Ethical Dilemmas in IBM Australia: A Study of ICT Professionalism Issues

The essay highlights various ethical issues faced by IBM Australia, including ICT professionalism, privacy, security, and intellectual property concerns. These issues had a negative impact on the organization and made it difficult to uphold ethical standards. Despite the benefits of ICT implementation, such as improved data storage and accessibility, ethical dilemmas remained. The essay discusses three ethical theories - utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics - that were applied to handle these dilemmas efficiently. It concludes by recommending measures like firewalls and anti-virus software to prevent unauthorized access and maintain security.

Running head: ETHICS
Ethics
Name of student
Name of University
Author note
Table of Content

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s
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Significance of ICT implementation...............................................................................................3
Ethical theories................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The essay focuses on the ethics maintained within the business organisations along with
the ethical dilemmas faced while implementing the Information and Communication
Technology. With the advancement in technology and communication, ICT implementation has
influenced the unified communication procedures and has also integrated the telecommunication
systems, computer systems and organisation software, middleware, storage, audio and video
systems (Baguley ret al., 2014). This would ensure proper accessibility of data and information;
manage storage, transmission of data and information as well within IBM Australia. The ICT
systems can connect the telephone networks with the computer networks with the help of a
single cable or link system for proper distribution and management of signals through the
network (Ibm.com, 2017).
Significance of ICT implementation
The Information and Communications system or ICT has revolutionised the process of
learning and management of computer systems within the organisations by using e-commerce
technology including costs and benefits at IBM Australia. The implementation of ICT within
business organisations has helped to manage the security of information and technology, ethical
management of ICT in business, selecting hardware and software components for fulfilling the
needs of business properly. Though it has a wide range of benefits, there are few major ethical
issues as well including ICT professionalism issues, lack of privacy and security, the emergence
of cyber crimes, intellectual property piracy issues and much more (Conway & Gawronski,
2013). All these ethical issues can only be managed with the application of proper ethical
principles and ensure that the implementation of ICT within the organisation bring out positive

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outcomes. There could be privacy related issues that might result in unauthorised access to
important data and information and furthermore led to the loss of those, which had been
considered as surveillance issue. The ICT professionalism is often hindered with the utilisation
of harmful software systems within the organisation while the intellectual property is the
organisation's ability to manage creativity with the use of proper patents and copyrights. These
kinds of rights are often subjected to piracy issues, and it has been found that many other
organisations copy these patents, trademarks and copyrights to create a strong brand image and
name within the business environment (Gagnon et al., 2012).
Ethical issues
IBM being one of the major organisations in Australia has managed to generate huge
amounts of revenue in business and the growth in economy accounts for a good percentage of the
Australian ICT workforce. Privacy is an important aspect of maintaining the confidentiality of
information and data, and the IT implementation can help to keep the data and information of
customers as well as the individuals working within the organisation secure. It is important to
prevent any unauthorized access to prevent disclosure of private data and information. The
ethical issues arise when some individuals, with wrong intentions, disclose data and this creates
further complexities like the use of data for wrong purposes and even using their personal details
for accessing their accounts (Gray & Schein, 2012). Thus, privacy is a major issue, and the sub-
issue is the surveillance. Surveillance is a sub issue of privacy that manages to keep close
observations on the important data and private information of individuals and gain access to
those without any authorisation. Security is maintained by protecting the loss or destruction of
important data and information done by persons who have wrong intentions in their mind. Cyber

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crime is another major ethical issue that can be experienced while implementing the ICT system
within IBM Australia (Ibm.com, 2017). The computer related crimes, also known as cyber crime
create complexities within the computer system and networks. Individuals with some criminal
motive to cause harm and even create loss of important data and information from the
organisation. The modern technologies are used to hack accounts of individuals and hinder the
privacy of confidential data and information, create other issues like financial theft, espionage
and cross-border criminal activities. Fraud and identity thefts are also caused which incur
utilisation of malware, hacking of phishing activities, information warfare, phishing scams and
spam (Kretschmer, 2012).
Piracy is another ethical sub-issue of the intellectual property, where some other
companies can use the patents, copyrights and trademarks to utilise the financial assets of the
company and created market presence with the use of a positive brand image of IBM Australia.
The ICT professionalism issues could be the utilisation of harmful software system that might
destroy valuable information and data along with the assets owned by the organisation by
inheriting viruses and worms. The use of pirated software can also damage the operating system
of systems within the organisation as well as create certain disadvantages like harming the
computer networks and even degrading the performance of the computer system (Laudon et al.,
2012). The ethical issues include use of low quality microprocessor to deteriorate the
performance of computers systems, which can result in not fulfilling the needs and preferences
of the end users.
Ethical theories
The utilitarianism theory helps in determining what is right and wrong before the
decision making in business. It is purely based on the outcomes of selecting a policy or principle

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over another considering the interests of end users. The principle of utilitarianism helps in
applying a particular activity during a situation when choice is needed to be made. Here,
considering the case, the ethical dilemmas can be overcome within IBM Australia by checking
out the necessary approaches that shall be undertaken for resolving the issues and furthermore
prevent the risks (Law, Buhalis & Cobanoglu, 2014). With the use of ICT, the networks
managed within the organisation are kept protected to ensure that in case of any unauthorised
access, it is immediately monitored and checked based on its degree of risk.
The deontology is another ethical theory that allows the individuals working at IBM to
adhere to the obligations, duties, roles and responsibilities while being a part of the process of
decision making. The employees of IBM must fulfill their duties to remain ethically appropriate
and follow the laws, rules and regulations that have been set by the organisation to maintain
ethical standards within the workplace. By following the deontology theory of ethics, the
individuals would be able to make decisions consistently according to their duties and
responsibilities (Shockley-Zalabak, 2014).
To resolve ethical issues like cyber crime, privacy and security issues, the virtue and
contact ethical theory is essential for judging an individual based on their characteristics and not
by considering a particular action that may diverge him from his actual behaviour. This could
identify the unethical behaviours and nature of people who might be involved or even be the
subject of harm or wrong doings within the organisational premises (Von Solms & Van Niekerk,
2013). Once a person commits a mistake, it can be identified by checking his behaviour and then
necessary actions against him. For example, if a person is found to hack into the network system
and database of the organisation, his behaviours and attitudes can be assessed to identify his
wrong doings and then develop proper systems to reduce chances of unauthorised access

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(Walsham, 2012).
Conclusion
The essay demonstrated the various ethical issues that had been faced by the organisation
IBM Australia such as ICT professionalism issues, privacy, security and intellectual property
issues. These issues had created a huge negative impact on the organisation as well as made it
unable to fulfill the ethical standards. The implementation of ICT had though brought various
benefits including proper use of databases, spreadsheets, the internet, podcasts and software
systems to enhance the efficiency of storage, accessibility and transmission of data and
information effectively; the ethical issues were also present in certain situations. The ethical
principles had been applied too including deontology, utilitarianism, virtue and contact theory,
which was considered as useful for handling the ethical dilemmas at IBM Australia efficiently.
The use of firewall and anti-virus is recommended for preventing harmful worms and viruses to
enter the system while the firewall and database security mechanism can prevent any
unauthorized access and maintain proper security.

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References
Baguley, M., Danaher, P. A., Davies, A., De George-Walker, L., Jones, J. K., Matthews, K. J., ...
& Arden, C. H. (2014). Information and Communication Technologies. In Educational
learning and development: Building and enhancing capacity (pp. 67-82). Palgrave
Macmillan UK.
Conway, P., & Gawronski, B. (2013). Deontological and utilitarian inclinations in moral decision
making: a process dissociation approach. Journal of personality and social
psychology, 104(2), 216.
Gagnon, M. P., Desmartis, M., Labrecque, M., Car, J., Pagliari, C., Pluye, P., ... & Légaré, F.
(2012). Systematic review of factors influencing the adoption of information and
communication technologies by healthcare professionals. Journal of medical
systems, 36(1), 241-277.
Gray, K., & Schein, C. (2012). Two minds vs. two philosophies: Mind perception defines
morality and dissolves the debate between deontology and utilitarianism. Review of
Philosophy and Psychology, 3(3), 405-423.
Ibm.com. (2017). Ibm.com. Retrieved 9 September 2017, from http://www.ibm.com
Kretschmer, T. (2012). Information and communication technologies and productivity growth.
Laudon, K. C., Laudon, J. P., Brabston, M. E., Chaney, M., Hawkins, L., & Gaskin, S.
(2012). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, Seventh
Canadian Edition (7th. Pearson.

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Law, R., Buhalis, D., & Cobanoglu, C. (2014). Progress on information and communication
technologies in hospitality and tourism. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 26(5), 727-750.
Shockley-Zalabak, P. (2014). Fundamentals of organizational communication. Pearson.
Von Solms, R., & Van Niekerk, J. (2013). From information security to cyber
security. computers & security, 38, 97-102.
Walsham, G. (2012). Are we making a better world with ICTs? Reflections on a future agenda
for the IS field. Journal of Information Technology, 27(2), 87-93.