Review: Ethics for Records and Information Management (2018)
Beaudry Allen
Norman A. Mooradian. Ethics for Records and Information Management. Chicago: ALA Neal-Schuman, 2018. 191 pp. Paperback, $75.00 ISBN: 9780838916391
The records and information management field is at the forefront of the convergence of many different challenges to the overall explosive growth of the digital age. The evolution of information technologies, content formats, data points, and consumption has forced Records and Information Management (RIM) professionals to reframe the responsibilities of the profession as some laws change or slowly develop and traditional records management fail to keep pace. Of particular concern, in tandem with the exponential growth of data itself, is the rise of privacy concerns and the framing of data privacy as a human right. With the changing tide of how information is created and used, the concept of information governance emerged in the profession as a result. While information governance (IG) deals with a range of objectives, one of the core responsibilities of a RIM professional that interconnects all activities is the ethical management of information, and Mooradian’s book, Ethics for Records and Information Management, is a guide to conceptualizing and implementing ethical organizational policies by using a principles-based approach to ethical decision making.
The book is divided into three main parts which are categorized by the three domains of ethical obligation of RIM professionals Mooradian identifies; (1) fundamental rules of morality, (2) professional ethics, and (3) organizational ethics. The first part of the book deals with common morality or general ethical knowledge, which is represented by the structure of ethics and ethical reasoning. Mooradian presents an ethical framework driven by principles and moral rules. The five principles addressed — nonmaleficence, autonomy, fairness, responsibility, and beneficence — represent foundational values and frame moral thinking. Moral rules, like it is wrongful to injury another human being, govern actions that are either prohibited or required. Moreover, the book provides an overview of methods of ethical reasoning that provide tools for decision-making by helping frame the question, investigating the issue, and justifying a position or decision by utilizing the five principles. Given the enormity of managing information ethically and comprehensively, Mooradian points out the importance of rights, judgement, and exceptions in decision making considerations and helps navigate possible moral dilemmas and gray areas. Mooradian states best,“instead of seeing ethics in strictly binary fashion in which decisions are either right or wrong, it is better to see success having to do with developing justified or defensible decisions and positions,” (xxvi) which the ethical framework provides.
The second part expands upon the high-level ethical principles in terms of the ethical rules and values belonging to a profession through professional ethics. For many, professional ethics come from ALA Code of Ethics or SAA’s Core Value Statement and Code of Ethics and the standards of those professions; meaning essentially,“the core values and distinctive mission of a profession provide an ethical mandate for the professional that serves as a standard and point of focus for him or her” (43). Mooradian examines one of the central issues of professional responsibilities, conflict of interest, by outlining its impact to the core mission and values of the RIM field and the ways to deal with conflict of interest. While the section is framed around a RIM professional responsibility to the profession, the value of accountability is beneficial in advocating these measures in all aspects of information governance.
In the third part of the book, Mooradian dives deeper into the rules that pertain to organizational ethics through management ethics and key ethical concerns of whistle-blowing, leaking information, and information privacy. Management ethics focuses on the ethics surrounding stakeholder management, RIM stakeholders, intellectual property, copyright and RIM stakeholders, and the ethical responsibility of employee monitoring and records. What can be extrapolated in many ways from this section is that professional ethics extend beyond information itself by ensuring that RIM policies adequately address stakeholder interests.
Mooradian frames whistle-blowing and leaking information around the potential of an employee confronted with the ethical conflict of disclosure. Mooradian identifies how to evaluate the conditions that help to justify or not in the exposure of an organization’s wrongdoing. This is especially poignant when information privacy is a major concern, as RIM professionals are at the “heart of the explosion in the amount of personal data that is being collected” (117). Mooradian provides context and defines three basic meanings of privacy: decisional, physical, and informational, and how one must think about privacy concerns during a data lifecycle of capture, workflow/collaboration (distribution and use), access, and storage.
While a useful guide, the book presented only few case studies, giving attention to the cases of Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Arthur Andersen auditing firm’s destruction of Enron records. More tangible case studies of implementing a principles-based approach to policy-making could help accentuate the importance of an ethical framework. Though the book is a good companion piece to reading Robert Smallwood’s Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices and Bruce Dearstyne’s Leading and Managing Archives and Records Programs: Strategies for Success. Whether one is responsible for just a portion, or all of an organization’s information governance, this book provides a foundational entry to ethical decision-making for a RIM professional. Mooradian successfully demonstrates how the RIM profession cannot be entirely driven by compliance and we must acknowledge the continuum of ethical responsibility one has as a steward of information.
Beaudry Allen is Digital and Preservation Archivist at Villanova University
