Ethical Behaviour

As I say good-bye to formal study (albeit for a while hopefully), the recently finished book titled 'Management Information Systems, Managing the Digital Firm' was a treat.

In it, I came across the Law of Mass Digital Storage. This states that the world produces as much as 5 exabytes of unique information per year (an exabyte is a billion gigabytes or 1 followed by 18 zeros). The amount of digital information is roughly doubling every year. Almost all of this informaiton growth involves magnetic storage of digital data and printed documents account for only 0.003% of the annual growth.

Needless to say that I wish to assimilate it all (Ha!Ha!Ha!).

As I eagerly look forward to the upcoming months of sheer leisure, I also consider them as a great opportunity to what Herbert Spencer and the likes of him did in what I like to call 'The Age of Immersion in the World of Wisdom' (read books).

Here's something for the road guys from the book:

What ethical principles or rules should you use to make a decision? What higher-order values should inform your judgement? Although you are the only one who can decide which among many ethical principles you will follow and how you will prioritize them, it is useful to consider some ethical principles with deep roots in many cultures that have survived throughout recorded history.

• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (the Golden rule).

Putting yourself into the place of others and thinking of yourself as the object of the decision, can help you think about fairness in decision makimg.

• If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for anyone (Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative). Ask yourself, "If everyone did this, could the organisation or society, survive?"

I am reminded of the movie, 'A Beautiful Mind' and the Group theory by John Nash which won him the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994. He says, "Hey guys, Adam Smith needs some revision as he formulated that the best result would come when everyone in the group does what is best for him or her. No, no.. the best result would come when everyone in the group does what is best for him or her and the group."

I am proud to state that I, in fact, applied the same to perfection (read the desired result) as a Class Representative in college.

• If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all (Rene Descartes' rule of change). This is the slippery-slope rule: An action may bring about a small change now that is accepatable but if repeated would bring unacceptable changes in the long run. In the vernacular, it might be stated as "once started down a slippery path you may not be able to stop."
• Take tha action that achieves the higher or greater value (the Utilitarian Principle). This rule assumes you can prioritize values in a rank order and understand the consequences of various courses of action.
• Take the action that produces the least harm or the least potential cost (Risk Aversion Principle).
• Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else unless there is a specific declaration otherwise. (Ethical "no free lunch" rule). If something someone else has created is useful to you, it has value and you should assume the creator wants compensation for this work.