Applied ethics in business information units

Abstract

The primary thesis of this paper is that business information professionals commonly overlook ethical dilemmas in the workplace. Although the thesis remains unproven, the author highlights, by way of real and hypothetical case studies, a number of situations in which ethical tensions can be identified, and suggests that information professionals need to be more aware of the moral context of their actions. Resolving ethical dilemmas should be one of the aims of competent information professionals and their managers, although it is recognized that dilemmas often cannot easily be resolved. A background to the main theories of applied ethics forms the framework for later discussion.