Tricks and clicks - how low-cost carriers ply their trade through self-service websites

Abstract

Ethics on the Internet has been a widely debated topic in recent years, covering issues that range from privacy to security to fraud. Little, however, has been written on more subtle ethical questions, such as the exploitation of web technologies to inhibit or avoid customer service. Increasingly some firms are using websites to create distance between them and their customer base in specific areas of their operations, while simultaneously developing excellence in sales transaction committal via self-service. This chapter takes a magnifying glass with an ethical lens to one sector - the low-cost, web-based, self-service airline industry, specifically in Ireland. It is noted that the teaching of information systems development (ISD) and, for the most part its practice, assumes ethicality. Similarly, marketing courses focus on satisfying customer needs more effectively and efficiently within the confines of an acceptable ethos. This chapter observes that while these business disciplines are central to the success of self-service websites,there is a disconnect between the normative view and the actuality of practice.