ACS Professionalism, Ethics and Governance

ACS Professionalism,
Ethics and Governance

Assignment without questions
In this situation utilitarianism theory can be used by Ming, according to which,
majority group should be benefited from the decision (Fernando, 2010). Talking
about the positive consequences, Ming’s dedication towards the work is
inspirational, as when the work could not be completed on time, she took it
home to complete the work instead of accepting the defeat. And if we look at the
negative side of the consequences, forgetting the USB at home in which
completed work is saved and not even realizing that, she did not bring her USB.
Secondly, as Ming forgot the USB at home, it may get stolen, which may result a
loss for the company in which Ming is working.
Ming would not have to face such dilemma, if she had taken a better action,
rather than taking the work for completing at home. She should have asked
Michelle to extend the deadline to finish the work in office itself. She could have
taken the permission from Michelle, to give extra time at office only and come to
office on weekend to complete the work. Taking work at home is riskier as it may
get stolen or misplaced, which would be a worse condition for Ming and also the
company. Here, Deontological theory is used, which says that it is the duty of
Ming to inform about the situation to Michelle, instead of herself taking decisions
in difficult situations (Fernando, 2010)
The decision to this case should be that, when Ming realized that, she forgot her
USB home. She should approach Michelle to discuss about the situation, and
apologize for her carelessness. And, then take permission to go back home and
quickly get the USB. She should be truthful in what she did, because it is a right
of Michelle to know about the situation and give the best solution for it. And to
ensure that Ming does not repeat this kind of mistake again, she should be
punished by charging with a penalty.
1.2.1 Public interest- ACS member must ensure that they keep public interest
above the other interests such as, personal interest and money. Safeguarding
stakeholder Interest is a major duty at work for long term growth. The private
and confidential information, as well as Intellectual property of others must be
preserved and should not be misused. Therefore, Ming should have valued the
public interest, instead of his personal interest of taking work at home, to save
himself from anger of Michelle.
1.2.3 Honesty- A member should maintain the trust of stakeholders and public in
their decisions and actions. Sometimes, circumstances may arise when the
member gets a chance to accept bribe in exchange of performing a fraud action.
But, at that situation the member must reject and show his honesty and
integrity. While advising in a situation, personal motive should not be involved.
(ACS, 2014). Therefore, Ming should have been honest at her work and she
should have discussed the situation with Michelle.
1.2.4 Competence- A member should accept only that work which they are
capable of performing and he must know his own limitations and should not
pretend the skills they don’t have. A member must be able to recognise the need
for the additional expertise and ask for support when needed, because a person
may necessarily do not have expertise knowledge in all fields (ACS, 2014). Ming
was lacking with this quality of competence. As, she should have taken work
according to her capability of completing the work on time.
1.2.6 Professionalism- ACS expects professionalism at work from its members to
maintain the standard. Any person must neither involve nor influence any other

person to get involved in any kind of misconduct or breach of code (Wigan,
2018). A member must not involve in any action or misconduct, while working in
its professional role, which may damage the reputation of ACS or ruin the image
of that profession. Therefore, Ming can be said as an unprofessional employee.
As, forgetting office work at home may result to the work been misplaced or
stolen. Which may ruin the image of the company.
Australian Legislation
Privacy Act (1988)- Privacy act by Australian government states that, individuals
or organisations in Australia have a right to know about who is acquiring their
information and the reason for acquiring it. They also have a right to deny for
their information being used or transferred to another individual. Therefore, Ming
was responsible for the breach of this law, as she decided to take the office
information home without any permission (Federal register of legislation, 2020).
Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act (1998)- New South Wales (NSW)
area of Australia is bound under this law. This act protects the information of an
individual such as the fingerprints, image, video, private documents and other
personal or private information related to an individual. Ming’s company must
have followed this act to protect the personal interest of and the privacy of the
company.
Workplace Surveillance Act (2005)- Employee monitoring is done under this act,
to track the work of employees, to protect the interest of the company and to
avoid any kind of legal liability. So, in the case of Ming, if the company follows it,
they may acknowledge about the misconduct attempt by Ming (Ottley, 2019).
Privacy and Data Protection Act (2014)- This is a Victorian law which, protects
information of an individual in Victorian public sector from any kind of
misconduct. It provides remedies in case of any interference in the privacy of an
individual. In the case of Ming, the organisation in which Ming is working, they
have a right to take an action against Ming, for the breach of this act by him.
AS/ISO/IEC Standards
ISO/IEC 27701:2019- This standard was introduced to ensure privacy and data
security in an organisation. It helps in creating a framework for a company for
the management and maintaining the private information of an organisation. If
the organisation in which Ming was working, would have followed such standard,
the company may have safeguarded itself from the misconduct attempted by
Ming.
ISO/IEC 27001:2013- This standard focuses on optimising cost, together with
managing security with the best practice internationally for an organisation.
Ming’s company should have appointed a person for security check, who could
check the work done by each employee and the gadgets they are carrying while
leaving the organisation.
ISO/IEC 17799:2005- Under this, guidelines are established for maintaining,
implementing, improving and initiating the management system relating to the