Ethical theory, codes of ethics and IS practice

Ethical issues, with respect to computer-based information systems, are important to the individual IS practitioner. These same issues also have an important impact on the moral well-being of organizations and societies. Considerable discussion has taken place in the Information Systems (IS) literature on specific ethical issues, but there is little published work which relates these issues to mainstream ethical theory. This paper describes a range of ethical theories drawn from philosophy literature and uses these theories to critique aspects of the newly revised ACM Code of Ethics. Some in the IS field on problematic ethical issues which are not resolved by the Code are then identified and discussed. The paper draws some implications and conclusions on the value of ethical theory and codes of practice, and on further work to develop existing ethical themes and to promote new initiatives in the ethical domain.