Information Systems & Ethical Challenges in Management

This essay delves into the multifaceted challenges surrounding information systems in management, with a particular focus on outsourcing and ethical considerations. It examines crucial factors organizations must consider when assessing whether to outsource their information systems, including firm strategy, supplier factors, firm size, competitive strategy, technological environment, and legal/political environment. Furthermore, the essay explores ethical dilemmas related to data privacy, standards of conduct on networks, and copyright laws, providing an ethical analysis of each situation. It highlights the increasing importance of data warehousing, the challenges to individual privacy posed by knowledge discovery and data mining, and the difficulties in enforcing copyright laws in the digital age. The document emphasizes the need for organizations to carefully navigate these challenges to ensure successful and ethical information systems management. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Information Systems Challenges in Management
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TASK 1
Explain what an organization must consider when assessing whether to outsource its
information systems.
i. Firm strategy
The strategy of a business organization should drive and guide all its functions and
purposes. (Ven Verelst & Mannaert 2008). When it comes to outsourcing of information
systems, a firm’s strategies should guide the whole process of identifying the best firm that
can deliver the designated service that is being outsourced. Traditional maxims argue that a
successful information technology outsourcing process involves outsourcing of services that
are not the key activity of an organization and that which will not cause strategic
differentiation. Liberalists argue that the first steps in carrying out outsourcing must be
coming up with a strategy to define the objective and nature of the outsourcing transaction.
Based on a particular firm’s strategic position, there could be practically varying guidelines
as on when to start the outsourcing process, and how to carry out the transaction.
ii. Factors of the Supplier
Supplier factors greatly determine the client’s decision to take on a particular
outsourcing transaction (Richardson & Director 2008). When the outsourcing firm or
company realistically has few choices of services to offer, companies are more unlikely to
enlist themselves in the outsourcing process. On the same note, when the outsourcing firm
has new services in the market, companies tend to be reluctant in outsourcing them due to
fear of the unprecedented future and the risk of trying the untried. Probable models for
predicting success of outsourcing transactions include measures such as considering the
supplier’s expertise, especially their ability to deliver meets the demands of the client, extent
to which the supplier has invested in the outsourcing process, and whether the supplier is able
to meet the specificity factors laid out by the human resource manager of the client (Pollard
& Cater-Steel 2009). However, the number of the available outsourcing firms to a great
extent determines the success of an outsourcing process. When the number of outsourcing
firms is small, an outsourcing process tends to success as opposed to when the number of
outsourcing firms are many. The feasibility of organizations outsourcing increases with

increasing number of outsourcing firms. The decision making process of an organization
concerning outsourcing is greatly impacted by the number vendors of the service or product
to be outsourced. Studies that have been done on the factors that are always validated to
determine the success of an outsourcing process include the supplier’s demonstration of
understandability of the needs of the client, the trustworthiness of the employees of the
supplier and the supplier’s experience with the information system that is being outsourced
(Lacity, Willcocks & Rottman 2008).
iii. Firm size and outsourcing decisions
Research has shown that there is a direct link between the size of the farm and its
outsourcing decisions on Information Systems (Morali & Wieringa 2010). A study done on
226 banks showed that size of a firm affected the presence of the supplier, technology
implications, the complexity of the task and asset specificity on outsourcing of information
systems (IS) (Marston, Bandyopadhyay Zhang & Ghalsasi 2011). However, the study found
out that the findings above did not affect small banks as compared to large banks. It was
found out that for large banks, factors such as advantages of cost production were
strengthened while factors such as task complexity and the specificity of assets seemed to
weaken.
iv. Competitive strategy
Research has demonstrated that organization that employ low cost strategies are
forced to rely heavily on meeting high standards of efficiency when it comes to their
transacting processes (Oshri, Kotlarsky & Willcocks 2015). Firms that follow differentiation
strategies on the other hand heavily rely on information from the market and they often view
their Decision support systems as being more important in determining the long term success
of their outsourcing transaction process.
v. Technological Environment
A challenge for most organizations taking up outsourcing transactions is the uncertainty
of technology and the risk of misunderstanding the cost of implementing an IS projects (Pollard
& Cater-Steel 2009). Often organizations tend to reduce or mitigate their technological risks by
technically transferring those risks to the outsourcing firms. Hence, the outsourcing firms must

be ready for this scenarios, because the client organizations accept that the vendor has the skills
and strategies to meet those risks and resources to manage them. Emerging technologies has
greatly impacted on how outsourcing process is done due to the emergence of cloud computing
and novel sourcing models for example application Service provision (ASP). Information
Technology organizations can define cloud computing as enhancers of Information Systems
outsourcing in which software and hardware resources are made available over the network ‘a
service’ models, whereby clients can use on pay as you use basis (Tate & Ellram 2009).
vi. Legal and Political Environment
There are some regulations and restrictions that tend to affect uptake of IS outsourcing.
These decisions include the following: putting restrictions on operations of foreign firms
operating within some limitations, banning importation or exportation of certain services or
products, limitation of internet exchange activities and content scrutiny. For example, the
‘Government Information Technology Contracting.’ This is a policy framework that has
provisions for using or acquiring ICT products that has within it a number of inclusions to
manage the acquisition of the products and or services (Jones & Jones 2013).
Political instabilities and legal provisions also affect outsourcing processes. Varying
public perceptions in different countries may affect outsourcing decisions of clients.
Additionally, some governs may require overseas companies to comply with some novel
requirements which they may not be ready for, and so hence up quitting. This greatly affects
outsourcing of Information Systems.
Lastly, rights on intellectual property that embark on protecting intellectual property for
example trademarks and copyrights are considered a necessity for an outsourcing transaction to
be complete. Hence, this impacts on the choice of country to outsource from when it comes to
international outsourcing (Ven Verelst & Mannaert 2008).
References
Jones, G. R., & Jones, G. R. (2013). Organizational theory, design, and change. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson.
Lacity, M. C., Willcocks, L. P., & Rottman, J. W. (2008). Global outsourcing of back office
services: lessons, trends, and enduring challenges. Strategic Outsourcing: An
International Journal, 1(1), 13-34.

Marston, S., Li, Z., Bandyopadhyay, S., Zhang, J., & Ghalsasi, A. (2011). Cloud computing—
The business perspective. Decision support systems, 51(1), 176-189.
Morali, A., & Wieringa, R. (2010, September). Risk-based confidentiality requirements
specification for outsourced it systems. In Requirements Engineering Conference (RE),
2010 18th IEEE International (pp. 199-208). IEEE.
Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J., & Willcocks, L. P. (2015). The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and
Offshoring 3rd Edition. Springer.
Pollard, C., & Cater-Steel, A. (2009). Justifications, strategies, and critical success factors in
successful ITIL implementations in US and Australian companies: an exploratory study.
Information systems management, 26(2), 164-175.
Richardson, R., & Director, C. S. I. (2008). CSI computer crime and security survey. Computer
security institute, 1, 1-30.
Tate, W. L., & Ellram, L. M. (2009). Offshore outsourcing: a managerial framework. Journal of
Business & Industrial Marketing, 24(3/4), 256-268.
Ven, K., Verelst, J., & Mannaert, H. (2008). Should you adopt open source software? IEEE
software, 25(3), 54-59.
TASK 2
Search online for three situations that involve information systems and ethics. Apply an
ethical analysis to each situation and include appropriate ethical perspectives.
i. Data Privacy in electronic Information systems
Challenges to Privacy by companies
Because data is increasingly becoming valuable to companies, data warehousing is
becoming a common practice in the electronic information systems. Furthermore, the emergence
of the technology of knowledge discovery and data analytics has enlisted novel concerns on
privacy issues, (Jain & Shanbhag 2012). The existing data privacy policies to govern the use and
of personal data that is being held by various corporations and organizations across the world
seems unable to curb the rising illegal use or sharing of personal data without consent of the
owners, (Aleem & Ryan Sprott 2012). It seems as if the agencies concerned with the enactment
and review of the policies that safeguard right to information privacy are either behind the

current developments in data mining industry or they have decided to deliberately keep off
(Subashini & Kavitha 2011).
Challenges to Privacy by individuals
Recent technological developments in information systems has caused amassment of
large amounts of personal data in the accounting companies, shopping malls, network service
providers and medical institutions (Wang, Ren, Lou & Li 2010). This has brought an
increasingly growing concern on whether the privacy of personal information is not being
encroached. However, it is important to observe that this new technology of knowledge
discovery and data mining (KDDM) causes the privacy threat in itself (Batyuk et al 2011). It is
an interesting area to research on since KDDM must involve amassment of data, for this is part
its business procedures. KDDM poses a data privacy issue in the electronic information systems
because knowledge discovery often involves using personal information to carry out predictions
without the consent of the owners (Gao, Hu, Huang, Wang & Chen 2011).
ii. Standards of Conduct on the Networks
Cultural beliefs and norms define values of what the society defines as acceptable
conduct (Mason, 2017). However, behavior standards in the online platform are not always
founded on the norms of the society whereby the network is situated. Human interactions in the
electronic information systems may at some point be stretched across several societies who may
be having varying values and norms that guide their conduct in the network platform (Bélanger
& Crossler 2011). Due to these limitations, human interaction in the online network needs to be
redefined altogether. Another challenge is that different online networks are managed from
different areas, which have differing standards of conduct. Hence, ensuring for acceptable
behavior in the online network is made doubly difficult.
The fact that computers technically avail limitless opportunities for people to do what
they please in the network with anonymity makes it challenging to enforce sane standards of
conduct (Smith, Dinev & Xu 2011). Additionally, due to multicultural diversities, values of
behavioral conduct on the information system networks tends to have varying guidelines.
Furthermore, these guidelines are liable to change as the traffic on networks increases. While

morally upright custodians of the norms and values of acceptable behavior may have tried to
preserve standards of acceptable behavior in the information systems network ethics in
acceptable behavior in the information systems networks still remains to be a big challenge. This
is majorly because most of the traffic in the network is made consists of the young generation
that is less morally sensitive.
Copyright Laws
The proliferation of information which is generated by information systems in the online
platform has led to a problem on how copyright laws of intellectual property can be implemented
(Siponen, & Vance 2010). Many conflicts in information systems is about how information is
used. There needs to be a standard to govern the use of intellectual property. Furthermore, more
clarification should be outlined on how electronic files can be used, distributed or viewed. The
flexibility of how electronic files and can be edited or shared greatly limits the enforcement of
the already established copyright laws (Erlich & Narayanan 2014). It is either the already
existing laws are too limited to meet the needs of the problem at hand or they are easily
subjugated by the easiness of editing or sharing electronic files. Enforcing acceptable behavior or
conduct in information systems becomes even more difficult considering the fact that different
countries have different laws on copyrights, which means that information that is available
globally will have different protection laws (Laudon & Laudon 2015).
While implementation procedure of copyright laws is straight forward, the main question
that really comes up is, who is responsible for implementing these laws? While they are many
acts and policies that have been enacted to protect copyright laws, often the laws are not
implemented because the requirements are practically unenforceable. Hence most of the
intellectual property in the electronic information systems ends up being illegally used or
distributed. Alternative ways of protecting electronic files should be sought, for example using
digital markers to identify the owners of a particular electronic files and imposing of fees before
subscribing to informational services.
iii. Access to Electronic Networks
A key issue in the electronic information systems is access to electronic networks. Who
accesses the network and what the kind of information they would want to access is important to

consider because information system networks have confidential information could easily for
accomplishing nefarious purposes by ill minded persons (Fire Goldschmidt & Elovici 2014).
Protection of personal Data
Additionally, the question of privacy is also important as electronic information systems
in the online network are laden with tremendous information that is personal and confidential in
most cases. Given the huge number of machines and devices connected to the cloud network,
protection of personal data becomes an important issue (Fire Goldschmidt & Elovici 2014).
Security issues that come with this set up include data loss and privacy because of the sharing of
cloud services. It is easy to lose control of the physical infrastructure of the devices in the online
cloud, and this becomes one of the greatest security vulnerabilities (Cutillo, Molva & Strufe
2009). While Cloud Service Providers (CSP) endeavor to protect consumer data through cloud
encryption techniques, these encryption techniques are often not enough to protect the data-
massive data warehouses. Furthermore, these encryption techniques are not effective in
themselves as most of them only offer encryption protection while data is in ‘ on transit’, and
fail to protect it while it is ‘at rest.’ Encryption “on transit” is the technique of encrypting data
while it is on transfer, that is, as it is being transferred from a local machine to the online server
while encryption “at rest”, defines the technique of encrypting data while it is being stored in the
serve ( Sun, Zhang, Xiong & Zhu 2014). While encryption of data while “on transit” can protect
it from hackers and hence continually keep it safe, the hackers can still get a free way to
manipulate the data while it is ‘at rest,’ Since cybercriminals are increasingly seeking more
security vulnerabilities in online platform, encrypting data while at rest becomes necessary
(Erlich & Narayanan 2014).
What to be allowed in the network
While communities have their own standards of decency and definitions of what is
obscene and what is not, the electronic information systems network has no such standards, and
there are no set borders to define right or wrong (Kelly 2009). Therefore, obscenity has come to
be a relativized. Furthermore, as the number of online traffic in the electronic information
systems increases, issues of the morality on information that is shared often rise up. Cultural
diversity also makes control of what can be shared in the network difficult as the traffic of

network communication crosses international boundaries, and different cultures are guided by
different moral values. What a particular culture appraises as noble may be just as base in
another cultural setting. This is not only apparent in the pornography case, which is a major issue
across the world, but may also involve controversial issues that are held by political, religious
and cultural groups.
References
Aleem, A., & Ryan Sprott, C. (2012). Let me in the cloud: analysis of the benefit and risk
assessment of cloud platform. Journal of Financial Crime, 20(1), 6-24.
Batyuk, L., Herpich, M., Camtepe, S. A., Raddatz, K., Schmidt, A. D., & Albayrak, S. (2011).
Using static analysis for automatic assessment and mitigation of unwanted and malicious
activities within Android applications. In Malicious and Unwanted Software
(MALWARE), 2011 6th International Conference on (pp. 66-72). IEEE.
Bélanger, F., & Crossler, R. E. (2011). Privacy in the digital age: a review of information privacy
research in information systems. MIS quarterly, 35(4), 1017-1042.
Cutillo, L. A., Molva, R., & Strufe, T. (2009). Safebook: A privacy-preserving online social
network leveraging on real-life trust. IEEE Communications Magazine, 47(12), 94-101.
Fire, M., Goldschmidt, R., & Elovici, Y. (2014). Online social networks: threats and solutions.
IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 16(4), 2019-2036.
Gao, H., Hu, J., Huang, T., Wang, J., & Chen, Y. (2011). Security issues in online social
networks. IEEE Internet Computing, 15(4), 56-63.
Jain, A. K., & Shanbhag, D. (2012). Addressing Security and Privacy Risks in Mobile
Applications. IT Professional, 14(5), 28-33.
Kelly, D. (2009). Methods for evaluating interactive information retrieval systems with users.
Foundations and Trends® in Information Retrieval, 3(1–2), 1-224.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2015). Management information systems (Vol. 8). Prentice Hall.
Mason, R. O. (2017). Four ethical issues of the information age. In Computer Ethics (pp. 41-48).
Routledge.
Siponen, M., & Vance, A. (2010). Neutralization: new insights into the problem of employee
information systems security policy violations. MIS quarterly, 487-502.

Smith, H. J., Dinev, T., & Xu, H. (2011). Information privacy research: an interdisciplinary
review. MIS quarterly, 35(4), 989-1016.
Subashini, S., & Kavitha, V. (2011). A survey on security issues in service delivery models of
cloud computing. Journal of network and computer applications, 34(1), 1-11.
Sun, Y., Zhang, J., Xiong, Y., & Zhu, G. (2014). Data security and privacy in cloud computing.
International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 10(7), 190903.
Wang, C., Wang, Q., Ren, K., & Lou, W. (2010). Privacy-preserving public auditing for data
storage security in cloud computing. In Infocom, 2010 proceedings ieee (pp. 1-9). Ieee.

TASK 3
Security isn’t simply a technology issue; it’s a business issue. Discuss
Introduction
Technology has dynamically transformed the way businesses operate and that change is
the more witnessed in the recent years, as novel emerging technologies are coming up (Teece
2010). New technological advancements have put new demands on business organizations and
has provided for new possibilities for the development of improved activities in the market as
well as for the products. As there are many information technologies that are being adopted by
various business organizations, possibilities of companies incorporating various technologies
into their business procedures also varies. Some technologies have allowed for workers to share
information from any part of the world, ordering of information and services remotely and
implementing payment options in the cloud are some of the ways that technology has defined
business such that technology has come to be viewed as an integral element in business (Clark &
Landau 2010). Whichever way you look at it, technology and business cannot be separated.
Without technology, it is not business as usual. Technology is business, and there cannot be
business without technology.
Technology as Business in Emerging Technologies
The current technologies are the main motivation behind the growth and expansion of the
operation of business processes to the next level, and this has contributed to the advancement of
the business world. Next level data analysis, applications with mobile cloud computing, the IoT
with the rest of today’s technological advancement have led to the easy operation of model
machinery which include shared services, the recreation of processes and worldwide provision.
Many companies have altered their network layouts and policies in an effort to fit into these
technological advancements to keep up with the speed and pace of the worldwide market
(Anderson 2010).
For businesses to mature and prosper, for business deals to be sealed, for debts to be
settled, a number of technologies have to be utilized to make this possible (Mansfield-Devine
2012). To enable for implementation of for global partnerships, the workforce of a number of
technological tools have to be incorporated. Technology therefore, as it were, is a business

issues. Below are some ways trends in information technology that have come to define
technology as a business issue.
Advanced technological tools have made globalization in business possible. Human
resource leads in business organizations must be ready to employment policies and strategies that
will meet needs of employees who work from various locations in the world (Richardson &
Director 2008). While different regions in the world may have employees with varying views,
research has shown that most workers are positive concerning technologies that would encourage
more connections across variants of time and distance.
Due to teleworking technology, reporting for work no longer means to be physically in
the office. The emergence of office technology has practically changed how employees in
business organizations work and allowing professionals to access their job portals from any place
in the world (Richardson & Director 2008). Hence the teleworking movement has grown, as
most workers are working from home. Businesses are consequently cutting down on costs of
managing employees in their offices as a result of the teleworking movement.
As teleworking is a relatively novel technology, Human Resource leads in business
organizations have to define strategies and polices that will accommodate the employees
working from out of the office. Furthermore, teleworking may serve as an incentive to attract
professionals who would want to balance work and other involvements.
Technology as Business in the cloud computing Platform
Because of the many advantages of outsourcing information from online cloud services,
many business organizations are changing how clients can obtain the information that they
require for completion of business transactions. Clients can now access information they need
from any part of the world, ‘as a service model’ through the cloud computing platform.
According to a research that was conducted by Deloitte, teleworking technologies have allowed
workers to always be on schedule, which has consequently raised work expectations (Furnell,
Tsaganidi & Phippen, 2008). For example, 45 % of employees feel obligated to respond to their
hours after they have left their offices, while 47% have a feeling of guilt when they do not work
either from the office or from home (Mason 2017).