Reasons behind unethical behaviour in the Australian ICT workplace. An empirical investigation
| Pages | 235-255 |
| Published date | 10 August 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-12-2014-0060 |
| Date | 10 August 2015 |
| Author | Yeslam Al-Saggaf,Oliver Burmeister,John Weckert |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
Reasons behind unethical
behaviour in the Australian
ICT workplace
An empirical investigation
Yeslam Al-Saggaf
School of Computing and Mathematics, Charles Sturt University,
Wagga Wagga, Australia
Oliver Burmeister
School of Computing and Mathematics, Charles Sturt University,
Bathurst, Australia, and
John Weckert
Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt Univeristy,
Canberra, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons behind unethical behaviour in the
Australian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) workplace.
Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a qualitative research methodology. A total
of 43 ICT professionals were interviewed during the month of February 2014 in six Australian capital
cities. All interviews were conducted face-to-face and followed a semi-structured interviewing format
utilising open-end questions and further probing questions. The purposive sample represented ICT
professionals from large and small organisations, government and private sector, different geographic
locations, ages, genders, types of jobs and employment experience. Data analysis was completed with
the help of QSR NVivo 10, a software package for managing qualitative data.
Findings – Of the 25 reasons identied for unethical behaviour in ICT workplaces, 30 per cent of
participants agreed on ve major ones: pressure, bad management, greed, lack of respect towards ICT
and communication issues.
Practical implications – By focussing on the reasons behind unethical behaviour in the Australian
ICT workplace, this article helps those identifying strategies for dealing with unprofessional behaviour
to take into account the root causes of unprofessional behaviour.
Originality/value – There is hardly any literature on reasons for unethical behaviour in the ICT
workplaces. This article seeks to address this imbalance in the literature. Also, integrity systems in
ICT are a new focus in collective, organisational ethics. Identication of and resolving unethical ICT
workplace practice is an innovative contribution to the literature.
Keywords Affordance, Professionalism, Business practice, Integrity systems, Moral judgement
Paper type Research paper
The research reported here is supported by an ARC Linkage grant (LP130100808), for which the
industry partner is the ACS.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
An empirical
investigation
235
Received 14 December 2014
Revised 19 March 2015
Accepted 9 June 2015
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.13 No. 3/4, 2015
pp.235-255
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-12-2014-0060
1. Introduction
The literature is rich with accounts that highlight the ethical problems facing
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) professionals in their workplaces.
See, for example, Sherratt et al. (2005),Lucas and Weckert (2008b),Van den Bergh and
Deschoolmeester (2010) and Al-Saggaf and Burmeister (2014). There is also a plethora of
studies that suggested strategies for solving ethical problems or improving ethical
behaviour in the workplace. See, for example, Cappel and Windsor (1998, p. 29), Simpson
and Burmeister (1998),Gleason (2002),Bowern et al. (2006),Lucas and Bowern (2007),
Johnson (2010),Fleischmann (2010),Ville and Jani (2014) and Burmeister and Al-Saggaf
(2014). However, with the exception of Badenhorst (1994) and Fassin (2005), there is
hardly any literature on reasons for unethical behaviour in the ICT workplace.
But, even the Badenhorst (1994) and Fassin (2005) studies are not in the context of
ICT; they are in the context of business in general. This suggests that there is an obvious
gap in the literature relating to factors inuencing unethical behaviour in the ICT
workplace. Given that Australia’s ICT market is worth nearly AUD $100 billion, there is
a need to understand the inuence of these factors so that strategies for dealing with
unprofessional behaviour not only look at the nature of unprofessional behaviour but
also at the root causes of unprofessional behaviour. This article seeks to address this
imbalance in the literature, by focussing on the reasons behind unethical behaviour in
the Australian ICT workplace as an example.
Qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with 43 participants in
six Australian capital cities revealed 25 reasons behind unethical behaviour in the
Australian ICT workplace. However, only the reasons for which there was at least 30 per
cent agreement between interviewees are highlighted in this article. Five reasons met
this criterion, namely, pressure, bad management, greed, lack of respect for ICT people
and communications issues, and these are detailed in the empirical ndings section of
this article.
In the discussion, the consideration of an integrity system as a starting point for
avoiding the situations that could lead to unethical behaviour is proposed. It is argued
that an integrity system will afford certain ethical behaviour while discouraging
unethical behaviour. Affordance in the context of an integrity system will encourage
good behaviour by making it easy or attractive, or easier or more attractive than
alternatives in a given situation.
The idea of integrity systems in ICT was central to the 2006 research project funded
by Australian Research Council (ARC) in partnership with the Australian Computer
Society (ACS). The project, for which the rst and third authors were chief investigators,
proposed that an improved integrity system that can hold industry members
accountable for their actions be introduced to improve ethical standards in ICT industry
(Lucas and Weckert, 2008b). The structure of such an integrity system was to contain an
ethics infrastructure, prevention and resolution techniques, integration methods and
management tools (Lucas and Weckert, 2008b).
2. Research methodology
2.1 Overview
This research project, supported by the ACS and the ARC, employed a mixed methods
approach. The main research question was: What are Australian ICT professionals’
perceptions regarding the ethical problems they face in the workplace, and how are
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