The ethics of IT professionals in Japan and China

Robert M. Davison; Maris G. Martinsons; Carol X.J. Ou; Kiyoshi Murata; Damon Drummond; Yuan Li; Henry W.H. Lo

doi:10.17705/1jais.00212

Author(s)

Carol X.J. Ou
Kiyoshi Murata
Damon Drummond
Yuan Li
Henry W.H. Lo

Related Research Unit(s)

City University of Hong Kong

Detail(s)

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	834-859
Journal / Publication	Journal of the Association for Information Systems
Volume	10
Issue number	11
Publication status	Published - 2009

Link(s)

DOI	DOI https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00212 Final Published version
	Check@CityULib
Attachment(s)	Documents 5643980.pdf Final Published version, 500 KB, PDF Publisher's Copyright Statement Davison, R. M., Martinsons, M. G., Ou, C. X. J., Murata, K., Drummond, D., Li, Y., & Lo, H. W. H. (2009). The ethics of IT professionals in Japan and China. Journal of the Association of Information Systems, 10(11), 834-859. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00212
Link to Scopus	https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-70749115325&origin=recordpage
Permanent Link	https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(a771a33d-d725-4b8a-ac5b-515d590d82b5).html

Abstract

The ethical integrity and accountability of Information Technology (IT) professionals is important given our reliance on various forms of IT. We examined the applicability of Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of Cognitive Moral Development (CMD) in non-Western contexts by investigating the ethical values of IT professionals in Asia's two largest economies. Analysis of survey data from Japan (n=289) and China (n=290) indicates support for the basic six-stage model of CMD. The concept of abiding by universal laws and rules (termed stage 4 reasoning by Kohlberg) was widely accepted by IT professionals in both Japan and China, despite the Confucian cultural emphasis on personal relationships with particularistic obligations. However, differences between Japanese and Chinese IT professionals were found while, in direct contrast with the stage-wise theory of CMD, the respondents from Japan and especially China exhibited significant volatility, reasoning at different stages simultaneously. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed. © 2009, by the Association for Information Systems.