Virtual ethics

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The Virtual Ethics deals with the practical actions of people in the technically-oriented communication of information technology . Like information ethics and media ethics , it is an area ethics that deals with a sub-area of ​​human life. The content of virtual ethics is an attitude and an examination of a general part of human culture. She is concerned with the culture of technology, which has a say in all human behavior and, in this, with behavior in a modern technical world. She looks at the disadvantages, such as the global technical willingness to take risks and the functionalization and devaluation of the personal in logical contexts and purely technical communication.

Basics

Virtual ethics is based on an analysis of the organization's technical behavior. She represents three basic positions of social behavior.

  1. With reference to Pierre Bourdieu's theory of symbolic values , she advocates the thesis that technical behavior arises from the accumulation of social values when people in their community form an opinion together (objectification). Furthermore, she advocates the thesis that community consists of actions of the individual members, who in turn carry out actions in a field of cultural values that have led them to decisions through associations between the values (subjectification). Power relations and their class-specific structuring of values ​​are the content of human culture. They inevitably arise in communities, since people's different starting positions in the accumulation of social values ​​lead to different accumulations of values.
  2. Analogous to Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems , it is assumed that organizations are systems that act through autopoiesis in a cycle of uncertainty absorption and decision allocation in self-observation.
  3. Zygmunt Bauman , referring to Max Weber in his “Postmodern Ethics” , advocates the thesis that the Enlightenment basically only meant a functionalization of people in society and therefore a humanistic ethic, as demanded after the Enlightenment , is not possible at all . In the dialectic of the Enlightenment , in his opinion, the guilt of the Enlightenment for the genocides of the 20th century becomes evident.

theory

On the basis of three basic positions, virtual ethics assumes that technology arises through the accumulation of social values ​​in society, that organizations that use or produce technical products are autopoietic systems, and that in the application of technology through the functionalization of language that Problem of restriction of social space arises. This means that too little space is allocated to interpersonal aspects and basic social values ​​in the organization of technical processes. As an example, the dialogue about global technical willingness to take risks contains purely technical basic positions instead of being conducted through a sense of responsibility .

Since organizations practically always use technical products and technical communication is omnipresent, the functionalization of social communication is a global characteristic of the modern world.

To the individual in organizations, the functionalization of technical communication appears to be a separation into personal and logical-formal parts that come to light in every conversation. The functionality of communication is most evident when dealing with information technology devices. Here, the functionalization is perceived as a separation of what is actually visible and what can be experienced virtually. Cell phones and symbols, monitors and program windows are perceived as having different quality because they are perceived with different values. The virtual is the obvious sign of functional communication that is conveyed through media when communicating in organizations. The virtual is also present to a lesser extent in every other medium.

In order to counteract the functionalization of people in society and its after-effects, virtual ethics advocates a dialogue between individual people and organizations. Its approach is comparable to environmental mediation and also uses its tools, but goes far beyond them in its demands. The difference is that virtual ethics has a deeper sociological basis and takes an ethical stance on the disadvantages of technical culture.

method

The aim of virtual ethics is to develop options for action that circumvent the problem of technical communication by making people aware of the role of technical communication in their organizations. From a system-theoretical point of view, the uncertainties of the human and organizational systems are reduced by the exchange of information. To this end, it must be possible for people to connect in their organizational functionality and in their interpersonal relationships. Even if a general dialogue is possible and desirable, the problem is usually only revealed openly in a conflict . Due to its theory, virtual ethics has a multi-level model available for conflict de-escalation.

The dialogue model of virtual ethics consists of four steps and is suitable for de-escalating conflicts between organizations and social systems.

Communication diagnosis

Analysis and separation of the organizational and interpersonal levels of communication.

Communication discourse

Objectively conducted discourse in which an attempt is made mainly to uncover the functional background of the conflict for the systems involved.

Escalation discourse

Emotionally led discourse in which an attempt is made to make people aware of the interpersonal problems that underlie the conflict.

Virtual discourse

Discourse between those involved about the meaning and purpose of the questions involved in the conflict on a higher level. The aim is to develop a formal catalog of standards that can reduce future conflicts. This is only possible if the participants have worked out an excess of information. This means that in the previous stages, care must be taken to ensure that functional and interpersonal values ​​and expectations can be exchanged.

practice

The step-by-step method is best suited for discussing and analyzing conflicts in information technology processes, because the difference between technical and social communication can be felt directly by the individual. This simplifies the exchange of information between the systems. In general, however, it can also be used for any other conflict, because organizations, communities and systems are involved in every conflict and affect the individual.

example

Use in hospitals has problems displaying diagnostic values ​​promptly on patient monitors. From the medical side, however, this is expected. In the meantime, the software is out of date in terms of its development environment, the software company has been bought by a competitor and the subsequent version cannot yet take over all the data and suffers from quality problems in the interface to third-party programs. Due to the economic situation, savings measures urgently need to be implemented in the hospital.

Communication diagnosis

Systems involved would be e.g. E.g .: manufacturer of the software, owner of the manufacturer, medical system of the hospital, administration of the hospital, technical department of the hospital, health insurance company, external company for acceptance as a medical product, on a smaller scale: specialist department, ward, IT department, specialist, family and Friends of those involved.

Persons involved: Head of the software department, programmer, sales representative of the software company, employee responsible for installing the software, senior physician, ward doctor, ward nurse, IT staff at the clinic, department head in the IT department, employee in the hospital's finance department, head of department in the hospital's finance department, Head of administration of the hospital, employee of the health insurance company, employee of a medical contractor ...

Communication loops: Programmer <> sales representative, ward doctor <> ward nurse, senior doctor <> IT staff at the hospital, department head of the IT department <> department head of the hospital's finance department ... etc.

Mapping of the hierarchies in: software company, programming department, sales, hospital, IT department, health insurance company, external company.

Questions in the communication discourse

Which factual arguments stand against the use of new software, which are in favor ...? How precise are the criteria, formal conditions and regulations for this? The goals of the communication discourse are the search for: Security, understanding, personality and meaning of the people involved.

Questions in the escalation discourse

What would happen if no new software was bought? How could the money for the new software be raised? How can the quality of the software be increased? The goals of the escalation discourse are: calm, personal recognition, understanding of the differences and disillusionment of the people involved.

Questions in virtual discourse

Who has to talk to whom, how does the training of the people involved have to be and which hierarchies have to be observed so that conflicts can be better dealt with in the future? What should rules look like so that such conflicts can be prevented in the future?

The objectives of the virtual discourse are: group formation, options for action, role assignment and the formation of social rules in the organizations.

Range

Among other things, the model can also be used to process software projects, changes to the infrastructure due to new information technologies or problems with company mergers .

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Due to the general principles and tools, the model is possibly also suitable for the analysis of larger conflicts, such as the technical disasters of Chernobyl or Fukushima , as well as the NSA and Wikileaks scandals, since there is enough information on the question and people are available who belong to the systems and need discussion. Not all people involved need to be present. It is sufficient if there is an excess of information for the systems involved, which reduces the systems' insecurity reactions. In the model it becomes clear that the risks or political reactions that arise are no longer attributable to individual persons, but that leading personalities are also at the mercy of the requirements of the system surrounding them, so that, in order to de-escalate the conflict, the aim is to calm down the system status of the conflicting parties in the conflict system must become.

literature