MAN5902 Business Systems Analysis: Social, Cultural & Ethical Factors

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the social, cultural, and ethical considerations relevant to business system analysis. It begins by outlining the research methodology employed, including the research design, data collection method (secondary data), and data analysis technique (thematic analysis). The report then delves into the ethical and social influences of business systems, highlighting the importance of ethical considerations in the development and implementation of information systems. It discusses potential health risks, employment reengineering, and information privacy as key ethical concerns. The report also presents a multi-step ethical analysis framework, emphasizing the need to identify facts, state discrepancies, recognize stakeholders, and evaluate rational options. Furthermore, the document explores the social impact of information systems, particularly the increasing use of the internet and its implications for society. The paper concludes by discussing the development of technological drifts that lead to ethical concerns, emphasizing the need for businesses to address these issues proactively. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources for students.

Business System Analysis
3/27/2019

BUSINESS SYSTEM ANALYSIS 1
Table of Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................2
Research Methodology...............................................................................................................2
Research Design.....................................................................................................................2
Data collection method..........................................................................................................3
Data analysis..........................................................................................................................3
Ethical consideration..............................................................................................................3
Research Approach................................................................................................................3
Social/Cultural and Ethical Considerations in Business System Analysis............................3
Ethical and Social Influence of Business Systems.................................................................4
Ethical Consideration of Business Systems.......................................................................5
Ethical Analysis.................................................................................................................6
Social Impact of Information Systems...............................................................................7
Developing Technological Drifts That Leads To Ethical Concerns..................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12

BUSINESS SYSTEM ANALYSIS 2
Abstract
Today, social and ethical issues are present in all aspects of the business. It is not based on
the size of the business, but the people that are involved or have interest provide perceptions
about the social and ethical issues upraised by the business. It the operations of the business
can result in altering the views at a high level. In a few of the cases, the procedure of
involving with the society or public and the content of the business can increase social and
ethical issues. At the time of involving in public activity, it is essential to be conscious of any
of the issues that can influence the target market and to be ready to deal with these issues
sensitively. The aim of this paper is to discuss Social/Cultural and Ethical Considerations in
Business System Analysis. For this, the paper will provide the research methodology and
research approach.
Research Methodology
Research methodology is a technique or process that is utilized to identify, select, process,
and analyze information regarding a topic (Kumar, 2010). This paper is based on the topic -
Social/Cultural and Ethical Considerations in Business System Analysis.
Research Design
The research design is the setup of situations or collections. The research design for the topic
Social/Cultural and Ethical Considerations in Business System Analysis is processed with the
help of Qualitative approach. A qualitative approach is said to be a scientific system of
observation to collect non-numerical information. This kind of study is comprised of values,
features, metaphors, and symbols and not to their counts of measure (Silverman, 2016).

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Data collection method
Data collection technique that is opted for this study is Secondary Data collection. It is a kind
of information that is printed on journals, books, online portals, magazines, newspaper, etc.
Plenty of information is available at these platforms regarding the area of research in business
studies (Trzesniewski, Donnellan & Lucas, 2011).
Data analysis
Thematic analysis is one of the general types of analysis in qualitative research that has been
selected for this research. It is comprised of analytic, investigative and recording patterns in
the data.
Ethical consideration
In research, ethical consideration is very critical. Ethics are the standards or conduct that
discriminates between right and wrong. This research has been conducted by considering all
the ethical aspects and the data that has been presented in the research is reliable and true.
Research Approach
Inductive Approach is the selected approach to conduct this research. The inductive method
starts with observing and then models are planned at the end of the process as an outcome of
observations.
Social/Cultural and Ethical Considerations in Business System Analysis
Society has been intensely influenced by the business systems in today’s era that are referred
by the historians, as the information age. This is because of the capability of the business
system to gather, process, collect and manipulate information with the help of the information
system (Bélanger & Crossler, 2011). As today, the society has been converted as the
information society; therefore it becomes very essential to talk about two topics i.e. ethical
and social inferences due to use of IS in the society.

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An information system as stated by Bagad (2008), is the organization of individuals,
procedure, interface, and data that interrelates to enhance and support daily operations in the
company, along with this support in solving the problems and making decisions. Also,
Laudon & Laudon (2010), technically definite IS a set of consistent mechanisms that gathers,
practice, and store and allocate data in order to assist in the decision making, controlling, and
coordination in a business. Information systems are comprised of information regarding
important, things, place, and people in the organization or in its environment.
As per Polack (2006), people have now become more technology savvy because of the
intensely augmented space of information accessible through the internet, and the widened
space of computer knowledge; the information security and individual privacy have now been
the significant areas of concern. Seeing the statistic that information systems and computers
are a key aspect of everyone’s life, which has also increased the chances of misusing of
computers as well as information gathered through it (Nowduri 2011).
Ethical and Social Influence of Business Systems
It is a statement that variations and updates in the technology majorly influence society. This
can change jobs, government, individuals, social interaction, and education. Being a part of
society, every group has the right and duty to one another, like ethics obligations and privacy
rights. The influence of technology on individuals could be useful or harmful. However, in
many cases, a change in technology can support a group of people and be damaging for
another group. Distinctive challenges comprise a change in incentives, depersonalization, and
loss of privacy. The advantages comprise superior products and lower cost. A number of
these problems does not influence the community completely, but raise questions for the
companies and different corporations at large (Valacich & Schneider, 2010).

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Ethical Consideration of Business Systems
According to Stair & Reynolds (2015), ethics is the attitude of wrong and right that persons,
performing as ethical mediators, use to make selections to monitor their behaviors. Business
systems such as information systems raise ethical questions for the community and
individuals since they are the one who develops chances for penetrating social change, and
this intimidates prevailing allocations of rights, power, obligations, and funds. Same as other
technologies like electricity, telephone, steam engines, and radios, information system could
be utilized to attain community growth but could be utilized to compel corruptions and
intimidate precious morals of the society. The introduction of the information systems offers
advantages for many and cost for the remaining ones.
According to Baltzan (2014), as the future professionals are prepared for the employment in
the field of technology, it is necessary to raise awareness regarding possible sorts of ethical
issues that are general to the technological organizations such as business dealing in IS or
making use of IS in their operations. Encompassed in a huge incline of issues enclosed by
strategies in many of the businesses, are rules for the ethical use of a computer, information
privacy, email, Internet use, acceptable use, and the policy related to anti-spam. Pearlson,
Saunders & Galletta (2016), highlighted that the executives should be involved in checking
external business activities since consumers and their privacy are influenced by the time there
are external breaks. Other different ethical issues concerned with business systems are:
Health Risk
Health-related problems like Computer Vision Syndrome, Repetitive Stress Injury, and
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome are connected with extended usage of business systems like
information systems. Everyone must be conscious regarding the health issues as they cause a
huge amount to the business in terms of money spending in annual claims of medical
treatment and influence efficiency (Reason, 2016). Although, ergonomics that could be

BUSINESS SYSTEM ANALYSIS 6
defined as the science that talks about the harmless environment of work, or the research of
the relationship between machines and human has assisted to define that, it is inexpensive to
buy tools that will decrease the risk to the health linked with the IS like monitors, keyboards,
that decreases the strains from the eyes and small table that permits correct placing of the
body.
Employment
Reengineering is classically addressed in the community of the IS as a key advantage of
newfangled information technology. It has been observed less that reshaping the procedures
of the business can possibly the reason behind clerical personnel and middle-level executives
to lose their jobs. One of the economists has elevated the likelihood that time will come,
when a society will be created that will be operated by a minor “high tech choice of business
specialists in a land of the enduringly unemployed (Laudon & Laudon, 2014).
Information Privacy
The misuse of the information is one of the major threat related with IS since it can offer a
massive level of information, therefore it need to be decided which type of information is
useful and who must get its access. Every time a credit card is used, the phone call is made;
money is withdrawn, booking a flight, these events are documented through the system.
These minutes could be utilized to know about an individual's location, the amount spent by
him, etc. Information system is utilized to manage credit rating data of the individual that can
define their capability to borrow money (Keshk, Moustafa, Sitnikova & Turnbull, 2018).
Ethical Analysis
This area of discussion represents the numerous step procedures of how one must analyze
ethical issues when opposed to these type or circumstances:

BUSINESS SYSTEM ANALYSIS 7
Recognize and Evidently Define the Facts
This aspect is comprised of finding who did what to whom, and where. In many situations,
the business gets surprised by the errors in the originally reported facts, and it could be
identified that simply extracting facts support in determining the solution. This also helps to
oppose tangled in the ethical dilemma to settle with the facts (Olumoye, 2013).
State the Discrepancy and Recognize involved Order Values
The bodies that are involved in the arguments on the concerns related to political, social and
ethical aspects claim to follow higher standards like property protection, freedom, and
privacy. It is essential to evidently describe the conflict related to ethical concerns and
recognize ones with higher values (Olumoye, 2013).
Recognizing the Stakeholders
It is important to recognize the stakeholder’s identity because each of the political, social, and
ethical issues have stakeholders or can be said that players in the game with the interest in the
results.
Recognize the Rational Options to Select from
It can be discovered that not a single option can ever satisfy the involved interest while a few
of the options do a superior job than others. Therefore, ending at an ethical solution cannot be
always balancing of concerns to stakeholders (Olumoye, 2013).
Social Impact of Information Systems
The increasing use of IS in the community has altered the face of each cultural and social
aspect. The clear influence of information system is the increasing use of internet and its
significances in relation to how people learn, interconnect, and socialize and operate a
business. Though, before focusing on the internet implications that is related to the computer,

BUSINESS SYSTEM ANALYSIS 8
it is important to explore a few of the essential information system's features (Xiang &
Gretzel, 2010).
Firstly, it must not be forgotten that the computer was basically developed for solving logic
and arithmetic problems, and storage of the data. Computer development is one of the most
complex machines of the present time that permit people to get the solutions of the more
complex problems in a manner that would have been incredible. Society is influenced
through this in 2 ways: One is based on the individual level. This reflects that any individual
in the control of any type of system has the capability to manage all the documents that they
ever require in a single machine. This reflects that machines permit an individual to set the
business and work from home facility which was never seen in the past.
On the higher level, it permits scientific development to quicken as mathematical issues
inconceivable to the humans, could be operated through programmed machines. The
influence of the storing capacity of the computer is to completely alter, the way large scale
business operates, by supporting inventory management, by enabling and accelerating the
data storage significant for businesses, for example, phone numbers or preference of the
customer.
Another influence of the IS, is the increasing trend in computer games. This has resulted in
thoughtful concerns over the way they influence the users, and particularly its influence on
youth.
Another stimulating and indisputable influence is internet use in the global community, and it
can be said that it supports in connecting and eliminating the variances between culturally
and geographically separated people. The influence of the computer is yet increasing;
however, it is previously clear that they are adequately extensive reaching too far exceed a
response of this length (Castells, 2014). Eventually, the means of communication is the

BUSINESS SYSTEM ANALYSIS 9
internet. In just a single click on the mouse, irrespective of their education, status, or wealthy
people can get access to specific information or knowledge. The advantage of this is, with
complete and correct knowledge of the internet, a person can get everything he/she desire to
research.
Computer crime is the major predominant social influence of an information system on
society. Computer crime as stated by Valacich & Schneider (2010), is the action of making
use of the computer in order to obligate an unlawful activity, like targeting a system, desktop,
laptop, or computer while committing a crime, making use of a computer in order to compel a
crime, or utilizing computers in some kind of illegal events. Computer hackers and virus are
envisioned to abolish software and data and disturb operations of the computer. In 2002, there
were around 7,000 computer viruses were recounted.
Developing Technological Drifts That Leads To Ethical Concerns
Information systems have augmented ethical concerns, increased issues and threats to
recognized societal guidelines and new advancements have resulted in the framing of few
laws ancient and conceivable pressures to confidentiality and ethics. Four fundamental trends
of technology accountable for ethical issues that are discussed below:
The rise in Computing Power
People can now get easy access to the data due to rise in computing power. This has
perpetually augmented dependence and susceptibility to the systems of the computer of
numerous organizations and individuals.
The decreasing cost of data storage
The data storage online is the aspect that causes in decreasing cost of storage. Therefore, it
has resulted in making numerous organizations to simply preserve and upsurge
comprehensive files of individuals.

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Development in Data Analysis
This technological predisposition has provided businesses higher capability to evaluate
comprehensive individual’s personal information from huge amounts of collected data and to
create comprehensive individual behavior profiles and nonobvious relationship awareness
(NORA) (Segarra-Oña, Peiró-Signes, Miret-Pastor & Albors-Garrigós, 2011).
Development in Internet and Networking
It has allowed data movement from one place to another, data copy and retrieving a huge
amount of personal data from the isolated sites.
Conclusion
The above study has been carried with the view of evaluating the evolving trends of
technology that is possessed by different business systems like IS are posing towards THE
society. New challenges that never before influenced the community are today appearing in
the environment. It is not a doubt that today community is becoming conscious of the
cumulative difficulty of the security of the information and the ethical issues that rotate
around the huge level of conceivable invades. As every one of us is the part of this world, it is
important that everyone must show their concern and get involved in its resolution. In
consideration of this, numerous businesses in the nation particularly gas and oil industries are
taking defensive movements by the depiction of codes of conduct. Government bodies are
also assisting the communities through different regulations for safeguarding data reliability
and individual privacy. In order to properly operate the business and avoid any type of
damage, it is advised that society should confirm every individual is responsible for
everything he/she does; irrespective of his/her activity may appear. As there are increasing
difficulties of social and ethical issues that rotate around manifold gaps, it becomes imperious

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for the computer professionals and educators to create prospectus on professional and ethical
conduct in the society.