Professional IT Culture: Ethical Decision-Making and SFIA 6 Career Development Plan

This report evaluates the importance of ethical decision-making in maintaining relevance of an organisation in the market. It also provides a career development plan for accessing IT profession at the end of graduation using SFIA 6.

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL IT CULTURE
1
PROFESSIONAL IT CULTURE
Author name
University

Professional IT culture 2
Table of Contents
Subtask 1..........................................................................................................................................2
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Stakeholders and their involvement in ethical decision-making (a)................................................2
Ethical dilemma and their responses (b and c)................................................................................5
Requirement identification (d).........................................................................................................5
Case study analysis based on ethical philosophy (e).......................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Subtask 2..........................................................................................................................................7
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................7
Introduction......................................................................................................................................7
Reflective interpretation of SFIA 6.................................................................................................7
Selection of suitable responsibility levels........................................................................................8
Skill set acquisition..........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Professional IT culture
Subtask 1
Executive summary
The following is a report evaluating the case of NewAge Pty Ltd. It examined the
importance of ethically sound decision-making in maintaining relevance of an organisation in the
market. It also reviews the codes of professional conduct to identify ethical requirements in a
business organisation.
Introduction
Managerial practices determine the organisational culture and hence the value that the
organisation has the potential to develop. Therefore, ethical managerial practices are crucial in
ensuring relevance of a company in the market.
Stakeholders and their involvement in ethical decision-making (a)
Following is a list of stakeholders of NewAge Pty Ltd, based on power and interest
matrix (Aapaoja & Haapasalo, 2014).

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Stakeholder power
Keep satisfied Key players
 Government
 Local authorities
 City council authorities (LivingCity)
and mayor Hon. Joseph Luck
 Employee (decision maker)
 Mrs McDonald
 Customers
 XYZ Pty Ltd
Minimal effort Keep informed
 Indirect consumers
 Badluck Bank
 The company, victim of burning of
office due to tablet burst
 Employees
 Mr McBright
 Other employees
Interest to impact
Table 1: Stakeholders of NewAge Pty Ltd
(Created by Student)
The stakeholders that had the power to prevent the accidents by applying ethical
decision-making approaches were Mrs McDonald, Mr McBright and the city council authorities
including the mayor. Mr McBright applying the utilitarian approach decided to report the bug to
Mrs McDonald (Kaptein, 2017). On the other hand, Mrs McDonald failed in applying the
approach adequately and emphasized on the schedule (Trevino & Nelson, 2016). Mrs McDonald
also failed in applying the ethical approach of fairness while performing the recruitment process
for NewAge Pty Ltd. The virtue approach emphasises on values and morals while making
decisions.

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Ethical dilemma and their responses (b and c)
Utilitarian approach of ethical decision-making asks to find the least harmful option by
comparing alternatives. Here both Mrs McDonald and Mr McBright faced the dilemma of
choosing between the schedules and resolving the identified bug. As can be seen from the
consequences of the decision, resolving the bug should have received the prime significance.
Therefore, the ethical response to the dilemma should have been asking the client for minimum
amount of additional time, needed to debug the operating system and delivering the product as
promised (Weiss, 2014).
The city council authorities faced the moral dilemma of taking action against NewAge
Pty Ltd for the mishap and protecting the employment of its citizens (Iphofen, 2016). Here the
employment of its citizens received precedence from the authorities of city council, while the
ethical response should have been a legal action against the perpetrator, adhering to the approach
of justice as the city council is expected to avoid partiality in its practices.
Requirement identification (d)
The ACS code of primacy of the public interest, and enhancement of quality of life
inspires emphasis on quality over any other requirements as it directly affects the end customer
(Acs.org.au, 2018). Failure in achieving that in the given case not only breached the contract but
also caused tangible damage to the clients of XYZ Pty Ltd, which was further worsened by the
lack of honesty. The transparency of information about the existence of bug in the operating
system could discourage XYZ Pty Ltd from launching the tablets with the faulty software,
avoiding the accidents.

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Finally, the given case highlights Mrs McDonald’s reluctance towards hiring qualified
employees and enhancement of own and other employees’ competencies. It also marks the
favouritism practiced by Mrs McDonald during recruitment process, which limited the
organisation’s ability to develop relevant products. Therefore, henceforth, every decision of the
organisation concerning human resource should be competency centric.
Case study analysis based on ethical philosophy (e)
Mr McBright identified the bug but failed to insist on its consequences during the
decision. Cognitive moral development theory explained such behaviour as indication for the
management to single out such individuals and assign them autonomy of decision. Lack of
judgement in part of Mrs McDonald led to an inadequate decision of delivering the product with
the bug, which caused both the accidents. Here rise the question of bounded ethicality. Mok,
Shen and Yang (2015) identified bounded ethicality as the psychological process, where an
individual takes ethically questionable decisions that agree with a preferred ethics. Here to meet
delivery schedule they delivered the product with the bug.
Conclusion
The ability to assume the consequences of different options and reaching an ethically sound
decision is crucial in maximising value for stakeholders. Failure in achieving this not only
reduces the value of products or services delivered by an organisation but also threatens the
wellbeing of its stakeholders.

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Subtask 2
Executive summary
SFIA is a common reference framework for job aspirants and job providers to conduct a
simplified yet accurate recruitment process. It provides a two-dimensional framework with skills
on an axis and seven different levels of responsibilities on the other. Using this framework in this
report career development plan is generated for accessing IT profession at the end of graduation.
Introduction
This particular report focuses towards identification of the professional skills that are
required for unhindered transition into IT profession upon graduation. Using SFIA 6 suitable
responsibility levels are identified and skill development plans are generated with timeline.
Reflective interpretation of SFIA 6
SFIA 6 contains 97 skills spread across seven levels of responsibility. To simplify the
navigation SFIA 6 has structured the skills into six different categories each of which contain
several sub-categories (Sfia-online.org. 2018).
Such distribution of skills across the framework is useful for aspiring individuals to
identify their existing position on the chart and the position that they intend to be in. SFIA 6 also
avails an insight to the skills that is required to reach a particular level in the framework. This
insight helps the individual to identify and develop essential skills adequately so it helps them in
acquiring the desired job. I, through this report intend to develop a career plan, using SFIA 6, to
ensure my unhindered transition into an IT professional upon my graduation.

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Selection of suitable responsibility levels
The developed career plan would be targeted to achieve the responsibility level 3 of SFIA
version 6. For entry, level IT professional upon graduation the level of responsibility spans from
1 to 3 (Sfia-online.org., 2018). One of the major reasons behind selecting the responsibility level
3 is that although it requires the individual to work under general direction and schedule, plan
and monitor own work, unlike level 2; it also avails frequent reviews, unlike level 4. This is
expected to help me in developing as an IT professional. Constructive feedbacks and regular
review of my work would help me in identifying industry best practices, which is essential for
the professional growth.
Skill set acquisition
As the preferred functional area is strategy and planning of information system, the skill required
for entering the field upon graduation is information security level 3. This skill includes sub-
skills such as demonstration of effective communication with management, identification of the
need for escalating security measures and application of specific information security measures
(Mcs.open.ac.uk., 2018). The following table avails an insight to the measures that need to be
taken for acquisition of skills:
Areas of
development
Reason Actions Resource
requirement
Evaluation
process
Time
Knowledge
on
information
security
Extensive
knowledge is
required on
information
 Completing
the course
assignments
successfully
 Books
 Coursework
The feedback
from seniors
during
internship
2
years

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security to ensure
that after
graduation such
knowledge can be
sued during
application of
information
security measures
at workplace
 Studying
information
security
measures
 Learning
through
internship
might be
used for
understandin
g the level of
competency.
Risk
analysis
skills
This skill is
essential to identify
the loopholes in
existing
information
security system and
for reporting the
need for escalation
of the security
system
 Studying
current
information on
information
security
 Joining a
course on data
security and
information
breach
 Contemporary
articles, books
and news on
data security
 Classes on
data security
Test results
of data
security
courses
1year
Communicat
ion skills
Effective
communication
skills would help in
conveying
 Conducting
360 degree
evaluation of
own
 Feedback
from peers
and professors
 Communicati
After
completing
the course
another 360
6
month
s

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information and
enhance overall
performance quality
in workplace.
communication
skills
 Joining a
communication
skill
development
class
on course degree
evaluation
would be
conducted to
track the
development
Table 2: Skill set acquisition plan
(Created by Student)
The following table provides a career development timeline with milestones:
Time
Milestones
Year 1 Year 2
Month
1-2
Month
3-4
Month
5-6
Month
7-8
Month
9-10
Month
11-12
Month
13-18
Month
19-24
Informa
tion
security
skills
Information acquisition
on data security in
class
     
Joining internship 
Feedback on
performance

Rectification and
filling knowledge gap
 

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Implementation 
Risk
analysis
skills
Information on data
security from class
  
Joining a course 
Learning     
Tests and feedback 
Rectification 
Practice 
Commu
nication
skills
360 degree evaluation 
Identification of issues 
Joining communication
course

Learning   
360 degree valuation
after course completion

rectification 
Table 3: Career development timeline with milestones
(Created by Student)
Conclusion
SFIA 6 is a useful medium to identify one’s skill requirement for achieving a career goal.
Applying it, I have realised skills that I need to develop to become an IT professional upon my
graduation.

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References
Aapaoja, A., & Haapasalo, H. (2014). A framework for stakeholder identification and
classification in construction projects. Open Journal of Business and Management, 2(01), 43-55
Acs.org.au (2018). ACS Code of Professional Conduct. [online] Available at:
https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/acs-documents/ACS%20Code-of-Professional-
Conduct_v2.1.pdf [Accessed 29 Aug. 2018]
Bazerman, M. H., & Sezer, O. (2016). Bounded awareness: Implications for ethical decision
making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 136, 95-105
Iphofen, R. (2016). Ethical decision making in social research: A practical guide. Springer
Kaptein, M. (2017). The battle for business ethics: A struggle theory. Journal of Business
Ethics, 144(2), 343-361
Mcs.open.ac.uk. (2018). Framework Guide. [online] Available at:
http://www.mcs.open.ac.uk/80256EE9006B7FB0/(httpAssets)/D5ACA267626B3A51802573270
034BEFE/$file/SFIABookletProdFinal.pdf [Accessed 29 Aug. 2018].
Miles, S. (2017). Stakeholder theory classification: A theoretical and empirical evaluation of
definitions. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(3), 437-459
Mok, K. Y., Shen, G. Q., & Yang, J. (2015). Stakeholder management studies in mega
construction projects: A review and future directions. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(2), 446-457
Sfia-online.org. (2018). framework summary. [online] Available at: https://www.sfia-
online.org/en/framework/sfia-6/framework-summary [Accessed 29 Aug. 2018].

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Sfia-online.org. (2018). Levels of responsibility level 3. [online] Available at: https://www.sfia-
online.org/en/framework/sfia-6/busskills/levels-of-responsibility-level-3 [Accessed 29 Aug.
2018].
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons
Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-
Koehler Publishers