Russell W. Robbins
ABSTRACT
The objective of this research was to investigate the use of decision aid technologies to support ethical problem solving. The decision aid developed for the exploratory study described in this paper was web-based and provided content that summarized and simplified much of moral philosophy (i.e. normative ethical theory) [3, 5, 11, 13, 18, 24, 26]. The ethical dilemma was posed in case format. Participants were asked to write, and revise as necessary, a solution to the case. The decision aid was developed to address five constructs in the research model: (1) Perceived Ethical Problem, (2) Perceived Alternatives, (3) Deontological Evaluation, (4) Teleological Evaluation, and (5) an Ethic of Care. Results from analysis showed that participants that used the decision aid identified the case's main issue, personal information privacy, more frequently than participants that did not use the decision aid. Individuals with support of the decision aid discussed the need to respect equal individual rights more often. Mixed results were found concerning use of other concepts from moral philosophy. An analysis technique was used that generated and statistically analyzed graphs that described how users navigated through decision problems. First, the participants' movements were captured as they went from page to page. These data were then used to construct depth-first-search trees (a particular type of graph). Characteristics of these trees were compared statistically, and the results showed no difference in the way control or treatment users navigated. Web-based ethical decision aids can be built and used, and can improve the solutions developed by students solving cases in a laboratory environment.
- Adams, R. M. "A Modified Divine Command Theory of Ethical Wrongness." In Religion and Morality: A Collection of Essays, G. Outka and J. P. Reeder, Jr. (eds.), 318--334. New York: Doubleday, 1973.Google Scholar
- Ajzen, I. and Fishbein, M., (Eds.) Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA: Prentice-Hall, 1980.Google Scholar
- Aristotle. (350 BCE). Nicomachean Ethics. In The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, translated by F. H. Peters. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co., 1901.Google Scholar
- Banerjee, D., Cronan, T. P., and Jones, T. W. "Modeling IT Ethics: A Study in Situational Ethics." MIS Quarterly, March 1998 (22)1: 31--60. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bentham, J. (1789). Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. In W. Harrison (ed.), Oxford: Hafner Press, 1948.Google Scholar
- Chee, E., and Schneberger, S. British Columbia's PHARMANET Project. London, Ontario, Canada: University of Western Ontario - Richard Ivey School of Business, 1998.Google Scholar
- Chee, E., and Schneberger, S. British Columbia's PHARMANET Project. Teaching Note. London, Ontario, Canada: University of Western Ontario -- Richard Ivey School of Business, 1999.Google Scholar
- Communications of the ACM. "ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct." May 1992, 35(5): 94--99. Google ScholarDigital Library
- EthicsWeb.ca. http://ethicsweb.ca/.Google Scholar
- Fleischmann, K. R. and Wallace, W. A. "A Covenant with Transparency: Opening the Black Box of Models." Communications of the ACM, forthcoming. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Gilligan, C. In a different voice: psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
- Goldin, I. M., Ashley, K. D., and Pinkus, R. L. "Introducing PETE: Computer Support for Teaching Ethics." Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Law (ICAIL-2001). (Eds.) Prakken, H. and Loui, R. P. New York: Association of Computing Machinery, 2001. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hume, D. (1739). An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, In L. A. Selby-Bigge (Ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951.Google Scholar
- Hunt, S.D., and Vitell, S.J. "A general theory of marketing ethics." Journal of Macromarketing, Spring 1986, 6: 5--16.Google Scholar
- Johnson, D. G. Computer Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall, 1985. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Johnson, D. G., and Snapper, J. W. Ethical Issues in the Use of Computers. Belmont, California, USA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1985. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rindfleisch, T. "Privacy, Information Technology, and Health Care." Communications of the ACM, August 1997, 40(8): 93--100. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kant, I. (1785). Grounding of the Metaphysic of Morals, translated by Ellington, J. W. Indianapolis, Indiana, USA: Hackett Publishing Company, 1981.Google Scholar
- Laudon, K. C. "Ethical Concepts and Information Technology." Communications of the ACM, December 1995, 38(12): 33--39. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Loch, K. D. and S. Conger. "Evaluating Ethical Decision Making and Computer Use." Communications of the ACM, July 1996 39(7): 74--83. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mason, R. O. "Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age." MIS Quarterly, March 1986, 10(1): 5--12.Google Scholar
- Mason, R. O. "Applying Ethics to Information Technology Issues." Communications of the ACM, December 1995, 38(12): 55--57. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Milberg, S. J., Burke, S. J., Smith, H. J., and Kallman, E. A. "Values, Personal Information Privacy, and Regulatory Approaches." Communications of the ACM, December 1995, 38(12): 65--74. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mill, J. S. Utilitarianism. (1863). In George Sher, (Ed.) Indianapolis, Indiana, USA: Hackett Publishing Company, 1979.Google Scholar
- National Institute of Engineering Ethics. http://www.niee.org/pd.cfm?pt=NIEE.Google Scholar
- Noddings, N. Caring, a feminine approach to ethics and moral education, Berkeley, California, USA: University of California Press, 1984.Google Scholar
- Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science. http://onlineethics.org/.Google Scholar
- Oz, E. "Ethical Standards for Information Systems Professionals: A Case for a Unified Code." MIS Quarterly, December 1992, 16(4): 423--433. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Punin J., and Krishnamoorthy M. "WWWPal System - A System for Analysis and Synthesis of Web Pages." In Proceedings of the WebNet 98 Conference, Orlando, Florida, USA. November 1998.Google Scholar
- Punin, J. R. and Krishnamoorthy, M. S. "WWWPal System - A System for Analysis and Synthesis of Web Pages." http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~puninj/WEBNET/wwwpal_paper.htmlRensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Department of Computer Science, 2003.Google Scholar
- Randall, D. M. "Taking stock: Can the theory of reasoned action explain unethical conduct?" Journal of Business Ethics, November 1989, 8(11): 873--882.Google Scholar
- Rest, J. R. DIT Manual. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA: Center for the Study of Ethical Development, University of Minnesota, 1986.Google Scholar
- Rest, J. R. Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA: Center for the Study of Ethical Development, University of Minnesota, 1986.Google Scholar
- Rest, J. R. Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory. New York: Praeger Press, 1986.Google Scholar
- Saint Augustine. (410). The City of God. Translated and edited by Dods, M. New York: Random House, 1950.Google Scholar
- Sipior, J. C. and Ward, B. T. "The Ethical and Legal Quandary of Email Privacy." Communications of the ACM, December 1995, 38(12): 48--54. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Thong, J.Y.L. and Yap, C. "Testing an Ethical Decision-Making Theory." Journal of Management Information Systems, Summer 1998, 15(1): 213--237. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tuttle, B., Harrell, A., and Harrison, P. "Moral Hazard, Ethical Considerations, and the Decision to Implement an Information System." Journal of Management Information Systems, Spring 1997, 13(4): 7--27. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wallace, W. A. (ed.) Ethics in modeling. Tarrytown, New York, USA: Pergamon Press. 1994.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Supporting ethical problem solving: an exploratory investigation
Recommendations
Ethical responsibilities: the smart card engineer
ETHICS '14: Proceedings of the IEEE 2014 International Symposium on Ethics in Engineering, Science, and TechnologyAlbert Einstein in one of his philosophical notes stated: "I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it". Arguably, ethics does not necessarily mean ...
Animating the ethical demand: exploring user dispositions in industry innovation cases through animation-based sketching
Special Issue on EthicompThis paper addresses the challenge of attaining ethical user stances during the design process of products and services and proposes animation-based sketching as a design method, which supports elaborating and examining different ethical stances towards ...
Moral intensity and ethical decision-making: a contextual extension
This paper explores the role of an individual's perception of situation-specific issues on decision-making in ethical situations. It does so by examining the influence of moral intensity on a person's perceptions of an ethical problem, and subsequent ...
Comments