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Personal computing ethics: Beliefs and behaviour
International
Journal
of Information
Management
(1993). 13 (287-298)
Personal Computing and Behaviour
R.T. WATSON
Ethics: Beliefs
AND L.F. PITT
Personal computing is a new phenomenon, and there is little accumulated knowledge of how users react to the ethical issues they face. This paper examines the general issue of ethics and information technology and reports the findings of an empirical study of personal computer users’ ethical beliefs and behaviours.
Richard Watson is with the Department of Management at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-6256, USA (rwatson@uga). Leyland Pitt is Professor of Management Studies at Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, RG9 3AU, UK ([email protected]). This research was conducted when the authors were on the faculty of the School of Business at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. The University’s support is acknowledged.
Introduction A scan of the pages of many current academic and professional management journals reveals an obvious and ever-growing concern with ethical issues. A concern that extends beyond business and is community-wide.’ As Drucker* predicted, ‘Business ethics is (and became) the “in topic” for the 80s.’ Despite ethics being a popular topic for the 198Os, it has received little attention by MIS researchers. The MIS literature of that period is relatively silent on the topic.’ The goal of this paper is to stimulate interest in ethics and information technology by discussing some philosophical foundations for ethics and by presenting frameworks for the consideration of ethical issues in information technology. An investigation of ethical issues in personal computing is then reported.
Philosophical foundations
‘KIDDER, R.M. (1990). Public concern for ethics rises: as individual moral behavior sags, standards of conduct attract greater attention, Christian Science Monitor, 2 January, p. 13. ‘DRUCKER. P.F. (1981). What is business ethics?, Across the Board, October, pp. 22-32. MCFARLAN, F.W. (1988). Editor’s comments. MIS Quarterly, 12 (No. l), pp. iiivi. ‘CAVANAGH,
G.F.,
MOBERG,
D.I.
M.
0266-4012/93/04
0287-l
2 0
Before examining what is ethical or unethical behaviour, to consider the philosophical foundations of ethics. Three that underlie thinking about ethical behaviour are They describe these Cavanagh, Moberg and Velasquez.4 utilitarian
theories
(which
evaluate
the
social
it is pertinent basic theories identified by theories as: conse-
quences of behaviour), theories of rights (which emphasize the entitlements of individuals), and theories of justice (which focus on the distributional effects of actions or policies). Another
philosophical
deontologicaVteleologica1
approach that merits discussion basis for analysing behaviour.5
is the
AND
(1981). The ethics of organizational politics, Academy of Manr;,g;xt Review, 6 (No. 3), pp. 36>374. , S.D. AND VITELL, S. (1986). A general theory of marketing ethics, Journal of Macromarketing, Spring, pp. 5-16. 6FR1TZSCHE, D.J. AND BECKER, H. (1984). Linking management behavior to ethical philosophy - an empirical investigation, Academy of Management Journal, 27 (No. I), pp. 166175. VELASQUEZ,
of ethics
Utilitarian
theories
Utilitarian theories focus on the consequences of an action. Ethical behaviour is that which produces the greatest good for the greatest number. Utilitarianism asserts that the decision-maker should compute the effect of a possible action and continue only if the outcome is socially optimal. Utilitarian-based decisions are unethical if they create personal gain at the expense of society’s gain or they lead to the inefficient attainment of desired ends.6 For example, a utilitarian may
1993 Butterworth-Heinemann
Ltd
287
Personal computing ethics Table 1. Impact of software
copying
on stakeholders Stakeholder
Impact Negative Negative Negative Positive Negative
Software developer Software publisher Distribution channel Third party authors Future consumers
assess software copying as unethical because it results in lower profits for the producer and fewer funds to invest in development and refinement of the product. As a result, society does not gain better software. A recent derivative of utilitarianism is based on stakeholder analysis. Freeman, Gilbert and Hartman’ assert that an act has moral consequences if it affects others. The key question is: who are these others who have a stake in the outcome? Again, if we use software copying as an example, the stakeholders include the software developer, software publisher, members of the distribution channel, authors who write books on the use of the software, and future consumers. These stakeholders are listed in Table 1 with a diagnosis of the consequences. The impact is negative for all stakeholders except third party authors, who gain from the sale of books that are effectively substitutes for the manuals supplied with the software. There is a loss of revenue to developers, publishers, and the distribution channel. As well, future consumers are likely to suffer because fewer funds are available to enhance the product. Stakeholder analysis provides a systematic way of examining the consequences of an action. Theories of rights A theory of rights is based on the notion that there are certain fundamental rights that a decision should not transcend. Cavanagh et ~1.~ list five basic rights: (1) the right to free consent, (2) the right to privacy, (3) the right to freedom of conscience, (4) the right to free speech, and (5) the right to due process. These rights are the fundamental tenets of a democratic society, and the most pertinent to information technology is the right to privacy. This issue has received some attention in the information technology literature (e.g. Clarke’). Theories of justice A theory of justice asserts that decision-makers should be guided by equity, fairness, and impartiality.” Regarding information technology, ethical issues arise when the technology is used to promote inequity and bias. An example of such a situation is an airline reservation system that presents information in a manner that favours a particular airline. Deontological
‘FREEMAN,
R.E.,
GILBERT,
D.R.
AND
HART-
Values and foundations of strategic management, Journal of Business Ethics, 7, pp. 821-834. MAN,
E. (1988).
‘CAVANAGH,
MOBERG
AND VELASQUEZ,
Op.
cir., Ref. 4. R.A. (1988). Information technologv and dataveillance, Communications $ th;ACM, 31 (No. 5), pp. 498-512. Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA: Belknap. “HUNT AND VITELL, op cit., Ref. 5. 9~~~~~~,
288
and teleological
viewpoints
The deontologicaVteleologica1 dichotomy provides another perspective for assessing the ethical nature of behaviour.” The deontological viewpoint examines the actions or behaviours of an individual and is primarily concerned with the basic morality of an action. The teleological viewpoint focuses on the consequences of actions or behaviours and is concerned with the beneficial or harmful results of an action. A deontologist would argue that software copying is always harmful because it is theft of intellectual property, and theft is fundamentally immoral. A teleologist might argue that there are situations in which software copying is acceptable. For example, if a program is no longer marketed and consumers are unable to buy copies, then a teleologist would maintain that copying is reasonable because the benefits are greater than the harm. What is classified as ethical or unethical behaviour is clearly dependent on the frame of reference within which an action is judged. Since
R.T. WATSON AND L.F. PITT
there are several frameworks for assessing ethical behaviour, definitions of ethics vary. However, most definitions rely on the general notion that there are some actions that society defines as right or wrong. For example, Toffler” states ‘. . . ethical has to do with the general conception of right and wrong in the attitudes of individuals and the communities (institutions) of which they are part’. De George13 writes that ethics is ‘. . . a systematic attempt, through the use of reason, to make sense of our individual and social moral experience, in such a way as to determine the rules that ought to govern human conduct and the values worth pursuing in life’. Taylor14 defines ethics as ‘. . . inquiry into the nature and grounds of morality where the term morality is taken to mean moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct’. A slightly modified version of Taylor’s definition is adopted by Vitell and Davisi’ in their investigation of the ethical beliefs of MIS professionals. This study follows their example, and information technology ethics is defined as the inquiry into the nature and grounds of moral judgements, standards, and rules of conduct in situations involving information technology decisions.
Ethics and information
“TOFFLER, R.L. (1986). Tough Choices: Managers Talk Efhics. New York, NY: Wiley. 13~~ GEORGE, R.T. (1982). Business Ethics. New York, NY: Macmillan. 14TAYLOR, p.w. (1975). Principles of Ethics: An Introduction. Encino, CA: Dickson. %ITELL, S.J. AND DAVIS, D.L. (1990). Ethical beliefs of MIS professionals: the frequency and opportunity for ethical behavior, Journal of Business Ethics, 9 (No. l), pp. 63-70. 16~~~~~~~~, op. cit., Ref. 3.
technology
The scope of decisions concerning the use of information technology can be international, national, organizational or personal, and these decisions can have economic, political or social consequences. The interplay of decision scope and consequence are displayed in Table 2, where each cell contains an example of a decision or issue that has a moral dimension. An example of an organizational issue is a firm’s decision not to patent an invention to keep the knowledge proprietary. As a consequence, there may be a net social loss because the decision affects the output of knowledge workers who could gain from access to the information. Also, the inventor does not receive the social and professional recognition that often accompanies an invention. The firm’s defence might be that it will be unable to recoup a reasonable return on its R&D if the knowledge enters the public domain. It is conceded that an example in a particular cell may well have aspects of the other factors, however the purpose is to illustrate the major scope and consequence parameters. Some of the examples in Table 2 represent problems that are not unique to information technology. For instance, issues such as unfair competition, displacement of workers by technology, and manipulation of information for personal gain have been debated for many years. Information technology has made some of these issues more pervasive and shortened the reaction time that society has to deal with these issues. Also, new concerns, such as computer games that may encourage aggressive behaviour in children, have emerged. Some of these concerns arise and diffuse so rapidly that society has almost no time to consider their consequences. If society cannot fashion a timely response, then maybe those individuals who are at the beginning of the decision chain should accept greater responsibility for considering the ethical aspects of their decisions. Another framework for considering ethical issues of information technology is put forward by McFarlan, i6 who organizes the issues in the field as follows:
Personal computing
ethics
Table 2. A framework
for classifying
ethical
issues
in information
technology
international
National
Organizational
Personal
Economic
Unfair competition by subsidizing sales of information technology in foreign markets
Loss of low skill jobs with the introduction of robotics
Development of an information system that gives a corporation monopolistic power
Playing computer games during working hours
Political
Sale of information technology used in the surveillance of citizens
The manipulation of the national standards setting process to gain an advantage for a particular supplier’s product
The setting of development priorities to favour a particular functional area
Filtering and distorting information to influence decision-making
Social
Recruitment of highly skilled information technologists from Third World countries
Acredit bureau database with inadequate security procedures
Failure to patent an invention in order to keep the knowledge proprietary
Production of computer games that encourage aggressive behaviour in children
1. 2. 3. 4.
“FERRELL,
O.C.
AND
GRESHAM,
L.G.
(1985). A contingency framework for understanding ethical decision making in marketing, Journal ofA4arketing,49 (SumEer), pp. 87-96. MASON, R.O. (1986). Four ethical issues of the information age, MIS Quartedy, 10 (No. l), pp. S-12.
290
Privacy issues external to the firm. Privacy issues internal to the firm. Information as a new monopoly. Property rights to software, patents, erty.
copyrights,
intellectual
prop-
McFarlan also compares the relevance of ethical issues of 1977 and 1987 and points to two areas where interest had changed from medium to very high: the issues of software copyrights and interest, and technology intrusiveness (ethics, monopoly, and privacy). These issues, McFarlan importance to the business practitioner. argues, are of paramount Awareness of the broader dimensions will help practitioners to avoid inadvertent harm as well as financial damage to individuals and organizations. Ferrell and Gresham” have similar sentiments, although on a wider front. They stress that unethical behaviour by managers can have serious results for business, not only in the possible form of litigation, but also in a potential lack of productivity as employees increase their own welfare at the expense of the company’s. Another approach to classifying ethical issues is Mason’s’* focus on four key concerns and the questions they raise: 1. Privacy - what information about one’s self or one’s associations must a person reveal to others, under what conditions and with what safeguards? 2. Accuracy who is responsible for the authenticity, fidelity and accuracy of information; who is accountable for errors in information; and how is an injured party to be made whole? 3, Property - who owns information; what are the just and fair prices for its exchange; who owns information channels; how should access be allocated? 4. Accessibility what information does one have a right or privilege to obtain, under what conditions and under what safeguards?
R.T. WATSON
“MCFARLAN, op. cit., Ref. 3. op. cit., Ref. 18. “WEBER, A. (1985). Ethics, conduct standards brand the real professionals, Data Manugemenf, 23 (No. 5), pp. 12-13. 22tfElDE, D. AND HIGHTOWER, J.K. (1983). Organizations, ethics and the computing profession, Journal of Systems Management, November, pp. 38-42. ‘“MASON,
=RENDER,
B.,
NER,
RUTH,
E.P.,
COFFINRERGER, S.R.
AND
R.,
GARD-
SAMUELS,
L.
(1986). Perspectives on computer ethics and crime, Business, 36 (No. I), pp. 30-36. “VITELL AND DAVIS, op. cit., Ref. 15. “MASON, op. cit., Ref. 18. ‘%s coNcx~ss (1986). ~nreZiec~~a1 Property Rights in Age of Electronics and Information. Washington, DC: US Government. (OTA-CIT-302). 270ECD (1989). Competition Policy and Intellectual Properry Rights. Paris: OECD.
AND
L.F. PITT
In summary, three frameworks for considering ethical issues in information technology were presented. Our framework is based on the interaction of a decision’s scope and its consequences. McFarlan” and Mason2’ define broad themes for grouping issues. Our bias towards consequences reflects a teleological perspective, while McFarlan and Mason could be construed as having a deontological outlook because they raise questions concerned with the fundamental morality of actions. Prior research on ethical issues in information technology has mainly addressed the topic from the perspective of what are the problems and what are appropriate codes of behaviour (e.g. Weber,‘l and Heide and Hightower22). There have been some empirical studies. A comparison of students’ and managers’ attitudes to eight computer-related scenarios was made by Render, Coffinberg, Gardner, Ruth and Samuelsz3 Generally, they found managers were harsher than students in their judgement of the wrongness of a situation. The frequency and opportunity for unethical behaviour by MIS professionals have been studied by Vitell and Davis, 24who report that while MIS professionals feel there are many opportunities for unethical behaviour, they believe that MIS managers are unlikely to engage in such behaviour. The ethical challenge facing information technologists stems from the very nature of information - it is the means through which the mind expands and increases its capacity to achieve its goals, often as the result of interaction with other minds. Information forms the intellectual capital from which human beings craft their lives and secure dignity.25 People’s intellectual capital is impaired whenever it is stolen from them - such as when they lose their personal information without being adequately compensated. Other important ethical concerns arise when people are precluded from information that is of value to them, when they have revealed information that they hold intimate (and it is used without their knowledge or permission), or when they find that the information on which their living depends is in error. Intellectual property law is one answer to some of the ethical challenges raised by information’s characteristics. In most western societies, the guiding principle of intellectual property law is to encourage the dissemination of intellectual works for the benefit of all citizens. As an incentive to authors and inventors to share the benefits of their efforts, governments provide them with an intellectual property legal system to protect their work? The most important aspect of this system is the ability of the inventor to exclude imitation.” However, the system was designed for an era when intellectual works were distributed on paper, the limited number of printers could be policed, and most inventions were material products not easily copied by individual consumers. Authors and inventors were protected because it was relatively straightforward to police and enforce intellectual property law. Today, some intellectual property, such as software, is distributed electronically, and many citizens have unencumbered access to low-cost reproduction technologies. Although there are laws to protect intellectual property, the pervasiveness and private nature of copying facilities make it extremely difficult to police those laws. Thus, the intellectual property system, like many legal systems, has to reiy on widespread compliance. Society has to agree that intellectual property, like private property, deserves protection. If the legal system cannot provide the necessary inducements and protection, then society may
291
Personal
computing
ethics
need to rely on traditional values such as trustworthiness, honesty, and codes of behaviour. However, it would appear that traditional values are not working. Software piracy costs the US software industry $67000 million annually. Also, some governments do not appear to regard social norms as relevant. A study’* of seven South American and Asia nations reports that protection of intellectual rights is viewed primarily as an economic issue, not as an issue of right or wrong. So for example, Taiwan which had a lackadaisical attitude to protecting software, is now enforcing copyright laws to protect its nascent software industry.29 However, this may not be enough if social norms do not support compliance because policing can be very costly. Indeed, societies whose social customs lead to high compliance with intellectual property laws may well gain a competitive advantage because their domestic intellectual industries should be more profitable. Thus, we would argue that the ethical aspect of intellectual property rights should not be treated independently of economic issues.
The study As a starting point of enquiry into the nature and grounds of moral judgement of information technology decisions (to partly echo Taylor’s3’ definition), this paper examines attitudes to some personal computing decisions. The scenario method was used with a convenience sample of IS professionals and end-users. The study took place in Western Australia. Clearly, the results may not generalize to the broad population of end-users and IS professionals. Nevertheless, this study has value because it demonstrates a method for assessing attitudes to ethical issues in information technology, contributes to the accumulation of knowledge, and provides a basis for future research. The study focuses on the personal decision-making dimension of the framework illustrated in Table 2. Ethical issues in personal computing were selected because of the widespread organizational use of PCs and because personal computing is creating new ethical concerns.31 Hypotheses
“GADBAW,
R.M.
AND
RICHARDS,
I-.,.
(EDS)
(1988). Intellectual Property Rights: Global Consensus, Global Conflict? Boulder, CO: Westview. *9~~~~~, M. (1989). Taiwan buckles its past, Science, 122 (No. 1668, June lo), pt. 35-37. TAYLOR, op. cit., Ref. 14. 3’~~~~~, op. cit., Ref. 21.
292
There is a dearth of theory to guide the formation of hypotheses regarding attitudes towards personal computing issues. Hence, it was decided to take a twofold approach to the generation of hypotheses. First, consideration was given to possible differences in the behaviour of IS professionals and end-users. Second, existing theory on the relationship between reported behaviour and the perceptions of peer behaviour was used to derive hypotheses. Two major classes of personal computer users, end-users and IS professionals, can be identified. Typical IS professionals, because of their education and work experience, might be expected to have a different attitude towards personal computing issues. For example, it might be expected that IS professionals would comprehend more clearly than other professionals the intellectual effort required to develop a program for a personal computer, and as a result, they might have different behaviour regarding illegal copying of software. Also, IS professionals could be more conscious of the gravity of some ethical concerns in personal computing because these issues have been aired for
R.T. WATSON AND
L.F. PITT
some time in the trade press, and this enhanced awareness might have influenced the formation of their attitudes. If IS professionals and end-users differ in their attitudes to personal computing issues, then management may well have to formulate different policies for dealing with each group. Thus, for the very practical consideration of the development of personal computing ethics policy, it is important to discover whether the two groups’ beliefs and behaviour are distinguishable. Consequently, the following hypotheses were formulated about personal computing issues: Hl There is no difference between end-users and IS professionals regarding their reported behaviour. HZ There is no difference between end-users and IS professionals in their reported beliefs of what is wrong. H3 There is no difference between end-users and IS professionals in their perception of the behaviour of their peers. H4 There is no difference between end-users and IS professionals in their perception of the beliefs of their peers. It is often difficult to get respondents to admit to the real level with which they commit an action that is illegal, socially unacceptable, or even wrong to some slight degree. One approach to overcoming this problem is the projective method of asking respondents to indicate their perceptions of what their peers do or believe.32 Peer-based reports may be a better indicator of what is really happening and what people really believe. Prior research indicates that peer-based reports are different from self-reports3” and that perceived peers’ behaviour and beliefs influence personal behaviour. 34 Respondents generally report that their peers are more likely to display unethical behaviour, and thus the foitowing directional hypotheses are formulated: H5 Respondents report to display unethical H6 Respondents report to display a lenient
that their peers are more likely than themselves behaviour. that their peers are more likely than themselves attitude to unethical behaviour.
The scenario method, which is widely used in ethics research and has been applied to computing issues (see Render et d3”), was used to determine attitudes and behaviour to ethical issues in personal computing. Respondents were asked to express an opinion on a variety of situations that could be construed as being deceitful or dishonest. Twenty scenarios of possible and not uncommon occurrences in personal computing were developed from personal experience, a review of the trade press, and discussions with colleagues. The scenarios were designed to produce a range of responses, and the instrument was tested with some 100 subjects to ensure that this happened. The scenarios are presented in Table 3, which shows that they vary in gravity from a clearly dishonest action (situation 8) to a relatively minor transgression (situation 11). Respondents were required to indicate the extent to which): 3Z~nx~~, R.E. (1978). Fraudulent behavior by consumers, Journal of Marketing, 42
(No. 4),
1.
pp. 67-75.
33~~~~~~, op. cit., Ref. 32. 34~~~~~~~ ANDGRESHAM,O~. cit.,Ref. 17. 35~~~~~~ ET AL., op. cit., Ref. 23.
2.
a scenario describes their behaviour (using a seven-point scale anchored on ‘never’ and ‘very often’); they believe the action described in a scenario is wrong (using a seven-point scale anchored on ‘not at all wrong’ and ‘very wrong’); 293
Personal computing
ethics
Table 3. Scenarios 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12. 13.
14.
15.
16.
Copying software for home use. A firm has purchased a licensed version of the newest spreadsheet for use on a company PC. Although the licence restricts usage to a single PC, an employee makes a copy, which is taken home and installed on the family PC. Buying software overseas. On a visit to a foreign country without copyright laws, a person purchases a copy of a top-selling word processor for $50, which sells for $800 in her home country. Copying rather than free upgrade. An individual has a licensed copy of version 3.1 of a database system. When a friend purchases version 4.0, he asks for a copy rather than sending in his original disk to get the free upgrade. Selling copies of software. An individual recovers the $150 spent on buying a licensed copy of a flight simulator program by selling three copies, and no more, to friends for $50 a piece. Non-payment for shareware. A person makes frequent use of a communications program obtained through a user group. The author of the software has inserted a start-up message that reminds, every time the program is used, that the author would like a one-time payment of $20. He ignores the message. Consumables for personal use. A woman has just purchased a home computer for her children, who are at high school, to use for their homework and assignments. She takes home from work a carton of continuous stationery and a box of 10 diskettes. Consumables for business use. An employee finds it very hard, because of interruptions, to complete important reports at work, so she purchases, with her money, a PC for home. As this computer is almost totally used for work matters, it is her habit to use company supplied consumables (paper, disks, and printer ribbons). Graphics board swap. When the graphics board in his home PC fails, an employee swaps it with his work PC’s graphic board and reports the failure to PC support services, who supply a replacement board. Labels for home business. An employee’s spouse starts a small mail order business from home, and the employee prints masters of the business’s forms on the laser printer at work. Labels for youth group. A person spends half-an-hour a month, after normal work finishing time, using a company PC and stationery to print a mailing list for his children’s youth group. Additional back-up copies. Despite the licensee’s statement restricting the purchaser to two back-up copies of a word processing program, an employee makes four copies just to be on the safe side. Photocopying a guide book. An employee makes a photocopy of an expensive, but readily available, operating system guidebook. Use of portable PC for own business. Nearly every weekend, an employee takes home the firm’s portable PC, which is used extensively for his part-time business. Software rental. A person establishes a business to rent licensed copies of software, for which she charges a weekly rental that is 20 per cent of the retail price. She continues in business even when she discovers that many customers illegally copy the rented software. Copying software for evaluation. In order to evaluate several new programs, an employee makes copies of licensed versions for use on his work PC. After three weeks, he erases the copies and orders one of the programs. Modifying demo software. An individual discovers how to amend a limited, evaluation version of a database program to gain access to continued
294
on page
295
R.T. WATSON AND L.F. PITT
Table 3. continued
17.
18.
19.
20.
3.
4.
the full functionality of the software. She anonymously publishes the instructions for making the change on a number of bulletin boards. The limited version of the program costs $20 and the full version costs $1000. Failure to document. An employee develops a number of useful spreadsheet routines that only she knows how to use. She does not document these routines. Taking a mailing list. Over a period of a year, an employee develops a mailing list of 1000 key customers on his work PC. When he leaves to join a competitor, he takes a copy of the mailing list with him. Selling templates. During working hours, a person creates a spreadsheet template that does a number of important and time-consuming financial calculations. Unbeknown to her employer, she sells copies of the template to a number of other companies. Buying software beyond requirements. Although an employee knows a $500 program will do her employer’s required task, she decides to order a $1000 version because it has some advanced features that she wishes to learn.
a scenario describes the behaviour of their peers (using a sevenpoint scale anchored on ‘never’ and ‘very often’); their peers believe the action described in a scenario is wrong (using a seven-point scale anchored on ‘not at all wrong’ and ‘very wrong’).
The only demographic data collected was whether the respondent was an IS professional or end-user. No other demographic data was collected, because it was considered that respondents might be less likely to respond to what might be a sensitive issue if there was any possibility that they could be identified. Also, there was no presupposition that demographic factors would make a difference in attitudes. In the first stage of data collection, a copy of the questionnaire and a covering letter were sent to 20 IS managers in large Western Australian organizations. These managers were asked to assist the study by supplying the names and addresses of staff who were personal computer users. Also, IS managers were asked to distinguish between IS professional and end-users. Nine IS managers agreed to assist, and the organizations represented include a mining company, a local government authority, four state government departments, two utilities, and In the second stage of data collection, a an insurance company. questionnaire, covering letter, and reply-paid envelope were sent to 290 persons, of whom 151 had been identified as end-users and 139 as IS professionals. Different coloured questionnaires were used for each group so that the response rate by group could be determined and respondents who had been misclassified could be detected. The response rate was 44 per cent. As five of the responses were unusable, the effective response rate was 42 per cent. It was clear from the returns that many respondents classified by IS managers as endusers considered themselves IS professionals. Of the 123 usable responses, 91 (74 per cent) were from IS professionals and 32 (26 per cent) from end-users. Results The data were analysed
using multivariate
analysis
of variance
with a 5
295
Personal computing
ethics
Table 4. Activities
occurring
property theft
Material theft Unprofessional Understandable
296
than illegal
photocopying
conduct
Copying software for home use Buying software overseas Non-payment for shareware Copying software for evaluation Labels for home business Labels for youth group Failure to document Buying software beyond requirements Consumables for business use at home
cent significance level. None of the six hypotheses was rejected. No difference was found between end-users and IS professionals in either their beliefs or attitudes to issues in personal computing. As expected from prior ethics research, respondents perceive that their peers are likelier to commit a particular action than themselves and are less likely to assess a particular action as wrong. The perceived behaviour of peers, compared with self-reports of behaviour, is possibly a more accurate indication of common practice.36 Another useful reference point is the reported level of photocopying. Photocopiers have been available for some time, and most readers will be aware of the extent to which photocopying occurs in their organization. Nine activities are reported to happen more frequently than photocopying an entire book, an infringement of copyright law (interestingly, with a mean score of 4.07, illegal photocopying is near the midpoint of the seven-point scale). These activities are categorized in Table 4. Their significance is dependent upon one’s particular vested interest. Obviously, software manufacturers will be concerned with the perceived frequency of intellectual property theft, as software sales are their main form of income. Other organizations are unlikely to be bothered by this issue because it should have minimal financial impact upon them - they lose nothing, and the corporation, as such, has committed no illegal act. Furthermore, organizations may be able to protect themselves from possible litigation by requiring all personal computer users to regularly sign a statement specifying that they will not illegally copy software licensed to the enterprise. Organizations will have some concern for the theft of their property, but the incidents are fairly low cost. Of more concern to organizations is the failure to document spreadsheet routines and the procurement of software that costs more than that required for the task. Such incidents may eventually cost more than the loss of a few hundred labels. The use of company consumables for company work on a home computer is understandable and represents a very good deal for organizations, who would hardly wish to discourage such activity. Respondents’ perceptions of their peers’ beliefs are also likely to be a more accurate guide to prevailing organizational attitudes. Again, photocopying is used as a lodestar. Nine activities are judged as less wrong than photocopying a guidebook (again the mean score at 4.10 is near the midpoint of the scale), and these are categorized in Table 5. In most cases, the activities considered less wrong than illegal photocopying also occur more frequently than illegal photocopying (see Table per
“LANE, G.S. AND WATSON, G.L. (1975). A Canadian republican of Mason Haire’s ‘shopping list’ study, Journal of Marketing Science, Winter, pp. 4%59; pm, L.F. AND ABRATT, R. (1986). Corruption in business - are management attitudes right?, Journal of Business Ethics, 5, pp. 3944; WILKES, op. cit., Ref. 32.
frequently
Activity
Category Intellectual
more
R.T. WATSON AND L.F. PITT
Table 5. Activjties co~sjdered
Category Intellectual
less wrong than j~/egal photocopying Activity
property theft
Material theft Unprofessional Understandable
conduct
Copying software for home use Buying software overseas Non-payment for shareware Software rental Copying software for evaluation Labels for home business Labels for youth group Failure to document Buying software beyond requirements Copying rather than free upgrade Additional back-up copies Consumables for business use
The exceptions are copying rather than a free upgrade, additional back-up copies, and software rental. 4).
Discussion The results of this study suggest that there is no difference in the behaviour and attitudes of end-users and IS professionais to illegal, unethical, or unprofessional conduct matters in personal computing. One might have suspected that IS professionals, who could be expected to empathize with software publishers because of their appreciation of the intellectual effort required to produce a saleable program, would have views different from end-users on intellectual misappropriation. This is not the case. The choice of photocopying a guide book as a benchmark of respondents’ perception of their peers’ behaviour and beliefs provides a ready means of assessing what is happening in organizations and what employees believe. When it is considered that copying software is less time-consuming, less visible, and perceived as less wrong than photocopying a book, then it is not surprising that illegal software copying is reckoned to be occurring slightly more often than unlawful photocopying. Readers wishing to quickly appraise the wrongness of some event could ask their peers to assess how wrong that event is relative to copying a complete book. Clearly, software suppliers have a problem when two major consumer groups, IS professionals and end-users, have a somewhat ambivalent attitude to the wrongness of copying their work-supplied software for home use. It is unlikely to be in an organization’s financial interest to discourage employees copying, because it is probable that employees sometimes use the software to undertake organizational work on their home computer. It is also likely that organizations can readily protect themselves from prosecution by software suppliers by reguiarly issuing a warning to all employees that they must not illegally copy software. However, one could argue that organizations have a social responsibility to ensure that their employees do not break the law and that they should develop policies and procedures to deter software copying. In addition, they need to recognize that some employees use their home computers for work purposes and should be provided with appropriate software.
297
Personal computing
ethics
Indeed, a ‘free’ software policy for staff with home computers might be a sound investment for the organization. This study has three important limitations. First, it was conducted in Western Australia and a convenience sample was used. The results may not be applicable in other settings. The study, or variations on it, needs to be repeated in other social and cultural settings to provide an accumulation of evidence on behaviour and attitudes to issues in personal computing. Second, the particular selection of scenarios used in the study was based on the authors’ local knowledge and some may not be appropriate in other settings and might give different results. Third, as with all survey research with a response rate less than 100 per cent, there is a danger that respondents are not typical of the population surveyed. However, we do not believe that there were any factors in the nature of the survey or its administration that would have produced a biased sample. Because there has been very little prior research into ethical issues in personal computing, there are many opportunities for future research. This study compared IS professionals with the broad group of end-users. It might be fruitful to explore the attitudes of end-users belonging to professions, such as medicine or accounting, which have wellestablished codes of professional conduct. Another possible study is to discern what impact company policy has on behaviour and beliefs. Do employees in organizations with clear policy on end-user computing behave differently? As we move towards a post-industrial society that is heavily reliant upon intellectual effort for wealth creation, it is important that we assess people’s attitudes to intellectual products. In particular, we should be concerned with personal computing because the PC is the intellectual lever of many knowledge workers. IS professionals’ behaviour and attitudes towards issues in personal computing might be regarded as a bellwether of social opinion because these people are both producers and consumers of software. They could be expected to have a high regard for protecting data and the results of intellectual effort. Research into behaviour and attitudes towards personal computing can provide elucidating glimpses into society’s concern for the products of the post-industrial era.
Journal
of Information
Management
(1993). 13 (287-298)
Personal Computing and Behaviour
R.T. WATSON
Ethics: Beliefs
AND L.F. PITT
Personal computing is a new phenomenon, and there is little accumulated knowledge of how users react to the ethical issues they face. This paper examines the general issue of ethics and information technology and reports the findings of an empirical study of personal computer users’ ethical beliefs and behaviours.
Richard Watson is with the Department of Management at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-6256, USA (rwatson@uga). Leyland Pitt is Professor of Management Studies at Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, RG9 3AU, UK ([email protected]). This research was conducted when the authors were on the faculty of the School of Business at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. The University’s support is acknowledged.
Introduction A scan of the pages of many current academic and professional management journals reveals an obvious and ever-growing concern with ethical issues. A concern that extends beyond business and is community-wide.’ As Drucker* predicted, ‘Business ethics is (and became) the “in topic” for the 80s.’ Despite ethics being a popular topic for the 198Os, it has received little attention by MIS researchers. The MIS literature of that period is relatively silent on the topic.’ The goal of this paper is to stimulate interest in ethics and information technology by discussing some philosophical foundations for ethics and by presenting frameworks for the consideration of ethical issues in information technology. An investigation of ethical issues in personal computing is then reported.
Philosophical foundations
‘KIDDER, R.M. (1990). Public concern for ethics rises: as individual moral behavior sags, standards of conduct attract greater attention, Christian Science Monitor, 2 January, p. 13. ‘DRUCKER. P.F. (1981). What is business ethics?, Across the Board, October, pp. 22-32. MCFARLAN, F.W. (1988). Editor’s comments. MIS Quarterly, 12 (No. l), pp. iiivi. ‘CAVANAGH,
G.F.,
MOBERG,
D.I.
M.
0266-4012/93/04
0287-l
2 0
Before examining what is ethical or unethical behaviour, to consider the philosophical foundations of ethics. Three that underlie thinking about ethical behaviour are They describe these Cavanagh, Moberg and Velasquez.4 utilitarian
theories
(which
evaluate
the
social
it is pertinent basic theories identified by theories as: conse-
quences of behaviour), theories of rights (which emphasize the entitlements of individuals), and theories of justice (which focus on the distributional effects of actions or policies). Another
philosophical
deontologicaVteleologica1
approach that merits discussion basis for analysing behaviour.5
is the
AND
(1981). The ethics of organizational politics, Academy of Manr;,g;xt Review, 6 (No. 3), pp. 36>374. , S.D. AND VITELL, S. (1986). A general theory of marketing ethics, Journal of Macromarketing, Spring, pp. 5-16. 6FR1TZSCHE, D.J. AND BECKER, H. (1984). Linking management behavior to ethical philosophy - an empirical investigation, Academy of Management Journal, 27 (No. I), pp. 166175. VELASQUEZ,
of ethics
Utilitarian
theories
Utilitarian theories focus on the consequences of an action. Ethical behaviour is that which produces the greatest good for the greatest number. Utilitarianism asserts that the decision-maker should compute the effect of a possible action and continue only if the outcome is socially optimal. Utilitarian-based decisions are unethical if they create personal gain at the expense of society’s gain or they lead to the inefficient attainment of desired ends.6 For example, a utilitarian may
1993 Butterworth-Heinemann
Ltd
287
Personal computing ethics Table 1. Impact of software
copying
on stakeholders Stakeholder
Impact Negative Negative Negative Positive Negative
Software developer Software publisher Distribution channel Third party authors Future consumers
assess software copying as unethical because it results in lower profits for the producer and fewer funds to invest in development and refinement of the product. As a result, society does not gain better software. A recent derivative of utilitarianism is based on stakeholder analysis. Freeman, Gilbert and Hartman’ assert that an act has moral consequences if it affects others. The key question is: who are these others who have a stake in the outcome? Again, if we use software copying as an example, the stakeholders include the software developer, software publisher, members of the distribution channel, authors who write books on the use of the software, and future consumers. These stakeholders are listed in Table 1 with a diagnosis of the consequences. The impact is negative for all stakeholders except third party authors, who gain from the sale of books that are effectively substitutes for the manuals supplied with the software. There is a loss of revenue to developers, publishers, and the distribution channel. As well, future consumers are likely to suffer because fewer funds are available to enhance the product. Stakeholder analysis provides a systematic way of examining the consequences of an action. Theories of rights A theory of rights is based on the notion that there are certain fundamental rights that a decision should not transcend. Cavanagh et ~1.~ list five basic rights: (1) the right to free consent, (2) the right to privacy, (3) the right to freedom of conscience, (4) the right to free speech, and (5) the right to due process. These rights are the fundamental tenets of a democratic society, and the most pertinent to information technology is the right to privacy. This issue has received some attention in the information technology literature (e.g. Clarke’). Theories of justice A theory of justice asserts that decision-makers should be guided by equity, fairness, and impartiality.” Regarding information technology, ethical issues arise when the technology is used to promote inequity and bias. An example of such a situation is an airline reservation system that presents information in a manner that favours a particular airline. Deontological
‘FREEMAN,
R.E.,
GILBERT,
D.R.
AND
HART-
Values and foundations of strategic management, Journal of Business Ethics, 7, pp. 821-834. MAN,
E. (1988).
‘CAVANAGH,
MOBERG
AND VELASQUEZ,
Op.
cir., Ref. 4. R.A. (1988). Information technologv and dataveillance, Communications $ th;ACM, 31 (No. 5), pp. 498-512. Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA: Belknap. “HUNT AND VITELL, op cit., Ref. 5. 9~~~~~~,
288
and teleological
viewpoints
The deontologicaVteleologica1 dichotomy provides another perspective for assessing the ethical nature of behaviour.” The deontological viewpoint examines the actions or behaviours of an individual and is primarily concerned with the basic morality of an action. The teleological viewpoint focuses on the consequences of actions or behaviours and is concerned with the beneficial or harmful results of an action. A deontologist would argue that software copying is always harmful because it is theft of intellectual property, and theft is fundamentally immoral. A teleologist might argue that there are situations in which software copying is acceptable. For example, if a program is no longer marketed and consumers are unable to buy copies, then a teleologist would maintain that copying is reasonable because the benefits are greater than the harm. What is classified as ethical or unethical behaviour is clearly dependent on the frame of reference within which an action is judged. Since
R.T. WATSON AND L.F. PITT
there are several frameworks for assessing ethical behaviour, definitions of ethics vary. However, most definitions rely on the general notion that there are some actions that society defines as right or wrong. For example, Toffler” states ‘. . . ethical has to do with the general conception of right and wrong in the attitudes of individuals and the communities (institutions) of which they are part’. De George13 writes that ethics is ‘. . . a systematic attempt, through the use of reason, to make sense of our individual and social moral experience, in such a way as to determine the rules that ought to govern human conduct and the values worth pursuing in life’. Taylor14 defines ethics as ‘. . . inquiry into the nature and grounds of morality where the term morality is taken to mean moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct’. A slightly modified version of Taylor’s definition is adopted by Vitell and Davisi’ in their investigation of the ethical beliefs of MIS professionals. This study follows their example, and information technology ethics is defined as the inquiry into the nature and grounds of moral judgements, standards, and rules of conduct in situations involving information technology decisions.
Ethics and information
“TOFFLER, R.L. (1986). Tough Choices: Managers Talk Efhics. New York, NY: Wiley. 13~~ GEORGE, R.T. (1982). Business Ethics. New York, NY: Macmillan. 14TAYLOR, p.w. (1975). Principles of Ethics: An Introduction. Encino, CA: Dickson. %ITELL, S.J. AND DAVIS, D.L. (1990). Ethical beliefs of MIS professionals: the frequency and opportunity for ethical behavior, Journal of Business Ethics, 9 (No. l), pp. 63-70. 16~~~~~~~~, op. cit., Ref. 3.
technology
The scope of decisions concerning the use of information technology can be international, national, organizational or personal, and these decisions can have economic, political or social consequences. The interplay of decision scope and consequence are displayed in Table 2, where each cell contains an example of a decision or issue that has a moral dimension. An example of an organizational issue is a firm’s decision not to patent an invention to keep the knowledge proprietary. As a consequence, there may be a net social loss because the decision affects the output of knowledge workers who could gain from access to the information. Also, the inventor does not receive the social and professional recognition that often accompanies an invention. The firm’s defence might be that it will be unable to recoup a reasonable return on its R&D if the knowledge enters the public domain. It is conceded that an example in a particular cell may well have aspects of the other factors, however the purpose is to illustrate the major scope and consequence parameters. Some of the examples in Table 2 represent problems that are not unique to information technology. For instance, issues such as unfair competition, displacement of workers by technology, and manipulation of information for personal gain have been debated for many years. Information technology has made some of these issues more pervasive and shortened the reaction time that society has to deal with these issues. Also, new concerns, such as computer games that may encourage aggressive behaviour in children, have emerged. Some of these concerns arise and diffuse so rapidly that society has almost no time to consider their consequences. If society cannot fashion a timely response, then maybe those individuals who are at the beginning of the decision chain should accept greater responsibility for considering the ethical aspects of their decisions. Another framework for considering ethical issues of information technology is put forward by McFarlan, i6 who organizes the issues in the field as follows:
Personal computing
ethics
Table 2. A framework
for classifying
ethical
issues
in information
technology
international
National
Organizational
Personal
Economic
Unfair competition by subsidizing sales of information technology in foreign markets
Loss of low skill jobs with the introduction of robotics
Development of an information system that gives a corporation monopolistic power
Playing computer games during working hours
Political
Sale of information technology used in the surveillance of citizens
The manipulation of the national standards setting process to gain an advantage for a particular supplier’s product
The setting of development priorities to favour a particular functional area
Filtering and distorting information to influence decision-making
Social
Recruitment of highly skilled information technologists from Third World countries
Acredit bureau database with inadequate security procedures
Failure to patent an invention in order to keep the knowledge proprietary
Production of computer games that encourage aggressive behaviour in children
1. 2. 3. 4.
“FERRELL,
O.C.
AND
GRESHAM,
L.G.
(1985). A contingency framework for understanding ethical decision making in marketing, Journal ofA4arketing,49 (SumEer), pp. 87-96. MASON, R.O. (1986). Four ethical issues of the information age, MIS Quartedy, 10 (No. l), pp. S-12.
290
Privacy issues external to the firm. Privacy issues internal to the firm. Information as a new monopoly. Property rights to software, patents, erty.
copyrights,
intellectual
prop-
McFarlan also compares the relevance of ethical issues of 1977 and 1987 and points to two areas where interest had changed from medium to very high: the issues of software copyrights and interest, and technology intrusiveness (ethics, monopoly, and privacy). These issues, McFarlan importance to the business practitioner. argues, are of paramount Awareness of the broader dimensions will help practitioners to avoid inadvertent harm as well as financial damage to individuals and organizations. Ferrell and Gresham” have similar sentiments, although on a wider front. They stress that unethical behaviour by managers can have serious results for business, not only in the possible form of litigation, but also in a potential lack of productivity as employees increase their own welfare at the expense of the company’s. Another approach to classifying ethical issues is Mason’s’* focus on four key concerns and the questions they raise: 1. Privacy - what information about one’s self or one’s associations must a person reveal to others, under what conditions and with what safeguards? 2. Accuracy who is responsible for the authenticity, fidelity and accuracy of information; who is accountable for errors in information; and how is an injured party to be made whole? 3, Property - who owns information; what are the just and fair prices for its exchange; who owns information channels; how should access be allocated? 4. Accessibility what information does one have a right or privilege to obtain, under what conditions and under what safeguards?
R.T. WATSON
“MCFARLAN, op. cit., Ref. 3. op. cit., Ref. 18. “WEBER, A. (1985). Ethics, conduct standards brand the real professionals, Data Manugemenf, 23 (No. 5), pp. 12-13. 22tfElDE, D. AND HIGHTOWER, J.K. (1983). Organizations, ethics and the computing profession, Journal of Systems Management, November, pp. 38-42. ‘“MASON,
=RENDER,
B.,
NER,
RUTH,
E.P.,
COFFINRERGER, S.R.
AND
R.,
GARD-
SAMUELS,
L.
(1986). Perspectives on computer ethics and crime, Business, 36 (No. I), pp. 30-36. “VITELL AND DAVIS, op. cit., Ref. 15. “MASON, op. cit., Ref. 18. ‘%s coNcx~ss (1986). ~nreZiec~~a1 Property Rights in Age of Electronics and Information. Washington, DC: US Government. (OTA-CIT-302). 270ECD (1989). Competition Policy and Intellectual Properry Rights. Paris: OECD.
AND
L.F. PITT
In summary, three frameworks for considering ethical issues in information technology were presented. Our framework is based on the interaction of a decision’s scope and its consequences. McFarlan” and Mason2’ define broad themes for grouping issues. Our bias towards consequences reflects a teleological perspective, while McFarlan and Mason could be construed as having a deontological outlook because they raise questions concerned with the fundamental morality of actions. Prior research on ethical issues in information technology has mainly addressed the topic from the perspective of what are the problems and what are appropriate codes of behaviour (e.g. Weber,‘l and Heide and Hightower22). There have been some empirical studies. A comparison of students’ and managers’ attitudes to eight computer-related scenarios was made by Render, Coffinberg, Gardner, Ruth and Samuelsz3 Generally, they found managers were harsher than students in their judgement of the wrongness of a situation. The frequency and opportunity for unethical behaviour by MIS professionals have been studied by Vitell and Davis, 24who report that while MIS professionals feel there are many opportunities for unethical behaviour, they believe that MIS managers are unlikely to engage in such behaviour. The ethical challenge facing information technologists stems from the very nature of information - it is the means through which the mind expands and increases its capacity to achieve its goals, often as the result of interaction with other minds. Information forms the intellectual capital from which human beings craft their lives and secure dignity.25 People’s intellectual capital is impaired whenever it is stolen from them - such as when they lose their personal information without being adequately compensated. Other important ethical concerns arise when people are precluded from information that is of value to them, when they have revealed information that they hold intimate (and it is used without their knowledge or permission), or when they find that the information on which their living depends is in error. Intellectual property law is one answer to some of the ethical challenges raised by information’s characteristics. In most western societies, the guiding principle of intellectual property law is to encourage the dissemination of intellectual works for the benefit of all citizens. As an incentive to authors and inventors to share the benefits of their efforts, governments provide them with an intellectual property legal system to protect their work? The most important aspect of this system is the ability of the inventor to exclude imitation.” However, the system was designed for an era when intellectual works were distributed on paper, the limited number of printers could be policed, and most inventions were material products not easily copied by individual consumers. Authors and inventors were protected because it was relatively straightforward to police and enforce intellectual property law. Today, some intellectual property, such as software, is distributed electronically, and many citizens have unencumbered access to low-cost reproduction technologies. Although there are laws to protect intellectual property, the pervasiveness and private nature of copying facilities make it extremely difficult to police those laws. Thus, the intellectual property system, like many legal systems, has to reiy on widespread compliance. Society has to agree that intellectual property, like private property, deserves protection. If the legal system cannot provide the necessary inducements and protection, then society may
291
Personal
computing
ethics
need to rely on traditional values such as trustworthiness, honesty, and codes of behaviour. However, it would appear that traditional values are not working. Software piracy costs the US software industry $67000 million annually. Also, some governments do not appear to regard social norms as relevant. A study’* of seven South American and Asia nations reports that protection of intellectual rights is viewed primarily as an economic issue, not as an issue of right or wrong. So for example, Taiwan which had a lackadaisical attitude to protecting software, is now enforcing copyright laws to protect its nascent software industry.29 However, this may not be enough if social norms do not support compliance because policing can be very costly. Indeed, societies whose social customs lead to high compliance with intellectual property laws may well gain a competitive advantage because their domestic intellectual industries should be more profitable. Thus, we would argue that the ethical aspect of intellectual property rights should not be treated independently of economic issues.
The study As a starting point of enquiry into the nature and grounds of moral judgement of information technology decisions (to partly echo Taylor’s3’ definition), this paper examines attitudes to some personal computing decisions. The scenario method was used with a convenience sample of IS professionals and end-users. The study took place in Western Australia. Clearly, the results may not generalize to the broad population of end-users and IS professionals. Nevertheless, this study has value because it demonstrates a method for assessing attitudes to ethical issues in information technology, contributes to the accumulation of knowledge, and provides a basis for future research. The study focuses on the personal decision-making dimension of the framework illustrated in Table 2. Ethical issues in personal computing were selected because of the widespread organizational use of PCs and because personal computing is creating new ethical concerns.31 Hypotheses
“GADBAW,
R.M.
AND
RICHARDS,
I-.,.
(EDS)
(1988). Intellectual Property Rights: Global Consensus, Global Conflict? Boulder, CO: Westview. *9~~~~~, M. (1989). Taiwan buckles its past, Science, 122 (No. 1668, June lo), pt. 35-37. TAYLOR, op. cit., Ref. 14. 3’~~~~~, op. cit., Ref. 21.
292
There is a dearth of theory to guide the formation of hypotheses regarding attitudes towards personal computing issues. Hence, it was decided to take a twofold approach to the generation of hypotheses. First, consideration was given to possible differences in the behaviour of IS professionals and end-users. Second, existing theory on the relationship between reported behaviour and the perceptions of peer behaviour was used to derive hypotheses. Two major classes of personal computer users, end-users and IS professionals, can be identified. Typical IS professionals, because of their education and work experience, might be expected to have a different attitude towards personal computing issues. For example, it might be expected that IS professionals would comprehend more clearly than other professionals the intellectual effort required to develop a program for a personal computer, and as a result, they might have different behaviour regarding illegal copying of software. Also, IS professionals could be more conscious of the gravity of some ethical concerns in personal computing because these issues have been aired for
R.T. WATSON AND
L.F. PITT
some time in the trade press, and this enhanced awareness might have influenced the formation of their attitudes. If IS professionals and end-users differ in their attitudes to personal computing issues, then management may well have to formulate different policies for dealing with each group. Thus, for the very practical consideration of the development of personal computing ethics policy, it is important to discover whether the two groups’ beliefs and behaviour are distinguishable. Consequently, the following hypotheses were formulated about personal computing issues: Hl There is no difference between end-users and IS professionals regarding their reported behaviour. HZ There is no difference between end-users and IS professionals in their reported beliefs of what is wrong. H3 There is no difference between end-users and IS professionals in their perception of the behaviour of their peers. H4 There is no difference between end-users and IS professionals in their perception of the beliefs of their peers. It is often difficult to get respondents to admit to the real level with which they commit an action that is illegal, socially unacceptable, or even wrong to some slight degree. One approach to overcoming this problem is the projective method of asking respondents to indicate their perceptions of what their peers do or believe.32 Peer-based reports may be a better indicator of what is really happening and what people really believe. Prior research indicates that peer-based reports are different from self-reports3” and that perceived peers’ behaviour and beliefs influence personal behaviour. 34 Respondents generally report that their peers are more likely to display unethical behaviour, and thus the foitowing directional hypotheses are formulated: H5 Respondents report to display unethical H6 Respondents report to display a lenient
that their peers are more likely than themselves behaviour. that their peers are more likely than themselves attitude to unethical behaviour.
The scenario method, which is widely used in ethics research and has been applied to computing issues (see Render et d3”), was used to determine attitudes and behaviour to ethical issues in personal computing. Respondents were asked to express an opinion on a variety of situations that could be construed as being deceitful or dishonest. Twenty scenarios of possible and not uncommon occurrences in personal computing were developed from personal experience, a review of the trade press, and discussions with colleagues. The scenarios were designed to produce a range of responses, and the instrument was tested with some 100 subjects to ensure that this happened. The scenarios are presented in Table 3, which shows that they vary in gravity from a clearly dishonest action (situation 8) to a relatively minor transgression (situation 11). Respondents were required to indicate the extent to which): 3Z~nx~~, R.E. (1978). Fraudulent behavior by consumers, Journal of Marketing, 42
(No. 4),
1.
pp. 67-75.
33~~~~~~, op. cit., Ref. 32. 34~~~~~~~ ANDGRESHAM,O~. cit.,Ref. 17. 35~~~~~~ ET AL., op. cit., Ref. 23.
2.
a scenario describes their behaviour (using a seven-point scale anchored on ‘never’ and ‘very often’); they believe the action described in a scenario is wrong (using a seven-point scale anchored on ‘not at all wrong’ and ‘very wrong’); 293
Personal computing
ethics
Table 3. Scenarios 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12. 13.
14.
15.
16.
Copying software for home use. A firm has purchased a licensed version of the newest spreadsheet for use on a company PC. Although the licence restricts usage to a single PC, an employee makes a copy, which is taken home and installed on the family PC. Buying software overseas. On a visit to a foreign country without copyright laws, a person purchases a copy of a top-selling word processor for $50, which sells for $800 in her home country. Copying rather than free upgrade. An individual has a licensed copy of version 3.1 of a database system. When a friend purchases version 4.0, he asks for a copy rather than sending in his original disk to get the free upgrade. Selling copies of software. An individual recovers the $150 spent on buying a licensed copy of a flight simulator program by selling three copies, and no more, to friends for $50 a piece. Non-payment for shareware. A person makes frequent use of a communications program obtained through a user group. The author of the software has inserted a start-up message that reminds, every time the program is used, that the author would like a one-time payment of $20. He ignores the message. Consumables for personal use. A woman has just purchased a home computer for her children, who are at high school, to use for their homework and assignments. She takes home from work a carton of continuous stationery and a box of 10 diskettes. Consumables for business use. An employee finds it very hard, because of interruptions, to complete important reports at work, so she purchases, with her money, a PC for home. As this computer is almost totally used for work matters, it is her habit to use company supplied consumables (paper, disks, and printer ribbons). Graphics board swap. When the graphics board in his home PC fails, an employee swaps it with his work PC’s graphic board and reports the failure to PC support services, who supply a replacement board. Labels for home business. An employee’s spouse starts a small mail order business from home, and the employee prints masters of the business’s forms on the laser printer at work. Labels for youth group. A person spends half-an-hour a month, after normal work finishing time, using a company PC and stationery to print a mailing list for his children’s youth group. Additional back-up copies. Despite the licensee’s statement restricting the purchaser to two back-up copies of a word processing program, an employee makes four copies just to be on the safe side. Photocopying a guide book. An employee makes a photocopy of an expensive, but readily available, operating system guidebook. Use of portable PC for own business. Nearly every weekend, an employee takes home the firm’s portable PC, which is used extensively for his part-time business. Software rental. A person establishes a business to rent licensed copies of software, for which she charges a weekly rental that is 20 per cent of the retail price. She continues in business even when she discovers that many customers illegally copy the rented software. Copying software for evaluation. In order to evaluate several new programs, an employee makes copies of licensed versions for use on his work PC. After three weeks, he erases the copies and orders one of the programs. Modifying demo software. An individual discovers how to amend a limited, evaluation version of a database program to gain access to continued
294
on page
295
R.T. WATSON AND L.F. PITT
Table 3. continued
17.
18.
19.
20.
3.
4.
the full functionality of the software. She anonymously publishes the instructions for making the change on a number of bulletin boards. The limited version of the program costs $20 and the full version costs $1000. Failure to document. An employee develops a number of useful spreadsheet routines that only she knows how to use. She does not document these routines. Taking a mailing list. Over a period of a year, an employee develops a mailing list of 1000 key customers on his work PC. When he leaves to join a competitor, he takes a copy of the mailing list with him. Selling templates. During working hours, a person creates a spreadsheet template that does a number of important and time-consuming financial calculations. Unbeknown to her employer, she sells copies of the template to a number of other companies. Buying software beyond requirements. Although an employee knows a $500 program will do her employer’s required task, she decides to order a $1000 version because it has some advanced features that she wishes to learn.
a scenario describes the behaviour of their peers (using a sevenpoint scale anchored on ‘never’ and ‘very often’); their peers believe the action described in a scenario is wrong (using a seven-point scale anchored on ‘not at all wrong’ and ‘very wrong’).
The only demographic data collected was whether the respondent was an IS professional or end-user. No other demographic data was collected, because it was considered that respondents might be less likely to respond to what might be a sensitive issue if there was any possibility that they could be identified. Also, there was no presupposition that demographic factors would make a difference in attitudes. In the first stage of data collection, a copy of the questionnaire and a covering letter were sent to 20 IS managers in large Western Australian organizations. These managers were asked to assist the study by supplying the names and addresses of staff who were personal computer users. Also, IS managers were asked to distinguish between IS professional and end-users. Nine IS managers agreed to assist, and the organizations represented include a mining company, a local government authority, four state government departments, two utilities, and In the second stage of data collection, a an insurance company. questionnaire, covering letter, and reply-paid envelope were sent to 290 persons, of whom 151 had been identified as end-users and 139 as IS professionals. Different coloured questionnaires were used for each group so that the response rate by group could be determined and respondents who had been misclassified could be detected. The response rate was 44 per cent. As five of the responses were unusable, the effective response rate was 42 per cent. It was clear from the returns that many respondents classified by IS managers as endusers considered themselves IS professionals. Of the 123 usable responses, 91 (74 per cent) were from IS professionals and 32 (26 per cent) from end-users. Results The data were analysed
using multivariate
analysis
of variance
with a 5
295
Personal computing
ethics
Table 4. Activities
occurring
property theft
Material theft Unprofessional Understandable
296
than illegal
photocopying
conduct
Copying software for home use Buying software overseas Non-payment for shareware Copying software for evaluation Labels for home business Labels for youth group Failure to document Buying software beyond requirements Consumables for business use at home
cent significance level. None of the six hypotheses was rejected. No difference was found between end-users and IS professionals in either their beliefs or attitudes to issues in personal computing. As expected from prior ethics research, respondents perceive that their peers are likelier to commit a particular action than themselves and are less likely to assess a particular action as wrong. The perceived behaviour of peers, compared with self-reports of behaviour, is possibly a more accurate indication of common practice.36 Another useful reference point is the reported level of photocopying. Photocopiers have been available for some time, and most readers will be aware of the extent to which photocopying occurs in their organization. Nine activities are reported to happen more frequently than photocopying an entire book, an infringement of copyright law (interestingly, with a mean score of 4.07, illegal photocopying is near the midpoint of the seven-point scale). These activities are categorized in Table 4. Their significance is dependent upon one’s particular vested interest. Obviously, software manufacturers will be concerned with the perceived frequency of intellectual property theft, as software sales are their main form of income. Other organizations are unlikely to be bothered by this issue because it should have minimal financial impact upon them - they lose nothing, and the corporation, as such, has committed no illegal act. Furthermore, organizations may be able to protect themselves from possible litigation by requiring all personal computer users to regularly sign a statement specifying that they will not illegally copy software licensed to the enterprise. Organizations will have some concern for the theft of their property, but the incidents are fairly low cost. Of more concern to organizations is the failure to document spreadsheet routines and the procurement of software that costs more than that required for the task. Such incidents may eventually cost more than the loss of a few hundred labels. The use of company consumables for company work on a home computer is understandable and represents a very good deal for organizations, who would hardly wish to discourage such activity. Respondents’ perceptions of their peers’ beliefs are also likely to be a more accurate guide to prevailing organizational attitudes. Again, photocopying is used as a lodestar. Nine activities are judged as less wrong than photocopying a guidebook (again the mean score at 4.10 is near the midpoint of the scale), and these are categorized in Table 5. In most cases, the activities considered less wrong than illegal photocopying also occur more frequently than illegal photocopying (see Table per
“LANE, G.S. AND WATSON, G.L. (1975). A Canadian republican of Mason Haire’s ‘shopping list’ study, Journal of Marketing Science, Winter, pp. 4%59; pm, L.F. AND ABRATT, R. (1986). Corruption in business - are management attitudes right?, Journal of Business Ethics, 5, pp. 3944; WILKES, op. cit., Ref. 32.
frequently
Activity
Category Intellectual
more
R.T. WATSON AND L.F. PITT
Table 5. Activjties co~sjdered
Category Intellectual
less wrong than j~/egal photocopying Activity
property theft
Material theft Unprofessional Understandable
conduct
Copying software for home use Buying software overseas Non-payment for shareware Software rental Copying software for evaluation Labels for home business Labels for youth group Failure to document Buying software beyond requirements Copying rather than free upgrade Additional back-up copies Consumables for business use
The exceptions are copying rather than a free upgrade, additional back-up copies, and software rental. 4).
Discussion The results of this study suggest that there is no difference in the behaviour and attitudes of end-users and IS professionais to illegal, unethical, or unprofessional conduct matters in personal computing. One might have suspected that IS professionals, who could be expected to empathize with software publishers because of their appreciation of the intellectual effort required to produce a saleable program, would have views different from end-users on intellectual misappropriation. This is not the case. The choice of photocopying a guide book as a benchmark of respondents’ perception of their peers’ behaviour and beliefs provides a ready means of assessing what is happening in organizations and what employees believe. When it is considered that copying software is less time-consuming, less visible, and perceived as less wrong than photocopying a book, then it is not surprising that illegal software copying is reckoned to be occurring slightly more often than unlawful photocopying. Readers wishing to quickly appraise the wrongness of some event could ask their peers to assess how wrong that event is relative to copying a complete book. Clearly, software suppliers have a problem when two major consumer groups, IS professionals and end-users, have a somewhat ambivalent attitude to the wrongness of copying their work-supplied software for home use. It is unlikely to be in an organization’s financial interest to discourage employees copying, because it is probable that employees sometimes use the software to undertake organizational work on their home computer. It is also likely that organizations can readily protect themselves from prosecution by software suppliers by reguiarly issuing a warning to all employees that they must not illegally copy software. However, one could argue that organizations have a social responsibility to ensure that their employees do not break the law and that they should develop policies and procedures to deter software copying. In addition, they need to recognize that some employees use their home computers for work purposes and should be provided with appropriate software.
297
Personal computing
ethics
Indeed, a ‘free’ software policy for staff with home computers might be a sound investment for the organization. This study has three important limitations. First, it was conducted in Western Australia and a convenience sample was used. The results may not be applicable in other settings. The study, or variations on it, needs to be repeated in other social and cultural settings to provide an accumulation of evidence on behaviour and attitudes to issues in personal computing. Second, the particular selection of scenarios used in the study was based on the authors’ local knowledge and some may not be appropriate in other settings and might give different results. Third, as with all survey research with a response rate less than 100 per cent, there is a danger that respondents are not typical of the population surveyed. However, we do not believe that there were any factors in the nature of the survey or its administration that would have produced a biased sample. Because there has been very little prior research into ethical issues in personal computing, there are many opportunities for future research. This study compared IS professionals with the broad group of end-users. It might be fruitful to explore the attitudes of end-users belonging to professions, such as medicine or accounting, which have wellestablished codes of professional conduct. Another possible study is to discern what impact company policy has on behaviour and beliefs. Do employees in organizations with clear policy on end-user computing behave differently? As we move towards a post-industrial society that is heavily reliant upon intellectual effort for wealth creation, it is important that we assess people’s attitudes to intellectual products. In particular, we should be concerned with personal computing because the PC is the intellectual lever of many knowledge workers. IS professionals’ behaviour and attitudes towards issues in personal computing might be regarded as a bellwether of social opinion because these people are both producers and consumers of software. They could be expected to have a high regard for protecting data and the results of intellectual effort. Research into behaviour and attitudes towards personal computing can provide elucidating glimpses into society’s concern for the products of the post-industrial era.