An overview of Information and Computer Technology Ethics in the United Arab Emirates
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Date
2009-04
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Publisher
The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
The UAE as a young and quickly rising nation has undergone a fast
transformation in a relatively short span of time into a financial, industrial,
tourist and strategic hub of the region. With the increasing significance of
information and computer technology and the associated risks, it is important
to gain insight into both the ethical environment as a whole, and specifically
where it applies to information and computer technology.
The objective of this paper is to discern the ethical strengths, weaknesses and
areas of concern in the UAE employment market as a whole, covering the
private and public sectors and contrasting them to evaluate their separate
development paths. This applies to the ethical environment as a whole, but
specifically to the field of ICT ethics which is the main focus of this document.
This study briefly covers several models of ethical behaviour and decision
making in order construct a suitable model for the evaluation of the ethical
environment in the UAE workplace. The model thus derived is used in the
design of a questionnaire which was distributed to a broad sampling of the
UAE employment sector.
The results of this survey showed a better awareness and implementation of
computer ethics in the private sector than in the public sector. The survey
several areas of weakness, and makes recommendations for improving the
ethical environment through awareness, education, enforcement, and the fair
and equitable treatment of employees where it comes to computer ethics
issues.
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Keywords
information and computer technology, ethics, United Arab Emirates (UAE), decision making, employment sector