How are Concerns about Errors and Ethics Related to Demands for Information Systems Audits
Mollick, Stephen Bassi Joseph · Communications of the IIMA · 2014
ABSTRACT What factors affect individuals' demands that information systems (IS) audits are implemented in the organizations with which they do business? Using concepts and constructs from theoretical literature on individuals' concerns about organizational information management practices, we build a theoretical model that can explain and predict individuals' demand for information systems audit in organizations. Using data from U. S. university students, we empirically test two hypotheses using a multiple regression model. It was found that students' concern about error in data and their concern about organizational ethics of information management positively affect students' demand for IS audit at U. S. universities. Keywords: Ethics, information management, error, information systems audit, universities, students INTRODUCTION Collection and management of data about customers are important for information-intensive organizations such as hospitals and universities. Data are required for decision making in every level of an information intensive organization's life (Drucker, 1988). Error in the data used to make decisions can lead to harmful consequences for different stakeholders such as customers. Ethical standards and responsibility maintained by organizations in the management of data about customers need to be periodically examined in order to detect and prevent lapses that can cause disasters. As organizations become more dependent on databases and networks of computers to support their increasingly information-intensive processes, customers' concern about error (X1) in collected data and their concern about lapses in the ethics (X2) of information management grow. As organizations grow in maturity with uses of information technology (Mahmood & Becker, 1985), what could organizations do to reduce customers' concerns about error and ethics of organizational information management practices? One possible remedy for errors and lapses in the ethics of organizational information management systems is for an organization to adopt a policy of carrying out periodic information systems (IS) audit. To the extent students' education and other aspects of their lives are dependent on the levels of accuracy and ethics with which data are collected and managed by universities, students are concerned about errors and ethical lapses associated with a university's data and their management. Previous studies have found that individuals' concern about error and access to data affect students' feeling of alienation (Mollick, 2006). It seems reasonable to predict that more concerned and alienated students feel, the stronger will be their support for the policy that universities adopt a policy of carrying out periodic IS audit (Y). In the rest of this paper, we develop and test two hypotheses: one concerning the relationship between X1 and Y, and the other between X2 and Y. LITERATURE REVIEW To create the context for understanding the effects of concern about error and concern about ethics of data management, and to show continuity of the current study with prior studies, it is necessary to briefly review relevant prior studies. About Error in Data (X1) Organizational responsibility to effectively respond to individuals' concerns about error in data stored in computerized databases has been mentioned by database design experts (Date, 1986), information ethics scholars (Laudon, 1986; Mason, Mason, & Culnan, 1995) and scholars who wrote about the legal responsibility of information management (Miller, 1982). Smith and Milberg (1996) define concern about error in data as Concern that protections against deliberate and accidental errors in personal data are inadequate. X1, concern about error, measures the extent to which a student is concerned about error, and potential consequences of errors, in data collected from or about students by universities. …