| المستخلص: |
In recent years, various ethical issues have arisen in the field of information technology (IT). Because of the dramatic changes in computer technology and the absence of policies that support those technological changes, it is generally believed that IT professionals often find themselves in ethical dilemmas. The objectives of this research were to investigate the ethical attitudes of IT professionals in Jordan towards four IT-related ethical issues including: privacy, piracy, accuracy and access. In addition, this research examined whether some IT professionals’ characteristics and backgrounds, including age, gender, experience, educational level, participation in ethics training programs and type of organization, would influence their ethical attitudes regarding the four IT-related ethical issues. Moreover, this research also examined whether Organizational Ethical Culture (OEC) moderated the relationships between IT professionals’ ethical attitudes and their characteristics and backgrounds. To achieve the research objectives, a questionnaire was designed to collect data from 380 IT professionals of public and private sector organizations. Results showed that there was a high level of concern among IT professionals regarding the issues of privacy, piracy, accuracy and access. The results were significant regarding ethical attitude differences between male and female towards the issues of privacy and piracy. Results also indicated that ethical attitude toward the issues of privacy, piracy and accuracy was affected by educational level. Moreover, and contrary to expectations, the results revealed that participation in ethics training programs negatively affect the ethical attitude toward the issues of privacy and accuracy. Moderator analyses revealed mixed results about the moderating role of OEC. OEC moderates only the relationship between gender and piracy, type of organization and the two issues of piracy and access, and finally between participation in ethics training programs and the issue of privacy. Consequent to these results, implication and recommendations were made.
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