A Survey of Ethical Issues in the Use of Information Technology Among Commercial Banks in Kenya

Abstract

IT -related ethical quandaries are receiving an increasing amount of attention. There is a vast terrain of unexplored ethical territory through which m~ny IT applications must travel. Such ambiguity is often rebounding against well-intentioned, strategic initiatives. It is becoming apparent that the ethical dimensions of IT -related business decisions cannot be safely ignored. Most of the IS ethical dilemmas are set in corporate business environments where decision makers are forced to make ethical decisions as employees of the corporate organization. Many of the ethical dilemmas in IT are complex with apparently conflicting responsibilities on the part of the professional, manager or executive. Many 01 these managers have little or no formal training in IT ethics and yet they preside over systems with a huge potential for unethical practices. This study had two primary objectives: 1. To identify the ethical issues that banks are faced with in the use of IT and determine the extent of awareness within the industry and 2. to establish the extent to which banks have established measures to deal with these issues. To facilitate this study, a list of the 50 registered banks was obtained from the Central Bank of Kenya. Only 23 respondents agreed to participate in the study. Of those who did not respond two .o..f the institutions were under statutory management while two

had since closed down. Two of the institutions had merged while one was a subsidiary of the other. The others who did not respond said that their organization's policies do not allow them to provide the information required. A self-administered questi~nnaire was delivered to the heads of IT in these organizations or their representatives.

II

The results show that there is generally a high level of awareness about ethical issues amongst IT professionals working in banks in Kenya. The results also demonstrate that a large number of the banks have taken deliberate steps to deal with ethical issues arising from the use ofIT. These results should however be interpreted against the limitations of the study, specifically the sample population and the kind of industry that was targeted by this research. However, the findings of the study demonstrate that there is a whole range of ethical issues that cannot be safely ignored, not only in the banking industry but perhaps in other sectors of the economy as well.