There has been a recent increase in the number of cases of employers terminating their employees in recent years. Notable companies that have laid off staff include aircraft manufacturer Boeing, HSBC and General Motors, mainly due to cost-cutting and outsourcing exercises (Strain 2014, Lewis 2014). However, there have been cases where companies are laying off staff due to technological advancements and the implementation of new systems, and one such company is Hewlett-Packard (HP), where the company was rapidly cutting back its 350,000 employees. with new technologies, with approximately 15,000 job losses between mid-2013 and the end of this year (2014) (Brown 2013). Bob Brown of "Network World" describes it as one of the "tech industry's bloodiest layoffs of 2013." This new reason for layoffs, due to replacing staff with improved systems to improve performance and efficiency in the workplace, is relatively new. Faced with the influx of cases like this, a very serious question arises: should companies be responsible for unemployment caused by their information systems? The Britannica Encyclopaedia defines information systems as an integrated set of components for collecting, storing and processing data and delivering knowledge, information and other digital media (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2014). The case of HP's cloud system, which leads to unemployment, is thus one of the examples of companies that reduce their workforce due to information systems. While some agree and others disagree on the question posed above, this question can actually be considered from two different angles, based on ethical theories, namely in the manner of Kantianism and Act Utilita...... middle of paper.... ..//caae.phil.cmu.edu/cavalier/80130/part2/sect9.html [Accessed March 24, 2014].Encyclopedia Britannica. 2014. Information system. [online] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/287895/information-system [Accessed: March 26, 2014]. Gaskill, D. 2008. Kantian Ethics. [online] Available at: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/Kantian%20Ethics.htm [Accessed: March 25, 2014].Lewis, J. 2014. Causes of Employee Downsizing. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/causes-employee-downsizing-38647.html [Accessed: March 25, 2014]. Quinn, MJ 2013. Ethics for the information age 5th edn., Pearson Education / Addison-Wesley, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Strain, M. 2014. Examples of Downsizing in Business. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-downsizing-business-world-22506.html [Accessed March 25 2014].