Questions of ethics

It is generally considered the ethical option to consult with the end users and other stakeholders when developing business Information Systems or conducting research in the IS discipline, whether with the express intention of empowering them or simply to include multiple points of view. This is also the 'smart' option as it is a way to improve the probability that the system will be useful, usable, and hence used. There are significant similarities between participants who are employees in an organisation for whom the system is being developed or researched and the case where the system is intended to benefit the public and hence the participants are members of civil society. However, there are ethical concerns regarding participatory research in IS that are more pronounced or have somewhat different aspects in community-based IS than in business IS. Conventional social science research ethics include codes which are largely based on four principles: informed consent; absence of deception; privacy and confidentiality, and; accuracy. However, as most of the literature on participatory research is westernised and based on traditional business IS, there is little discussion on ethical participation in community settings. Numerous different issues arise in such settings and are discussed in the paper. These include the need: to clearly define the roles and functions of the participants; to understand the nature of power sharing between participants; to take cognisance of the cost versus gains from participation; to be aware of domination in decision making; to understand local meaning; to develop the capacity to participate, and; to consider divergent expectations of participants. The previous experience of both authors support these arguments and discussion in this paper, but the objective of the paper is to present a conceptual research methodology discussion rather than an empirical research paper