Case Study Overview
Ethical Decision-Making by the Stakeholders
- Mrs McDonald: She is an employee of NewAge Pty Ltd. and was aware of the bug in the operating system being delivered to XYZ Pty Ltd. However, she agreed to deliver the operating system. She also did not utilize the skills of the employees in four office locations adequately that led to the improper professional development of the resources. She failed to apply the ethical theories (Collste, 2008).
- Mr McBright: He is an employee of NewAge Pty Ltd. and detected the bug in the operating system. He was also aware of the possible consequences but decided to keep it as a secret to meet the project schedule. The consequences were severe and the ethical theories were not adhered to.
- XYZ Pty Ltd.: The Company received defective product and sued NewAge Pty Ltd. which is as per the ethical norms.
- Badluck Bank: The Company received defective product and sued XYZ Pty Ltd. which is as per the ethical norms.
- TastyBurgers Pty Ltd: The Company received defective product and sued XYZ Pty Ltd. which is as per the ethical norms.
The ethical dilemma as presented in the case study is for Mrs McDonald and Mr McBright to go ahead with the product launch and release or not. Both of these entities were aware of the bug in the operating system. The resolution of the bug would have resulted in the delaying of the product delivery causing inability to meet the due date of delivery. The decision of going ahead with the defective product has consequences associated with it and the impact of these consequences is severe (Sollie, 2007).
Also, for Mrs McDonald, the utilization of the employee skills is an ethical dilemma. She decided to stick to the virtues of personal growth and selfish interests ahead of the other employees. This resulted in the inadequate utilization of the skill sets.
The consequences for Mrs McDonald and Mr McBright would be in the form of legal obligations and punishments. This is because these two resources were responsible for the project deliverables and their performance. The consequences for the clients as XYZ Pty Ltd, Badluck Bank, and TastyBurgers Pty Ltd. would be in the form of issues faced due to defective product, such as information loss and loss to the office property (Roache, 2015).
The ethical response that Mr McBright and Mrs McDonald could have followed would have been negotiation with the XYZ Pty Ltd by disclosing the details of the bug to them. There might have been a slight delay in the delivery of the product; however, the future results would have been excellent. The senior management should have incorporated additional resources in the team to resolve the bug.
The ACS Code of Professional Conduct comprises of six ethical codes that should have been applied.
- Primacy to the public interest: Mrs McDonald and Mr McBright should not have delivered the buggy product to the clients to avoid the consequences that occurred.
- Enhancement of quality of life: The bug in the operating system resulted in loss of customer records and damage to the office property that should not have happened. The matter should have been discussed with the senior management and the client should have been informed about the bug (Acs, 2014).
- Honesty: The details of the bug were kept hidden from the client. The same should have been revealed in the case of delivery of the buggy product.
- Competence: Mrs McDonald should have organized the activities to enhance the skills of the employees and should have hired the employees on the basis of their skills rather than their college.
- Professional Development: The development of employee skills and delivery of a bug-free operating system should have been ensured.
- Professionalism: Mrs McDonald and Mr McBright should have informed about the bug to the project stakeholders.
Theory of Consequentialism evaluates the decision of Mrs McDonald and Mr McBright as unethical as it resulted in negative consequences for all the clients of the operating system due to the bug present in it (Heinze, 2005).
Deontology Ethics also evaluates the acts of both of these resources as unethical. This is because the ethical and professional codes and rules were violated throughout the process (Misselbrook, 2013).
There are selfish interests and virtues displayed by Mrs McDonald and Mr McBright behind their decisions, hiring of resources, and utilization of skills. Virtue Ethics evaluates the act as unethical.
Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) is a framework that has been developed for the professionals to provide them with the guidance on the career planning in the field of Information & Communication Technology (ICT). There are several skills that are desired by the employer in a job applicant and SFIA provides the details of these skills that shall be included and improved upon. SFIA 6 comprises of six categories and seven-level structure to advise the applicants and professionals on the career planning (Sfia, 2018).
Strategy & Architecture
Ethical Dilemma
Information & Communication Technology (ICT) is a field that has a lot of competition and there are several employers that are also engaged in this field.
The primary step is to determine the strategy to be followed and the ICT architecture that shall be preferred. SFIA 6 framework was utilized to explore the sub-categories as information strategy, business strategy, and advice & guidance. Information security and analytics is one of the merging fields due to the increase in the occurrence of the security risks and attacks. This category provided the ability to determine the line of ICT to apply in and the architectural details as well.
Change & Transformation
The transition is being done in the field of IT that will bring up a lot many changes and transformations. In any of the business industries, project management, project organization, and portfolio management are some of the necessary activities. Business change implementation details were obtained from this SFIA 6 category that assisted in career planning.
It was determined that the basic concepts of business management will remain the same and will be applicable in the field of IT as well. Business change management and the details around the common points of transition were obtained through this category.
Development & Implementation
The category provided the in-depth details on the ICT skills to develop for enhanced career growth. In the field of information security and analytics, some of the skills that are needed are data analysis, cybersecurity, and programming skills. There are professional and certification courses for these skills that can be attended for the enhancement of the skills. The SFIA 6 category assisted in the skills assessment to plan for skill development and growth. The primary goal in any industry is to fulfil the expectations and demands of the end-user. The same was done and carried out in this category.
Delivery & Operation
The field of ICT works on the basis of varied set of services that are carried out. These services are executed in the domains, such as design, transition, and operation. The details of each of these three service categories and the delivery and operational details were obtained from this category.
The category also assisted in the planning of the specific skills to enhance to ensure that the services management was carried out effectively.
Skills & Quality
The transition to ICT could be made easy by carrying out effective skills management. Some of the technical skills that are essential include development skills, design skills, implementation skills, and testing skills. There are new ICT tools and paradigms that are being developed at a rapid scale. These tools shall be mastered upon by attending the training sessions around the same. The quality of the services and operations is an important parameter that plays a significant role in the field of ICT as well.
In this phase of career planning, the learning cycles, learning assessment and management was done to improve upon the skill sets and the quality.
Relationships & Engagement
The relationships with the fellow team members, seniors, clients, and stakeholders are a necessity in every field including ICT. The SFIA 6 framework threw light on the strategies and activities to carry out for enhanced relationships and engagement. The customer interaction and relationship management details were involved in this category.
Conclusion
Information & Communication Technology (ICT) is an industry that comprises of small, medium, and large scale enterprises. There are huge numbers of employees that are associated with the industry as the technologies are high on-demand. Career planning is essential for the professionals that are looking forward to enter and explore the industry. Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) is a framework that has been developed for the professionals to provide them with the guidance on the career planning in the field of Information & Communication Technology (ICT). The framework was used in the process of career planning to obtain the guidelines in terms of the skills to improve upon, mandatory skill set, customer relationship management activities, engagement levels, and so on.
References
Acs. (2014). ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian Computer Society. Retrieved from https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf
Collste, G. (2008). Global ICTâ€Âethics: the case of privacy. Journal Of Information, Communication And Ethics In Society, 6(1), 76-87. doi: 10.1108/14779960810866819
Heinze, E. (2005). Commonsense Morality and the Consequentialist Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention. Journal Of Military Ethics, 4(3), 168-182. doi: 10.1080/15027570500306641
Misselbrook, D. (2013). Duty, Kant, and Deontology. British Journal Of General Practice, 63(609), 211-211. doi: 10.3399/bjgp13x665422
Roache, R. (2015). Making consequentialism more appealing. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2015-102838
Sfia. (2018). Skills at a glance — SFIA. Retrieved from https://www.sfia-online.org/en/framework/sfia-6/skills/skills-home
Sollie, P. (2007). Ethics, technology development and uncertainty: an outline for any future ethics of technology. Journal Of Information, Communication And Ethics In Society, 5(4), 293-306. doi: 10.1108/14779960710846155
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