Stakeholders and their decision-making approaches

Sol –A:

There are mainly two stakeholders for NewAge Pvt. Ltd Company, they are:

• McBright
• McDonald

In this case, “The Rights Approach” of ethical decision-making is applied which states that “Which decision best respects the rights of all stakeholders?”, so according to the case study Mr. McBright already knew about the bug in operating system but he could not solve that problem in the product. He was just informing his senior about that particular problem. He did the right thing but Mrs. McDonald failed to take that decision in right way. Based on that particular decision, complete project failed. Mr. McBright was right at his level to inform about that bug to his senior. A system having bug is always harmful. Decisions must be utilitarian in nature and not harm others..

Sol – B:

Mr. McBright was right at his level. He informed about bug to his reporting head, but at same time, he agreed to sell that operating system to XYZ Pvt. Ltd with faulty product. Mrs. McDonald was in dilemma about what is right or wrong, because she had deadlines for a particular project, which was also compulsory and at the same time, work upon handling that bug. Therefore, she failed in her decision making as a stakeholder, because that bug destroyed data from tablets. The Right Approach of ethical decision making recommends making a decision that is harmless.

Sol – C:

Mr. McBright faced that problem because he did not have that type of knowledge to solve that type of bug. He was responsible to check that operating system and report to Mrs. McDonald. At part of Mr. McBright, his decision or work is right.Ethical theories suggest taking a decision that do less harm to people related to your work. In this case study Mr. McBright, had to take right decision according to Ethical decision-making approaches. As a stakeholder, Mr. McBright has to resolve that problem at his level, and he should not have agreed to install that faulty operating system to tablets. Mrs. McDonald’s was responsible for all problems that happened by a faulty operating system. This destroyed all the customer data of Bad luck Bank that acquired some of the tablets. In the case, she could have delayed schedule of the project in order to deliver a properly working operating system to XYZ Pvt. Ltd.

Sol – D:

The Australian Computer Society of Ethics is part of the ACS Constitution. It is maintains the respect, pride, and values of an employee (Nord, Nord, Cormack, & Cater-Steel, 2007). These are the following ethics in Australian Computer Society. First, is “The Primacy of the Public Interest”, second is “The Enhancement of Quality of Life”, third is “Honesty”, fourth is “Competence”, fifth is “Professional Development”, and sixth is “Professionalism”. These six ethics apply to all ACS persons, irrespective of their roles and specialty in Information and Communications Technologies industries.

Identifying ethical dilemmas

In this case, study “The Primacy of the Public Interest” ethic can be applied with Mrs. McDonald; she only thought about project deadline. “The Enhancement of Quality of Life” ethics can be applied to New Age Company, as their product was harmful for their clients. In this case, study “Honesty” ethic will be applied to New Age Company. They made a mistake and gave a buggy operating system to XYZ Pvt. Ltd. Five weeks after releasing the first set of tablets running on the buggy operating system, the bug created a virus which destroyed all the customer data of Bad luck Bank, which acquired tablets with that buggy operating system. Four months after the release of the second set of tablets manufactured from the buggy operating system one of the tablets burst, burning an office.

“ Competence” ethics will be applied to Mr. McBright, as his work with that operating software was not completed. If he would have removed that bug from that Operating system then it was in favor of all. Professional Development” ethics will be applied to Mrs. McDonald, as she did not want to develop herself for a next higher position, neither did she train any of the staff for further professional development.“ Professionalism” ethics will be applied to Mrs. McDonald, as she also did not employ anyone who appears to be more skilled than she is. Furthermore, to Mrs. McDonald, the most important criteria for hiring new employees are the college that they attended. The management philosophy of Mrs. McDonald has resulted in many incompetent employees at New Age Pvt Ltd, resulting in somewhat shoddy work. 

Sol – e:

Approaches of Ethical standards have five types, which are “The utilitarian”, “The rights”, “Fairness or justice”, “Common good”, and “Virtue”.

In this case study, The Utilitarian approach of ethics standard has been followed as all stakeholders have their rights to take decisions according to conditions. So Mr. McBright and Mrs. McDonald had to take the right decision and did not sell that faulty product. If they would not have agreed to sell that product then no harm would have been done. According to “The Right Approach” Mrs. McDonald, chose the best option to proceed with that faulty product. “The fairness or justice approach” said that behave equally with all your colleagues. “The common good approach” talks about not to differentiate between staff, as Mrs. McDonald does not employ anyone who appears to be much more competent than she is. Last approach is “The virtue approach” which said that always could take a proper decision for your virtue, as Mr. McBride could deny sale of that faulty product.

Providing ethical responses

Subtask 2

Introduction

In this task, I will discuss about responsibility levels and skills mentioned in Skills Framework for the Information Age (referred as SFIA). SFIA was formally established in 2000 and it is updated on regular bases. It is accepted at a global level for the competencies and the skills, which are the basic need of digital world. For development of skills, capabilities, and industry, linkage between higher education and ICT curriculum is necessary (von konsky, Jones, & Miller, 2014).

In 2011, SFIA version 5 was published; this was a framework, which showed categories, subcategories, skills, and levels. This framework is used to show relationship between industry and business. There are seven levels of responsibilities in SFIA-6. In every level, four parts are there, Autonomy, Influence, Complexity, and Business skills. Now I will discuss about responsibilities in different levels of SFIA-6, which will be helpful towards the development of my professional career (sfia-online, How SFIA supports the skills management cycle, 2017).

Responsibility levels in SFIA-6:

Further, I will discuss about skills, categories and subcategories, which are related to each level’s responsibilities according to SFIA-6. All Skills are good for our career development. According to SFIA, I have different skills to get success in my future; still I want to develop many other skills to attain different milestones. I learnt many skills from the SFIA-6 framework, and applied it to develop my career plan. I found that being an IT professional, responsibilities level 5, 6, and 7 are necessary whose skills will develop my career plans. Now, I will discuss about skills, which are helpful for my career growth.

Information content publishing, Systems installation and decommissioning, customer service support, sales support, infrastructure skills are used for Level-1 responsibilities. Research, data management, portfolio, programming and project support, business modeling, data analysis, programming/software development skills are required for Level-2 responsibilities.  Product management, sourcing, conformance review, learning delivery, learning assessment and evaluation skills are required for Level-3 responsibilities. People management, stakeholder management, sales, and marketing skills are required for Level-4 responsibilities.

Quality and conformance, skills and quality, delivery and operation skills are required for Level-5 responsibilities, which will be my future skills. Strategy and architecture, change and transformation, relationships and engagement skills are required for Level-6 responsibilities, which will be useful for my future business. Information strategy, consultancy, business process improvement, business change implementation, learning and development management skills are required for Level-7 responsibilities, which are useful for my present study (SFIA 6, 2017).

Applying the ACS Code of Professional Conduct

I learnt that IT strategy and planning is important to align IT plans according to business objectives. As requirements of the business, need implementation of IT strategy and plans for betterment of business. Level six sets policies, standard, and guidelines for IT strategy development and planning. At level five, IT strategic management approach and management of all stakeholders is very necessary. One skill that is more important is “Information systems coordination” which is helpful for effective communication of strategy for business plans. Information security is also a skill for IT professionals for maintaining the confidentiality and security of operational plans. As an IT person, I should learn about data management skill, which will be a good skill of mine (ITP, 2018).

All persons have their own skills for a particular work, but they can improve and create other skills also as they are required for their work. According SFIA framework all skills can be developed for managing your work, so I will improve my skills for better career opportunities. In addition, I will develop new skills, which are necessary for an IT professional such as IT management, Sustainability engineering, and Skill management. In next part of the report, I will discuss about skill management cycle.

Skills management cycle

All skills are in a cycle which acquire, deploy, assess, develop, and reward differently for different phases (sfia-online, How SFIA supports the skills management cycle, 2017)

There are many skills mentions in SFIA-6 such as Analytics, Asset management, IT Infrastructure, System design, and many more. This cycle can started from any point, SFIA can be used for different issues, such as project issues, employee satisfaction, and organizational perspective (Campbell, 2016). For a better career development as an IT professional, everyone must know about IT-business relationship. In next topic, I will discuss about IT-business relationship (sfia-online, How SFIA supports the skills management cycle, 2017).

IT-business relationship

In 1950’s first relationship between IT professionals and business existed. Business manager cannot develop relationship in field of IT, as they make in finance and Human Resource. Some organizations develop or improve relationship between IT staff and other business professionals. There are many reasons for failures in relationship, such as project delay, project failure, and destruction of credibility. Credibility is necessary; otherwise, IT may take many years to restore business confidence. Bonding of business and IT person is having many things desired, which are reflecting on the work or growth of an organization (Nord, Nord, Cormack, & Cater-Steel, 2007).

Conclusion

                In this task, it is concluded that SFIA foundation provides best rules and regulations for an organization’s growth, and development. SFIA started from 2000 and now it has SFIA – 7 frameworks. In this task, SFIA-6 is discussed in brief and importance of different responsibility levels are discussed concluding about skill sets. In each level Autonomy, Influence, Complexity, and Business skills are described. Different responsibility levels require different skills sets, which are must learn for our career development. Finally, it is concluded that SFIA-6 has provided a standard to an IT professional to achieve their goals, which is also influence to a person for their career development and will also help in setting a milestone for future. I learnt about many skills for different levels of responsibilities, which will be directly helping to fulfill my plans.

References

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