The ethical use of crowdsourcing

Abstract

Crowdsourcing has attracted increasing attention as a means to enlist online participants in organisational activities. In this paper, we examine crowdsourcing from the perspective of its ethical use in the support of open innovation taking a broader system view of its use. Crowdsourcing has the potential to improve access to knowledge, skills, and creativity in a cost-effective manner but raises a number of ethical dilemmas. The paper discusses the ethical issues related to knowledge exchange, economics, and relational aspects of crowdsourcing. A guiding framework drawn from the ethics literature is proposed to guide the ethical use of crowdsourcing. A major problem is that crowdsourcing is viewed in a piecemeal fashion and separate from other organisational processes. The trend for organisations to be more digitally collaborative is explored in relation to the need for greater awareness of crowdsourcing implications.

RAS ID

25764

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

2018

Location of the Work

United States

Funding Information

Australian Research Council

School

Centre for Innovative Practice

Grant Number

ARC Number : DP130103999

Copyright

subscription content

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Ltd.

Identifier

Susan Standing

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1907-8011

Comments

Standing, S., & Standing, C. (2018). The ethical use of crowdsourcing. Business Ethics: A European Review, 27(1), 72-80. Available here

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1111/beer.12173