ITC506 Topics in Information Technology Ethics

o accused by another woman for inappropriately touching her and making her feel uncomfortable. The accusations were glaring and had taken the business world by storm because a video also went viral where inappropriate content was shown and women were shamelessly groped. Though the other employees did not make any comments regarding the incident, Mather claimed that the workplace ethics should be followed. He acknowledged that workplace ethics are primarily important and that as a community, the organization could have conducted themselves better.

When an employee is seen to be indulging in such unlawful activities the dilemma that arises is to retain that position of that employee in the corporate or to terminate him for exploiting his position. There is sharp increase in the number of cases related to ethical abuse and therefore it is the need of the hour to check these cases and to point out the challenges and how to deal with the dilemmas that arise out of those problems. (Frost, 2015).

The key ethical issues are as follows:

1. Whether such actions of the employee will lead to sexual harassment?
2. Is the employee following corporate code of ethics?
3. Every company has their set of goals and principles and by indulging in such inappropriate behavior, is the employee breaching corporate decorum

Professional Ethics Perspective:

Ethics is the science of applying morality rules and principles to existing problems to reach a conclusion. Dilemma is supposed to arise when there is a constitution regarding a decision which might have a negative impact on the well being of a person but the decision is important to carry forward the basic principles of ethics (Kakabadse & Kakabadse, 2017). Whenever there are conflicting interest or there is a competition in the values, a dilemma shall arise as to the right approach which shall be applied. The rule of ethics is to reach a common goal which is good for everybody. Applying the same rules of achieving a common good and a conclusive goal it is important to apply the same logic in a professional sphere (Fainstein & DeFilippis, 2015). It is not possible to ascertain the right conclusion of a particular problem but the aim should be to ensure that the consequences of the action taken a positive and for the upliftment of the common good.

Professional ethics can be defined as a code of conduct which is applicable in a professional sphere. Before going by this theory if any employee is seen to be using unauthorized sites or indulging in inappropriate behavior, which has a negative impact on the working atmosphere of the company he should not be leniently dealt with. Sexual harassment at workplace is treated to be an unethical issue at an organization. To make sure that there is corporate standards is behaviour the wrongdoer shall be strictly penalized and if need be should also be terminated (Shohamy, 2014). It is very difficult to device a clear cut situation which is good or principle to be applied to every situation. Therefore essentiality is to consider a probable consequence and then act to reach the optimal decision. In this scenario, the employees did not pay heed to right and wrong of their actions and indulged in unfair and unethical practice.

Philosophical ethics:

The philosophical concept of ethics can be seen as the divide between what is right and what is wrong. Philosophy has a very strong relationship with morals and therefore it can be stated that moral philosophy is similar to the concept of fair and unfair as well as just and unjust (Darwall, 2018). Hindi Ling with dilemma it is very important to understand the moral obligations of a person and what is the right method to ensure that the philosophy of brightness wins over the concept of being wrong or unfair to a person (Halliwell, 2015). Moral philosophy always works as a question that tries to find the answer to a particular situation. It is mostly the purpose that is fulfilled by making sure that there is a clear understanding of what the obligations of a person are and what are of true value to him. The ITC is of the opinion but it needs to be checked if the employees are functioning as upholding the best interests of the company. ICT also believes that their employee is a stakeholder’s trustee and therefore she has to abide by the principles of the company. The code that is followed in the company is also termed as the ICT code which lay down the proper code of conduct which should be carried out in an ethical manner (Moore & Ahmed, 2016). The philosophy behind implementing the code is for the sake of making sure that everybody falls in line and that nobody breaches the principles of ethics. If it so happens that a person with the intention to defraud the company enters into a transaction but not only harms the environment of the company but also cast an unprofessional attitude the company has to take strict steps. In cases of organizational setup with their employers and employees working towards a common goal it is important to maintain code of conduct and it is also important to associate obligatory mandates. The employees have accessed websites which are against the principles of the company and therefore they have breached the company ethics.

Sociological perspective:

These are the code of ethics which also hold a sociologist understanding of the principles of ethics. Working in an organisation the management and the workers have a duty to act in the professional ability and also maintain the proper corporate decorum (Crane & Matten, 2016). Professional responsibilities as well as conduct a Boat important factors and they should be examined on a day to day basis. The ideals of sociology has to be maintained by the people working in a company. There are no universal sociological rules but they differ from company to company. The basic code of conduct for every company is same and the ethical standards ensure the activities of the workers do not have a negative impact on the society. Hacking harassment use of improper language or breach of any confidential information are considered to be against the principles of ethics (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). It is the rule of the society to do away with issues that arise in an organisation so that the trust of the people in the society are preserved. Companies need to have very strict policies so that there is no breach of the principles of ethics. The dilemma arises as to how to deal with the problems so that the goals of equity and fairness can be achieved. The problem that arises in such situations is to keep in mind that a wrong action can have a very negative impact on the reputation of the company.

Applying the principles of ethics in the current situation where it is seen that a lot of people use the internet for wrongful gains and therefore it is very important to keep in mind that the negative bearing of an organisation will also reflect adversely on the reputation of the company. As these employees took part in a video that went viral, the reputation of the company has started to delude in the public eye. Applying the concept of maximum happiness of the maximum number it is also important to keep in mind the broader interest of the society (Ni & Van Mart, 2015). It will be very unfair to keep in mind the interest of the company or the sole interest of an individual working for the company. A social issues an issue involving human emotions and therefore it becomes very challenging to understand the impact of a wrongful action on the society (Spence et al., 2018). The employees in this case have harassed women and they have been accused of unwarranted and unprecedented behavior which cannot be accepted in a corporate setup.  The employment rules mandate that they should be transparent and principled. Therefore, the employees are socially accepted to be part of the workplace which has a societal purport which enables that when an employee breaches that code of conduct, he is going against the set rules of corporate decorum.  Though the importance of the person in terms of profit making is immense to the company the interest of other individuals living in the society is equally important and therefore if the behaviour of the worker is seen to be potentially harmful to the society the company has to take very strict actions.

With new advances in technology there are also ethical limitations and the entry of new scientific and innovative practices bring with them various impediments to freedom. In this digital world humans are very dependent on technology and when this dependence is curtailed they might arise situation where there is a complete breakdown of labour and productivity. Therefore to ensure that there is both growth and development of human resources there needs to be some balance so that there is proper use of internet (MacDougall et al., 2015).

References

Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Darwall, S. (2018). Philosophical Ethics: An Historical and Contemporary Introduction. Routledge.

Deadspin.com (2018). Retrieved from https://deadspin.com/report-mariners-execs-were-promoted-after-complaints-a-1827868814

Fainstein, S. S., & DeFilippis, J. (Eds.). (2015). Readings in planning theory. John Wiley & Sons.

Frost, C. (2015). Journalism ethics and regulation. Routledge.

Halliwell, S. (2015). Popular morality, philosophical ethics and the rhetoric.

Kakabadse, N. K., & Kakabadse, A. K. (2017). ‘Profession’and Professional Ethics: An IT Perspective. In Creating Futures: Leading Change Through Information Systems (pp. 237-252). Routledge.

MacDougall, A. E., Bagdasarov, Z., Johnson, J. F., & Mumford, M. D. (2015). Managing workplace ethics: An extended conceptualization of ethical sensemaking and the facilitative role of human resources. In Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management (pp. 121-189). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Moore, B. J., & Ahmed, S. A. (2016). Efficacy of Philosophical Ethics Uptake in E-learning.

Ni, A., & Van Wart, M. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing Well and Doing Good. In Building Business-Government Relations (pp. 175-196). Routledge.

Shapiro, J. P., & Stefkovich, J. A. (2016). Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.

Shohamy, E. (2014). The power of tests: A critical perspective on the uses of language tests. Routledge.

Spence, L. J., Frynas, J. G., Muthuri, J. N., & Navare, J. (Eds.). (2018). Research handbook on small business social responsibility: global perspectives. Edward Elgar Publishing.