Ethical Analysis and Analysis of the IT Employment Market - Assignment Example

Name : xxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxx Title : Ethical Analysis and Analysis of The IT Employment Market Tutor : xxxxxxxxx @ 2009 Ethical analysis and analysis of the IT employment market Introduction Ethics are defined as the right and the wrongs guiding a certain group of people. There is a specified way of differentiating what is good from what is bad as defined by a certain group of people in a particular organization. Different organizations have got different definition of ethics. What is considered unethical in one organization may not apply to another organization. Ethics in an organization depends on what people in that organization do and therefore they have ethics guiding as to which lines they should cross. Information technology refers to a field that is growing widely and offering solutions to most business problems. Business people are using it in advertisement as a way to promote their work since most people are also going the IT way. Theories explaining ethics Theories of ethics are the basis of ethical analysis since they are the views from which decisions on ethical behavior can be obtained. Ethical principles are the goals that the theories try to reach at in order to succeed. Kantianism theory was stated by Immanuel Kant who stated that there is always a clash between what a person always wants to do with what he/she is supposed to do. Even though both will bring some benefits for the person eventually, doing what one wants usually gives a person immediate feeling of happiness which is not felt when one is doing what he/she is supposed to do. This theory of Kantianism therefore concludes that morality, or being upright does not always bring happiness. The purpose of morality is to guide a person into doing what is right and not to make him/her feel good. However it eventually brings happiness. Kant also stated that doing evil can also bring happiness. So, happiness does not have always to come from doing what is right. Immanuel Kant also states that only those actions done for fulfillment of duty have moral worth. This means that moral worth is achieved through one’s disinclination to acting for the sake of duty fulfillment. Morality therefore involves struggle against a person’s emotional inclination. He says that things like love of a parent to the child have no moral worth since it is not done for fulfillment of duty. It is an emotional inclination. Kant also believes that choices that available to make life good engages actions whose results which do not get along with happiness. In the case of Google, according to Kantianism theory, stating “don’t be evil” was limiting the pleasures of its user but would guide them into feeling happiness which is from doing right. Act utilitarianism Theory by Jeremy Bentham states that when faced by a situation the needs a choice to be made, we should first think of the likely outcomes of the actions of choice and go for the one that is likely to bring in the most pleasure. Utilitarianism means that one begins by considering the consequences before deciding on the action. In the case of Google’s motto of “don’t be evil”, stating that will make a person to consider what will be the consequences of doing the evil act before deciding. One will have to consider the pleasures that will be gained by doing the evil of by avoiding it. Social contract theory by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau states that governments are from the consent of those to be governed. It is the people that decide on the contracts that meet all their interests which eventually form a rule. The government is them formed to enforce the rule. This means that an individuals freedom is bound by his/her own ability. It is therefore a person’s wish to control his or her freedom for the sake of political rules. In the case of Google, the motto cannot prevent any person to do what he or she wants, it is one’s own wish that can stop him or her from doing it. My conclusion based on the three theories is that Google places the motto as part of their responsibility to guide the user’s behavior but the influence of the motto to any one is only guided by the conscience. There is no considerable ethical dissimilarity between filtering a hate speech in Germany and filtering a political speech in China. This is because ethical classification of actions is based on the people’s views about that action. Hate speeches in Germany might be unethical same as political speeches in china. The ethics that are followed in Germany are therefore not the same as those that are followed in China. Political speech might be considered ethical in any other country rather than China, same as hate speech. I think the slogan “don’t be evil” is appropriate for a publicly owned company since moral guidance should be a responsibility of any organization whether public or private. I also think that Google is living t the slogan since it has filtered out any thing that all its countries where it operates considers unethical. It tries to follow the laws in the countries where it operates and therefore it is being legal. Its argument on “don’t be evil” also requires “don’t be illegal” is true since doing anything that is unlawful is being evil. All unlawful things are also defined as evil. Conclusion Laws are there also to guide on morality. This is due to the fact that they were set to guide people into doing what is right. Therefore anything that is considered right according to the law is also ethical and morally right. Google also might have decided to use the slogan to protect itself from law. This means that putting the slogan on its face will protects it from being suspected of any crimes regarding the search engines use. Google is also not meant for use in one country. The designers of the search engine therefore did not have a clear definition of what is ethical in each of its target countries unless for countries like Germany and China. The designer therefore did not have rules to guide him on ethics of its target countries. Putting the slogan on its face is a general term that assumes that all the users knows what is evil or illegal as defined by the laws in their countries. Bibliography Murrell, G, 2001, E-business and ERP, rapid implementation and project planning, New York, John Wiley and Sons. Beiser, C, 1987, The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte, Harvard University Press, Harvard. Beauchamp, T, Faden, R, Wallace, J & Walters, L, 1982, Ethical issues in Social science research, John Hopkins Press, Baltimore. IT job advertisements Web developer This position of a web developer was advertised on the website page on 2nd December, 2009. The post was advertised by Search Party IT Company in central London. It is on a full time permanent contract. The required qualifications for the post are an undergraduate degree in IT and telecommunications. They also require a person with experience in production with HTML and CSS. A good layout and interface design is an added advantage. The roles of this position are to develop web pages for advertisement and marketing of the company. Web developers work in all forms of organizations including in the government. Online/IT manager This position was advertised on the website page on 3rd December 2009. It was advertised by Opeople company in south west Bristol. It is a permanent job with a negotiable salary. This is a management position and the position stipulates that a person who is adept in marketing online, strong managerial skills, and ability to control the finances properly. The academic qualifications require a degree in IT and a post graduate in management. The stated roles for the position of IT manager are to procure for the company web services, web hardware and also the experts required. An IT manager is also charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the IT department is working in order. Creative Flash Developer This position was advertised on the website on 29th November 2009. It was advertised by Septa Party Company in New York which is among the largest advertising companies in the country. The qualifications for the post require an undergraduate degree in computer engineering. Experience in the use of PHP, integration of net and application of multi language is an added advantage. The creative flash developer will be working in innovative projects. He updates codes according to new Flash versions and making improvements on the designs used by the customers. IT Support Analyst This position was advertised on 20th November 2009 by McKinley law partnership. The advertisement was place on International Journal of Advertising. It is a permanent job with a permanent contract. The qualifications for the posts require a post graduate degree in IT with a one year working experience in a busy firm. The roles of an IT support analyst include dealing with the computer hardware problems. The IT specialist is the one who overlooks all the technical issues in the IT department. He ensures that all the people working in the IT department are not experiencing any problem with the computers (Murrell, 2001). User Experience Designer This post was advertised by the digital media agency in Graham on 1st December 2009. It was advertised by Search Party Company in London. The necessities for the post are an undergraduate degree in Information Technology. It is a proletarian job with a renewable contract of five years. The roles of a user experience designer involve ensuring that the web is usable, assessing it and redesigning it (Julie 2007). User experience designer is also the key person in user design and the advisor in usability strategies. The person is also charged with doing reviews on designs and testing usability at certain stages of development of the designs. The person collaborates with those testing and assisting usability and in the development of products. Bibliography Digital Media Agency in Graham, User Experience Designer, Retrieved on December 1st 2009 from Septa Party Company in New York. Creative Flash Developer. Retrieved on November 29, 2009 from McKinley Law Partnership, IT Support Analyst, Retrieved on November 20, 2009 from Opeople Company South West Bristol, Online/IT manager, Retrieved on December 3, 2009 from http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/945613/Online/IT manager/ Search Party IT Company Central London, Web developer, Retrieved on December, 2 2009 from Read More