Analysis Of Ethical Conducts In ICT-based Industries: A Case Study

Stakeholders’ Ethical Conduct Analysis

Every professional should follow ethical conducts while delivering their duty as a professional. Especially in ICT based industries, it is essential to go by the ethical conducts specified for ICT professionals for progressing through their professional career. In this case study, it has been found that there have been many incidences where ICT professionals have found to be deviating from their ethical conducts (Whitehouse et al., 2016). Thus, in the following report the conducts of the stakeholder in the case study would be analyzed with respect to the ideal ethical conducts and the ACS code of Professional relevant to the case study.

According to the case study, it can be seen that the organization NewAge Pty Ltd is the main responsible along with the mayor of the city of LivingCity who had been backing the organization even after the misdeeds they have caused (Díaz-Campo & Segado-Boj, 2015). Below would be the list of the stakeholders according to the case study, who would be analyzed on their success or failure of the entire scenario about the entire incident:

Table 1: Stakeholder Success and Failure

(Source: Created by the Author)

There had been many situations where the stakeholders had faced ethical dilemma while progressing with their duties. Ethical dilemma situation can be identified with a probability where a paradox between the two ethical situations exists (Yanagihara & Koga, 2016). It is because of the ethical dilemma situation that the stakeholders have been taking decisions out of spite and not out of morality. The list of the stakeholders according to the ethical dilemma situation with respect to the case study is as follows:

• McBright:Mr. McBright had been employed in the organization NewAge Pty Ltd., where there had been a situation about an Operating System the company had been developing for XYZ Pty Ltd. During the time of development, Mr. McBright had found some bug in the OS and had informed his senior Mrs. McDonald about it. However, his senior ordered him to keep this a secret to meet the deadline designated by the client. Thus, it was an ethical dilemma situation for Mr. McBright since as he was obligated to obey his senior; his moral values also compelled him of informing the development team to recheck the development process.
• McDonald:In the case study itself, it had been notified that Mrs. McDonald lacks in moral values. However, when Mr. McDonald informed her about the bugs found in the development process of the Operating System for their client XYZ Pty Ltd., it was also an ethical dilemma situation for her. This is because she had to make a tougher choice between the re-development of the project or meet the deadline proposed to the client.
• Joseph Luck:As the Mayor of the city of LivingCity, Hon. Joseph Luck had been asked to interfere in the legal proceedings against NewAge Pty Ltd. It was an ethical dilemma situation for the mayor as well since NewAge Pty Ltd. had been the major employer for the people in the city, thus any legal proceeding proving them to be guilty would result in unemployment of the major part of the city at once.

The case study had presented the response of the stakeholders against each ethical dilemma situation. These are as listed as below:

• McBright:Mr. McBright chose to listen to his senior and did not inform the development team about the restructuring of the OS development. Thus, he had to compromise with the quality of the product as a result.
• McDonald:Mrs. McDonald had the authority to stop the development and fix the bug. However, she knew that this would not allow her company to meet the deadline commitment to their clients and this was an ethical dilemma situation for her (Hunt et al., 2016). Thus, she chose to keep the clients’ commitment and keep on the development of the buggy Operating System.
• Joseph Luck:In the ethical dilemma situation that Hon. Joseph Luck had been, he chose to side with the organization NewAge Pty Ltd. and did not favour the innocent organizations because NewAge had been the primary employer of the city.

The ACS code of Professional Conduct is a standard form of ethical codes for Australian ICT organizations and below would be the analysis of the case study relevant to the codes of conduct:

1. The Primacy of the Public Interest: This code is violated by the NewAge Pty Ltd. Organization, including the employee Mrs. McDonald and the mayor of LivingCity, Hon. Joseph Luck as well. They have put personal interest much more than public interest.
2. The Enhancement of Quality of Life: According to the case study, this code of conduct is also violated since, the people affected by the organization of NewAge had not only never experienced enhancement of life but had faced arson and intricate data loss as a result of using the products developed by NewAge.
3. Honesty: Honesty is not at all maintained since the buggy software was supposed not to be produced to the clients but only to avoid loss of money the buggy software was produced to the clients knowing the upcoming perils (Warren & Lucas, 2016).
4. Competence: Diligence and competence is not maintained since the product that was developed by NewAge by the development team had been buggy and not revamped after detection of the bug.
5. Professional: Professional development was the core competence for the organization of NewAge, and for this purpose, the organization had avoided revamping buggy software as well.
6. Professionalism: Integrity would have only been maintained when the professionalism along with the integrity had been maintained by the organization and the employees. They had lacked in maintaining this code of conduct as well.

The ethical conduct and moral philosophy proposes any activity by a professional to be true to the consequentialist theories and deontological theories. As per the case study, both Mrs. McDonald and Mr. McBright have been right and wrong as well (Hunt et al., 2016). Philosophically speaking, Mr. McBright had been right in taking both his decisions according to his moral values where Mrs. McDonald, being a low moral person as it is, took all the decisions according to the free will of her own happiness and consequentialism.

Analysis of ACS Code of Professional Conduct

Thus, it can be concluded by saying that according to the ACS code of conducts and as per the ethical philosophy of ICT professional conducts, both the stakeholders for NewAge Pty Ltd. had been at fault along with the mayor of LivingCity, Hon. Joseph Luck. They had all ultimately failed in maintaining their professional and ethical codes of conduct.

SFIA 6 is a framework developed professionals and employers in the Information and Communication Technology or ICT field of profession (Konsky, Miller & Jones, 2016). The following career plan would be based on the self-reflection on the framework followed by justification of the chosen responsibility level and a devised career plan according to that.

The SFIA-6 Framework allows any individual pursuing education in ICT based profession a proper guidance and according to my discretion, the segregated structure of the entire framework allows an individual to separately go through every stage and then proceed to the next. I think, this would be a thoroughly structured approach towards career proceedings from the perspective of a student.

According to the framework and levels of the SFIA-6, it is better that the Level 1 responsibility should be chosen for the advancement of a student to a particular career prospects in the field of IT (Siekmann, 2017). Level 1 is the phase under the supervision of all the levels of professional world, which is required as just the starting phase of a career would require understanding of the profession being under supervision of the seniors.

Table 2: Career Plan according to SFIA-6 Framework

(Source: Created by Author)

Conclusion

Thus, it can be concluded that following the SFIA-6 framework according to the milestone and timeline in a chronological manner, it would be essentially helpful for an ICT graduate to pursue a successful career in the ICT areas of profession as well. This is a structured and strategized planning that helps ICT graduates as well as an experienced professional to shape up their career in a structured way.

References

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