Attitudes towards information ethics: a view from Egypt
| Pages | 240-261 |
| Published date | 23 November 2012 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14779961211285872 |
| Date | 23 November 2012 |
| Author | Omar E.M. Khalil,Ahmed A.S. Seleim |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Attitudes towards information
ethics: a view from Egypt
Omar E.M. Khalil
College of Business, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait, and
Ahmed A.S. Seleim
Management Department, Faculty of Commerce,
Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
Abstract
Purpose – The information technology (IT) related ethical issues will only increase in frequency and
complexitywith the increasing diffusionof IT in economies and societies. The purposeof this paper is to
exploreEgyptianstudents’ attitudestowards theinformation ethicsissues of privacy,access, property,and
accuracy,and it evaluates the possible impactof a number of personal characteristics on such attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach – This research utilized a cross-sectional sample and data set to
test five hypotheses. It adopted an instrument to collect the respondents’ background information and
assess their attitudes towards the information ethics issues of privacy, property, accuracy, and access.
Egyptian business students at Alexandria University were asked to participate in the survey. A total
of 305 responses were collected and analyzed.
Findings – The analysis revealed that students are sensitive to the ethicality of information privacy,
information accuracy, and information access. However, students are insensitive to the ethicality of
property (software) right. In addition, years of education have a main effect on students’ attitudes
towards property, and gender and age have an interaction effect on students’ attitudes towards access.
Research limitations/implications – The findings of this research are based on a cross-sectional
data set collected from a sample of business students at a public university. Students, however, may
make poor surrogates for business or IT professionals. Future similar research designs that employ
large samples from Egyptian working professionals and students in other private and public
universities are needed to verify the findings of this research.
Practical implications – The findings suggest that the investigated university as well as the other
similar Egyptian universities should consider integrating ethics education into their curricula.
Teaching information ethics, especially from an Islamic perspective, is expected to positively influence
students’ information ethical attitudes. The enforcement of the existing property right protection laws
should also curb software piracy in the Egyptian market.
Originality/value – It is vital to expand the ethical research currently being performed in IT in
order to help bridge the gap between behavior and IT. The findings of this research extend the
understanding of students’ attitudes towards the information ethics issues in Egyptian culture and
contribute to the growing body of knowledge on global information ethics.
Keywords Information ethics,Information privacy, Information accuracy, Information access,
Software copyright,Information technology, Ethics,Egypt
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
With the pervasiveness of information technology (IT) in business and everyday life, one
can expect that the frequency and complexity of information ethical problem s will only
increase (Moor, 2005, p. 115). In addition, the potential for a revolutionar y application
of age-old ethics by all stakeholders is likely to persist (Mumford, 2003, p. 202;
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
JICES
10,4
240
Received 15 August 2011
Revised 15 February 2012
Accepted 1 March 2012
Journal of Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society
Vol. 10 No. 4, 2012
pp. 240-261
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/14779961211285872
Altschuller, 2004, p. 2; Biot-Paquerot and Hasnaoui, 2009, p. 59). Understanding the
factors that might influence the intention to behave ethically or unethically when using
IT can help with designing strategies that will lead to improved ethical behaviors
(Grupe et al., 2002, p. 53).
Information ethics encompass the ethical issues that are associated with the
development and application of IT (Martinsons and Ma, 2009, p. 816). Information
ethics research is involved with studying potential systems abuses and malfunctions
and the related conceptual models and theories (Altschuller, 2004, p. 2). The findings of
such research suggest that many IS professionals and users tend to neglect or
inadequately consider the ethical aspects of their decisions and actions. In particular,
younger people tend to be ignorant or dismissive about ethical dilemmas concerning
the management of information and its associated technology (Martinsons and
Ma, 2009, p. 817). While O’Boyle (2002, p. 276) stresses the importance of developing
standards of ethical decision making for IT professionals, Couger (1989, p. 213)
emphasizes the importance of having students develop appropriate ethical values.
Although information ethics continues to be an interesting research subject (Tavani,
2002, p. 37; Martinsons and Ma, 2009, p. 817), Most of the literature has primarily
originatedin Western countries, and furtherempirical evidence on informationethics and
its determinantsfrom developingcountries such as Egyptis warranted. Hejase and Tabch
(2010, p. 20) posit that more research is needed in order to test demographic variables
versus ethics perceptions and education and compare the obtained findings with the
findings of the multitude number of researchesreported worldwide.
Given the lack of Egyptian-based empirical evidence on information ethics, this
research adopts Mason’s (1986, p. 5) information ethics framework to explore the
Egyptian students’ attitudes towards the four information ethics issues of privacy,
access, property, and accuracy and assess the possible impact of a number of individual
characteristics (e.g. age, gender, marital status, years of education, and computer
experience) on such attitudes. The findings of this research should extend our
understanding of the information ethics attitudes in an Egyptian context (e.g. culture)
and contribute to the growing body of knowledge on global information ethics.
2. Background
2.1 Information ethics
Information ethics stems from practical challenges and issues arising from the impact of IT
on contemporary society. Over the years, the misuse of and unethical behavior towards IS
have caused significant losses to businesses and societies (Leonard and Cronan, 2005,
p. 1150). In order to develop a better understanding of information ethics, a number of
researchers proposed and/or addressed a number of frameworks that characterize the
phenomenon and identify its dimensions (Mason, 1986, p. 5; Anderson et al., 1993, pp. 98-102;
Conger et al., 1995, p. 161; Davison, 2000, pp. 23-7; Spinello, 2005, p. 70; Fallis, 2007, p. 24).
Mason’s (1986, p. 5) taxonomy of information ethics –, i.e. privacy, accuracy,
property, andaccessibility – is perhaps the most popularframework among researchers.
Although the examples brought up by Mason for each of the four issues are somewhat
limited to the decadein which they were proposed (Spinello, 2005, p. 70; Martinsons and
Ma, 2009, p. 819),the concepts can easily be adaptedto a more current IT/IS environment
(Smith, 2002, p. 9; Altschuller, 2004, p. 8). The other frameworks seem to echo Mason’s
classification with appending additional ethical issues to the framework and/or
Information
ethics
241
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