by The Open University
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The Turnbull Report, and a series of other codes relating to corporate governance, highlight some of the ethical principles which guide managers in the public and private sectors. In many cases, such codes are produced only after crises have occurred. Much legislation comes about in the same way. Information security management also has an ethical aspect, not least because of the need to apply the ethical spirit of laws and codes of conduct in new and unfamiliar circumstances.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) produced in 2002 the document OECD Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems and Networks: Towards a Culture of Security, Principle 4 of which has this to say on ethics:
Given the pervasiveness of information systems and networks in our societies, participants need to recognise that their action or inaction may harm others. Ethical conduct is therefore crucial and participants should strive to develop and adopt best practices and to promote conduct that recognises security needs and respects the legitimate interests of others.
The OECD document can be found at
http://www.oecd.org/document/42/0,3343,en_2649_201185_15582250_1_1_1_1,00.html (accessed 3 April 2008).
Write down what you think ‘ethical conduct? means in practice.
If you are a member of a professional body, you may be able to refer to its definition of ethical conduct. If not, you may like to look in a dictionary or other reference book for a definition of ‘ethics? or ‘ethical?, and try to apply it to your role within your organisation. You may also be able to use ‘ethical conduct? as a search term on the Web.
A practical definition of ‘ethical conduct?, based on the effect of our conduct on others, is proposed by the OECD: ethical conduct is behaviour that respects the legitimate interests of others.
This understanding of ethical conduct based on the duties to others is also evident in many published codes of professional conduct. For example:
The Institute of Directors publishes a Code of Professional Conduct for Chartered Directors. The fourth article of the code requires that a chartered director shall ‘exercise responsibilities to employees, customers, suppliers and other relevant stakeholders, including the wider community?.
The Chartered Management Institute invites members to reflect on how they might rate as an ethical manager. Among other questions, managers are asked whether they ‘take account of whether actions seem right and fair, or whether they are hurting anyone's interests?.
The British Computer Society's Code of Conduct maintains that members shall ‘have regard for the public health, safety and environment?, shall ‘have regard to the legitimate interests of third parties? and shall conduct their professional activities ‘without discrimination against clients or colleagues?.
Original Copyright © 2007 The Open University. Now made available within the Creative Commons framework under the CC Attribution – Non-commercial licence (see http://creativecommons.org/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/).
