Oh boy! There is some confusion here. I always heard that the arrow points in the direction of signal transmission (preamp to amp), which means that, for conventional grounding practice, the IC shield would be grounded at the TAIL of the arrow. I use my ICs this way. However, depending on your particular electronics, it may make no difference, or be better the oposite way around. Grounding is not an exact science, and a little experimentation is appropriate.
cable directionality
I've always heard that single-ended, directional interconnects (e.g., AudioQuests) should be installed with the arrows pointing away from the source. Is that really true, though? It seems like it actually doesn't have much to do with signal travel, but with grounding: normally, the shield is connected to ground at the end the arrow points toward. Therefore, it seems that the cables should actually be installed with the arrows pointing toward the system ground (normally the preamp). This makes a difference (or does it?) for the cables between the preamp and power amp. What about directional speaker cables? Should the arrows point back toward the preamp, too?