Telstra’s Adoption of Crowdsourcing
Discuss about the Issues of Implied Trust in Ethical Hacking.
In the present, there is growing importance of ethical business practices in the scandal-ridden era. The reason for growing ethical business enterprises is to develop and build the brand and reputation of the organization. The business enterprises have bottom-line and other moral implications for the business professionals. In the present times, there are several factors, such as protecting the brand, establishing customer trust and winning the confidence of the investors, which motivates the corporates to follow ethical behavior (Chakraborty and Chatterjee, 2012). The company sourced the best talent in the market to establish the most prevalent digital team in the organization. It created one platform and unified approach for the information, which resulted drastic results for the organization. The ethical behavior and Corporate Social Responsibility is the ethical responsibility of the organization. The present report will discuss the case study of Telstra, which has adopted an integrated digital platform for providing better service its customers. However, there are several ethical implications in the adoption of technology. The case study is analyzed though doing ethics technique and then using ICT ethical framework, issues and solutions to the case is provided. In the case, Telstra, a telecommunication company has adopted new digital platforms to better connect to the customers. The company realized that there is digital disruption among the major Australian Telecom companies; therefore, it has to transform according to digital era.
Another feature is that the Telstra 24*7 smartphone and tablet apps have established Crowd support community to attract the best talent in the community. It has completely changed the manner, in which the company is associated and service its customers. The application allowed the organization to keep track of its customers and assisted the organization to keep track of their bill payments. However, there are several ethical challenges in the crowdsourcing such as privacy and the intellectual property rights. The present report will analyze the ethical challenges with the help of doing ethics technique and the IT governance framework.
The present is the discussion of the technological disruption in the telecommunication industry, which has reduced the profitability among the traditional business enterprises of the country. The company has adopted the crowdsourcing model to develop the most attractive talent towards the organization. They have also customized their mobile application so that they can control their online behavior. The users can also access the information related to other customers. However, there are certain ethical issues in the crowdfunding initiative of the company (Danielewicz-Betz, 2012). There are certain issues such as privacy, information accuracy, intellectual property and accessibility, which have made crowdsourcing a controversial issue.
Ethical Issues in Crowdsourcing
The facts in the case study are mentioned below:
The revenue of the company was declining due to the digital technologies
The crowdsourcing initiative of the organization increased its revenue drastically
Creating a unique digital platform has created a niche marketplace for the organization
However, creating a crowdsourcing platform has raised privacy and intellectual property concerns (DesJardins, 2011)
The crowdsourcing is associated with several legal and ethical issues such as abuse of personal information and protection of intellectual property rights. In crowdsourcing, it is easy to find and collect personal information; this concept compromises the personal information of the users. There is also an issue of the intellectual property rights of the application developers. They work on a particular section of the application and paid for it (Gaita, 2011). However, the intellectual property rights remain with the organization and the application developer are not given full credit of their efforts.
Another issue is that the risk related to the data breach, which will intensify with the use of the platform. It will decrease the credibility of the application and increase the possibility of the foreign attacks by manifold. It can impact the privacy of the users drastically.
The private data of the users can be manipulated by the cybercriminals and they come under the threat of different cyber-attacks.
The use of crowd support platforms will promote the use of automation technology and increase the job loss in the country. Therefore, it is not a positive advancement in the technology. Further, job loss will also invite flak or criticism from different stakeholders such as jobseekers and the government (Grant, Butler, Orr, and Murray, 2014).
There are various stakeholders in the application automation and the service crowdsourcing. In the present section, various stakeholders of the case are discussed:
Telstra: When the company employed an application, which can be accessed by anyone, it started facing the threat of cyber-attack. The company designed the application to the increase its efficiency and to improve its customer relationship management. It can be used to enhance the customer relationship management of the organization. It can also optimize the speed of the integration. This new technology was adopted in 2010 and used to increase the cost-effectiveness of the solution. There are several issues related to the technology, which can negatively impact the organization. There are several issues associated with the technology, which can impact the employee dissatisfaction in the business organizations (Koslowski, 2013). The data related to the organization is stored at various open platforms, which can increase the probability of impact. Telstra will also face significant amount of criticism for not addressing the issue of data privacy and intellectual property laws in the crowdsourcing platforms. As the company is trying to automate the customer relationship system, it will negatively impact the job security of the employees. The company is severely criticized as it is not following the data privacy and the security laws (Singer, 2011). These issues will also negatively impact the image of the organization.
Stakeholder Analysis
Customers: The second biggest stakeholder in the present case is the customer of Telstra. The Company is using 24*7 mobile app to easily and directly communicate with the customers. It will help the company in resolving the personal queries as they are resolved in a quick manner and it can also assist in resolving the data and personal threats. It can be perceived that although these platforms will offer quick resolution of the services, it will impact the security and the privacy of the data (Thomas, Burmeister and Low, 2017). Therefore, the companies are compromising the information of customers for cost-effectiveness and high level of customer service.
Governments: It has also affected the government as it is the responsibility of the government to safeguard the citizens from any external attacks. The government of Australia is concerned about the responsibility of the organization to safeguard the citizens to face any potential attack. The government has a responsibility to maintain the security of the citizens.
Cybercriminals: The cybercriminals are also affected by the decision of the organization to crowdsource the application. With this technology, a large amount of data is available with the consumers, who can use it for malicious purpose (Driver, 2013). The present digital mediums can be used by the criminals to access the private data of the information.
The ethical issues in the present case have several implications, which can be analyzed through different theories:
Deontology: The deontology is the set of ethics, which can be used to address the ethical situations based on the actions rather than the consequences of action. The actions should abide by the societal and ethical laws. The company’s action should be based on improving the experience of the consumers and the service offered to them. According to this theory, the company has taken an ethical action in crowdsourcing and automating the customer relationship department. This theory justifies the action even if there is breach of privacy (Hooker, 2012). This action cannot be considered as illegal; therefore, the action is justified by the theory.
Utilitarianism theory: The theory states that all the actions are justified, if they are emphasizes the public goodwill. It means that all the actions are judged by the consequences and not on the means of achieving the results. The actions of utilizing the technology are not beneficial for the users as this step will result in the breach of privacy of the users. The present technology examines the security and the privacy of the users. The privacy and the security concern is a major challenge in the privacy of the users. Although the new technology is beneficial for the company and the users, it is not effective in maintaining the privacy of the users (Lewis, 2015). According to this theory, it is unethical for the organization to implement the technology as it may impact the privacy of the customers.
Implications of Automation Technology
Virtue theory: According to this theory, the ethics or morality of an action should be judged on the basis of honesty and the character of the individual. According to the theory, the decision of the firm improves the consumer’s experience and fulfills the requirements of the users as well as the organization. The decision of the organization is beneficial for the organization and the users as it suggests that the action is ethical.
Contract theory: The contract theory states that the ethics of an action should be judged according to the legitimacy of the actions taken. The company’s actions are based on the digital disruption event, which emphasize that high quality services should be provided to the customers. However, it is the responsibility of the organization to be ethically responsible towards the data of the consumers. The organization should take different steps so that it becomes more ethically responsible towards the society (Singer, 2013). The company should provide high quality service to the customers to provide effective services to the customers.
Although the company has taken several steps to enhance the security, it was not able to restrict the different number of cyber-attacks.
There are different types of technological solutions, which can be used to address the data security and the privacy concern. The business organization can change its digital framework and focus on solutions, which can provide better options for the data breach. The company should emphasize the development of firewalls with the help of security infrastructure. It will also be used to create consumer base, which will have trust on the organization (Bowern, Burmeister, Gotterbarn & Weckert, 2006).
In the present, there are a few options, which can be used by the organization.
- Telstra can rebuild its digital disruption model and discard the old business model, which negatively impacts the privacy of the customers.
- Telstra can increase its investment related to cyber-security and protect the organization and the stakeholder so that they do not breach the personal data of the organization.
- Telstra can also increase the customer awareness and enhance the consumer security. The company should realize that there is a significant amount of awareness for the privacy and security of the organization (Jungers & Gregoire, 2012).
In the above section, different options are discussed which might positively impact the company and the infrastructure related to cybersecurity. The company should realize that if there will be data breach, it will negatively impact the reputation and the brand image of the organization. Adopting firewall and various safety framework tools will assist the company in maintaining its brand image (McDermid, 2015).
The ethical governance framework is used to provide adequate foundation for the public trust. It defines the principles of trust and ethical behavior so that the business organizations and professionals become much more responsible.
The IT governance is the basic framework, which can be used by the organization as a formal framework, which can provide structure to the IT activities of the company. It supports the goals of the organization. Telstra can effectively utilize the information technology in the business so that it can achieve the business goals. The governance related to IT reflects the manner in which the IT infrastructure of the organization will impact the competition, selection and the business benefit of the company. The governance framework emphasize that it is important to align the decision making, strategies and the IT infrastructure of the organization (Jungers & Gregoire, 2012). The framework is associated with increasing the privacy and security of the organization.
Ethical Theories
There are various principles, which are needed to be followed by Telstra in Australia to abide by the ethical codes in IT governance. There are certain rules in the IT governance framework of the organization. There are certain aspects, which are needed to be followed by Telstra, which are mentioned below:
Responsibility: The ICT professionals have the duty to use and properly handle the IT infrastructure of the organization. It means that the organization should be responsible in maintaining the proper operations of the IT infrastructure. The ICT professionals must evaluate the infrastructure on a regular basis. It should be regularly checked so that no issue occurs in the infrastructure of the organization. In the present, the organization has developed an open source application, which can be developed by different stakeholders. In the current, the organization has an increased responsibility as the company has to maintain the privacy and data security in a vulnerable environment (Jungers & Gregoire, 2012).
Strategy: It is important that the organization align the IT infrastructure according to the corporate policies of the organization. The organization should be able to align the IT infrastructure according to the goals of the organization. However, it is also important to maintain that the ethics are well-maintained in while implementing the IT solutions in the organization.
Acquisition: The acquisition of IT network should be in alliance with the preference and the benefits of the internal and the external stakeholders. It is also necessary that the investment should be based on the timely evaluation of the IT infrastructure of the organization.
Performance: The Company should necessarily balance the resources of the company and its capacity to ensure that the company delivers proper security solution to the end users. The IT professionals of Telstra should be responsible in offering high security to the users with the optimal use of the resources.
Communication: It is important that the company maintain all the rules regarding the IT infrastructure and they should communicate all the changes and development in the IT infrastructure to all the stakeholders in a transparent manner. It will avoid any confusion among the organization’s stakeholders.
Human Behavior: Irresponsible human behavior and manual errors can have a significant impact on the privacy of the organization. The organization should provide training and tutorials to improve the user experience.
There are different types of technologies, which can be used in Telstra, which can be used to improve the competitive advantage and promote the data security in the organization.
The company is offering consumer service facility, which can connect to the customers all throughout the day. However, it has made the whole customer relationship department switch to digital medium. It has reduced the manual intervention; however, it has declined the job prospects for the company. The users can avail the mobile service using both iOS and android platforms. It has been analyzed that the company will use the crowd support platforms to interact with the customers. It can create a competitive advantage for the organization and the company can provide better customer services to the modern day organizations.
It can be perceived that the company can take benefit from the management system and use firewalls to forecast the cost and raise alarms regarding the system. It is beneficial in increasing the competitive advantage of the system for different strategies used by the organization. With the adoption of technology, the company can fight the competition in the world. It can also use cloud technology to store the private and the personal information of the users (Jungers & Gregoire, 2012). It will help the company in reducing the overall cost to the organization, which will be beneficial for the organization.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the organization is facing ethical issues in the implementation of technology and application development. In this regard, a few recommendations can be made so that the company can use the data protection software, which can be used to maintain the authenticity in the data. It is also necessary that the authenticity of the data can be maintained and no external stakeholder can enter the system. The application should be protected with the help of firewalls. Along with it, the organization can use cryptography to protect the personal information of the users.
References
Bowern, M., Burmeister, O., Gotterbarn, D., & Weckert, J, (2006) ICT Integrity: Bringing the ACS Code of Ethics up to date. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, vol. 13, no. 2.
Chakraborty, S.K. and Chatterjee, S.R. eds., (2012) Applied ethics in management: towards new perspectives. Springer Science & Business Media.
Danielewicz-Betz, A., (2012) Interrelation between Work Ethics and Business Ethics: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.
DesJardins, J.R., (2011) An introduction to business ethics. McGraw-Hill.
Driver, J. (2013). Ethics: The Fundamentals. John Wiley & Sons.
Gaita, R., (2011) Philosophy, Ethics and a Common Humanity: Essays in Honour of Raimond Gaita. Routledge.
Grant, R., Butler, B., Orr, S. and Murray, P.A., (2014) Contemporary strategic management: An Australasian perspective. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd..
Hooker, B. (2012). Developing Deontology: New Essays in Ethical Theory. John Wiley & Sons.
Jungers, C, & Gregoire, J, (2012). Counseling Ethics: Philosophical and Professional Foundations. Springer Publishing Company.
Koslowski, P. ed., (2013) Contemporary economic ethics and business ethics. Springer Science & Business Media.
Lewis, V. (2015). Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues: Fourth Edition. W. W. Norton & Company.
McDermid, D, (2015) Ethics in ICT: An Australian Perspective. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Singer, P. (2013). A Companion to Ethics. John Wiley & Sons.
Singer, P., (2011) Practical ethics. Cambridge university press.
Thomas, G., Burmeister, O.K. and Low, G., (2017) Issues of Implied Trust in Ethical Hacking. In Proceedings of The 28th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, December(pp. 4-6).
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
