CISB412 Ethics

& IT
Professional
Practices
Work & Wealth

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Specific
How Information Technology and automation affect
workplace
changes at workplace and the impact to the society
and the morality.

College of

Photograph:
Blutgruppe/Blutgruppe/Corbis
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainablebusiness
/
Information2015/feb/17/artificial-intelligence-futureTechnology, UNITEN
of-work

IT and Automation
Automation or automatic control, is
the use of various control systems for
operating equipment such as
machinery, processes in factories,
boilers and heat treating ovens,
switching in telephone networks,
steering and stabilization of ships,
aircraft and other applications with
minimal or reduced human
intervention. Some processes have
been completely automated.
IT automation is the linking of
disparate systems and software in
such a way that they become selfacting or self-regulating.

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/IT-automation

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Todays lecture will surround:

A discussion on whats the impact of IT to our work:
IT & Automation
changes how we work
Organizational structure
Telework
Employee monitoring

Globalization
Digital Divide
The Winner-takes-all phenomena
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/IT-automation

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Questions for discussion

IT and automation leads to
widespread
unemployment?
Provide an example to
describe this notion.

IT and automation leads to job creation?

Provide an example to describe this notion

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Questions for discussion

It's the 21st century why are we working so much?

IT and automation
has caused an
increase in working
hour?
Provide an example
to describe this
notion.
Easy Rube Goldberg simple machine
source: http://www.msad40.org/~librarywilliams/Machines.html

By Owen Hatherly

http://www.theguardian.com/comm
entisfree/2012/jul/01/why-are-weworking-so-hard
If there's one thing practically all futurologists once agreed on,
it's that in the 21st century there would be a lot less work. What
would they have thought, if they had known that in 2012, the 95 working day had in the UK become something more like 7am
to 7pm? They would surely have looked around and seen
technology take over in many professions which previously
needed heavy manpower, they would have looked at the
increase in automation and mass production, and wondered
why are they spending 12 hours a day on menial task
The right calls for hard work, the left for more jobs. The dream of
mechanization leading to shorter working hours seems
forgotten?

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Questions for discussion

Telework describes employees work away from traditional place of

work (e.g. home office, sales person with no office).
Identify and explain advantages and disadvantages of
teleworking.
Provide an example to describe this notion

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Questions for discussion

IT in workplace has made
monitoring possible. 82% of
companies monitor employees in
some way.
The purpose of monitoring is to
identify inappropriate use of
company resources as well as
detect illegal activities among the
employees.
Identify and explain the
advantages and the
disadvantages of workplace
monitoring.
College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Questions for discussion

You lead a group of five software engineers
involved in the testing of a new product.
Your manager tells you that because of a
company-wide layoff, you will need to give
notice to one member of your team.
From your interactions with the team members,
you can easily identify the two members who
are least productive, but you are not sure which
of them you should lay off.
You know that the company keeps track of all
Internet traffic to each persons computer,
although you have never shared this
information with your team.

Is it wrong to access these records? Discuss your answer

based on the following ethical principles:

Kantianism

Subjective Relativism

Act Utilitarianism

Divine Command Theory

You could use this information to determine

how much time, if any; these two employees
are spending surfing the Web.

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Automation and
Job destruction

Job creation

Increase of Purchasing Power

Lost manufacturing jobs

43 million jobs lost between

1979 and 1994
Manufacturing workers: 35%
(1947) -> 12% (2002) - USA

Lost white-collar jobs

Secretarial and clerical

positions
Accountants and bookkeepers
Middle managers

Juliet Schor: Work week got longer between 1979 and 1990

Automation lowers prices

That increases demand for
product
Increased demand -> more jobs
Number of manufacturing jobs
worldwide is increasing

Martin Carnoy: Workers today

work less than workers 100
years ago
College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Changes at the workplace

Organizational Changes
Information technology integration into firms
Automating back office functions (e.g., payroll)
Improving communication among business units
Results in flatter organizational structures
Eliminating transactional middlemen
Telework
Employees work away from traditional place of work
Home office
Commuting to a telecenter
Salespersons with no office
About 20% of Americans do some telework
Temporary Work
Companies less committed to employees
Lay-offs not taboo as they once were
Companies hiring more temporary employees
Saves money on benefits
Makes it easier to downsize
Long-term employment for one firm less common

Monitoring
82% of companies monitor employees in some way
Purpose: Identify inappropriate use of company
resources
Can also detect illegal activities
Other uses of monitoring
Gauge productivity (10% of firms)
Improve productivity
Improve security
Multinational Teams
Software development teams in India since 1980s
Advantages of multinational teams
Company has people on duty more hours per day
Cost savings
Disadvantage of multinational teams
Poorer infrastructure in less developed countries

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Telework
Advantage
Increases productivity

Virtual Organization
Mommy Track
Tele commuting
Disadvantage

Threatens managers control and

authority

Reduces absenteeism
Improves morale
Helps recruitment and retention
of top employees
Saves overhead
Improves company resilience
Helps environment
Saves employees money

Makes face-to-face meetings impossible

Sensitive information less secure

Team meetings more difficult

Teleworkers less visible

Teleworkers out of the loop

Isolation of teleworkers

Teleworkers work longer hours for same

pay
College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Employee monitoring

Stopping Inappropriate Behaviors:According to a

Nielson Media Research study of employees at major
corporations such as IBM, Apple and AT&T, workers
allegedly logged into online editions of Penthouse
thousands of times per month. While pornography is an
obvious misuse of company time, other outlets such as
gaming websites and social media networks like Facebook
or Twitter act as serious productivity risks for un-engaged
employees. This can be seen as a breach of a work
contract, and a waste of company money.

Pro

Protecting Company Property:Companies may

consider monitoring when concerned about the use of
email for theft of proprietary information. The electronic
transfer of employer information can potentially lead of a
loss of trade secrets and an untold amount of money. PC
magazine cites an incident that occurred at HewlettPackard in 2006, in which the company hired private
investigators to pinpoint the source of information leaks.
They used tactics such as sending fake emails with hidden
tracking software and illegally obtaining phone records. As
a result, six HP board members resigned or were fired.

Cons

Invasion of Privacy:Because some people put in

overtime or irregular hours at their place of business,
its inevitable that company computers will be used for
personal matters. A grey area exists over whether
property of a machine makes everything that happens
inside it property of the company. .
Fairness:An issue of fairness also exists when it
comes to monitoring, as its typically not the high-level
employees in a corporation that are being monitored,
but rather entry-level or intermediate workers. SCUs
blog cites an article in the journal Public Personnel
Management, which found that the majority of
employees being electronically monitored are women in
low-paying clerical positions.

The Effect on Workplace Morale:Employee

monitoring often creates a level of distrust among
workers. When people feel they are constantly being
watched, their focus may not always be on the task at
hand, but rather on potentially fireable actions they
may be committing. Facilitating a culture of trust will
result in employees conforming to certain rules as a
Maintaining Corporate Professionalism:A
lack
of
result of mutual respect, rather than surveillance.
http://www.innovativeemployeesolutions.com/articles/employee-monitoring-how-far-is-too

monitoring can create a hostile workplace environment, as

College
emails containing inappropriate jokes, racist remarks
or
other objectionable material could lead to serious legal

of Information Technology, UNITEN

Globalization
Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and
governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and
aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on
political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in
societies around the world.
Globalization is not new, though. For thousands of years, peopleand, later, corporationshave
been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the
famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages.
Likewise, for centuries, people and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries.
In fact, many of the features of the current wave of globalization are similar to those prevailing
before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
But policy and technological developments of the past few decades have spurred increases in
cross-border trade, investment, and migration so large that many observers believe the world
has entered a qualitatively new phase in its economic development. Since 1950, for example,
the volume of world trade has increased by 20 times, and from just 1997 to 1999 flows of foreign
investment nearly doubled, from $468 billion to $827 billion. Distinguishing this current wave of
globalization from earlier ones, author Thomas Friedman has said that today globalization is
farther, faster, cheaper, and deeper.
Advances in information technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life.
Source: http://www.globalization101.org/what-is-globalization/

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Globalization (from the

American perspective)
Advantage

Disadvantage

Increases competition
People in poorer countries deserve jobs,
too

Forces workers to compete with

foreigners who do not get decent
wages and benefits

It is a tried-and-true route for a poor

country to become prosperous

Accelerates exodus of manufacturing

and white-collar jobs

Global jobs reduce unrest and increase

stability

Hurts workers in foreign countries

Globalization is deeply controversial: Proponents of globalization argue that it allows poor

countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living,
while opponents of globalization claim that the creation of an unfettered international
free market has benefited multinational corporations in the Western world at the expense
of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people.
Source: http://www.globalization101.org/what-is-globalization/

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Digital Divide
Digital divide: some people have access to modern
information technology while others do not
Social divide
Global divide
Access higher in wealthy Access higher for young people
Access higher for well-educated
countries
Access higher where IT
people
infrastructure good
Access higher where
literacy higher
Access higher in Englishspeaking countries
Access higher where it is
culturally valued
College of Information Technology, UNITEN

The Winner-Take-All
Phenomenon
Winner-take-all: a few top performers have
disproportionate share of wealth
Causes

IT and efficient transportation systems

Network economies
Dominance of English language
Changing business norms

Source:https://www.memecenter.com/fun/1648055/pareto-principle-80-20-rule

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Harmful Effects of Winner-TakeAll

Drawing some of most talented people into socially
unproductive work
Creating wasteful investment, consumption
Concentrating a disproportionate share of best students
in a few elite institutions
Unfairly compensating those with just slightly inferior
performance
Harming our culture
College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Reducing Winner-Take-All
Effects
Enacting laws limiting number of hours stores can
remain open
Allowing cooperative agreements among businesses
Creating more progressive tax structures
Implementing campaign finance reform

College of Information Technology, UNITEN

Que sera, sera,

Whatever will
be, will be.
The future is
not ours to
see.
Que sere,
sere
College of Information Technology, UNITEN