Intelligent software agents as tools for managing ethical issues in organisations caused by the introduction of new information technology

摘要

We reconsider the notion of value in the context of information technology (IT), and show how the introduction of new IT can change values in organisations. Subsequently we introduce the notion of intelligent software agents (ISAs) as autonomous, social, reactive, proactive and subservient software computer systems. We further look at how the introduction of ISAs to knowledge intensive industries can help human agents in their understanding of the development of new values, while the new IT is taking place in their workplaces, and how the already existing values in the organisation can be dealt with at the same time.