But What IS the 'Right Thing'?: Ethics and Information Systems in the Corporate Domain

2 Over the past decade, many publications in the information systems (IS) field have focused attention on IS Fellowship Program. I am greatly indebted to Bob Hebert for his research assistance and to Allen Lee and the anonymous reviewers of MISQ Executive for their guidance and insights. ethical concerns. One of the first articles appeared in 1992 in CIO magazine under the title " Do the Right Thing. " 3 A number of similar articles followed in publications such as Computerworld and Beyond Computing. They generally followed the same " do the right thing " theme. 4 But executives might well ask, in frustration , " How do I determine what is 'right'? " Recently, a number of prominent IS-related ethical quandaries have become quite public. Here are three: • In September 2003, the New York Times revealed that JetBlue Airways had " provided a Pentagon contractor with information on more than one million of its passengers as 3 Gotterbarn, D. " Do the Right Thing, " CIO, May 15, 1992 (5:12), pp. 26-27. 4 In these articles, most of the IS ethical quandaries are set in corporate business environs, in which the decision maker is forced to make an ethical decision not as a free agent but, instead, as an agent of a corporate body. The same boundary is embraced in this article. Information systems executives, and other executives, are often prodded to " do the right thing " when they face ethical quandaries. But how do they determine what is " right " ethically, especially when the ethical quandaries occur in the corporate domain? Some individuals rely solely on their own emotions, but they often have a hard time convincing rational thinkers to embrace their position. Other individuals rely on traditional philosophical theories, but this approach is seldom optimal in the corporate domain because the traditional philosophical theories do not specifically address the corporate setting. However, two theories do address ethical quandaries in the private sector: stockholder theory and stakeholder theory. This article discusses these two theories. Stockholder theory holds that executives should resolve ethical quandaries by taking actions that maximize the long-term profits to stockholders without violating the law or engaging in fraud or deception. Stakeholder theory claims that executives should resolve ethical quandaries by balancing stakeholder interests without violating the rights of any stakeholder. These theories are explored by first applying them to a specific real-world …