Ethics for Information Resource Management: The Role of Objective Ethical Standards in Decision-Making

While ethics research has gained prominence among the IS community, few have argued explicitly for an objective standard in ethical decision-making. This oversight has left many researchers using subjective standards or an amalgamation of ethic perspectives when analyzing decision-making in organizations. In this paper, we argue that an objective standard is critical to ethical research and that Objectivism, the philosophy discovered by Ayn Rand, provides the best such standard. This standard suggests a rethinking of IT business value and the role of ethics in the decision-making process. Research questions and propositions suggest further studies.