Situation Analysis

Discuss about the ICT Professional Practice for ACA Governing Council.

The case study named as the statistical program talks about the ethical and unethical behavior of the employees in the organization. The case study is based on the statistical database programmer, Jeans who is working on the statistical program of the company. The nature of work is complex in nature, but the manager of the company put a lot of pressure on her to complete the project in a few days and submit it to him. However, because of this pressure, she merged the various codes from the work of co-worker and made a use of the commercial software package of another company in order to submit the project immediately to her. She submits that work to her manager without telling him the facts of the statistical program.

However, I have analyzed that the Jean made use of the unethical manner for the submission of the project in a few days.  The jeans adopted all the unethical ways under pressure and without understanding the complexity of the work. It is also being noted that the employees used the wrong techniques just for the purpose of finishing the product on time and also hide all these techniques from the authorities. It has been analyzed that the organization is not following up the ethical norms. The manager of the organization put a pressure on the employee which is very unethical on his part as it will disturb the employees. The manager by putting pressure on the employees creates the situation where no other options are left with the employees to complete the program of statistical technique at any cost (Gilman, 2005).

On the other side, the employee Jean, should not used the unethical ways to complete their task. However, she should not used the parts of the work done by the colleague and commercial software package of another company. This is a very difficult situation as the employee hides the same things and her wrong techniques from the management team of the company. The management is the only part of the organization which is responsible for the organization rise and fall (Association, 2010).

The major ethical issue found in the case study is used of the wrong technology by the Jeans, which is given to hum with an intent of the betterment of the organization. It is her responsibility to behave in an ethical manner and should not use the parts of the other worker’s project for their own projects. The hiding of these techniques from the management affects the company in a very negative way. On the other side, manager is also accountable for breaking up the code of ethics as it is her duty to understand the problem of the employees as well as the complexity level of the project. The manager is the only reason that the employee performed in an unethical ways because he put a pressure on the employees for the completion of the programs and this type of behavior is not an ethical behavior.

Analysis of the Situation from the Point of View of an ICT Professional Using the ACS Code of Ethics

Moving further, it is analyzed that the investors and shareholders invest a large amount of money just for the sake of the organizational enhancement. The company will be affected negatively because of the wrong activities performing by the employees in the organization. The training is the most essential part as the employees should have the knowledge of the ethics in order to perform well in the organization and saves the company from the huge losses (PMI, 2012). The consequences of wrongdoings may affect the performance of the business as the quality level of the employees performance becomes low. However, training programs are very much helpful in providing the knowledge and awareness to the people regarding the consequences and the effects on the other parts of the business. The employees are the most significant part of the organization as their performance in the company leads to the progress and development of the employees. The management team needs to spend time, money and efforts in order to maintain the strong communication level to avoid the ethical issues prevailing in the organization. The communication gap should be reduced so that the employees can share about their problems in a very easy way and open way. The openness is the important element of the code of ethics that focuses on the removal of the wrongdoings in the companies (American Counseling, 2014).

The industry of the information and communication technology has not yet build any standards and legislations, because of which these industries follow the code of ethics as per the ACS (Australian Computer Society). Ethics are the framework that provides the employees or the organization to perform ethically without harming the other person or without doing an illegal act. The ethics are the main contributor for the betterment and enhancement of the industry, but it needs the proper implementation of the code of ethics in the organization. Ethics considered as the best way to protect the workplace from the wrong activities and ethics includes various parts like trustworthiness, esteem, reliability and sincerity. According to the Australian computer society code of ethics, the organization has the ability to maintain and implement the standards in order to enhance the industry of the information and technology. Moreover, according to the ACS code of ethics, the esteem and honor should be the part of the employee treatment and treat each and every employee equally and avoid the problem of the discrimination (CIMA, 2015). Therefore, these ICT industries are liable to take the legal and corrective actions against those people who engaged in the unethical behavior. Similarly, the company can take the legal action against the Jean as he used the unethical ways to develop the one statistical program.

There are mainly four principles of the Australian computer society and its Code of ethics that focusing on the maintenance of the organization. These four principles are – open communication, respect, sincerity and excellence. Open communication is very important to know the views and opinions of the employees with regard to the nature of the work and their opinions in relation to the management. The communication between the employee and the management leads to remove the unethical issues and wrong activities in the organization. Every management of the company needs to understand the problems of the employees in order to deal with them for the efficiency of the company. Jean also adopts the unethical means because of the lack of communication as she was not able to communicate with the management and she submits the work without saying anything to her manager. The problems of the employee and management can be resolved if there is a strong connection exists in the employees and management of the company (NASW, 2017).

Secondly, respect is the principle that demonstrates that the respect should be given to each other for the positive working environment. This principle is based on the rule of the “give and take” as nobody can give the respect until or unless other disrespecting that person. The negative and the egoistic behavior of the employees is not good for the growth of the organization. Thirdly, the code of ethics is the expecting loyalty and the honesty of the employees. Lastly, excellence in the code of ethics means the obligation and the satisfaction level of the employees towards the organization. However, Code of ethics are very beneficial in identifying the right or wrong, positive and negative activities of the employees (Society, 2009).

The sharing of the opinions with the management helps in resolving the problems, however, if jean discussed about the complexity of the work and technical knowledge to the management, then she did not need to follow the unethical means. The performance of the employees increases with the increase in the excellence and communication between the employees and company owners. The excess work pressure leads to low quality of the projects and low performance and may fore the employees to leave the organization. The management is the only part that applied all these principles of the code of ethics in the organization (Graham & Low, 2014).

In the case study, it is analyzed that the employee as well as the manager, both are failed to follow the professional code of ethics. They failed in understanding and analyzing the consequences of the unethical tasks. The manager should understand the complex nature of work and support the employee to take the time to complete the task. The pressure of the work frustrates the employees and that have the adverse effects on the performance of the employee like Jean. On the contrary, the employee jean also not use the technologies in a wrong way with a motive to make the program more easier. However, jeans also behave unethically by not disclosing the important information and use of the work of the other person just to submit the project on time.

With the help of the technologies, the company can implement and applied the code of ethics in a proper and efficient way.  Jeans had made the misuse of technology by integrating the work of another co-worker in her project. Using the software package of another company and the integration of the same in her project is also unethical and against the norms set by the organization.

As we know that the human beings are not actually perfect ethically. It is the duty of the company to spend some time with the employees maintain the ethical behavior of the staff members by focusing on the training and development programs as well as the controlling systems. The unethical means of doing  activity is only beneficial for the short run as the submission of the project by jeans provides the solution of the problem for the short period. The long term effect of these activities is negative in nature (Ferguson, et al., 2005). The loyalty and honesty of the employees towards the organization are required in order to achieve competitive advantage. It is very easy for the customer to distinguish between the ethical and unethical organization and they are attracted to the organization who uses ethical means in the organization. The Ethical structure of the organization is important in recruiting ethical employees. Every person is embedded with some moral principles, whether given by parents or teachers. The ethical and unethical behavior of the employees can be judged by the organization at the time of the recruitment process. The code of ethics of the organization further minimizes the risk of ethical dilemma (Wheeler, 2003).

Conclusion that brings together the two analyses and presents overall recommendations

After analyzing the both the persons, manager and  jeans, it is concluded that both the people are equally responsible for violating the ethical standards. The manager should have the supportive behavior rather than stressful, so that the jeans performed in an ethical way. The pressure put by the manager no doubt, was an unethical behavior. The projects of the software development are difficult in nature and they need enough time to complete. The manager should give the Jeans sufficient time to perform the tasks (Leicester, 2016).

On the other hand, the jean  also behave unethically in the organization because of the pressure of the manager. The less time and immediate requirement of the project by the manager forces jeans to use the information of the Co-workers and the wrong techniques for the statistical programs that have the adverse effect on the performance of the employees. Ultimately, the organization is affected by the negative and unethical behavior of the Jeans and her manager.  The arrogant behavior of the manager who failed to understand the complexity of the project is the main reason that she does not reveal this fact to the management of the organization (Dileepk, 2015).

After analyzing the case study, some of the suggestions are explained in order to bring a code of ethics in the organization. It is suggested that the management should check and keep tracking the performance of the employees, their behavior and the technologies they are using on the daily basis. Moreover, self awareness programs should be created among all the staff members of the company in the terms of the professional code of ethics and how to control them. Controlling system of the organization should be strong in order to control the ethical standards. The training is the most essential part as the employees should have the knowledge of the ethics in order to perform well in the organization and saves the company from the huge losses. ICT industries are liable to take the legal and corrective actions against those people who engaged in the unethical behavior. Similarly, the company can take the legal action against the Jean as he used the unethical ways to develop the one statistical program. The manager should understand the complex nature of work and support the employee to take the time to complete the task. The communication between the employee and the management leads to remove the unethical issues and wrong activities in the organization. Every management of the company needs to understand the problems of the employees in order to deal with them for the efficiency of the company. With the help of the technologies, the company can implement and applied the code of ethics in a proper and efficient way. The sharing of the opinions with the management helps in resolving the problems, however, if jean discussed about the complexity of the work and technical knowledge to the management, then she did not need to follow the unethical means. It is the duty of the company to spend some time with the employees maintain the ethical behavior of the staff members by focusing on the training and development programs as well as the controlling systems. The unethical means of doing  activity is only beneficial for the short run as the submission of the project by jeans provides the solution of the problem for the short period. The long term effect of these activities is negative in nature. The loyalty and honesty of the employees towards the organization are required in order to achieve competitive advantage. The management team needs to spend time, money and efforts in order to maintain the strong communication level to avoid the ethical issues prevailing in the organization.

References

American Counseling, 2014. Code of Ethics: As approved by the ACA Governing Council, Available at: https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

Association, A. P., 2010. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Available at: https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/principles.pdf

CIMA, 2015. Ethical checklist: You need to act quickly when facing an ethical dilemmal, Available at: https://www.cimaglobal.com/Global/Images/standards-and-ethics/ethics_checklist_web_June2015_update.pdf

Dileepk, 2015. Introduction to the ICA05 Training Package, Available at: https://dileepk.com/multimedia/05_THEORY_Ethical_Conduct_ICAW4214A/resources/ASC_CodeofEthics.pdf

Ferguson, S. et al., 2005. Case studies and codes of ethics: the relevance of the ethics: the relevance of the, Available at: https://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/file/e4e124f4-b65b-1813-688a-8787cb3cf95d/1/fulltext_published.pdf

Gilman, S., 2005. Ethics codes and codes of conduct as tools for promoting an ethical and professional public service: comparative successes and lessons, Available at: https://www.oecd.org/mena/governance/35521418.pdf

Graham, G. & Low, G., 2014. ACS Code of Professional Conduct, Available at: https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf

Leicester, N., 2016. Ethics in the IT Profession: Does a Code of Ethics have an Effect on Professional Behaviour?, Available at: https://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/5127/project.pdf?sequence=1

NASW, 2017. Code of Ethics: Approved by the 1996 NASW Delegate Assembly and revised by the 2008 NASW Delegate Assembly. [Online]
Available at: https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics.aspx

PMI, 2012. Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, Available at: https://pmi-dhc.ca/images/downloads/Website_Downloads/ap_pmicodeofethics.ashx.pdf

Society, T. B. P., 2009. Code of Ethics and Conduct: Guidance published by the Ethics Committee of the British Psychological Society, Available at: https://beta.bps.org.uk/sites/beta.bps.org.uk/files/Policy%20-%20Files/Code%20of%20Ethics%20and%20Conduct%20%282009%29.pdf

Wheeler, S., 2003. Comparing Three IS Codes of Ethics – ACM, ACS and BCS, Available at: https://www.pacis-net.org/file/2003/papers/ethics/234.pdf