Ethics, Sustainability and Social Impact

This study material covers the topics of ethics in information technology and ethical issues in international business. It discusses the ethical principles relevant to information technology and provides examples. It also explores the importance of closing the digital divide. The material is suitable for students studying ethics, sustainability, and social impact.

Ethics, Sustainability
and Social Impact

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK A: Ethics in information technology....................................................................................3
1: Should Law Enforceable Agencies be allowed unrestricted access to such complete and
intrusive information on people's lives?.................................................................................3
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?......................3
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. Support
each of them with an example in relation to IT......................................................................4
P5 what are the argument as to why closing the digital divide is important?........................5
TASK B: Ethical issues in international business............................................................................5
1. With examples, identify which ethical principles are most relevant to international business.
................................................................................................................................................5
2. Research report 1................................................................................................................6
3. Research report 2................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Information Technology is used in storing, transmit and manipulating the data of a
computer. Digital communication is used by the organisation in respect to communicate with the
employees as well as customers. Enterprises have to deal with Ethical values which helps the
company to grow (Tseng, 2017). Ethical values mean the moral values which governs the
behaviour of individuals in their regular activities. This report shall cover the ethics in
information technology and ethical issues in the international business, it arises because of the
differences in opinion of individuals.
TASK A: Ethics in information technology
1: Should Law Enforceable Agencies be allowed unrestricted access to such complete and
intrusive information on people's lives?
The government should not access the information of the public's life. The internet
surveillance has been came in different forms. Access to the information of someone without
permission amounts to breach of their privacy (Ibáñez-Forés and et. al., 2019). Everyone has the
right to secure their own information, they have the right to share information on their choice. In
case to secure nation from threats the government can access to the information of individuals.
To protect the data for the purpose of security the law enforcement agencies can access to the
information without any restrictions. They have authorised some group of organisations to access
the data for the purpose to safeguard the nations peace and security. So unrestricted access is
allowed to the authorised agents only for the purpose to secure nation will be valid but for any
other purpose it will be treated as the breach of right to privacy.
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 plays an important role in everyone's life. It is the exchange of
data in digital form (Loosemore and Lim, 2017). It helps in quick communication over the world.
If this communication is not secure then that will harm their right to privacy. If there is
unrestricted access to the information to general public, then that will amount to the breach of
right to privacy (Cheer and Lew 2017). That data of communication has no value in evidence
before the court of law or any authority because that the chances of tampering the same is highly
expected. The worst scenario would open the doors for criminals to commit fraudulent activities

that amounts to breach of right to privacy. It will be easy for the criminals to hack, phishing and
many others crimes. That's why the unrestricted access should not be allowed for the general
public because it leads to demolishes the value of data and information which can be done by the
individuals at digital platforms.
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?
Private email account or letters in locked desk drawers both are secured and unsecured in
their prospective (Kolb and et. al., 2017). It helps the individuals to save their data from
unwanted access. The protection amounts to be secured when no can access the data without
permission of the person who has generated it or having an authority to give permission. Locked
desk drawers means the tangible drawers where anyone can store their physical documents.
When the data is in digital form then that can be easily stored in Private email accounts and when
it is in physical document then that can store in Locked desk drawers. They both have the fear of
theft. To protect them the owners must secure their data by double security measures.
4. Describe which ethical principles are most relevant to information technology. Support each
of them with an example in relation to IT.
Information Technology is the mode of digital communication. It helps in store, fetch and
manipulate the information on the digital platform. There many ethical values which can be used
in the Information Technology those are as follows:
 Access Rights: This is the significant right of an individual which says that the right to
access the information to the unknown user must be restricted. Illustration: when any one
access to the data without permission then that leads to their breach of right.
 Personal Privacy: The protection of data must be done by the service providers. The
privacy must be done in both hardware and software. They have the right to protect their
privacy (Huda, 2019). For Example: when an individual shares their personal data with
other and when that is accessed by any other third party then leads to the breach of right
to privacy.
 Harmful actions: It means the action which harms the data of the individual. That's why
the role of ethical value comes into the picture which says that there must be moral values
towards the protection of data. The damages can be loss of data's ownership, damage in

hardware, hacking in software data and unwanted actions which impacts the data. For
example: when the individual access without permission then they can use that
information for illegal purpose. That amounts to rise of a criminal liability.
 Consent: When the data is used with their wilful consent then amounts to use that data
legally. The user must take the consent of the authorised dignity to access that data. For
example: when the organisation wants to share their information with third party then
prior to that they have to asked the same from their employees or customers.
P5 what are the argument as to why closing the digital divide is important?
Digital divide means the gap between the people who enjoys the digital platform and who
don't. It is necessary to close this digital divide because it helps on providing the good access to
internet (Waggoner, 2018). The gap between those people helps in the growth of nation. As in
today's era most of the people are habitual to use the internet services. This helps them in
improving the efficiency of their work. This also helps in the growth of digital media. The close
of this divide leads to increase n access of internet so that all can access to internet services. The
digital inequality leads inequality in the social platform.
TASK B: Ethical issues in international business
1. With examples, identify which ethical principles are most relevant to international business.
The ethical values are the moral values which are translated into the established rule and
regulations, which helps them in determining the standards of individuals and organisation who
ever performs it (Staniškienė and Stankevičiūtė, 2018). In context to international business there
are many ethical values which the organisations have to perform and their impact are as follows:
 Honesty: The businesses which are performing on the international boundaries they have
to be honest with their dealings so that they will not mislead the other party. The business
must not be mislead or deliberately deceive the other person or company.
 Respect for others: The business executive must respect the other for human dignity,
privacy, interest, rights and duties for the other people. Respect must be given without
any discrimination on the grounds of sex, race or nationality. They must respect the ideas
of the other fellow members of the organisation.

2. Research report 1
What were the researched method used in this case scenario and were they appropriate or
not?
In this case scenario, the researcher had used both primary and secondary methods of
research. The researcher has taken the interview of more than 135 business leaders, NGOs,
Government agencies to collect the data and the researcher has also used secondary method to
complete his research he has taken opinions of experts of University of Sheffield, University of
London (Bennett-Woods, 2018).
The researcher has used both the method which are sound and helped him in answering
all the questions of his research. These methods help in concluding their objective. They are
because it is easy to analysis the question of report which they have essay to access. The cost of
secondary research is less as compared to primary research method. When the researcher has
used both the methods then it will take less time to achieve the objective of the report. The
secondary method is quickly in conduct because they are already available to access.
The key messages of the case scenario are as follows:
 the social audits were cheated by the suppliers which retains their business.
 Many initiatives were taken by the government of Tamil Nadu for the improvement of
working conditions but they failed in doing so.
 The researcher has come to know the methods which helps them in eliminating the
exploitation.
3. Research report 2
What were the researched method used in this case scenario and were they appropriate or
not?
This case scenario report has used both primary and secondary methods of research.
Primary method is used to take interviews of the different companies. They conducted interviews
regarding the hiring fees or foreign migrant what are the conditions of work faced by the
workforce (Johnstone, and Lindh, 2018). The researcher has taken different reports references in
their own report which helps them in concluding their own report. These methods are sound in
this report.
The key messages of the case scenario are as follows:

 There are many companies which have implemented the different policies but they have
an important gap between the disclosure and its implementations.
 The companies pursue the audit driven approach but neglected many areas which has an
impact on the lives of their workforce.
 The organisation must engage in good purchasing practices which helps the supplier to
pay good amount of wages to their workforce which leads to the workers to work harder
(Uzunoğlu, Türkel and Akyar, 2017). The company is not allowed to disclose their
purchasing power to general public, this may lead to the loss to organisations.
What are the common observations made in both these reports?
The observations made in above both case scenario reports, they both talked about
bonded labour in different sectors of organisations. They talked the labours who are forced to
work. This is the situation where their rights are violated, in first report the researcher has talked
about the bonded labour situation in branded cloth factory. In second report, they talked about
the forced labour in Information Communication and Technology Industry (Magon and et. al.,
2018). In both these situations the organisations are busy in making illegal profits by engaging
themselves in illegal activities. This leads to exploit the workforce to do work unwillingly.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that, Ethics and sustainability plays an
important role in the growth of the organisation. The moral values should be used in digital
communication so that the company can prevent them from cybercrimes. Further, the report
analysis about the impact of ethical values in international business. The ethical values include
honesty, respect, truthfulness and many other. This helps the organisation to retain from the
unlawful activities like fraud, misrepresentation, cheating and many other which leads to hamper
the goodwill of the organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bennett-Woods, D., 2018. Nanotechnology: ethics and society. CRC press.
Cheer, J. M. and Lew, A.A. eds., 2017. Tourism, resilience and sustainability: Adapting to
social, political and economic change. Routledge.
Huda, M., 2019. Empowering application strategy in the technology adoption: insights from
professional and ethical engagement. Journal of Science and Technology Policy
Management.
Ibáñez-Forés and et. al., 2019. Assessing the social performance of municipal solid waste
management systems in developing countries: Proposal of indicators and a case study.
Ecological indicators. 98. pp.164-178.
Johnstone, L. and Lindh, C., 2018. The sustainability‐age dilemma: A theory of (un) planned
behaviour via influencers. Journal of consumer behaviour. 17(1). pp.e127-e139.
Kolb and et. al., 2017. Implementing sustainability as the new normal: Responsible management
education–From a private business school's perspective. The International Journal of
Management Education. 15(2). pp.280-292.
Loosemore, M. and Lim, B.T.H., 2017. Linking corporate social responsibility and
organizational performance in the construction industry. Construction management and
economics. 35(3). pp.90-105.
Magon and et. al., 2018. Sustainability and performance in operations management research.
Journal of cleaner production. 190. pp.104-117.
Staniškienė, E. and Stankevičiūtė, Ž., 2018. Social sustainability measurement framework: The
case of employee perspective in a CSR-committed organisation. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 188. pp.708-719.
Tseng, M.L., 2017. Using social media and qualitative and quantitative information scales to
benchmark corporate sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production. 142. pp.727-738.
Uzunoğlu, E., Türkel, S. and Akyar, B.Y., 2017. Engaging consumers through corporate social
responsibility messages on social media: An experimental study. Public relations
review. 43(5). pp.989-997.
Waggoner, E.B., 2018. Bury your gays and social media fan response: Television, LGBTQ
representation, and communitarian ethics. Journal of homosexuality. 65(13). pp.1877-
1891.