Recently, the world has developed an entire stream of new technology that allows us to accomplish things that would have seemed impossible long ago. We can communicate faster, look things up with the touch of a button, and present our ideas in a clean way. However, with this recent technological boom comes more responsibility, and with that comes more ethical questions in the minds of business people everywhere.

After doing some research, I found that a major ethical problem in business with the emergence of technology is the ability to quickly reject applications without an interview. An employer can read an application sent in by a potential employee, and reject it immediately on the basis of his/her beliefs, race, or certain habits. If this information is not present on the application, technology can also be used to view the individual’s Facebook profiles or other forms of social media. Technology gives businesses the ability to be unethical by using discrimination to pick their employees, and discrimination is an ethical challenge in itself. Without technology, the employer would not know as much about the applicant beyond his/her application, and while they could still reject the individual in a discriminatory way, and least they would have been given an interview first. With technology, the employer can see the individual first, and read about them, which makes it unfair because the individual might not get a proper interview, which brings more unethical practices into consideration. Everyone deserves to have an interview and an equal chance at a certain job.

Technology also makes it easier for businesses to plagiarize information and ideas for their own practices. If a business is conducting research, they can easily copy and paste information from other corporations' research, which might make their presentation look better. This is a huge ethical problem because it gives businesses less credibility, makes them less trustworthy, and also gives them the ability to be lazy. Laziness in this sense is unethical by itself because you could have a worker who is working extremely hard to make his own calculations and conduct his own research, and have another worker who is just using someone else’s research, claiming it as his own, and getting the same amount of praise.

Another ethical problem brought on by technology is the ability to change numbers, making them appear different than the actually are. Like Enron, businesses can go into the system and manipulate the numbers so that customers continue investing. This, to me, is equivalent to stealing, for they are investing in stocks that are nonexistent. Rather than being honest, businesses have the technology at their fingertips to change a few negatives to positives in the blink of an eye, making it seem like they are doing well when they actually aren’t.

Additionally, technology gives businesses the ability to share information quickly, whether they are told to or not. If someone has a friend or relative working for a competing firm, and they ask him or her to share specific information, they have the ability to do so. In order to prevent this unethical behavior, businesses must clearly define what information is public and what information is private so that nothing is shared that could leave the company coming in second to their competitor. Secondly, businesses must also outline exactly how the new technological resources are to be used within the workplace, and state the repercussions or not abide by these company regulations. Technology is also beneficial in this sense, for business owners have to ability to closely monitor their employees to ensure that they are doing exactly what they are told. With the Internet expanding rapidly, and with so many new ways to share information, it only makes it easier to act unethically. However, if the correct precautions are taken, these unethical actions can be prevented.

With new technology and some people being unfamiliar with how it works, people have the ability to blame their mistakes on glitches and bugs. Rather than owning up to the mistakes that they make, people find it so much easier to blame it on technology, which teaches workers to not act with loyalty towards their company. This is not a good, ethical skill to acquire, especially if the business plans on expanding. If people do not tell the truth when something goes wrong, something could happen within the company that could have been prevented with a little bit of honesty. While technology can be the cause of mistakes, with it being so new and people being so uneducated as to how it works, there should never be a reason that a worker cannot confess for mistakes that he/she makes while working.

A final example of unethical practices and technology is the use of cellphones. Today, cell phones can do so much more than just call and text, making them much more appealing and fun. However, this also makes people want to spend every waking moment glued to their phone. If there is one thing that I can’t stand, it’s trying to have a conversation with someone who is absorbed with his or her phone. This would be even worse if someone did this during a business meeting. If someone is so used to being on his or her phone all of the time, it might be a tough habit to break upon coming into the office. They might make the mistake of pulling their phone out during an important business meeting, which would appear very unprofessional. While the employee is not purposefully acting unethically, it is still wrong, and just shows how much technology has dominated our lives.