AUTHOR
William T. Bonner

ABSTRACT

In this paper I argue that, with respect to privacy, actions taken with new ICTs have taken us backwards. Each time questions of privacy emerge around uses made of new ICTs attention tends to be reactive, focusing on the specific context in which the question arose and with that focus a very limited conception of privacy is considered. Cycles of reactions to uses made of new ICTs compounds this further, relegating privacy as a broad concept to the sidelines as actors jockey for position on the actual substance of rules created for the narrow conception of privacy defined in each specific context. With rules created the focus shifts to interpreting the rules with two consequences. First, experts around those rules emerge, those that speak for the rules, and as their voices increase the question of privacy broadly and ethics specifically are displaced. Second and related, the rules originally set out as minimal expectations for behavior become the maximum target for experts interpreting the rules. In this paper I focus on fair information principles (FIP) as one instance where rules displace ethics and that rules, once created, are minimally interpreted to further narrow the concept of privacy.

These observations have emerged from ongoing research, starting with a puzzle around how privacy was so easily defeated in a specific instance involving the sale of citizen information by the government of Alberta, Canada. The argument in favour of the continued sale of this personal information was examined in depth employing Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and found to lack substance but it carried the day anyway (Bonner, Chiasson, Gopal, 2009). This finding led to parallel another ANT investigation into the substance of privacy’s representative in this enactment of balance, fair information principles (FIP). FIP were created as a reaction to concerns about the modern computer that arose in the 1970s and 1980s and they focus on the thing that computers process, data (Bonner, Chiasson 2007). With FIP in place the focus in this balancing act shifted to interpreting the rules. Since FIP did not prohibit the sale of this personal information it was interpreted to be permissible. In effect, the minimum requirements of the rules become the maximum action taken. Questions of ethics and propriety had no place in this world view.

Subsequent research on the sale of student information by the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) in Alberta, to a company in California in exchange for hosted email services, revealed another instance where rules become the focus and expert interpretation of those rules resulted in the minimum becoming the maximum. The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of Alberta ruled that the exchange of student information for services and potential revenue was unacceptable and must cease (Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, 2002). On the question of whether the CBE should disclose personal student information to outside organizations at all the OIPC ruled that if the CBE decided that the use of the information was necessary to carry out its educational mission, then the CBE was free to disclose this information and no parental permission was necessary. In interpreting this ruling the CBE has decided that since parental permission is not required it is not necessary for the CBE to advise parents that personal student information is being released to outsiders at all.

That is now CBE policy (Bonner 2007). Nothing prohibits the CBE from letting students and parents know what information is being released to outsiders, but the official rule is that it is not necessary and the minimum necessary has become the maximum done. It could have been otherwise but it is not.

It is this notion that it could have been otherwise and is not that bears examination as my own ongoing research is making it clear that it is not the innovation that limits the concept of privacy employed but rather a focus on the context in which it is employed. This is reflected in the field of MIS as we tend to focus on the artefact of our field, the computer and that which it processes – data. An assumption arising from that focus on context is that FIP can be employed as privacy’s representative (Smith, Milberg and Burke 1996, Liu, Marchewka, Lu and Yu 2005). At times FIP are granted the status of an ethical standard (Culnan, 1993, Culnan and Armstrong 1999). This something FIP cannot be. FIP are a narrow set of principles focused on data that have to be interpreted and enacted in specific settings. In the two examples provided (government sale of citizen information and the CBE sale of student information) it was FIP in practice that produced those results; an interpretation of rules that were created based on FIP.

I see this pattern of a focus on context within MIS research repeating with what I see as an emerging branch of “privacy” research that focuses exclusively on online activities as though privacy online is separable from privacy offline (Awad and Krishnan 2006; Liu, Marchewka, Lu and Yu 2005; Malhotra, Kim and Agarwal (2004). My concern here is reflected in a comment by Hinduja (2004), “What is appropriate in business ethics offline should be seamlessly transferred to the online milieu, and persons should not need to reassess their perceptions of the practice of corporations simply because of the change of context” (Hinduja 2004). What makes this statement stand out is that it starts from the premise that privacy and ethics transcend context; it is the concept and not the context that is important.

We in the field of MIS/CIS are implicated in this focus on context, as noted. This focus defines the concept of privacy ahistorically and so narrowly that questions of ethics have no place to appear. If we want to keep the question of ethics visible we have to critique the narrow constitution of rules that have emerged, the narrow conception of privacy embedded in them and show how it could have been and still could be otherwise.

REFERENCES

Awad, N.F., & Krishnan, M.S. (2006). The personalization privacy paradox: An empirical evaluation of information transparency and the willingness to be profiled online for personalization, MIS Quarterly, 30(1), 13-18.

Bonner, W.T. (2007) Locating a Space for Ethics to Appear in Decision-making: Privacy as an Exemplar, Journal of Business Ethics, 70(3), 221-234.

Bonner, W.T., Chiasson, M. (2005). If fair information principles are the answer, what was the question? An actor-network theory investigation of the modern constitution of privacy, Information and Organization, 15(4), 267-293.

Bonner, B., Chiasson, M., Gopal, A, (2009). Restoring balance: How history tilts the scales against privacy. An Actor-Network Theory investigation, Information and Organization, (19, 2), 84-102

Culnan, M. J. (1993). ‘How did they get my name?’ An exploratory investigation of consumer attitudes toward secondary information use, MIS Quarterly, 17(3), 341-363.

Culnan, M. J., & Armstrong, P. K. (1999). Information privacy concerns, procedural fairness, and impersonal trust: An empirical investigation, Organization Science, 10(1), 104-115.

Hinduja, S. (2004). Theory and policy in online privacy, Knowledge, Technology and Policy, 17(1), 38-58

Liu, C., Marchewka, J.T., Lu, J., & Yu, Chun-Sheng, (2005). Beyond concern – a privacy-trust-behavioral intention model of electronic commerce, Information & Management, 42(2), 289-304.

Malhorta, N.K., Kim. S.S., & Agarwal, J. (2004). Internet users’ information privacy concerns (IUIPC): The construct, the scale, and a causal model, Information Systems Research, 15(4), 336-355.

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta: 2002, ‘Order 2001–038’, Edmonton Alberta, September 23, 2002.

Smith, H. J., Milberg, S. J., & Burke, S. J. (1996). Information privacy: Measuring individual concerns about organizational practices, MIS Quarterly, 20(2), 167-196.

AUTHOR
Andy Bissett and Kai K. Kimppa

ABSTRACT

When considering the development, operation and maintenance of IT systems, we would really like a guarantee that ‘wise, experienced, knowledgeable professionals will conscientiously perform their duties’ (Shibl et al, 2008: 61). Accountability mechanisms (such as quality management systems) can help to a degree, but a paradox of such ‘technical’ strategies is that without strong guiding ethical values, these measures alone cannot guarantee the successful employment of information systems (ibid.).

An idea of professional duty is examined and elaborated using three seafaring fictions by Joseph Conrad – Youth, written in 1898, The End of the Tether appearing in 1902, and The Shadow Line published in 1917. The use of fiction as a source for research poses some interesting questions about the ‘evidence status’ of such material. However, sufficient support is available from the literature to provide reassurance that this procedure can be valid, provided that it is carefully used (Banks & Banks, 1998). For example, Strom (2007) demonstrates the use of fictive scenarios in industrial software development, and Bolton (1994: 56) argues the general case that fiction can be used to drive the exploration of complex or ambiguous issues, although ‘A fictional text does not present a complete picture any more than it offers a set of facts’. Fictional material can be employed to shed light upon important matters in the realm of less accessible – subjective – issues, such as identity. Of particular relevance is the use of fictional material to explore professional development (Bolton, 1994; 2000).

Whilst important criticism has been levelled at some of Conrad’s work (Achebe, 2001), the seafaring fictions provide a vivid and compelling account of the dedication that those working in the field of ICT might recognise as part of ‘professionalism’. Most IT projects do not contain the life-or-death, high drama of these seafaring tales, but important features and trends can be discerned and some lessons drawn out. The seafarer’s duties from the age of sailing ships – to the crew, to the owner, to the vision of their vocation – can enliven and enrich the conception of professional duty today. Especially relevant is the issue of professional identity, which is often at the heart of these stories. Conrad’s protagonists frequently function on the subjective terrain of professional identity in a fashion that (later in the Twentieth Century) might be called existentialist, although this vision of vocation can also be related to Wenger’s ‘communities of practice’ (1999). Professional duty and professional identity are closely bound together here. The capacity for personal self-regulation often appears in these stories via identification with an ideal professional model, not simply through an unthinking respect for the law, and certainly not by reward, which Conrad labels ‘distasteful’. In this respect there is an echo of Kant’s conception of duty and the need to think, and voluntarily follow the categorical imperative in any given moral situation (Kant, 1785).

Conrad’s conception of duty rests in large part on his essentialist conception of ‘human nature’. His view is the traditional (and much-criticised) one that civilisation is a thin veneer keeping humanity away from chaos and bestiality. Duty becomes a critical guiding factor when circumstances (and other people) conspire to threaten chaos. Duty becomes a critical test of vocational dedication in these stories. In difficult circumstances a key strength in Conrad’s conception of professional duty is provided by the idea that an individual professional forms part of a continuous ‘dynasty’, formed by experience, training, tradition, and a self-conscious acceptance of duty. This may represent a difference with the modern IT industry, wherein a mobile, fast-changing aspect is evident. The relative lack of tradition in the IT industry may limit the formation of a professional identity, or at least give it a particular character as discussed by Sennett (2006).

Nonetheless, Conrad’s conception of duty is worth exploring. Questions of probity, integrity, and the conscientious performance of duty under difficult circumstances resonate throughout these stories, which have been read and studied for around one hundred years. Although fictional, their meaningfulness for millions of people is hard to dispute. We highlight the current day implications. We argue that these stories can provide a stimulating and entertaining resource for developing concepts of professionalism that are relevant to IT practitioners today and in the future.

REFERENCES

Achebe, C. (2001) An Image of Africa: racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’, in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, New York: Norton

Banks, S.P. and Banks, A. (1998) Fiction and Social Research: by ice or fire, Lanham MD: AltaMira Press

Bolton, G. (1994) Stories at Work: fictional-critical writing as a means of professional development, British Educational Research Journal, 20 (1), 55-68

Bolton, G. (2000) Reflective Practice: writing and professional development, London: Sage

Kant, Immanuel (1785) Originally Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, several translations used, most commonly translated as Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals as in http://www.swan.ac.uk/poli/texts/kant/kantc.htm, last checked 4.11.2004, but e.g. Brendan E. A. Liddell’s translation is called Kant on the Foundation of Morality

Sennett, R. (2006) The Culture of the New Capitalism, London: Yale University Press

Shibl, R., Fielden, K., Pain, D., Bissett, A. (2008) Trust and Clinical Information Systems, in P. Duquenoy, C. George, K. Kimppa (editors) Ethical, Legal & Social Aspects of Medical Informatics, Hershey, PA: Medical Information Science Reference (IGI Global). 48-64

Strom, G. (2007) Stories with emotions and conflicts drive development of better interactions in industrial software projects, Proceedings of the 19th Australasian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (OZCHI), (251), 115-121

Wenger, E. (1999) Communities of Practice, Cambridge University Press

AUTHOR
Barbara Begier

ABSTRACT

Considered ethical dimension refers to the risk that the developed software products may bring negative impacts on software users, including an entire society. The problem is how to manage that risk.

Risk management process has become the routine subprocess in software development. Its main goal is to prevent software team from the risk that the product under development fails because the term and budget are exhausted. This process is started from the very beginning of software product development. The risk management process will be described briefly in the paper. Its aim is to identify risks and risk factors (elements) that may cause the particular risk is materialized. Probability of each risk element and its possible impact on a product development are assessed. Then plan of mitigating or even avoiding the identified risk is work out. The risk management process is established and the required methods and infrastructure are provided.

There are developed several solutions also in agile methodologies how to manage risk. The problem is what kind of risk and its factors are concerned and managed and what is the aim of such activities. Another approach says how to incorporate ethics in the software process, like SoDIS, for example.

The problem is how to extend the risk management to consider the threats referred to direct and, especially, indirect software users. Indirect software users are affected by a software product, possibly also an expert system, developed for public or business organization. If threats and inconveniences caused by informatization are to be reduced or eliminated, it is necessary to raise the awareness of these threats and to emphasize them in the developers’ community and in the entire society. Some practices introduced by informatization of the public sector seem initially advantageous but they may bring completely undesired side effects.

The experimental risk management system has been developed. The category of guests has been introduced among that system users. They are allowed to introduce the risk factors from their point of view and to extend this way the initially developed list of risk sources. In general, there is a risk that users may be unsatisfied with the product under development. But this statement is too general. Examples of risk elements will be described in the paper. Software developers should be early informed what kind of wasted efforts may result from the developed software system for indirect users. For example, there is a risk that indirect users may complain the software system because they are forced to fulfil a lot of documents or to visit the organisation several times to have their affairs fixed.

One more although indirect source of risk identification is a software product assessment. Software users may be allowed to indicate weak points of the assessed software version and to formulate software improvements from their point of view.

Then all risk factors are analysed and managed. As usually, not all categories of risk sources are available to the guests.

REFERENCES

[Agile Manifesto, 2001] Manifesto for Agile Software Development, coauthors: K. Beck, A. Cocburn, M. Fowler, J. Highsmith, R. C. Martin, and others, http://agilemanifesto.org/, Agile Alliance February 2001.

[Ambler, from 2003] Ambler S.: Active Stakeholder Participation, http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/.

[Begier, 2002a] Begier B., Quality of Goals – A Key to the Human-Oriented Technology, Australian Journal of Information Systems, vol. 9, Number 2, May 2002, pp. 148-154.

[Begier, 2002b] Begier B., Evaluating software quality to regard public interest, Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference “The Transformation of Organisations in the Information Age: Social and Ethical Implications” ETHICOMP 2002, November 13-15, 2002, ISBN 972-8397-44-5, Lisbon (Portugal), pp. 39-52.

[Begier, 2007] Begier B., Involving Users to Improve the Level of Their Satisfaction from a Software Product Designed for Public Organization. In: Technologies for Business Information Systems, Springer Verlag, Dordrecht (Netherlands) 2007, ISBN 978-1-4020-5633-8, s. 365-377.

[Begier, 2009] Begier B., Users’ Involvement May Help Respect Social and Ethical Values and Improve Software Quality, Information Systems Frontiers, Springer US, 2009.

[Friedman, 1997] Friedman B., Human Values and the Design of Computer Technology, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1997.

[Gotterbarn, 1999] Gotterbarn D., How the New Software Engineering Code of Ethics Affects You, IEEE Software, November/December 1999, pp. 58-64.

[Gotterbarn, 2001] Gotterbarn D., Enhancing Risks Analysis Using Software Development Impact Statements. In: 26th Annual NASA Goddard Software Engineering Workshop, Greenbelt MD (USA) 2001, pp. 43.

[Highsmith, 2004], Highsmith J., Agile Project Management, Boston, Addison-Wesley 2004.

[Kujala, 2008] Kujala S., Effective user involvement in product development by improving the analysis of user needs, Behaviour & Information Technology, vol. 27, 2008, No. 6, pp. 457-473.

[Martin & Martin, 2007] Martin R. C., Martin M.: Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#, Indianapolis: Pearson Education and Prentice Hall, 2007.

[Rogerson & Gotterbarn, 1998] Rogerson S., Gotterbarn D., The Ethics of Software Project Management. In: Ethics and information technology, ed. G. Collste, Delhi, India, New Academic Publishers 1998, pp. 137-154.

[Rogerson, 2003] Rogerson S., The ethics of software development project management. In: Computing Ethics and Professional Responsibility (eds. T. W. Bynum & S. Rogerson), London, Blackwell 2003, pp. 94-101.

[SoEnCode] Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, v. 5.2, IEEE & CS/ACM, 1999, http://www.acm.org/serving/se/code.htm (access: 2000-2006).

[Szejko, 2002] Szejko St., Incorporating Ethics into the Software Process, Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference “The Transformation of Organisations in the Information Age: Social and Ethical Implications” ETHICOMP 2002, 13-15 November 2002, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 271-279.

[Tiwana i Keil, 2006] Tiwana A., Keil M., Functionality Risk In Information Systems Development: An Empirical Investigation, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 53 (2006), No. 3, pp. 412-425.

AUTHOR
Chris Barry, Mairéad Hogan and Ann Torres

ABSTRACT

In keeping with the overall conference theme, this paper explores how ICT, in the low-cost carriers (LCC) sector, is yielding customer service that is moving ‘backwards’ rather than ‘forwards’. The paper investigates ethical issues around the design of certain LCC Websites in the airline industry in Ireland. The study assesses user views of how airlines are delivering sales-focussed and non-sales generating services. User views on ancillary charges, regulation, and how favourably disposed users feel towards LCCs are also explored.

Global deregulation of the airline industry has resulted in the emergence of highly competitive markets with intense price competition (Kahn 2002). The resulting low-cost model has been very success as travellers eschew legacy airlines in pursuit of low, ‘no-frills’ fares (Alamdari and Fagan 2005), allowing LCCs to rapidly increase market share (de Neufville 2006). Traditional customer service has been jettisoned by many LCCs, rationalized on the strength of low airfares. The study uses a mixed-method approach, utilizing quantitative and qualitative techniques. Three research techniques were used: usability testing, verbal protocols and focus groups. Usability testing (amongst ninety-six participants) largely examined ease of use, seven verbal protocols explored the disposition of users towards the Websites and five focus groups were mediated to discuss in more detail issues arising from the usability tests and verbal protocols. Aer Arann, Aer Lingus, bmibaby and Ryanair were the subject airlines of this study.

The quantitative findings from usability tests (Torres, Hogan and Barry 2009) were conclusive – users were able to quickly and effectively reach a ‘committal point’, where they are psychologically committed to purchase flights. Other well-designed features included stunning route maps, sophisticated destination and schedule information, easy to see ‘initial’ prices and quick systems response times. In contrast, interactions with non-sales activities were troublesome. Finding the ‘final’ price was highly problematic. Making complaints proved to be a major difficulty and many abandoned the task in frustration. The availability and visibility of contact information was discovered to be utterly inadequate and in focus groups users were strongly convinced airlines simply did not wish to be contacted on non-sales matters. Only Aer Arann were compliant with the European Union’s recent directions on the provision of contact information. Two of the four airlines, Ryanair and Aer Lingus, supply only a postal address and fax number. In contrast, certain features and design decisions in the post-committal process are being used to: obscure the final price; force users to seek out opt-out buttons; and compel users to inadvertently choose items like priority boarding and travel insurance. Participants in study groups were unanimous that such features were intentional design decisions.

Focus group and verbal protocol sessions revealed high levels of cynicism towards LCCs. Aer Arann and bmibaby were viewed more benignly than Ryanair and Aer Lingus. While both the latter airlines rated poorly in terms of customer service, participants expected lower standards of service from Ryanair. A number of participants reflected on their dissapointment with Aer Lingus from whom they “hoped” for a better level of service. Tellingly, one participant traded poor customer service with price – “unless it is cheap, it is not acceptable”. Others believed that once the flights were cheap, the attitude and methods used by the airline were irrelevant – “most people have no ethics if they get cheap flights” and that what was acceptable varied depending on the price. Some participants were willing to pay a supplement for better service. Many in focus groups felt poor service would untimately harm the reputations of LCCs.

Significant antipathy was expressed towards Ryanair who were described as “cut throat and ruthless” offering “less service”. One participant stated that “with Ryanair you have to check everything” – a recurring sentiment that the airline routinely ambushes users with unexpected charges or unsolicited ‘services’. Many actually read terms and conditions for Ryanair because they felt that they would be “caught out”. The central concerns amongst users were unclear pricing, pop-ups, inacessible offers, hard-to-find contact information and inadequate complaints procedures. Distinctly, such features and aspects of Ryanair’s Website are consistent with the notion of ‘intentional deception’ in Deception Theory where an agent manipulates information to influence a target’s behaviour (Johnson, Grazioli, Jamal and Berryman 2001; Grazioli and Jarvenpaa 2003; Mingers and Walsham 2008).

Despite cynicism and distrust most participants flew regularly with LCCs. This contrasts with much literature on trust that emphasise its importance in Website design (Roy, Dewit and Aubert 2001; Grabner-Kraeuter 2002; Gefen and Straub 2003; Wang and Emurian 2005) and claims that un-satisified users will not return (Kim and Stoel 2004; Mavlanova, Benbunan-Fich and Kumar 2008).

Following an EU-wide investigation conducted by the European Consumer Affairs Commissioner, that found widespread ‘unfair and misleading’ practices, the Parliament issued a directive to end ambiguous practices regarding airport taxes, additional charges and ‘opt-out’ features (European_Parliament 2008). Despite such regulatory attention, LCCs have recently made many new ‘innovative’ changes to the booking process which is now cluttered with disaggregated products that users need to re-assemble, to construct a flight of infinite variety and all predicated on the user, by obligation and via self-service, spending significant time and effort.

Structured and object-oriented methods, the most widely used IS development approaches (Barry and Lang 2003), have their origins in scientific research and are of a positivist tradition. They ‘assume’ an ethical posture on the part of IS/IT professionals. The authors would argue this supposition has become unsafe and ethical guidelines and frameworks in IS design; corporate, professional IS/IT and marketing codes of ethics; and ethics in the IS and marketing curricula, need to be re-visited.

This paper presents evidence of shared user perceptions that certain firms are using Web technologies to: conceal pricing; compel users to make unintended choice; and inhibit customer service. While such practices might be considered more subtle than outright immoral activities such as identity fraud or on-line scams, they are just as concerning because they call into question the ethical posture of known firms, managers and professionals. The research reveals an ethical void between the normative view and actual practice in Website design.

REFERENCES

Alamdari, F. and S. Fagan (2005). “Impact of the Adherence to the Original Low-cost Model on the Profitability of Low-cost Airlines.” Transport Reviews 25(3): 377-392.

Barry, C. and M. Lang (2003). “A comparison of ‘traditional’ and multimedia information systems development practices.” Information and Software Technology 45(4): 217-227.

de Neufville, R. (2006). “Planning Airport Access in an Era of Low-Cost Airlines.” Journal of American Planning Association 72(3): 347-356.

European_Parliament (2008). “MEPs All-Inclusive Air Fares Just Around the Corner as MEP Back Legislation on Transparency.” Retrieved 10/8/08, 2009, from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopresspage/062-33694-189-07-28-910-20080708IPR33693-07-07-2008-2008-true/default_en.htm.

Gefen, D. and D. Straub (2003). “Managing User Trust in B2C e-Services.” e-Service Journal 2(2): 7-25.

Grabner-Kraeuter, S. (2002). “The Role of Consumers’ Trust in Online-Shopping.” Journal of Business Ethics 39(1): 43-50.

Grazioli, S. and S. Jarvenpaa (2003). “Consumer and Business Deception on the Internet: Content Analysis of Documentary Evidence.” International Journal of Electronic Commerce 7(4): 93-118.

Johnson, P. E., S. Grazioli, K. Jamal and R. G. Berryman (2001). “Detecting deception: adversarial problem solving in a low base-rate world.” Cognitive Science 25(3): 355-392.

Kahn, A. E. (2002). Airline Deregulation. The Concise Encyclopaedia of Economics, The Library of Economics and Liberty.

Kim, S. and L. Stoel (2004). “Dimensional hierarchy of retail website quality.” Information & Management 41(5): 619-633.

Mavlanova, T., R. Benbunan-Fich and N. Kumar (2008). Deception Tactics and Counterfeit Deception in Online Environments. International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Paris, Association for Information Systems.

Mingers, J. and G. Walsham (2008). Towards Ethical Information Systems: The Contribution of Discourse Ethics. International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Paris, Association for Information Systems.

Roy, M. C., O. Dewit and B. A. Aubert (2001). “The impact of interface usability on trust in web retailers.” Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy 11(5): 388-398.

Torres, A., M. Hogan and C. Barry (2009). “Opaque Web Practices Among Low-Cost Carriers.” Journal of Air Transport Management forthcoming.

Wang, Y. D. and H. H. Emurian (2005). “An overview of online trust: Concepts, elements, and implications.” Computers in Human Behavior 21(1): 105-125.

AUTHOR
Ryoko Asai and Kiyoshi Murata

ABSTRACT

In April 1986, the Law concerning Equal Opportunity and Treatment between Men and Women in Employment went into force in Japan. Thirteen years later, the Basic Law for a Gender-equal Society was enforced. Both of the laws aim at enhancing to construct a gender-equal society and prohibiting gender segregation in workplaces. Furthermore, the Japanese government has recently adopted policies to promote work-life balance in order to encourage women to continue their careers after marriage or childbirth. However, the effectiveness of these policies has been deteriorated due to the Japanese culture with respect to “work”. This circumstance can typically be observed in the Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) industry. In this study, we examine gender issues in the Japanese ICT industry focused on its masculine workplace culture and practices.

The conventional work-life style had established during the Japanese high economic growth period (1955 – 1973); men devote themselves into their work while sacrificing own personal life for their family. On the other hand, women are considered as candidates for brides and housewives in the company, and two or three years later after finding employment women marry as a fulltime housewife taking care of her family. Additionally, the unmarried woman past their marriageable years and the two income household were the deviation of gender role. Therefore, they were dogged with negative image based on gender bias and gender norms.

However, Japan has experienced the economic depression in 1990’s, and the depression has raised decrease in average household income. Furthermore, Japan has faced expected labour shortages due to the declining birthrate and the aging population. These social situations have enhanced the social awareness that women should continue to work after marriage and/or maternity leave. And the laws which support and protect working women has enforced one after another, Japan no longer have any discriminatory treatment of women or men systematically. Under these circumstances, female full-time workers tend to be required to have an equal workload to males without ridding themselves of housework at all.

Now women play a more active role and work in the every industry. Especially the ICT industry has absorbed working women, because it has consistently grown and is expected to continue to create job opportunities even in the current recession. Job opportunities provided steadily by the Japanese ICT industry would be helpful for women who eager to develop their career as well as for construction of a gender-equal society. The fact that ICT workers are expected to be professionals due to their social influence may suggest that increase in employment in the industry is advantageous to improvement of social status of women. Whereas, the industry has faced the pressure for significant cost-cutting and a shortened system development period in the fiercely competitive, globalised market and, thus, the working environment of the Japanese ICT industry has become severe.

Given ICT and the Internet facilitate gender equality in workplaces as the government alleged, the Japanese ICT industry is considered as one of the most progressive gender equal workplace. However, in actuality, the industry is known as a typical masculine one where employees experience physically demanding and prolonged work. Additionally, the industry is notorious for its poor working conditions and bad business practices such as multi-tier subcontract in information system development. Although the industry provides employment opportunities, workers are forced to accept severe working conditions straying far from work-life balanced life. In order to examine in detail, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 female workers in the Japanese ICT industry. The survey revealed how working women in the Japanese ICT industry face severe working conditions; for example, some of them stayed workplace all night long, in such situation they slept with cardboard futon and newspaper blanket on a floor next to male workers. And they considered their work as physical work, not as intellectual work, and that the level of pay was inadequate to compensate for their workload.

However, all of them recognised that marriage was never an obstacle and that working conditions of them were the same in men and women. That is, though they placed themselves in severe working conditions, they didn’t feel particular difference or inequality between sexes in their companies. Based on the survey, we found several gender issues in the Japanese ICT industry. First, both male and female workers suffer off-balance between work and life. Secondly, equal opportunity in a workplace seems to cause increased workload for women. Actually, women are unconsciously forced to accept that housework and child-rearing are their responsibility. Thirdly, law enforcement to enhance a gender equal society has lowered employers’ incentive to hire women. Even though the original aim of the law is to address the problem of low fertility in Japan. Employers recognize that hiring female employees is costly.

Especially, the most serious issue in the Japanese ICT industry exists in the context where the employees interviewed didn’t recognise the existence of the gender issues at all. They have been accustomed to the male-dominated working environment. Therefore working women inevitably come to the crossroad in developing their career. In order to resolve gender issues, we could devise several policy recommendations. At first, social support for child-raising is necessary. For example public support for child raising will reduce workload of female ICT workers. Secondly, the reduction in corporate taxes for companies addressing work-life balance of their employees is another way of supporting working mothers. Furthermore, networking among female ICT workers across companies may be useful because this would clarify a role model of female ICT workers and they could enjoy peer consultation.

However, we currently face another gender issues which run counter the efforts of improving social status of working women. Namely, Japan has new social trends with an increasing number of women those want to become a full-time housewife, particularly common in women of the younger generation. And this social phenomenon obscures women’s role model which keep developing own career than ever before. Now we need to review the work-life balance not only from economic perspectives but also from gender perspectives.

AUTHOR
Mirja Airos

ABSTRACT

Theoretical Viewpoints

Images of the organizations are nowadays exposed to the drastic moves and changes in society, organizations and among individuals. One organization may have multifaceted, ambiguous and polyphonic fragmented images depending on the multiple discursive voices to be followed. Together these partial images create the overall and common image of that organization. This study aims to find out, how chosen three ICT enterprises are reflecting their ethical and responsible ideals and how the overall society is attempting to guide these acting firms through public discourses. Thus, there are theoretical scientific voice, official company voice and voice of the regulatory authorities or interest groups present in this examination.

Caring leadership and responsible business may be conducted by defining values and other basic principles: visions, missions, goals, rules and guidelines. Systematic communication on responsible and ethical issues proves the overall stance of the corporation. These days the stakeholder communication is crucial part of every firm’s strategic performance and different parties are waiting for more than just theoretical discussions in the form of public statements. (Kujala & Kuvaja 2002, 49, 72-75) Desire and willingness to communicate the responsible way of thinking varies and amount of which the companies interact in outlining processes differs. These are absorbing issues to be approached.

This paper reveals that major professional organizations and regulatory authorities, which are having impacts and effects to Finnish ICT field: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), The European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO), Ministry of Transport and Communications Finland, Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA), Finnish Federation for Communications and Teleinformatics (FiCom), Finnish Information Processing Association (FIPA) etc. have their own published codes of ethics. Enterprises also have their own written ethical principles, professional guidelines, corporate social responsibility reports or like. These codes have differences in presentation and emphasis, but they are still in vast agreement on some general principles. This paper profiles also, how these explicit, commonly admitted and stated, codified rules of ethics are tight to the other implicit discursive statements, which chosen firms are introducing in their own discourses. Firms are using multiple discourses as a strategic devices, how to govern ethical and responsible issues. Dialectical and pragmatic way to see the multiple voices are relevant and also the contextual understanding of these voices. Both normative and empirical aspects shall be encompassed in integrative approach (Singer, 2009).

Empirical Viewpoints

This research attempts to show, how some publicly presented discursive thoughts are heading to formulate the stakeholders view and visualization on the ethical and responsibility issues of the selected ICT firms. Chronological contemplation is conducted through years 1997 – 2007, the aim is to reveal some extensive ideas on the subject. Last two years 2008 and 2009 of this longitudinal study has taken into account by revealing some descriptive statements. Reason for that is the ever-growing number of discursive statements.

In this research the contemplation concentrates on three companies, which are TeliaSonera, TietoEnator and Elisa, formerly Yomi. These corporations may have had many names in previous years, but in present paper above-mentioned names are in use. The development and the route of the two first ones are more unilinear than is the case in the last one. Selected firms differ in the size and fields of business-making are partially unlike, but the well-known definition (European Commission in Virallinen Lehti L 107 1996, 4-9) of the large-scale firm annual turnover more than 40 MEUR and total sum of balance sheet more than 27 MEUR holds true in every case.

TeliaSonera and Elisa are communications service providers and TietoEnator is service producer, which offers computing, research and development and consultancy services. Although these firms present the different sides of the broadly perceived information technology enterprises, these all have had operations both in domestic markets and also in international level and the scales of the operations have been multi-filament, making the firms equally essential for this kind of research. This way we are able to explore more comprehensively the common phenomena of different kind of voices, which are present in image building processes of ICT enterprises. The research has then more cross-sectional nature, too.

Methodological Viewpoints

This study belongs to qualitative research tradition and it has nuances of both interpretative and radical humanistic paradigm (Burrell & Morgan, 1979 and onwards). Critical business research as this study seems to be tries to create new ways of thinking (Alvesson & Deetz 2000, 22-31) and written texts and documentations are seen as socially constructed phenomena (Atkinson & Coffey 1997, 47), which are related to prevailing society and produced by individuals. Empirical examination is based on the official written documents (annual reports, responsibility reports, ethical codes, web-contents) of the firms and the theoretical notions are made with the scientific literature about business ethics and corporate responsibility and also ICT related references. Research data represents only some of the possible discursive cases, but in this particular study that procedure is acceptable, because of multi-dimensional and rich sources of data. This kind of data is called discretionary samples (Eskola & Suoranta 1998, 15–18).

This study could also be named as cross-case methodological approach (Gerring 2007, 1 & Yin 1990, 27 etc.), because of multiple cases and sources of data. Methodologically this study has signs of three various dimensions: case analytical points, interpretations are made both about the individual cases and also from more abstract entities, (Hammersley & Gomm 2000, 3-4) as mentioned already, discourse analytical elements and then content analytical views; analyzing discourses goes through different steps (Tuomi & Sarajärvi 2003, 94), data shall be categorized in a suitable way (Holsti 1969, 94-95; Carney 1972, 167-168) and one possible hermeneutic understanding is created. Researcher is seen as active subjective creator of meanings and it is relevant to recognize and confess that openly (Hardy & Harley & Phillips 2004, 19 – 22).

Conclusive Viewpoints

This study continues the scientific work, which have studied ethics and responsibility in ICT industry in conceptual-historical way and prospects and challenges for management and leadership with public-discourse based approach (Airos, 2006 and Airos, 2009) and has some neighboring studies among Finnish (Onkila, 2009; Kooskora, 2008; Takala & Syrjälä, 2008; Siltaoja, 2006) and international (Payne & Landry, 2005; Gilbert & Rasche 2008; Vaccaro & Madsen 2009) current discussions. In the paper the reality is seen as socially constructed phenomena, this is consistent with author’s thinking. (Ilmonen 1993, 69-70; Beck 1990, 17-23; Giddens 1991, 3 etc.) The reality and also business environments are fragmented to partial realities and constructing of the each actor’s own reality is exclusive.

Other essential perceptions or facts are the presence of the stakeholder issues in current discourses as well. Stakeholders are seen multiple ways and various dividing and illustrating approaches are in use as was present already earlier many cases in literature, too (Näsi 1995, Carroll 1989 & 1993, Clarkson 1998, Freeman 1984 etc.). Stakeholders may be seen as theoretical practicalities as normative recommendations or as instrumental methodological approach (Friedman & Miles 2006). In this study the stakeholder interaction is seen with more theoretical emphasis than as methodological practice even though three kind of discursive voices are explained more thoroughly.

At the same time firms are trying to reflect them as individual among others and also underline their ability to be open and transparent. Some of Seeger’s (1997, 18-19, 26, 34) ideas about diminishing the organizational ambiguity in their ethical and responsible image are implicated in discourses, too. Enterprises attempt to reveal them as entities, which allow different audiences and stakeholders to reflect their feelings etc. Interaction and remoulding of the ethics and responsibility interpretations is enclosed.

As also Elia (2009) also points out transparency is supposed to encourage stakeholder trust, separate the company from its competition and persuade new investors, clients and employees, which leads to better prosperity and growth. Corporations ethical and responsibility policies are tangible illustrations, which show the firms commitment to develop the operations and act in good way in business dealings (Wood & Rimmer, 2003).

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