Ethical issues arising from the use of ICT technologies: Jean’s Scenario

Network Management in Organization 1
Ethical issues arising from the use of ICT technologies: Jean’s Scenario
(Name)
(Course)
(Professor’s Name)
(Date)

Network Management in Organization 2
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................................3
Ethical Issues arising from the Scenario......................................................................................................3
Ethical Values..............................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of ethical issues.............................................................................................................................4
Discussion on findings and Decision............................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................6

Network Management in Organization 3
Introduction
Information and Communication Technology has evolved rapidly in the recent years and
businesses, and companies have adopted ICT tools, and applications in their daily operations and these
tools have quickly changed the way of operations. Although ICT has a vital positive impact on the
society, it raises very grave ethical questions concerning persons, institutions and corporate
organizations utilizing ICT products and applications. The core ethical issues arising from ICT
implementation include invasion of corporate and individual privacy, intellectual property rights, values
preservation as well as individual and societal rights. This paper will pinpoint and describe the ethical
issues arising from the Jean scenario, analyze the ethical issues utilizing ethical theories framework and
then give the final decision justified from ethical and practical angels.
Ethical Issues arising from the Scenario
Ethics concerned with ICT sector are known as computer ethics or Cyberethics or internet ethics
or ICT ethics, and they deal with how ICT professional should make decisions concerning professional
and social conduct1. In the Jean scenario, a violation of the intellectual property rights is the core
ethical issue arising. Computer code is intellectual property, and in this case, the property belongs to
Jean’s co-worker and the other to a different company. The Jean scenario raises various issues of
intellectual property; providing proper credit for intellectual property and as well as issues with
copyrighted work. The code of a different company was presumably copyrighted. Intellectual property
can be elaborated as a property category that encompasses human intellect intangible creations
comprising patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and publicity rights2. In this case, Jean
violated the professional ICT ethics in two scenarios; lacking to give credit for another individual’s work
and utilizing presumably a copyrighted commercial package. Jean had a professional obligation to
acknowledge credit to her source listings in her documentation of the project. Utilization of a
commercial package was inappropriate because authorization issues could arise if her company was not
allowed to utilize the source code.
Ethical Values
Values determine what is right or wrong whether on the personal or organizational level and of
significance is to note that all values are not ethical values3. Core ethical values include trustworthiness,
respect, and responsibility. From Jean’s case, the core values arising are trustworthiness and