Caught in a Web of Fuzzy Problems: Confronting the Ethical Issues in Systems Design

Abstract

The design of technological support for organizations confronts systems designers with complex ethical questions. while, traditionally, the engineering professions define the standards of their field through technical norms, they have liule experience with participatory approaches to normative questions. Using the example of time-management in a surgery clinic, this paper discusses systems designers' role in an intercultural dialogue with users. It examines the constraints of such a dialogue inherent in systems designers' professional socialization and practice and discusses methodological principles such as empathy (combined with the ability to take distance) and the ability to acknowledge and analyze contradiction, ambiguity and conflict (without necessarily solving them). It also explicates some of the central tasks that a process-oriented approach to ethical issues needs to focus on: constructing interpretations of "reality"; identifying legitimate participants; critical examination of the implicit cultural norms inherent in the practice of systems design; discussing a "vision" of the system within the organization.