ASSIGNMENT 1B: REVIEW OF BUSINESS ETHICS
Article 3 highlights the corporate responsibilities which are associated with the collection and use of big data by companies. The article reveals that the issue of big data is a significant concern within the contemporary business processes, such as communications and transactions, which rely on technology. Article 3 presents evidence from an interview with an expert MIT and the use of information technology within modern organizations which illustrates that there are specific privacy concerns which organizations must address in order to ensure that they protect the data they collect on their customers and employees. The examples within article three on the responsibility of companies to protect data is similar to the ethics and corporate social responsibility issues that are discussed in article 1 and 2.
Article 3 presents an example of wearable sensor technology which gathers an individual’s personal data, such as tone of voice, gesticulation, movement and other innate behaviors to demonstrate that companies collect sensitive personal data which mandates them to implement effective measures of protecting the security of this data (Harvard Business Review, 2014, p. 102). The article explains evidence on abuses of the privacy of data by companies as a basis of arguing that the issue of privacy in the processing of big data is an important ethical consideration within organizations. The straight forwards examples that are used within article 3 on the issue of data security reveals why unethical practices within companies in the use of big data would have serious negative effects on the privacy of their customers and employees. Examples within article 3 are aligned with the descriptions of workplace ethics within article 1. The two articles seek to demonstrate that companies have ethical obligations of engaging in ethical practices, such as through the protection of data on their clients. It is through adherence to ethical obligations that companies are able to enhance their public image, and therefore gain competitiveness within their target markets (Sula, 2015, p. 18).
The internet is used in article 3 as the main example which illustrates that it is significantly easy to invade the privacy of individuals through the use of technology (Brown & Knudsen, 2015, p. 182). The ease of infringing the privacy of an individual is also illustrated by examples of the various social media platforms and networks, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter through which personal information can be accessed and used by companies for marketing communication goals without seeking the permission of users (Vitell, 2015, p. 768). Illustrations with article 3 are congruent with the discussion in article 2 on the important corporate social responsibility of companies to care for the environment, the public and their employees. This is because companies which use the private data of their customers for their business or marketing ends fail to adhere to their ethical obligations of protecting the public from any form of harm, such as invasion of privacy.
Examples of circumstances where people let their companies to collect sensitive personal data, such as their heart rate and workouts are also presented within article 3 in order to illustrate the ongoing ethical battle on the collection and use of big data among companies and industry regulators (Harvard Business Review, 2014, p. 102). The collection and use of personal data is related to the ethical issue of confidentiality. Individuals provide personal data to companies and assume that these companies would implement effective strategies of ensuring that the confidentiality of this data is preserved (Mishra & Modi, 2016, p. 27). The issue of protecting the confidentiality of data is a moral and ethical obligation of companies. Article 1 also discusses moral and ethical issues among companies with a goal of demonstrating that most businesses focus on prevailing laws on business practices but fail to adhere to their moral and ethical obligations to customers, employees and the public in general (Grey, 2013, p. 65). Therefore, the illustrations in article 3 and the discussion in article 1 provides insightful evidence of corporate social responsibility abuses among companies, which raises questions on the effectiveness of ethical codes of conduct in defining the operations of companies in the use of technology across their supply chains.
Illustrations from the health care industry, such as the millions of people who have wireless pacemakers, are presented in article 3 to reveal that the possibility of privacy infringement is significantly high within the contemporary society (Harvard Business Review, 2014, p. 103). The fear that individuals would look into the heart rate of others remotely via wireless networks, and even tamper with pacemakers, reveals the seriousness of ethical implications in the use of big data and networked environments. Evidence that some companies unlawfully accesses the private data of potential employees or job applicants for the purposes of guiding their hiring decisions are provided within research literature to illustrate how the violation of the ethics of information access and use can result in serious ethical implications within the modern society (Sepinwall, 2015, p. 518). Even though the examples that are used in article 3 are limited to ethical concerns within the field of information technology, their implications on corporate social responsibility are evident. Article 2 discusses the importance of businesses being fair to their employees, such as allowing them to access resources and opportunities for creativity, innovation and career growth. The ethical obligations of companies to their employees that are discussed in article 2 are similar to the ethical mandate of companies to protect the privacy and confidentiality of data on their workers which are discussed in article 3.
Article 3 presents examples of companies, such as Google and Facebook to explain that business organizations are spending billions to ensure that they have unregulated access to data (Harvard Business Review, 2014, p. 103). The purchase of Nest by Google and the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook are business strategies that these companies use to ensure that their databases contain vast or big data on hundreds of millions. Examples of ethical violations in the use of big data, such as the sale of data on clients to third parties and marketers by Google, are presented within research literature on business ethics to reiterate that information security is a significant ethical concern in the information age (Clemons & Madhani, 2010, p. 44). In article 2, the example of Google is provided in line with its corporate social responsibility to employees. The example within article 2 reveals that Google is effective in aligning its human resource management practices to its corporate social responsibility (Delios, 2010, p. 28). Therefore, the example in article 2 can be used to demonstrate that the corporate social responsibilities of companies should not only be practiced in their human resource practices for the purposes of motivation. Instead, companies should also ensure that they are fair to all stakeholders in their practices, including customers, investors, the public and the environment (Torres, 2015, p. 14).
Articles 1, 2 and 3 present insightful illustrations and discussions on the importance of corporate social responsibility and ethical practices in the use of big data among companies in determining the extent into which companies run responsible businesses. The discussion in the three articles is related in a manner that they reiterate that companies have moral and ethical obligations of being fair to all of their stakeholders who include employees, customers, the public and the environment. This is achieved through adherence to ethical codes of conduct on the use of technology, processing of big data and performance reporting.
References
“With Big Data Comes Big Responsibility”, Harvard Business Review, 2014, pp. 101-104
Brown, D, & Knudsen, J 2015, 'Domestic Institutions and Market Pressures as Drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility: Company Initiatives in Denmark and the UK', Political Studies, 63, 1, pp. 181-201
Clemons, E, & Madhani, N 2010, 'Regulation of Digital Businesses with Natural Monopolies or Third-Party Payment Business Models: Antitrust Lessons from the Analysis of Google', Journal of Management Information Systems, 27, 3, pp. 43-80
Delios A, 2010, “How Can Organizations Be Competitive but Dare to Care?” Academy of Management Perspectives, pp. 25-34
Grey, R 2013, “Pragmatic Business Ethics”, Business Strategy Review, vol. 2, pp. 64-66
Mishra, S, & Modi, S 2016, 'Corporate Social Responsibility and Shareholder Wealth: The Role of Marketing Capability', Journal of Marketing, 80, 1, pp. 26-46
Sepinwall, AJ 2015, 'Denying Corporate Rights and Punishing Corporate Wrongs', Business Ethics Quarterly, 25, 4, pp. 517-534
Sula, CA 2015, 'Research Ethics in an Age of Big Data', Bulletin Of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 42, 2, pp. 17-21
Torres, DL 2015, 'Sticky Ethics, Innovation, and Corporate Responsibility', SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075), 80, 3, pp. 12-22
Vitell, S 2015, 'A Case for Consumer Social Responsibility (CnSR): Including a Selected Review of Consumer Ethics/Social Responsibility Research', Journal of Business Ethics, 130, 4, pp. 767-774
