Ethical Issues:

in Virtual Environments Managing Knowledge

Dr. Andrea Hornett

Penn State

Knowledge Management Group of Philadelphia

March Meeting 2005,

UNISYS Corp.

Todays Format & Flow

1.

2. 3.

Round-Robin of experiences / ethical dilemmas with audience participationMapping experiences vis a vis the various ethical paradigms Review of trends in ethics & KM Speculations about the future

Differing Views on Ethics:

Ethics: Standards of moral conduct; judgments about whether human behavior is right or wrong.
(Source: Hackman & Johnson, 2002, Leadership)

Ethics: live a good life, act justly as well as decide and judge rationally our actions and our forms of living and working.
(Source: Cane, 1994, Financial Times)

The Dictionary Says A discipline dealing with good and evil and with moral duty.

Can we talk?

Round Robin of Ethical Issues

Different Ethical Paradigms

.
Me
Values Clarification (Rokeach)
Ones Own Values

Us Moral Development Kohlberg Situational Values Rests Model Trends: Competing Values Of Multiple Obligations / Competing Duties

Shoulds Normative Kant; Aristotle; Hobbes Light of Day

Ideas from my students interpretations

Accountability?

No connection of actions to consequences and vice versa. Lying about it when caught worse than unethical acts (HBR Miss Manners). Many values >ethics, especially getting ahead and taking care of family Winners (aka Leaders) deserve more than others. The Alphas get the toys.

Effective Ethics Program:

1.

1.

2.
3.

4.

Establish corporate standards & procedures (S & P). Appoint at least one high level individual to oversee compliance. Require all to participate in training or at least read about the S & P. Implement monitoring & auditing systems. Enforce the standards detect & prevent.

Legal Compliance
The

tip of iceberg:

Gestalt Principles Help to explain the phenomena anesthetized

Principles that Heighten Awareness Perception Principle- data is clearly and sharply focused vs. background state Co-Existence Principle data that is opposite but counter-balancing (heart vs. mind). Realization Principle data that is intimately personally perceived vs. present but unrecognized (perhaps foggy) data Present Principle Data that is dealt with in the here-an-now vs. past or future data. Principles that Anesthetize Perception Blind-Faith Principle uncritical acceptance of another persons values Shifting-Responsibility PrincipleMaking another person responsible for your behavior. People-Pleasing Principle Continuous buying into another persons value system in order to be identified with that person. Diversion Principle The warding off of the main issue to a peripheral or insignificant issue.

Criteria of Heightened Ethical Awareness & Discernment

Principles that Heighten Awareness Perception Principle- data is clearly and sharply focused vs. background state Co-Existence Principle data that is opposite but counterbalancing (heart vs. mind). Realization Principle data that is intimately personally perceived vs. present but unrecognized (perhaps foggy) data Present Principle Data that is dealt with in the here-an-now vs. past or future data. Implications for the Management Aspects of Ethical Decision Making & KM: Question Data check/recheck Values Clarification

Ask for implications Identify trends Note: 1st is Six Sigma; Second is McKinsey 7 S; final two are SYSTEMS Thinking.

Necessary but not sufficient

Need ethical discernment in DM, not just legal compliance Decision making cultures that reduce anesthesia

And.hit a moving target Increase in globalization and virtual nature of decision environments increase both the amount and the nature of ethical dilemmas.

KM lives in Virtual World

Ubiquity of computers and networks raises new issues and increases complexity -> Copyright infringement Corporate assets for personal use: email, Internet searches Privacy & use of data on individuals Extend company ethics to vendors?

A Gap
There is often a gap between ethics in the workplace and the sense of what is right and wrong in the family or with friends. At work vs at Home

[Source: Hodel-Widmer & Luthi, ETHICOMP.]

Why the Gap? What is Work Like?

5 Factors: Peer Pressure Conflict Avoidance Market Factors Speed Environments

1. Peer Pressure
Peer

pressures at work tend to create conforming behaviors, less freedom / liberty than at home. No data on how working from home may change this (or not).

2. Competition
Paradoxically,

competition generates conflict avoidance. Competitive pressures both within and outside work environments tend to create behaviors that avoid open conflict (little dialogue around values). Lack of fully collaborative electronic communications serves to further limit such dialogue.

3. Market Forces
Market

pressures at work tend to create cultures of action (not reflection, a key ingredient in ethical discernment).

4. Speed
Increase

in speed of transactions and decrease in personal interactions moves accountability from persons to systems (making accountability more ambiguous).

5. Environments
Organizational

environments create internal organizational dynamics. These organizing mechanisms respond to the relative variability and instability of the corporations environment.

Organizing Mechanisms derive from environmental factors

^
| V A R I A B I L

Networks

Virtual Organizations

Markets

Hierarchies

I
T Y | o ---- -----------

I N S T A B I L I T Y > ----------------------------------

Assumptions:

Virtual forms will proliferate due to increasing levels of complexity and variability in environments. Therefore, managing across geographic and organizational boundaries will be critical. Therefore, knowledge management strategies are also critical. The temporary, morphing/modulating nature of virtual organizations poses unique ethical issues.

Some Current Scandals & Organizational Type

Network Virtual WorldCom, Qwest, Enron Global Crossing Arthur Anderson Quattrone / First Martha Stewart Boston Market Hierarchy Krispy Kreme TYCO Health South Adelphia Parmalat Boeing

Unique Ethical Issues in Virtual & Network Situations

Enron

created virtual companies to absorb loses while the parent company (a trading company, not an energy company) appeared profitable and growing. Telecom companies (WorldCom, Global Crossing) booked assets to both partners in swap deals creating virtual trade winners and no losers in a zero sum game.

Prospective Ethical Issues in Virtual Organizations

A virtual enterprise is created for a specific market opportunity. After the goal is completed, some partners create a new virtual organization with competencies acquired from the joint project. Is that ethical? Is it ethical that one firm works at the same time in two virtual organizations if each of the partners are competitors? Who is the responsible / accountable party in a virtual partnership if there is no single legal entity? Virtual firms can allocate projects to lower cost countries with unregulated working conditions - Off-shoring is essential virtual.
Source: Mario Arias Oliva, The ETHICOMP E-Journal vol.1.

To the Contrary
Virtual

organizations actually offer opportunities for a more ethical, more equitable society and corporate environment. And, virtual organizations are more democratic always a good thing.

Virtual = Team = Ethical Values

Virtual organizations offer community, excellence, integrity, respect for the individual Lead to > character, profile, and a positive climate and culture for the company. Distance is irrelevant therefore a new kind of collaboration is possible. Time is compressed and memory is electronically available.
Source: Thomas B. Hodel-Widmer &Ambros P. Luthi, ETHICOMP Journal

More Benefits

Because everybody can speak at the same time in asynchronous computer meetings, fewer ideas are forgotten and more ideas are born. The participants do not have to follow the meeting permanently without having the time to form their opinion. In computer-supported meetings there is no dominance of team members due to position or other qualities. There is no monopolizing of a discussion by certain team members because of their position, their character or other reasons. Teams with communicationsupporting systems recognize errors, problems and dead ends in ideas more quickly. Teams with information supporting system have more information at their disposal than teams without such systems. Therefore, they can make better decisions. Source: Hodel-Widmer & Luthi

Show of Hands

Virtual environments are more ethical

Virtual environments foster unethical behaviors

Different Ethical Theories

Me Values Clarification Rokeach Ones Own Values Taught to MBAs Us Moral Development Kohlberg OD Situational Values Rests Model Trends: Competing Values Of Multiple Obligations / Competing Duties

Shoulds Normative Kant; Aristotle; Hobbes Light of Day Legal Compliance Training

Map Your Experiences

..
Me Us

Shoulds

Trends: Competing Values Of Multiple Obligations / Competing Duties

I
N S T

Scandals & Organizational Type: Whats Your Type?

Network WorldCom, Qwest, Global Crossing Quattrone / First Boston Market Krispy Kreme Health South Virtual Enron Arthur Anderson Martha Stewart Hierarchy TYCO Adelphia Parmalat Boeing

A
B I L T Y ^

---VARIABILITY

Thank You!
I

appreciate the opportunity to explore a wiggly worm that is nowhere near the hook. Many thanks to UNISYS for the venue.

Notes Page 1

Notes Page 2

Notes Page 3

Notes Page 4

Notes Page 5

Resources:

Randy Cohen: The Good, The Bad & The Difference {ethicist from NY Times} Marianne M. Jennings, A Business Tale {Speaking at AstraZeneca today}. Ethicomp a Journal of research on ethical issues affecting computerized functions and communications. Wheeler & Sillanpaa, The Stakeholder Corporation, 1997. http://www.aicpa.org/sarbanes/index.asp newsletter Ethically Speaking