The problem of integrating ethics into IS practice

In this paper we discuss a number of implications which follow from the way that the information systems discipline has developed, largely separately, from computer ethics. These include the tendency of quantitative IS studies on ethics to focus on ethical decision making as the most significant activity in the business of behaving morally meaning that other aspects of moral behaviour are overlooked. A second, significant, implication is the difficulty of integrating ethical practice into IS development. This is manifest initially in terms of IS education but later in relation to the development, and use, of IS in the workplace. Focusing on information systems development, we discuss practice, focusing on ethics and IS practice especially rationalistic approach to decision making, the support that conventional development methodologies offer the moral agent followed by learning to practice or the business of integrating ethics into IS education and how to turn moral decision making into teachable ethical constructs. We conclude by offering some suggestions for future directions.