Chapter 5: End-of-Chapter Questions
1. Morals should be the most uniform
because they are based on a judgment of right or wrong, as viewed by society
rather than particular countries. Ethics would probably be the least uniform
because of the strong influence of culture.
2. The legal restrictions on computer use
by the government have dealt primarily with databases of information on private
citizens.
3. Top management creates an ethics
culture by stating the corporate credo, creating ethics programs, and
establishing a code of ethics for the firm.
4. Internal commitments consist of those
of employees to the firm, of the firm to the employees, and of employees to
employees. External commitments include those to customers, communities, and
stockholders.
5. An
ethics program can include new employee orientations and ethics audits.
6. The CIO
must be alert to the ethical implications
of computer use and must formulate policies that ensure such use is achieved.
7. Everyone in the firm is responsible for
ethics.
8. Logical malleability means that the
computer will do whatever it is told to do.
9. The transformation factor means the
computer can exert a dramatic change on the way we do things.
10. The invisibility factor takes the form
of invisible programming values, invisible complex calculations, and invisible
abuse.
11. Deborah Johnson views computer ethics in
terms of society’s rights to access to computers and computer skills, to
assistance by computer specialists when necessary, and to influence decisions
concerning how computers are applied.
12. Richard Mason uses the acronym PAPA to
capture his view of rights-—to privacy, accuracy, property, and access.
13. The contract is a commitment by the firm
to respect society’s rights as defined by PAPA.
14. The influences consist of (from top to
bottom in the hierarchy) laws, corporate ethics culture and professional codes
of ethics, and social and personal pressures.
15. Employees can be publicly recognized
for exceptional ethical behavior. Supervisors can be asked to report any
instances that deserve recognition, and the recognition can come in the form of
articles in the company publications, awards (monetary and nonmonetary),
recognition at company gatherings, and so on.
Topics for
Discussion
Answers will vary for all
of these Discussion Questions (1-7).
3. You can focus on the other environmental
elements from Chapter 2, which include suppliers, competitors, government, financial community, and labor unions.