The Importance of Ethical Conduct in Professional Fields
Discuss about the Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct.
Recently I came face to face with a negative experience in my workplace. My team leader assigned me a task which was about software designing. He gave me a blueprint of the SDLC stages that are required in creating the software. My initial response was to take the task that was provided. After some research, I realized that the software that was told by my TL to design was already being used by another company. Moreover, the SDLC stage sketch that was provided to me was exactly similar to the prospective company. Considering the situations at hand, I immediately rejected the task that was provided to me.
The main reason for the conflict arose as my team leader did not consider the consequences of his action. If the victim company came to know about our product designing, they could potentially target our company for infringement of copyright laws. Moreover, the company can press charges on your company for illegal conduct and misdemeanour that would have seriously hurt the reputation of the company. My supervisors did not think about this situation twice and told me to follow up my work without questioning any further.
The mentioned workplace scenario helped me to learn a lot of things. First of all, it reinforced my belief that a profession should be conducted as ethically as possible. My team leader was a bad example of his profession. He did not think twice before assigning me the task that his actions could have caused the company serious problems. The company could have lost its reputation. I could have got in trouble as well as I was the chief designer of the company. His actions would have hurt not only me but my fellow colleagues who are working in the same company as well.
To face this problem, I decided to directly confront the situation. I decided that the best way to handle the situation was to inform my higher authorities about the situation. I would have told my team leader to thin about the situation again and would have given recommendations d the situation desired. Copying and using something as one’s own product is ethically incorrect and strictly against the norm of the ACS code of professional conduct. As I was the chief software designer of the company, I would have faced problem if the victim company decided to sue our company. Not only was the software copied but also the development stages as well. Moreover, I could have easily designed the product from the beginning if I was given enough time.
Standards of Conduct in the ACS Code of Ethics
The positive side of this whole situation was that I was able to persuade my higher authorities about the seriousness of the issue. I explained to them the potential consequences of the action and after some discussion, they eventually came around. The only drawback of this scenario was that I managed to make my leader angry.
I recently became aware of a situation where my classmates are passing the examination with the help of ghost writers. This is a serious issue as the classmates are passing the examination with the help of the skill of another person. To address this situation, I would tell my lecturer about the prospective issue. If I tell my lecturer about the situation, I know that it will potentially ruin my friendship with my classmates. I can only wish that they will understand my motives in the future.
An important aspect of ACS code of professional conduct the element of honesty. The code helps users to address deceptive situations that have a lot of temptations (Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, 2018). The code specifically mentions that of the user comes face to face with such types of situations, he or she should immediately reject the offer. The person should understand the difference between the professional conduct and what their personal opinions were. In spite of unscrupulous intents, the professional conduct demands that the user of the profession conduct it as ethically as possible. The ghost writers who are writing the assignment instead of my class mates should receive the proper recognition instead of my classmates. For their personal gains of achieving good marks, my classmates should not have used the work of others to gain illicit credit for the actions that they have not done. They should not have been honest about their conduct and should not have used the ghost writers to enhance their academic reputation.
Another element of the ACS code of professional conduct is professional development. Every person who takes up a particular profession should always try to promote their profession through their actions instead of demoting it (Acs.org.au, 2018). Any actions that have the potential to tarnish the reputation of the professional pride, should be rejected and avoided.
The third element of the ACS code of professional conduct that needs to be considered is the aspect of professional conduct. It specifically mentions that a person should conduct a profession if he or she knows that he or she is capable of doing it at its finest. If the person is unable to do so, he must either deny the action or tell the prospective person that he is unable to do it efficiently. In the mentioned case study, the use of several ghost writers by my classmates have been mentioned. They used another person’s skill for their personal development and incorrectly enhancing their conduct. If the students were unable to do the task, the moral way would have been to tell the lecturer about the situation that they are unable to do it on their own. They should have asked the lecturer about getting help from friends for completing the assignment.
Analysis of the Workplace Scenario
The listening and verbal skills that were used in this assignment completion was the proper discussion of the additive technology. The proper listening and verbal skills helped me to develop a constructive argument with my classmates. It helped us to develop a proper understanding of the topic and gain a deeper insight about the topic
For developing the assignment conclusively, my reading skills came into handy. I used these skills to assess the internet and read a number of online journals. Moreover, it helped me to judge the drafts of my fellow team members and assess effectively where they went wrong. It helped us to understand the different uses of 3D printing in different industries more effectively.
My teamwork and interpersonal skills came in handy while completing this unit. A huge debate started while choosing the appropriate methodologies for conducting the research analysis. The team members were divided in opinions about the task that each of them were provided with. With my interpersonal and team work skills, I eventually managed them to come into an agreement and cooperate with each other. The skills also came into use during several decision making processes.
To understand the social, privacy and legal scenarios of the ICT domain, the negative experience that I faced in my workplace helped a lot. Other issues such as the medical uses of the mentioned technology and copyright issues with CAD files assisted me to understand the ethical as well as legal implications of the scenario.
When I assigned my team members with different priority tasks without assessing their race, gender or colour, I used my diversity skills as well as my intercultural competency. I did not even assign the important tasks to the male members of the group. I assigned them equally with the tasks for enhancing diversity in my group.
The collaboration and communication technology that was earned in this assignment was regarding social medias and videos on certain sites. This allows certain organizations to gain valuable feedbacks from customers to assess the quality of services they are providing. The videos and social platforms can also be used by the organizations for their marketing methods.
For analysing the ICT technologies, proper monitoring systems need to be set up. The scalability of the new system need to be assessed to check whether the system is capable of conforming to future trends. Errors related to data entry as well as data validation errors in real time need to be checked ti evaluate the ICT technology. The accuracy of the newsystem need to be checked to evaluate the technology like 3D printing technology. If the system produces consistent good results, then the technology is safe to use.
This particular experience has helped me to grow a lot especially gain information on the ACS conduct of Professional practice. The report could have benefited from an addition of the analysis section. A case study incorporation could have provided the user with an in-depth practical knowledge. According to me, the first ULO or Unit learning experience for me was the acknowledgement of using ACS code of professional conduct in every aspect of one’s profession. The conduct will help me to potentially survive and address potential ethical concerns. The Second ULO for me was the different uses of 3D printing in several organisations. I was especially interested in the technology’s use in manufacturing processes. Although the technology has a huge market in the healthcare sector, the potential uses of the technology in prototyping was what interested me.
As mentioned above, the unit could have benefitted if an extra case study and an analysis section was added to the unit. The readers could have benefitted from the information about a real life scenario. Besides that, the use of Nano particles in 3D printing was one thing that intrigues me about the whole assignment.
References
Acs.org.au, (2018). Retrieved 25 April 2018, from https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf
Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. (2018). CFA Institute. Retrieved 25 April 2018, from https://cfainstitute.org/ethics/codes/ethics/Pages/index.aspx