The Ethics of Knowledge Management

Copy is prohibited. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this article is to suggest why knowledge management (KM) research and practice needs an ethics dimension and to identify questions to help develop that ethical dimension. As such, the article is best classified as a discussion rather than as a research paper. Although KM has become an important interdisciplinary area of study both within the domain of information systems and beyond, there has been relatively little discussion on the ethical issues, despite its relevance to KM systems and the interaction of actors, processes, and technology in all aspects of KM from design to actual use. By ethical issues, we refer to the underlying motives for the introduction of KM systems, the way they are actually used and the impact of their use on individuals, the organization, and society. Ethical issues are also relevant to the researcher studying KM, where the subject being researched and the way the research is conducted can raise ethical issues. KM motivations and behaviour are intertwined with power relations and the self-interests of engaged actors, including researchers, and where during the design, implementation use and research into KM systems, dilemmas, sometimes explicit, but more often tacit, may affect behaviour. The public discussion around the relationship between business organizations and “social responsibility” is a relatively recent phenomenon. The discussion has been a useful one for reminding business organizations, and government at times, of their position, relationship, and responsibility to a social world beyond their corporate boundaries. In doing so the discussion introduces the concept of accountability which is helpful for thinking about the ethical dimensions relating to KM systems, processes and research. Furthermore, the article draws attention to the distinction between the subject matter of Knowledge Management and the much older topic, not specifically articulated within the IS discipline, of the Management of Knowledge. The latter is more concerned with the manipulation (and often distortion) of knowledge to obtain desired outcome (Land, Amjad & Nolas, 2004). The article draws from examples where the design, implementation, and use of KM systems and processes overlooked questions of accountability — what we have called the “In science, knowledge is an unmixed good; in ethics and politics it is bad as well as good” -John Gray (2003) The Ethics of Knowledge Management