Ethical Dilemmas in Technology Field

Individuals and organizations use technology to enhance their daily operations, be it business or learning activities. Advancement in technology doesn’t have ethical issues, but it is the use of technological that raises ethical problem.

Information technology (IT) and any other study based on technology, are the major technological innovations raising ethical issues. The major ethical issues raised by the use of technology include ethical dilemmas, job displacement, and gender

Ethical dilemmas arise when there are competing goods and competing evils. In regard to IT, the sharing of private information within an organization raises the question of whether the action is moral or immoral. Companies can collect information about individuals using computer programs and even use the information for their own benefit.

Information systems enable people to manipulate records within a short period, raising questions on whether the information is genuine or not. These are some of ethical dillema that are yet to be solved.

In regard to job displacement, machines have enabled companies to cut down their labor force. Many companies use technological tools and knowledge, such as robots and computer to run their business operations. Some people are forced to take different roles other than their qualification requirements and others are faced with stress related to work difficulties.

Another important aspect that raises ethical or moral issues is gender. Women are in most cases discriminated in various ways in technology advancement. For example, in technology based job men are considered to be more productive than women. Many technological innovations were and still are discovered by men. The computer field is more male-dominated since females tend to rely on the easy subjects.

Ethical dilemmas, health issues, job displacement, and gender are the situations which require ethical thinking through analysis of ethical principles. Both people and environment must be considered in any technological advancement.

Case Study from www.statista.com

While the tech industry tends to take pride in changing the world of work, and often, with a bit of hubris the world per se, the technology sector is actually further away from achieving gender equality than the U.S. economy as a whole. While the percentage of women in the United States labor force has gradually climbed to 46.8 percent over the past decades, it is still significantly lower in the tech sector.

Based on various tech companies’ diversity reports, indicates, female employees make up between 27 % (Microsoft) and 47% (Netflix) of the workforce at major tech companies, with the percentage dropping much lower when it comes to actual tech jobs. In terms of leadership positions, the status of women in the technology sector, as represented here by the eight companies in our chart, is roughly on par with the rest of the economy. In 2015, women held 25 percent of executive, senior-level and management positions in S&P 500 companies – a percentage many tech companies match or exceed, but one that is still far from parity.

by: Hans Jandris Liongga & Gunawan Wang