Societies and individuals cannot exist without an ethical and moral code of conduct that guides acceptable and right behavior. An ethical system, whether personal or organizational, is based on the belief and value system subscribed to. However, the practical applicability of ethics is founded on ethical theories. For a long time, business entities have been labelled as organizations that lack capabilities for moral and ethical decision-making (Burt & Mansell, 2017). This is because the aim of these corporations is making profit by minimizing costs, which many achieve by any means necessary.
One of the major ethical theories by which the Chief Information Officer (CIO) can make decisions is the theory of Utilitarianism . Utilitarianism aspires to attain the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In making ethical decisions, a CIO must first consider all the stakeholders of the organization, look into the resulting benefits and the harm of his decision and chose the one that exerts more benefits over harm. This principle would be effective in the prevention of scandals that become widely publicized, harming the brand created by the organization and its reputation for professionalism, integrity and competitiveness. An example is engaging in profitable activities that benefit all, as long as the practices are ethical. This is an important ethical theory to base decisions on because logically speaking, a single person may not be in a position that holds all necessary resources geared towards the total benefit for all individuals within and without the organization, ho would be affected by their decisions.
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Deontology and Utilitarianism have been termed the ‘universal approaches’ to ethics (Chatterjee, Sarker, Moody & Lowry, 2018).
Another ethical theory on which CIO can base decisions is Kant’s Categorical Imperative, which emphasize that one should not choose a cause of action unless they are prepared for it to become a universal law, applicable to all including self. Robinson & Shah (2018), state that it is the imperfect duty of organizations to create relevant and unbiased information and disseminate it in view of business and public ideations. The CIO must thus make decisions that are profitable to the business and the general public, through the principles of universality and respect. These decisions must be absolute, making no exceptions for anyone or any circumstance (Robinson, 2018). An example is the decision not to take bribes or any form of compensation even for potentially profitable ventures, by asking oneself what kind of a world we would live in if the practice was universal.
References
Burt, E., & Mansell, S. (2017). Moral agency in charities and business corporations: Exploring
the constraints of law and regulation. Journal of Business Ethics , 1-15.
Chatterjee, S., Sarker, S., Moody, G. D., & Lowry, P. B. (2018, September). The Effect of CIO
Virtues on CIO Role Effectiveness. In 52nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2019), Maui, HI, January (pp. 8-11).
Robinson, R., & Shah, N. (2018). Business’ Environmental Obligations and Reasoned Public
Discourse: A Kantian Foundation for Analysis. Journal of Business Ethics , 1-18.
Robinson, R. M. (2018). Friendships of virtue, pursuit of the moral community, and the ends of
business. Journal of Business Ethics , 151 (1), 85-100.
