Ethics, Sustainability, and Social Impacts

This document discusses the concepts of ethics, sustainability, and social impacts in the context of information technology and international business. It explores the ethical principles relevant to IT and the importance of closing the digital divide. The document also includes research reports on ethical issues in business.

ETHICS
SUSTAINABILITY
AND SOCIAL
IMPACTS
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
PART A: Ethics in Information Technology...................................................................................3
1. Should law enforcement agencies be allowed unrestricted access to such complete.........3
and intrusive information on people’s lives?.........................................................................3
2. What would be the worst-case scenario you could personally imagine in regard..............4
to unrestricted access to the digital communications of the general population?.................4
3. Should we afford data stored in private email accounts as much protection as letters in a
locked desk drawer, that is, stored where law enforcement agencies would otherwise need a
warrant to access and review the documents?........................................................................4
4. Describe which ethical principles are most relevant to information technology...............5
Support each of them with an example in relation to IT.......................................................5
5. What are the arguments as to why closing the digital divide is important.........................5
PART B: Ethical issues in International Businesses........................................................................5
1. With examples, identify which ethical principles are most relevant to international........5
business..................................................................................................................................5
Research Report 1...................................................................................................................6
Research report 2....................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
INTRODUCTION
The terms ethics and sustainability both comprises business organisation but are
differently connected with it. Such parts of business helps organisation to have long term
sustainability in market so to achieve their organisational goals. Social, environmental and
economical are three major components of sustainability in any company (Braham and Casillas,
2020). Sustainability is a term that satisfies today's world requirement which does not permits to
compromise with future abilities. Information technology refers to computer use to transmit,
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store manipulate or retrieve various kinds of data or information. In today's world there are
several ethical issues or challenges that are experienced by business organisations regarding
security, maintenance, etc. In the present report an analysis has been done for National Security
Agency (NSA) which is an intelligence agency operates at national level in United States of
America. Agency is undertaken by National Intelligence Director under United States
Department of Defence. The present report is bifurcated into two various parts such as Ethics in
information technology and another is Issues in international business.
PART A: Ethics in Information Technology
1. Should law enforcement agencies be allowed unrestricted access to such complete
and intrusive information on people’s lives?
Information Technological ethics refers to a study of several issues which emerges from
use of such technology and on its development. The major objective to employ ethics in in
information technology is to safeguard and accompany IT principles into consideration.
Enforcement agency is a department aims at protecting and detecting crimes along with
acknowledging to the situations based on law (Gatto, 2020). In respect of national Security
Agency, its police officer plays very crucial rule in situations that cant be pre-determined or
expected before its happening. Certain kind of awareness based upon situations are determined in
order to investigate issues in information technology. There are various enforcement agencies
which are allowed unrestricted access to complete and intrusive information on people's lives
such as Federal bureau of Investigation, United States District Court, California Bureau of
Investigation, and several more. The main intension of such agencies is to minimise crime from
the regions of United States along with other international connections. Data privacy is taken as a
person's right to ask for security of his information. Loss of data privacy leads to discrimination,
misuse, or prohibition in several manners. Data collected by government is a different aspect as
compared to data that is intrinsically linked. To the government there should be an organised
access which does not involve any kind of interference or communication with any third party.
For example, in regions of United Kingdom more than 500,000 requests have been made
by agencies of government in respect of telephony meta data for 12 months. Government
authorities bears certain rights to have restricted access related to information and data of general
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public if they found any threat to their country's security. In this regard some enforcement
agencies bears power to access data by abiding data protection law for the safety of nation which
may not serve any safety measures in against of expected abuses with country people.
When there comes country's security top priority them unrestricted access should be
provided to agencies who are responsible for maintaining nation security but if such access is
allowed for the purpose of law enforcement then it should not be supported because people
possess privacy right persuading other laws.
2. What would be the worst-case scenario you could personally imagine in regard
to unrestricted access to the digital communications of the general population?
Digital communication refers to an exchange of information via digital platform. Such
communication does not requires physical presence of any person that reduces time of both
people while communicating (Lam and et. al., 2020). There are certain restricted access for
digital communication and if people requires to access such restricted sites then they are required
to take prior permission from concerned authorities. Unrestricted access gives chances of making
frauds or cheating and sometimes encourages people to do criminal act that is illegal against of
right to privacy of country people.
The worst-case scenario can be increase in fraudulent activities by people in which public
privacy world be broken and may result in crimes related to cyber issue such as phishing,
hacking or any other kind of illegal act.
3. Should we afford data stored in private email accounts as much protection as letters in a
locked desk drawer, that is, stored where law enforcement agencies would otherwise need
a warrant to access and review the documents?
Sorting of data under email account privately along with sorting in desk drawer which is
locked bears certain requisites for protection. These ways of securing data is good but problem
arises when private mail gets hacked which can result into losing of private data and various
security concerned (Leung and et. Al, 2019). Locked desk drawer are much safer because there is
no chances of loss in physical form under any unauthorised access. Some enforcement agencies
under law should be granted access so that regular review can be done to see if there is any
violation is done in respect of right to privacy of data.
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4. Describe which ethical principles are most relevant to information technology.
Support each of them with an example in relation to IT.
There are several ethical principles which are most relevant to information technology.
The principles are mentioned below with examples in relation to IT.
 Prevention from unlawful acts: A user to information technology should not misuse
the access which can be treated as unlawful activities under the eyes of law (Mahmood
and et. al., 2018). For example fraud or data theft.
 Privacy: Access of information technology should concern about privacy of other
individuals in order to maintain confidential records of data (Martínez-Navalón,
Gelashvili and Debasa, 2019). Person should not access such data which is unauthorised
to him for digital communication. For example hacking, etc.
5. What are the arguments as to why closing the digital divide is important.
Digital divide refers to a variation between those people who are competent to get
benefits and who are not able to. It is very necessary to break digital divide so to have relevant
access in relation to internet applications and services (Pelletier and et. Al, 2018) . The main
reason behind breaking digital divide is that it reduces inequality in digital communication along
with struggling for digital and social inequalities. Digital imbalance leads to imbalance in social
culture that becomes harmful to adjust in such a technological world. It assists in raising digital
media such as more use of internet, latest technologies, etc.
PART B: Ethical issues in International Businesses
1. With examples, identify which ethical principles are most relevant to international
business.
The values connected with ethics involves transmission into effective language develops
certain standards or rules that describes an attitude of a person who either posses ethical
behaviour which are called as ethical principles (Ramboarisata and Gendron, 2019).
The ethical principles which are most relevant to international business are listed below:
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 Accountability: Business firms should be accountable for their decisions and mistakes
committed by them or by employees of same business in order to maintain ethical code of
conduct to achieve growth and success in industry.
 Honesty: Business firms are required to be honest and truthful in their conduct. Any
company finalising deal of any nature should not hide information from other party.
 Abiding Law: Any business operating at international level is required to follow and
abide by certain laws in conducting business globally (Rizzello and Kabli, 2020) . For
instance, company is required to follow UK laws if starts its operations there.
 Peer Respect: Business firms should respect about privacy, rights, interests, dignity of
other people no matter how big the company is (Verma, 2019). Every decision taken by
business firm should not hurt anyone's feeling or respect. For instance, manager should
respect suggestions and views of his employees so they do not feel disrespected by
company.
Research Report 1
What were the research methods and were they sound?
In the present report, researcher has considered primary as well as secondary mode of
collecting data. Researcher has asked for expert views form The Royal Holloway, University of
Sheffield and University of London. In regards to primary data collection researcher interviewed
more than 135 leaders from business organisations, Government agencies. NGOs, and other
union departments.
This method of data collection is very helpful as researcher has collected expert views
along with business leaders interview by having one to one face interaction. Personal interview
and viewpoints helped researcher in knowing different reasons and emotions behind each and
every response from them. Such methods of research has broaden the scope of getting
appropriate conclusions out of data collected so to attain objective in well effective manner.
What are the key messages?
The present research delivers following key messages:
 Some social audits are being cheated by few suppliers in order to sustain their business
with a statement that doing business ethically is very costlier and does not provides
much returns.
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 Researcher has analysed the major cause of optimising chain of supply that are coming
with some strategies to reduce misuse that does not depends upon audit.
 Tamil Nadu state has not opened certain proofs that presents some initiative steps
considered in order to enhance working conditions rather they crashed in minimising
labour exploitations.
Research report 2
What were the research methods and were they sound?
The present report comprises of various primary as well as secondary mode of research.
Interview has been taken form various businesses under the category of primary research.
Interview comprises certain questions from company workers like their salary, recruitment
charges, etc. Some international workers who migrated were also interviewed to know their
working conditions as well as certain violations that are experienced by them.
This method of research proved sound as it covers every aspect to find conclusion out of
collected data.
What are the key messages?
 Based on research there are several businesses who employed various policies. Even after
this there is a presence of some gap between implementation and declaration of policies.
 Companies are require to in-built certain practices that enables firms to provide high
wage rate to their workers who gives their extra time for company. The benchmarks of
company does not permits them to open their buying practices.
 Another key message is that business firms prefers audit driven method but on the other
hand ignores several key areas such as recruitment, voice of workers that creates an
impact on their lives.
Are there any common observations to be made from both reports?
Both of the reports mentioned above bears one common thing that the both are research
for employees working conditions along with strategies for future development and
improvement.
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CONCLUSION
From the present report, it can be concluded that sustainability and ethics both are very
crucial for business in their conduct along with regular life of individuals. Information
technology is a thing that every business applies in their operations which are needed to be
followed by certain ethics. There are several principles which talks about ethics in international
business such as honesty, accountability, respect, etc. it is concluded from the report that every
business should conduct their operations with full of integrity and honesty in order to stay away
from any unlawful activities that can create problem for firm to sustain in market. Committing
fraud or any other kind of illegal activity will lead company to pay for its image and acts.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Braham, A. and Casillas, S., 2020. Fundamentals of sustainability in civil engineering. CRC
Press.
Gatto, A., 2020. A pluralistic approach to economic and business sustainability: A critical meta‐
synthesis of foundations, metrics, and evidence of human and local
development. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. 27(4).
pp.1525-1539.
Lam and et. al., 2020. Scaling the impact of sustainability initiatives: a typology of amplification
processes. Urban Transformations. 2. pp.1-24.
Leung and et. al, 2019. Enhancing the competitiveness and sustainability of social enterprises in
Hong Kong: A three-dimensional analysis. China Journal of Accounting
Research. 12(2). pp.157-176.
Mahmood and et. al., 2018. Does corporate governance affect sustainability disclosure? A mixed
methods study. Sustainability. 10(1). p.207.
Martínez-Navalón, J.G., Gelashvili, V. and Debasa, F., 2019. The impact of restaurant social
media on environmental sustainability: An empirical study. Sustainability.11(21).
p.6105.
Pelletier and et. al, 2018. Social sustainability in trade and development policy. The
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 23(3). pp.629-639.
Ramboarisata, L. and Gendron, C., 2019. Beyond moral righteousness: The challenges of non-
utilitarian ethics, CSR, and sustainability education. The International Journal of
Management Education. 17(3). p.100321.
Rizzello, A. and Kabli, A., 2020. Sustainable Financial Partnerships for the SDGs: The Case of
Social Impact Bonds. Sustainability. 12(13). p.5362.
Verma, A.K., 2019. Sustainable development and environmental ethics. International Journal on
Environmental Sciences. 10(1). pp.1-5.
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