SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

Ethics for IT Professionals and

IT Users

Module 1
 Module 1A
IT Worker Relationships That Must Be
Managed
 Intended Learning Outcomes

–Distinguish a professional from other kinds of workers, and is an IT worker

considered a professional;

–Discuss why communication is important in the workplace; and

–Explain codes of ethics, professional organizations, certification, and licensing

affect the ethical behavior of IT professionals.
 IT Professionals

Profession is a calling that requires

– Specialized knowledge

– Long and intensive academic preparation

 Are IT Workers Professionals?
• Mobile application developers

• Programmers

• Systems analysts

• Software engineers

• Database administrators

• Network administrators
 Are IT Workers Professionals?
Legal perspective

– IT workers are not recognized as professionals because they are not licensed by
the state or federal government.

– IT workers are not liable for malpractice because they do not meet the legal
definition of a professional.
 Professional Relationships That Must
Be Managed
- IT professionals have many different relationships with:

Credit: Course Technology/Cengage Learning.

 Relationships Between IT
Professionals and Employers
-An IT worker and an employer typically agree on fundamental aspects of this
relationship before the worker accepts an employment offer.

-IT workers must set an example and enforce policies regarding the ethical use of
IT.

-Software piracy is an area in which IT workers may be tempted to violate laws

and policies.

-The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is a trade group that represents the
world’s largest software and hardware manufacturers.
 Its mission is to stop the unauthorized copying of software produced by its
members.
 Relationships Between IT
Professionals and Employers
Trade secret

– Information used in business

– Generally unknown to the public
– Company has taken strong measures to keep confidential

Whistle-blowing

– Attracts attention to a negligent, illegal, unethical, abusive, or dangerous act that

threatens the public interest.
 Relationships Between IT
Professionals and Clients
-In relationships between IT workers and clients, each party agrees to provide
something of value to the other.

-This relationship is usually documented in contractual terms.

-The client makes decisions about a project on the basis of information,

alternatives, and recommendations provided by the IT worker.

-Problems can also arise during a project if IT workers find themselves unable to
provide full and accurate reporting of the project’s status.

-Such a situation has the potential to undermine the objectivity of an IT worker due
to a conflict of interest—a conflict between the IT worker’s (or the IT firm’s) self-
interest and the client’s interests/
 Relationships Between IT
Professionals and Clients
Fraud
-Crime of obtaining goods, services, or property through deception or trickery.

Misrepresentation
-is the misstatement or incomplete statement of a material fact.

-the other party to enter into a contract, that party may have the legal right to cancel
the contract or seek reimbursement for damages.

Breach of contract
-one party fails to meet the terms of a contract.
 Relationships Between IT
Professionals and Suppliers
Develop good relationships with suppliers

– Deal fairly with them

– Do not make unreasonable demands

Bribery
– Providing money, property, or favors to someone in business or government to
obtain a business advantage.
 Relationships Between IT
Professionals and Suppliers
Distinguishing between bribes and gifts

Source Line: Course Technology/Cengage Learning.

 Relationships Between IT Workers and Other
Professionals
-Professionals owe each other adherence to profession’s code of conduct.

-Ethical problems between members of the IT profession

- résumé inflation

- Inappropriate sharing of corporate information

 Relationships Between IT
Professionals and IT Users
-IT user refers to a person who uses a hardware or software product; the IT
workers who develop, install, service, and support the product.

IT professionals’ duty

– Understand users’ needs and capabilities

– Deliver products and services that best meet those needs

– Establish an environment that supports ethical

behavior by users
 Relationships Between IT Workers and Society

-Society expects members of a profession to provide significant benefits and to not

cause harm through their actions.

-The actions of an IT worker can affect society.

 Effective Professional Communication
•Communication is one of the major concerns in the workplace.

•According to the statistics,57 % of employees report not being given clear

directions and 69% of managers are not comfortable communicating with the
employees in general.

• From the statistics, it is clear that there is a need to improve communication in the
workplace.

•Communication in the workplace is one of the signs of a high-performance culture.

• Exchanging information and ideas within an organization is called workplace

communication.

• However, effective communication occurs when a message is sent and received

accurately.
 Effective Professional Communication
Why is communication so important in the workplace?

•It avoids confusion

•It provides purpose

•It builds a positive company culture

•It creates accountability

 Effective Professional Communication
Here are the skills that employers mostly seek in new hires, ranked in terms of
priority.

•Oral communication

•Listening

•Written communication

•Public speaking

•Adaptability
 Effective Professional Communication
How do you improve communication?

•Start using the right tools for your business

•Encourage two-way communication

•Tell people what they are doing right

•Specific and descriptive feedback

•Schedule a compulsory check-in

 Effective Professional Communication
•Communication can be formal, informal, internal or external. And within an
organization, it is important to develop a healthy and beneficial communication
process.

•Effective Communication is the key to achieving long-term success, so make sure

you follow the above outline strategies.
 Effective Professional Communication
How to develop your Professional Communication skills?

•Ask for feedback : If you carry out a presentation, ask yourself how you think you
could improve next time.

•Learn from others : If you look up to someone who has good communication skills,
watch what they do and learn from them.

•Try active listening : A good communicator listens.

•Enroll in a course : To really become a better communicator, you should consider

enrolling in a course that can refresh your skills and develop new ones.
 Encouraging the Professionalism of IT Workers

-IT workers of all types can improve their profession’s reputation for professionalism
by
(1) subscribing to a professional code of ethics,

(2) joining and participating in professional organizations,

(3) obtaining appropriate certifications, and

(4) supporting government licensing where available.

 Professional Codes of Ethics

-A professional code of ethics states the principles and core values that are
essential to the work of a particular occupational group.

-Codes of ethics created by professional organizations have two main parts:

• The first outlines what the organization aspires to become.

• lists rules and principles by which members of the organization are expected to
abide.
 Professional Codes of Ethics

Benefits for individual, profession, and society

– Improves ethical decision making

– Promotes high standards of practice and ethical

Behavior

– Enhances trust and respect from the general public

– Provides an evaluation benchmark

 Professional Organizations

-No universal code of ethics for IT professionals.

-No single, formal organization of IT professionals has emerged as preeminent.

IT professional organizations

Source Line: Course Technology/Cengage Learning.

 Certification
-Indicates a professional possesses a particular set of skills, knowledge, or abilities
in the opinion of a certifying organization.

-Can also apply to products.

-On the other hand, because certification is no substitute for experience and
doesn’t guarantee that a person will perform well on the job.

-IT employees are motivated to learn new skills, and certification provides a
structured way of doing so.
 Certification
-Vendor Certifications

• Some certifications substantially improve IT workers’ salaries and career

prospects.

• Require passing a written exam

• Workers are commonly recertified as newer technologies become available.

 Certification
-Industry Association Certifications
• Require a certain level of experience and a broader perspective than vendor
certifications.

Certifications in high demand

Source Line: Course Technology/Cengage Learning.

 Certification
Common IT industry certifications
 Government Licensing
-In the United States, a government license is government-issued permission to
engage in an activity or to operate a business.

Case for licensing IT professionals

• Encourage IT professionals to follow the highest standards of the profession

• Practice a code of ethics

• Violators would be punished

 Module 1B

IT Professional Malpractice
 Intended Learning Outcomes

––Explain the common ethical issues of the IT users;and

–Understand the ethical practices of the users.

 IT Professional Malpractice
•For most IT workers, becoming licensed as a software engineer is optional
because they practice under the ―industrial exemption‖ clause of their state’s
licensing laws that permits them to work internally for an organization without
licensure so long as they are not making final decisions to release product to the
public or offering engineering services directly to the public (for example, software
engineering consultant).
 IT Professional Malpractice
•Negligence has been defined as not doing something that a reasonable man
would do, or doing something that a reasonable man would not do.

•Duty of care refers to the obligation to protect people against any unreasonable
harm or risk

• Courts consistently reject attempts to sue individual parties for computer-related

malpractice.

•The courts decide whether parties owe a duty of care by applying a reasonable
person standard to evaluate how an objective, careful, and conscientious person
would have acted in the same circumstances.
 IT Professional Malpractice
•A breach of the duty of care is the failure to act as a reasonable person would
act.

•Professionals who breach the duty of care are liable for injuries that their
negligence causes.

•This liability is commonly referred to as professional malpractice.

•For example, a CPA who fails to use reasonable care, knowledge, skill, and
judgment when auditing a client’s books is liable for accounting malpractice.
 Common Ethical Issues for IT Users
-Software piracy

-Inappropriate use of computing resources

-Inappropriate sharing of information

• Private data
• Confidential information
 Common Ethical Issues for IT Users
-Software piracy

•-Sometimes IT users are the ones who commit software piracy.

•A common violation occurs when employees copy software from their work
computers for use at home.

•The increasing popularity of the Android smartphone operating system has

created a serious software piracy problem.

•Some IT end users have figured out how to download

•applications from the Google Play store without paying for them, and then use the
software or sell it to others.
 Common Ethical Issues for IT Users
•The software piracy rate for that same game from Apple’s App store is closer to
60 percent.

• Software piracy can have a negative impact on future software development if

professional developers become discouraged watching revenue from legitimate
sales sink while the sales of pirated software and games skyrocket.
 Common Ethical Issues for IT Users
-Inappropriate Use of Computing Resources

•Some employees use their computers to surf popular websites that have nothing
to do with their jobs, participate in chat rooms, view pornographic sites, and play
computer games.

•These activities eat away at a worker’s productivity and waste time.

•A survey by the Fawcett Society found that one in five men admit to viewing porn
at work, while a separate study found that 30 percent of mobile workers are viewing
porn on their web-enabled phones.

•Organizations typically fire frequent pornography offenders and take disciplinary

action against less egregious offenders.
 Common Ethical Issues for IT Users
-Inappropriate Sharing of Information

•Every organization stores vast amounts of information that can be classified as

either private or confidential.

•Private data describe individual employees—for example, their salary information,

attendance data, health records, and performance ratings.

•An IT user who shares this information with an unauthorized party, even
inadvertently, has violated someone’s privacy or created the potential that company
information could fall into the hands of competitors.
 Common Ethical Issues for IT Users
-Inappropriate Sharing of Information

•Every organization stores vast amounts of information that can be classified as

either private or confidential.

•Private data describe individual employees—for example, their salary information,

attendance data, health records, and performance ratings.

•An IT user who shares this information with an unauthorized party, even
inadvertently, has violated someone’s privacy or created the potential that company
information could fall into the hands of competitors.
 Ethical Practices of IT Users
•The growing use of IT has increased the potential for new ethical issues and
problems; thus, many organizations have recognized the need to develop policies
that protect against abuses.

•Adherence to a policy can improve services to users, increase productivity, and

reduce costs.
Supporting the Ethical Practices of IT Users
•The growing use of IT has increased the potential for new ethical issues and
problems; thus, many organizations have recognized the need to develop policies
that protect against abuses.

•Adherence to a policy can improve services to users, increase productivity, and

reduce costs.
 Ethical Practices of IT Users
•Establishing Guidelines for Use of Company Software

•Defining the Appropriate Use of IT Resources

•Structuring Information Systems to Protect Data and Information

•Installing and Maintaining a Corporate Firewall

 Ethical Practices of IT Users
-Establishing Guidelines for Use of Company Hardware and Software

•Company IT managers must provide clear rules that govern the use of home
computers and associated software.

• Some companies negotiate contracts with software manufacturers and provide

PCs and software so that IT users can work at home.

•The goal should be to ensure that employees have legal copies of all the software
they need to be effective, regardless of whether they work in an office, on the road,
or at home.
 Ethical Practices of IT Users
-Defining an Acceptable Use Policy

•An acceptable use policy (AUP) is a document that stipulates restrictions and
practices that a user must agree to in order to use organizational computing and
network resources.

•It is an essential information security policy—so important that most organizations

require that employees sign an acceptable use policy before being granted a user
or network ID.
 Ethical Practices of IT Users
An effective acceptable use policy is clear and concise and contains the
following five key elements:

1. Purpose of the AUP—Why is the policy needed and what are its goals?
2. Scope—Who and what is covered under the AUP?
3. Policy—How are both acceptable use and unacceptable use defined; what are
some examples of each?
4. Compliance—Who is responsible for monitoring compliance and how will
compliance will be measured?
5. Sanctions—What actions will be taken against an individual who violates the
policy?
 Ethical Practices of IT Users
•Members of the legal, human resources, and information security groups are
involved in creating the AUP.

•It is the organization’s information security group that is responsible for monitoring
compliance to the AUP.

• Information security (infosec) group’s responsibilities include managing the

processes, tools, and policies necessary to prevent, detect, document, and counter
threats to digital and nondigital information, whether it is in transit, being processed,
or at rest in storage.
 Ethical Practices of IT Users
-Structuring Information Systems to Protect Data and Information

•Organizations must implement systems and procedures that limit data access to
just those employees who need it.

•For example, sales managers may have total access to sales and promotion
databases through a company network, but their access should be limited to
products for which they are responsible.
 Ethical Practices of IT Users
-Installing and Maintaining a Corporate Firewall

•A firewall is hardware or software (or a combination of both) that serves as the

first line of defense between an organization’s network and the Internet; a firewall
also limits access to the company’s network based on the organization’s Internet-
usage policy.

• A firewall can be configured to serve as an effective deterrent to unauthorized web

surfing by blocking access to specific objectionable websites.
 Ethical Practices of IT Users
-Compliance

•Compliance means to be in accordance with established policies, guidelines,

specifications, or legislation.

•Records management software, for example, may be developed in compliance

with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Design Criteria Standard for Electronic
Management Software applications (known as DoD 5015) that defines mandatory
functional requirements for records management software used within the
Department of Defense.

•Commercial software used within an organization should be distributed in

compliance with the vendor’s licensing agreement.
 References
Blundell, B. (2020). Ethics in Computing, Science, and Engineering: A Student’s
Guide to Doing Things Right 1st ed. 2020 Edition: Springer.

Hauptman, R. (2019). The Scope of Information Ethics: Challenges in Education,

Technology, Communications, Medicine and Other Domains: McFarland.

Kizza, J.M. (2019). Ethical and Secure Computing: A Concise Module

(Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science) 2nd ed.:Springer.

Reynolds, G. (2018). Ethics in Information Technology: Cengage Learning.

Kizza, J.M (2017).Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age 6th ed: Springer.

.
 References
Whitmant, M. Mattord, H. (2017). Principles of Information Security 6th Edition:
Cengage Learning. Social impact.(2020) Retrieved
from https://www.encyclopedia.com/computing/news-wires-white-papers-and-
books/social-impact

Effective Communication.(2020) Retrieved

from https://www.hrtechnologist.com/articles/employee-engagement/effective-
communication-in-the-workplace-how-and-why/

Why is professional communication important in the workplace?.(2020)

.(2020) Retrieved from https://www.hrtechnologist.com/articles/employee-
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