whether this means using the monitoring/surveillance systems or finding ways to apparently ‘subvert’ them.

Thus, the privacy and other concerns reported by some authors appear to be contradicted by evidence derived from case studies by other researchers. Earlier work by the present author found an apparently high level of complacency about workplace surveillance among young people (Prior 2002). There is a need for further studies to be undertaken in a variety of workplace settings to determine what are the factors affecting the ways in which surveillance-capable technologies are deployed, the purposes for which they are used and the views of those affected by them.

It is against this background that the work that will be presented in this paper is being carried out. It is well-aligned with the overall theme of the conference, ‘Challenges for the Citizen of the Information Society’.

Methodology

The paper will present a rationale for the methodology used to undertake the research, which includes a literature review of secondary sources and primary research using structured interviewing, and the procedures involved to ensure that the ethical issues raised by the use of human subjects have been addressed.

The Study

In two consecutive years a questionnaire was administered to undergraduate students in the School of Computing at De Montfort University, Leicester, U.K. A total of 616 students have taken part in survey, the results of which were reported in Prior (2002). The findings, as indicated above, included an apparently high level of complacency about CCTV surveillance in particular in both University and other workplace settings, and workplace surveillance systems in general. The work also indicated, however, that respondents’ attitudes may be moderated by experience in the workplace.

This work is being followed up, firstly, by a more detailed questionnaire targeted specifically at students returning from a year’s industrial placement experience. The organisations in which they have been working represent a wide cross-section of the U.K. economy, from multinational corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises, from the public sector and health service to manufacturing and service industries. Secondly, the main part of the study comprises structured interviews with a selection of these students. The selection aims to cover a variety of both workplaces and of students (in terms of gender, ethnic background and age – although a majority are around 21 years old, there are a few in older age groups). The work provides further evidence concerning:

• the forms of workplace monitoring and surveillance systems in use by a variety of size and types of organisations, mainly in the U.K., during the period 2002-2003;
• the experience that students have had of each form of monitoring/surveillance and their attitude(s) towards them;
• the views of the students towards the issue of privacy in the workplace;
• the factors influencing the deployment of monitoring/surveillance systems and the attitudes of those who work with them.

The findings will be compared to those of other recent pieces of research. Areas for further investigation will be highlighted; in particular, it is hoped that particular (types of) organisation(s) may be identified where more detailed case studies could be undertaken.

REFERENCES

Aiello, John R. (1993) Computer-based work monitoring: electronic surveillance and its effects. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, vol. 23 (no. 7), 499-507.

Aiello, John R. & Kolb, Kathryn J. (1995) Electronic performance monitoring and social context: impact on productivity and stress. Journal or Applied Psychology, vol. 80 (no. 3), 339-353.

Brey, Philip (1999), Worker autonomy and the drama of digital networks in organizations, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 22 (no. 1), 15-25.

Hartman, Laura P. (2001) Technology and ethics: privacy in the workplace. Business and Society Review, vol. 106 (no. 1), 1-27.

Mason, David, Button, Graham, Lankshear, Gloria and Coates, Sally. (2002) Getting real about surveillance and privacy at work. In Woolgar, Steve (ed.) Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality. Oxford.

Moore, Adam D. (2000) Employee monitoring and computer technology: evaluative surveillance v. privacy. Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 10 (no. 3), 697-709.

Prior, Mary (2002) Big brother at work: so what? A study of the attitudes of young people to workplace surveillance. ETHICOMP 2002, Lisbon, Portugal, 13-15 November 2002.

Sewell, G. & Wilkinson, B. (1992) ‘Someone to watch over me’: surveillance, discipline and the just-in-time labour process. Sociology, vol. 26 (no. 2), 271-289.

Smith, M.J., Carayon, P., Sanders, K.J., Lim, S-Y. & LeGrande, D. (1992) Applied Ergonomics, vol. 23 (no. 1), 17-27.

Thompson, P. and Ackroyd, S. (1995) All quiet on the workplace front? A critique of recent trends in British industrial sociology. Sociology, vol. 29 (no. 4), 615-633.

AUTHOR
Elpida Prasopoulou, Niki Panteli and Nancy Pouloudi

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the rapid advances of information and communication technologies have nurtured a growing interest among academics as well as practitioners to the new ways of organizing rendered possible by these technological advances. From the various organizational configurations that emerged as a response to the numerous possibilities of ICT, the virtual organization has gained increasing attention as a highly significant organizational form.

Virtual organizations have been posited as “radical departures” (Schultze & Orlikowski, 2001) from the traditional, hierarchical and stable modes of organizing that dominated the modern era. Their dynamic, flexile and collaborative character emphasizing on collaboration, innovation and learning has shaped a form of work organization that transcended physical boundaries and thus provided new opportunities for more effective working arrangements. The major characteristic of virtual arrangements that has been mostly celebrated by academics and practitioners alike is their ability to abolish time and space boundaries and thus operate anyplace and at anytime. Yet current discussions focusing primarily on the success stories involving forms of virtually and overemphasizing productivity gains do not acknowledge the changes that virtual arrangements introduce in some of the deep rooted conceptions of virtual workers and primarily in their notion of time.

Time has always played an important role in the structuring of activities within traditional organizations. Time is part of people’s involvement with the natural and technological world and moreover the relations of people with time are embodied in the material and technological world they have inscribed. To this end, time is deeply rooted in the organizations that control much of the everyday activities of people and more specifically in the actions and work practices that constitute the essence of organizing. People in organizations experience time primarily through the shared temporal structures they enact in their daily activities (Orlikowski & Yates, 2002) and as a result the notion of time experienced by people is inherently affected in a virtual environment.

In this paper, we examine primarily the effects of the use of mobile telephones in the temporal structuring of activities in virtual organizations. Mobile telephones are becoming increasingly popular devices in the business and consumers world since they permit people to transcend traditional physical boundaries and perform their activities unbounded by time and space restrictions (Panteli & Dibben, 2001). Furthermore, the recent integration of mobile phones with the Internet has created even more powerful tools that endow workers with more flexibility in their activities. Recent literature has mostly appraised the capability of mobile phones to compress time and permit workers to respond to organizational demands practically anytime. However, the effects of such properties in the structuring of people’s time have not been thoroughly investigated yet. The connection between the temporalities of mobile phones and the temporalities of social practices in which they are embedded are not clearly understood. Many have argued that technologies are inherently neutral. However, recent research endeavors have shown that technological artifacts embody specific forms of power and controlling interests (Horning et al. 1999). If that is the case, then how are mobile phones transforming the conceptions of time around which people base their everyday interactions with organizations?

Being part of a larger research endeavor to trace the effects of mobile phones in the everyday practices of people, this research has collected data through interviews with knowledge workers regarding their use of mobile phones and specifically the effects of this use on their perceptions of time. People were asked to describe their feelings about the fact that mobile phones are a constant reminder of their ties with a formal organization that follows them in practically all their other activities. Furthermore, people were asked to tell how they feel about their increasing availability and the multiple interruptions mobile phones induce in their daily programs.

The current explosion in mobile communications is transforming “everyday” practices. Especially affected is the structuring of time in organizations. Since time is a socially constructed entity, changes in the habits of people are also altering the conceptions shaped through decades of continuing social practices regarding time. In this paper, we propose that people structure their time not only through their activities but also through the various roles they assume in their everyday lives. To this end, mobile telephones with their ability to render the workers available at any time they intensify the destruction of the boundaries that people create around the various roles the assume. Workers are asked now to enact new temporal structures flexible enough to embody the increasing use of mobile telephones for organizational matters and to deal with the increasing intrusion of formal organizations in their other activities.

REFERENCES

Horning, K. H.; Ahrens, D. & Gerhard, A. (1999). Do technologies have times? New practices of times and the transformation of communication technologies. Time & Society, 8 (2), pp. 293-308.

Orlikowski, W.J. & Yates, J. (2002). It’s about time: Temporal structuring in organizations. Organization Science, 13 (6), pp. 684-700.

Panteli, N & Dibben, M. A. (2001). Revisiting the nature of virtual organizations: Reflections on mobile communication systems. Futures 33, pp. 379-391.

Schultze, U. & Orlikowski, W. J. (2001). Metaphors of virtuality: shaping an emergent reality. Information and Organization, 11, pp. 45-77.

AUTHOR
Piotr Pawlak

ABSTRACT

The most generally speaking, the question which I would desire to state within the course of my report is to look at widely understood, indirect and direct influence of Internet on ,,the political culture” – regarding its individual components as well as its consequences for legislative institutions but also for democratic informative societies’ governments. It will be then the attempt to answer the matter of direction of changes which will become its part as the effect of alterations within societies which are concurrent to their transformations towards the electronic technology of informative communities with the Internet spreading with unusual dynamics as the main strength of those changes.

The term “political culture” relates to all values, the system of attitudes as well as norms and rules of behaviors, assimilated by different participants of political life (and the public meeting both ruling, as well as ruled). Science in course of investigation has distinguished main types as well as functions of “the political culture”. That is why we can distinguish the following types;

“parish” – marked by small interest of society in matters of political nature, and so the citizens’ faint participation in political life.

“submissive” -characterized in a way that the participants of this type of culture possess about complexity of political system knowledge, as well as of the mechanisms of holding political power, yet their attitude is submissive and they tend to stick to political decisions made for them (regardless of whether they are estimated by citizens as fair or unfair).

“participating” – characteristic for societies with democratic political systems. Citizens aim to obtain full range of facts of political life in order to participate actively (at least by voting in elections).

The types introduced by me have model character. In modern societies the “political culture” of “mixed” type is common. It performs three basic functions;

“regulating” – depending on arrangement and standardizing the political works with the help of the definite norms as well as institutionalization of political life.

“the socialization” – marking the process of ingress of members to the given society in political culture (shaping the opinions, attitudes and hierarchy of values, assimilating knowledge about the system).

“integrative” – lying at basics of common efforts of individuals and groups in endeavor to achieving the definite values and goods. It depends on checking of identity of existing norms and political institutions as well as the whole system.

That is the shortest way the notion can be introduced.

Many men wonder what will come out of imposition of computer revolution on inherited from the past “political culture” as well as what will be the influence on shape of future democracy. The skeptics are afraid of “the degeneration” of democratic traditions, as well as the growth of anarchistic tendencies. Enthusiasts see in expansion of the Internet and informative society far advantages for democracy and perceive it as very important for its further development. Though many skeptics believe that past did not deliver unambiguous proofs, I would like to prove, with the help of concrete examples (such as among many other things, loud during later presidential elections in Poland – virtual candidate’s project) that progressive initiation in new informative techniques leads to “refreshment” of democracy and wider commitment to political participation, and what follows – it foretells types changes of “the political cultures” of individual states or regions in the direction of larger pressure on their “participating” type as well as the “the socialization” function. Changes in political culture will widely influence many sociopolitical phenomena, such as i.e. polling processes or means and forms of social control of representatives chosen during them. These changes should necessarily be accompanied by appropriate moves and changes in legal system. This way, in my opinion, by determining changes in political culture, the expansion of informative techniques influences the directions as well as pace of legislative institutions’ work in informative societies, what I’d like to emphasize in course of my report. That’s what in general my thesis is. Changes described by me shall influence the future shape of both democratic, as well as and non-democratic societies. What I would like to mark clearly in my report is that they also bring considerable challenges for governments, based on necessity of leading such politics, which enable informative societies with unconstrained access to all technical achievements as well as information, providing them with appropriate dynamics of development.

In spite of the facts of investigations showing that the Internet favors individualism the man will always remain social creature as well as formation and development of new centers of communication always had some positive repercussions on the interest of members of societies and political processes. Therefore I do not see obstacles which would disable the process this time. Actually the Internet lets the real John Doe to gain a high level of knowledge of political life. It makes it difficult for dictatorships to exist (by means of hiding some facts off the face of world public) making one-sided propaganda and indoctrinations impossible and eventually it becomes more and more ,,friendly” in administering even for users with lower technical knowledge level becoming more and more common. The examples to prove my thesis can be further multiplied but I shall not do this because only general performance of my idea is the aim of that document.

I realize the extent of problem which could be the subject to yet quite considerable book. Yet the fact that the taken up by me matter is as science relatively young and being opened all the time stays yet deprived of comprehensive literature, which in my opinion lets me treat it somehow generally, yet sensibly enough to match the requirements of report in respect to volume bringing by the way something in fact essential and interesting to the course of conference discussion.

AUTHOR
Kevin P. Pauli and Tammy Y. Arthur

ABSTRACT

The field of information systems is beset with ethically challenging situations (i.e., monitoring, information use, information disclosure) and yet research is only beginning to examine the variables that influence the IS professional’s ethical decision making. This paper proposes the application of moral disengagement, which is defined as an individual difference found to influence ethical intentions (Bandura, 1986), to the ethical decision making model proposed by Rest (1986). The specific research question is as follows: Does the moral disengagement of information system professionals influence the relationship between their judgments and their intentions? A series of propositions will be developed which argue that individual levels of the various disengagement dimensions will moderate the relationship between the moral judgments and the moral intentions of the IS professional.

Information System Professionals

Research examining the personalities of information system professionals has found them to be more introverted, intuitive, thinking, and judgmental than the majority of the general population (Lyons, 1985). Less formal academic journals have deemed them to be weird, anti-social, and ultimately referred to simply as “nerds” (Corbin, 1991).

So how do these individuals fit within the modern organization? IS managers have been accused of being obsessed with the technological capabilities of their tools (Manes, 1999), of spending insufficient time finding out about user needs, and of being a source of management frustration (Thorn, 1995). As a result, they have been segregated from the normal social controls of the organization, which has the potential of creating ethical dilemmas. To date little effort has been made to understand the ethical decision making processes of these individuals (Banerjee, Cronan & Jones, 1998).

Ethical Decision Making Framework

This paper focuses on the descriptive process of ethical decision making. In contrast to the normative model, this process examines how philosophical rules and ideas are actually used in concert with the world of facts in which we live (Bonevac, 1996). It also attempts to identify the reality of what is occurring and the forces that are shaping an individual’s reasoning and actions.

In his initial development of one such process, Rest (1986) identified a four-stage model: moral recognition, moral evaluation, moral intentions, and moral behavior. The first stage reflects the identification of a situation by the moral agent as containing a moral issue. The second stage entails the moral evaluations individuals make when attempting to deal with the issue identified. The establishment of moral intent follows the evaluation process (Dubinsky & Loken, 1989; Hunt & Vitell, 1986; Jones, 1991; Rest, 1986). Finally, since intentions are the best predictors of individuals’ subsequent behaviors (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), intent will often lead to actual behavior (Ferrell & Gresham, 1985; Trevino, 1986).

Proposed Model

This paper adds to ethics literature by incorporating the construct of moral disengagement. Based upon the work of Albert Bandura (1986), moral disengagement is the propensity to disengage self-regulatory processes from the actions taken. This research takes Bandura’s model further in proposing that the dimensions of moral disengagement are expected to influence the relationship between moral judgement and the individual’s moral intention.

The individual brings a lifetime of experiences and learning to the ethical decision making process. Social cognitive theory (Martin, 1996) proposes that individuals possess self-regulatory mechanisms which provide a level of stability in interactions with the environment. If motivated solely by external rewards and punishments, behavior would fluctuate erratically (Bandura, 1986). Instead, Bandura (1991) suggests that, in many areas of social and moral behavior, the individual’s standards for behavior remain relatively stable.

Bandura identifies four distinct points at which the individual can disengage from these internal self-regulatory mechanisms (Martin, 1996). Specifically, internal self-sanctions can be disengaged from detrimental conduct by reconstruing the conduct itself through the processes of moral justification, advantageous comparison, and euphemistic labeling. Individuals may also disengage by clouding personal causal agency through displacement and diffusion of responsibility. The third way in which an individual can disengage self-sanctions is by diminishing or disregarding the consequences of his/her actions. The individual’s final disengagement mechanism is to disparage the recipients of the actions through dehumanization or attribution of blame. It is expected that each of these points will weaken the linkage between the individual’s moral reasoning and intention to behave in accordance with that reasoning.

Exploration of the ethical decision making processes used by the information technology management profession has been glaring in its absence (Banerjee, Cronan & Jones, 1998). Research has found that they view the ethicality of some situations differently than non-technical individuals (Wagner & Benham, 1995). Additionally, technical individuals are often culturally and physically separate from the organizational mainstream. A specific examination of the ethical decision making processes of information system professionals should increase our understanding of those charged with maintaining the organizational “nervous system” (Martin, 1996).

Conclusion

IS professionals have become critical components of organizational success and effectiveness. An understanding of their ethical decision making processes helps organizations and the profession better understand how to operate effectively, efficiently, and ethically. This paper has begun the process by applying the moral disengagement dimensions developed by Bandura (1986) to the ethical decision making model developed by Rest (1986). Research into how IS professionals reason and what individual differences may influence that reasoning allows organizations and the IS profession to identify ways to strengthen ethical behavior and protect individual rights as well as protect organizational assets and information.

REFERENCES

Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1977). Attitude-behavior relations: A theoretical analysis and review of empirical research. Psychological Bulletin, 84(5), 888-918.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of self-regulation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 248-287.

Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3), 193-20

Banerjee, D., Cronan, T. P. & Jones, T. W. (1998). Modeling IT Ethics: A Study in Situational Ethics. MIS Quarterly, 31-60.

Bonevac, D. (1996). Today’s moral issues: classic and contemporary perspectives. (2nd ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.

Corbin, D. S. (1991). From nerd to normal in 10 easy steps: a guide for IS pros. Journal of Systems Management, 42(6), 32-34.

Dubinsky, A. J., & Loken, B. (1989). Analyzing ethical decision making in marketing. Journal of Business Research, 19(2), 83-107.

Ferrell, O. C., & Gresham, L. G. (1985). A contingency framework for understanding ethical decision making in marketing. Journal of Marketing, 49(3), 87-96.

Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intentions and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Hunt, S. D., & Vitell, S. (1986). A General Theory of Marketing Ethics. Journal of Macromarketing, 6, 5-16.

Jones, T. M. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16(2), 366-395.

Lyons, M. L. (1985). The DP psyche. Datamation, 31(16), 103-105.

Manes, S. (1999, April 5, 1999). Computers 1, Humans 0. Forbes, 132.

Martin, J. (1996). Only the cyber-fit will survive. Datamation, 42(17), 60-66.

Rest, J. R. (1986). Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory. New York, NY: Praeger Publisher.

Thorn, R. G. (1995). Management vs. information systems personnel: A study of conflict. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 35(3), 65-69.

Trevino, L. K. (1986). Ethical decision making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model. Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 601-617.

Wagner, J. L., & Benham, H. C. (1995). Ethical attitudes of business students and MIS personnel. Paper presented at the ACM Conference on Computer Personnel Research, Nashville, TN.

AUTHOR
Anastasia Papazafeiropoulou, Reshma Gandecha, Christopher Atkinson

ABSTRACT

Diffusion of innovations is a complex and longitudinal process, which in the case of individual adopters is mainly concerned with the process of decision making towards the adoption or rejection of the innovation. In the case of innovation adoption by organisations, once the decision to adopt has been made, implementation does not always follow directly (Rogers, 1995). The complexity of the diffusion process is becoming higher as a number of individuals with different interests and agendas are part of this process.

In this paper the organisation under investigation is the UK National Health Service (NHS) and the adoption of the Integrated Care Record Service (ICRS). This service is one of the four key deliverables set out in the NHS IT procurement strategy “Delivering 21st century IT support for the NHS”, published in June 2002. ICRS is a portfolio of services covering the generation, movement and access to health records, which includes electronic prescribing in hospitals and workflow capacities to manage patients care pathways through the NHS. Its benefits include convenience, integration of care, improving outcomes using evidence, supporting analysis and improving efficiency (NHSIA, 1998). With estimates that 25% of nurse and doctor time is taken up collecting data and the potential increase in speed and efficiency of communication the benefits appear very straightforward with the promise of “seamless care” (NHSIA, 1998).

ICRS moves away from the model of a number of separate information systems based primarily around organisational structures to one in which care professionals in many organisations are provided access to the one patient integrated record service. The services will include access to records and the functionality needed to support clinical practice and the provision of social care. The ICRS, if realised, would have a powerful role in convening the necessary caregivers around the individual in need. ICRS incorporates concepts of both the organisation-specific Electronic Patient Records and also the cradle-to-grave Electronic Health Record and supersedes the Information for Health Strategy (NHS 1998).

Similarly to previous examples of “too good to be true” innovations that have the potential to revolutionary the every day work of adopters (Papazafeiropoulou, 2002), the ICRS implementation has not been as efficient as expected with electronic recording of clinical data being usually incomplete. Being an “authority innovation-decision” (Rogers, 1995) where the choice of its adoption or rejection has been made by a relatively few individuals in a system that possess power, status and technical expertise a number of barriers hiding the realisation of the government’s strategy (NHS 2002) have been reported. Its potential users mainly relate these barriers to lack of knowledge and trust to the new system and the inadequate training they receive. Although the decision to adoption the new system has been made and the government has put plans in place for the service implementation, potential users seem to lack essential knowledge about the new service and its functionality. Looking at the innovation decision process, which includes the stages of knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation, the potential users of ICRS appear to be at the first stages of the innovation decision process such as the stages of knowledge and persuasion. Policy makers on the other side are making plans for the system implementation, which is one of the latest stages of the process.

In this paper we examine how diffusion receivers (users, such as doctors or nurses) perceive the ICRS implementation in comparison to policy makers. We argue that there is a gap between the demand and the supply side of the diffusion process, which reveals a broad barrier in the ICRS implementation. We use primary and secondary data to capture the perceptions of both diffusers and diffusion receivers in order to get a better understanding of the ICRS diffusion process. Our aim is by drawing a clear picture of the process to identify existing barriers and bridge the perception gaps offering recommendations towards a more efficient implementation strategy. With the allocation of £2.3bn to fund this ICRS project (NHS 2002), we argue that there is renewed optimism and genuine interest to bridge the gap between strategy and realisation to implementation of ICRS (Firth P. 2003).

REFERENCES

Firth P. (2003). Preparing for healthcare and social care integration: some current barriers to ICT based sharing of information, The British Journal of Healthcare Computing & Management June 2003 Volume 2003 Volume 20 Number 5

NHS (2002). The NHS explained [online] The NHS IM/T 21st Century Strategy accessed at http://www.nhs.uk/thenhsexplained/how_the_nhs_works.aspNHS,

NHSIA, (1998), An Information Strategy for the Modern NHS 1998-2005, A national strategy for local implementation, retrieved 29th Jan 2003 from http://www.nhsia.nhs.uk/def/pages/info4health/contents.asp

Papazafeiropoulou, A. (2002). A stakeholder approach to electronic commerce diffusion. Brunel University, London.

Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (fourth edition). New York: Free Press.

AUTHOR
Antony Panteli and Duncan Langford

ABSTRACT

Codes of professional practice have long been assumed to be effective, and promoted as the means by which standards of ethical conduct can be delineated throughout the computing industry. However, to date there has been few studies of the actual effects of code implementation. We In this paper we consider real world approaches towards the construction of professional codes, and examine the effects of the ethical codes in actual working environments. We also examine the enforcement of codes, together with their use to support disciplinary actions. Finally,We conclude by describing a proposed framework for the management of professional codes, at the organisational level. is proposed.

Introduction

While for many years formal acceptance by the computing industry of the value of professional codes was lacking, iIt is now normal for the ethical commitment of professional practitioners to be codified as codes of professional practice (Gotterbarn, 1999). Such codes describe the acceptable standards of professional practice expected from the members of a profession. (Gotterbarn, 1988) (Martin, 1998) (Granger et al, 1997).

However, the term ‘profession’ is used to describe the set of disciplines generally held to be within the domain of the that ‘profession’. If When the varying skills required for each of the computing disciplines listed in figure 1 (Denning 2001) are considered, this contention becomes more apparent. There is little overlap, if any, between the knowledge, skills and professional practices of a database administrator compared to those of a telecommunications engineer.

A ‘one-code-fits-all’ approach is therefore not necessarily practical (Abi-Raad, 1999) (Conger and Loch, 2001). We In order to achieve effective implementation, we must, therefore, consequently seek to establish methods for the construction and management of specialist, focused professional codes at the a ‘micro ‘ level (Panteli 2003). Hopefully, tThis will potentially allow the ethos of the ‘profession-wide’ code to be applied in a manner appropriate to the actual end user, with resultant gains in acceptance and utility.

Current Code Construction

Gotterbarn (1999b) describes two very different procedures used to create the ‘ACM Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct’ and the ‘ACM/IEEE Software Engineer’s Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct’. The former involved a collaborative effort by a broad base of contributors; using, and used an iterative process of draft submission to replace an existing code. The latter was developed as an ordinarya typical ‘technical standard’, which consequently required formal review procedures to be conducted at various stages.

The As a matter of declared policy, the reviews review process deliberately enabled enables more concerned professionals to become involved throughout the development process with the creation of — in this case – the a professional code. throughout the development process. Similarly, Ttheis iterative process meant that by the time the second code was ready for adoption, those making the decision to adopt the code had already The As a matter of declared policy, the reviews review process deliberately enabled enables more concerned professionals to become involved throughout the development process with the creation of — in this case – the a professional code. throughout the development process. Similarly, Ttheis iterative process meant that by the time the second code was ready for adoption, those making the decision to adopt the code had already ‘had their say’ on its contents, and were therefore less likely to raise any objections. ‘had their say’ on its contents, and were therefore less likely to raise any objections.

However, theseis procedures is are not how real-world organisations generally go about creating codes of practice. For example, iInterviews with two organisations in the UK (both with in excess of 400 computer users) painted a very different reality. In one case, the organisation had had no code of practice at all, prior to the recent appointment of a new IT manager. He brought the code of practice from his previous employ and, with very little modification, simply re-entitled introduced it.

In the second case example (a local government organisation), the senior auditor of the organisation in conjunction with the IT manager, realising the possible ramifications of not having a code of practice, set about contacting similar organisations to obtain as many examples of existing code documents as was possible. These individual codes were reviewed, and, what were considered to be appropriate partsaspects were, integrated into a new policy document.

In both cases, however, very little consideration was given to the effects of the codes upon the actual end user and their working environment. It is unsurprising then, that once established neither code wais regularly reviewed and updated, and that details of disciplinary actions , brought about due to breaches of codes, are rare, sketchy, and (typically) anecdotal. Probably our most important finding is was the admission by those responsible for the administration of the codes, – in both cases, by those responsible for the administration of the codes, that most of their employees were unlikely to actually be aware of the existence of the Company’sa code.

A Practical Framework

The term ‘code of practice’ is often very frequently confused with ‘code of ethics’ and ‘code of conduct’. Gotterbarn (1999a) describes the distinction as:

However, in approaching code development we must not only must we also consider any applicable lawslegislation, but we must also consider the strategic policies of the organisation for which the code is to be created. This is important essential, especially as we are now able to recognise that a single code of practice should not be interchangeable between organisations.

For the greatest efficiency and acceptance, however, We we must also go one step further though. We must, and also look at examine the users who will be affected by the code, and their specific working environments. There An example: there is very little value in providing a POS terminal operator with an elaborate email security policy, whenif, in fact, they have haved no access to this facility within their working environment.

The A code must also be easily updateable, allowing for fast propagation of code modifications across the user network. as and when needed. Changes in law, ethos, or strategy can must be reflected in the standards required of specific users in specific environments. By ensuring user/environment specificity, we preserve the integrity of non-affected parts of the operation.

We propose a systemised model for the management of professional codes developed using contemporary software engineering methodologies.

Conclusion

If we accept that codes of practice are now the natural method of promoting professional and ethical behaviour among computing practitioners, then we must also ensure that such codes are adhered to and correctly maintained. We have been able to demonstrate that in actual working situations, this is may not currently be the case. If a code of conductpractice is to have any effect it is not enough for it to be generated – those concerned need to be aware of its contents. By attempting to ensure adherence with a code, we must reduce, if not remove, any possibility of confusion of the codes meaning and intent. This Such clarification not only ensures that users are provided with clear and specific guidelines of their performance expectations, but also ensures that code breaches can be correctly and fairly dealt with in disciplinary actions.

The Micro-code framework we propose allows an organisation to create and manage non-redundant user/environment specific codes, with specific consideration to of company policies and legislation.

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