Ethics within Any Profession - Essay Example

Section/# Ethics in IT Part Ethics within any profession is important consideration and has taken a more prominent role with respect to the way in which decisions are made and stakeholders engage with one another throughout the process of business; especially of the past several years. The underlying reason for this has to do with the fact that ethical oversight spy firms such as Enron, Lehman Brothers, and a litany of others have illustrated the ways in which ethical oversight can ultimately lead to disastrous impacts; not only upon the company itself - but upon the economy as a whole. However, as important as ethics are for any and all professions, the need and importance for ethics within the IT profession is arguably even more profound. As such, the following analysis will seek to engage the reader with an understanding of the way in which ethics is of such a vast importance within the IT profession and is so central to practice of good business behavior. Furthermore, the analysis will also draw upon some of the questions of value and how they are different from questions of fact. Lastly, examples of the IT profession in addressing issues of ethics will be utilized as a means of drawing further prints upon the situation and moral needs that might be illustrated. According to the ACM, the code of ethics for IT professionals includes nearly 24 points; among these contributing to human well-being, avoiding harm to others, honoring property rights and copyrights, respecting privacy, honoring confidentiality, and seeking to improve public understanding of computing and its consequences. Whereas this is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the determinants that the ACM seeks to put forward, it does provide a running commentary on some of the aspects that the ACM code of conduct understands as central to the application of ethical and morally responsible IT work. Arguably, one of the most distinctive facets of ethics, or even of ethical considerations, within the IT profession is concentric upon the overall amount of data and responsibilities that the IT professional has at his or her disposal (ACM, 2014). As a direct function of the way in which IT work is performed, it individual working within this particular career path will necessarily have access to a broad variety of different personal, sensitive, and public information. Likewise, although it is somewhat dangerous to state that the ethical considerations for one particular career path are higher than another, it is fair to state that the overall level of responsibility that an IT professional has with respect to ethical norms is an order of magnitude higher than the average office professional. In tandem with this, it can also be understood that society in general holds professionals to a higher degree of ethics as compared to the average citizen. The underlying reason for this is directly tied to the overall level of responsibility that a professional has as compared the individual. For instance, the professional is oftentimes tasked with providing the market, namely consumers, with products or services that are designed and specified to the specific needs. Accordingly, this responsibility is granted to professionals with the understanding that they will behave in an ethical manner and seek to promote key ethical standards based upon the commiserate level of responsibility of the market has given. Within such an understanding, it should further be noted that individuals and realm of IT have an even higher level of ethical norms and standards that they are expected to ascribe to. Whereas it is oftentimes not understood by the average citizen that individuals within the realm of IT have such standards and norms that they must adhere to, a growing realization has been affected over the past several years. With the debacle of leadership at Lehman Brothers, the reader can quickly ascertained that the need for ethics within each and every layer of the company leadership, is essential elements of whether or not successful ultimately the consumer can come to have a higher level of trust within the organization. Instead, professional, although perhaps not quite visible, it also beholden to ethical standards and must report based upon his findings to individuals within the company. If this information is ignored, the ethical burden is not removed from the IT professional; instead, he or she is required to continue to voice their concerns until such a point as the chain of command has been exhausted or until such a point as the issue was addressed. As stated previously, the ultimate rationale behind this is due to the fact that the IT professional has such a great deal of liability and the respect is at their disposal and within their purview. In the eventuality that an IT professional choose to ignore it ethical situation in hopes that it merely becomes better way, is very similar to the one that was created Lehman Brothers or elsewhere could easily be replicated. Part 2: In terms of personal experience, the case that directly comes to mind is one in which a group project was being performed and data was being gathered with regard to seeking to answer the query professor had posed. As individual stakeholders came together, it was quickly understood that a massive amount of research must be performed in order to gain accurate and realistic information for one specific aspect of the project. As the team analyze this, it became clear that the overall amount of time and energy that would be required as a function of obtaining this particular piece of information would place an extraordinary strain upon the ability to complete the product on time. As this situation was discussed and analyzed among stakeholders, several individuals were of the opinion that a best guess should be given with respect to the actual data and the research itself should be ignored; due to the fact that time constraints demanded that such an approach necessarily be taken. Faced with the choice of “fudging the numbers” were actively doing the research and expending an extraordinarily high level of effort on one particular project, the group finally decided on performing the research and breaking it up between different team members; so that the end result would not be quite as horrific as the expectation. It is the understanding of this particular student that even though the process that has been described was specifically related to the course project, that the same type of behavior is oftentimes exhibited within the professional world; as figures and numbers are difficult to create and oftentimes lead the analyst to represent an expectation of these numbers as a function of passing on two different stakeholders within the process. In terms of how this might apply to the IT professional, it is clear that the IT professional is held to a high standard with respect to ethics and the understanding that this particular individual necessarily still with regards computational figures. With such an understanding, it is clear to denote the fact that an IT professional might be asked whether or not hostile attempts have been made upon the servers or whether or not an individual has been inappropriately using the system. Based upon the response and the overall level of research the IT professional engages, the result be full with regard to the overall safety and security of the information; as well as the overall job stability and prospective employment for the individuals in question. Reference ACM. (2014, April 12). Code of Ethics — Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved from http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics Read More