On The Ethical Dimension Of Information Management

In modern information society, since information has become an important strategic resource on which individuals, organizations and societies relies for survival and development, information management has become a significant part of modern management activities. The so-called "information management", including mainly information collection, information processing, information transmission and information utilization, is a process during which human beings plan, organize, coordinate and control information resources and information activities by the use of modern technology so that humans’information needs can be satisfied. It is well known that human beings enjoy the fruits of high technology, yet at the same time are beset with ethical problems because of the rapid development and wide application of modern information technology, especially computer technology and network technology. Hence technology management and ethics are closely connected:information management ethics should be a new development in management ethics with modern information technology under information society.Refer to teleology, deontology and virtue theory in normative ethics, this paper, with methods of literature research, case analysis and qualitative study, expounds on the general principles of fairness, respect, accuracy and harmlessness in information management ethics, analyzes ethical relevancy among each process of information management, ethical significance and ethical demand of those processes, and discusses the functions of ethics such as regulation and restraints, guidance and encouragement, control and education in information management. Meanwhile through specific cases, it attaches great importance to analyze the ethical problems of false and incomplete information, of information infringement and invalidation, of theft and accidental divulgement of information, of viruses and hacker attack, of information pollution, fraud and monopoly, and of information used without permission, used in malice and disused during the information management process. Aimed at these problems, this paper, according to the general principles and demands of information management ethics, explores heteronomous and autonomic preventive countermeasures from perspectives of techniques, regulations and ethics. In addition, institutional supervision of information management ethics and the ethical cultivation of the subject of information management are studied on the basis that combination of autonomy and heteronomy is essential for the enforcement of information management ethics.In modern information society, as new problems arise, the quality of human beings’existence, life and production will be affected to some extent. Therefore, both specific and prophetic solutions to those ethical problems that may come along should be provided. This study not only focuses on existing problems of information management ethics and their solutions but also pays attention to probable ones with the hope that it can arouse public concern to in formation management ethics, increase the attention to the construction of its overall research and practice system and moreover, sheds light on the development of information ethics and applied ethics in our country.