Professional IT Practice and Ethics

This article discusses the ethical theories and their relevance to the IT industry. It compares and contrasts different ethical theories and their relation to professional codes of ethics and practice. It also explores how these theories apply to social media and provides examples. The article concludes by discussing how ethical theories help in resolving ethical questions.

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Professional IT Practice and Ethics
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Introduction
Information and communications Technology department otherwise known as ICT department
has been known for controversies owing to its concerns in security and even issues related to
ethics. Due to this, ethical theories within this industry have emerged. These usually serve the
purpose of maintaining very clear standards and morality stand within the industries. Ethics
refers to “moral standards helping people to direct their behavior, choices and even actions”. In
my paper I intend to look at the ethical theories and their relevance to the IT industry. I also
intend to compare and contrast the different ethical theories and look at how they relate to
professional codes of ethics and practice. I would also look at how these theories applies to the
social media and also provide examples. Finally I will look at how they help to assist with
resolving an ethical question (Bayo-Moriones, Billón & Lera-López, 2013 p.78).
Rights Vs virtue
Rights theory mainly focuses on protection of the rights that are recognized by a society. It is
important to observe the rights since a larger group of the population or otherwise collectively
taken to be the society endorses these rights (García-Muñiz & Vicente, 2014 p.67). This theory
usually states that “there are things one can never do against folks as these persons usually bear
these rights.” Possession of a right refers to possession of some unique protection. An
individual’s right according to ethics must always be defended and must never be frustrated no
matter the reason. The theory is also applicable to social media. Since social media provides a
platform where individuals can interact and share content, the users should posses the right to
express themselves without any fear. For example, a social media platform like twitter would
give the users a chance to address other users within the platform.

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However, the main shortcoming of this theory is that an individual may find it impossible to
settle on finding what immoral until a person has an idea of what the rights of a particular society
entails (Kiveu & Ofafa, 2013 p.76).The rights are being determined by a society hence making it
necessary to combine this theory with another one which decides on particular objective of a
society.
Virtue theory
In this theory, an individual is normally judged via their character instead of their actions which
are normally prone to change as time goes by. While evaluating the normal behavior of an
individual, one usually considers according to this theory, an individual’s status, morals and
inspiration. It is thus a theory based on the action of the individual (Lurie & Mark, 2016). This
theory however does not consider the possibility of an individual’s moral character changing.
This then makes it a very difficult task in determining the divergence from a person’s normal
character and behavior. The theory makes it very possible to be able to know the character of
individuals in a social media setting. The character could always be predicted through the posts
of the individual. For example, an individual who is kind could always be seen posting messages
that contain kind words. In most cases, the user would be careful not to use words that hurt other
users within the platform.
In contrast to the rights theory, the virtues theory is not based on an individual rather than a
group of persons (Rienties & Townsend, 2012 p.89). That is to say that, the rights theory is
unanimous or common to a group of people rather than an individual’s action.
Relativist vs. objectivists
Relativist theory usually embraces the fact that morality of an individual depends on the custom
of the original society of the individual. It also embraces the fact that a behavior may always be

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considered to be very wrong by a certain society while in another the same action can be
considered to be acceptable. An example is that, in some communities, killing of the parents
once they attain a certain age was a common practice while this type of action is not acceptable
in most of the communities around the world (Stahl, 2011 p.100). In social media for example,
this theory is very important as it enables us to be able to understand other people. This would
promote peace and understanding among the social media users. For instance, some of users
would be forced to tolerate a post that they find offensive even though the individual who post it
may not find the post offensive.
In objectivist theory, it is assumed that the moral qualities are intrinsic and don’t usually rely on
anything external. It assumes that the values of an individual’s would always steer the normal
character of this individual, and largely determines how this individual would behave. This
theory also tends to explain the character of social media users. Most of the behaviors portrayed
by the users are usually intrinsic. For example, when character like meekness is observed in a
social media user, it can always be assumed that the trait is intrinsic. This applies to other traits
like rudeness.
In the case of the relativist theory, an individual assumes that the moral standards change
meaning from one society to another depending on the cultures of the society in question.
Whereas, the objectivist theory holds that the values and character of an individual would always
determine how a particular individual behaves (Thapa & Sæbø, 2014 p.89).In an IT environment,
relativism usually determines the correctness of an action a character is based on the
circumstances presented to the IT officials.
Consequentialist vs. deontology

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Consequentialism usually refers to an ethical theory which holds that the penalty of one’s actions
is used to determine whether the action is wrong or right. It thus determines whether the action is
correct or immoral depending on the outcome of the action. This theory normally concentrates
on capitalizing on the good for an action which is already done (Valaei & Rezaei, 2016 p, 123).
Within the social media, taking an application like Facebook for example, the effect of an
individual’s post on the other users would determine whether the post is wrong or right. This is
borrowed from the theory of consequentialism.
In deontology theory however, an action is determined to be wrong or right depending on the
rules. The consequences of a particular action here are not used to determine the correctness or
wrongness of the particular action. According to deontology theory, ICT professionals should
make decisions found on the rules. In this theory, action is normally taken to a situation without
thinking of the outcome of the action taken. Some social media sites for example set rules to
restrict the posts. Some such as sites would go to an extent of closing a user’s account in case the
user violates the rules.
In the theory of consequentialism, the individual is not restricted by rules. The individual is free
to act any desired way but the outcome of the actions will be judged. In the theory of deontology
however, the actions of the individuals are restricted by a set of rules which determine whether
the action is right or wrong (Wright, 2011 p.32).
Professional code of ethics
ACS means Australian computer society. It is the sentinel of ethics in the Australian ICT society.
It has come up with conduct codes and ethical standards for use by professionals in IT. These
conduct codes are normally related to honesty, professional development, social implication,
priorities and competence. The codes of ethics usually demand that an IT professional must offer

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services depending on the interests of clients and the employers. They should also consider the
interest of the community in offering services. Honesty is expected from the IT officials while
they offer skills, knowledge and services to the community (Xiao, Califf, Sarker, Sarker, 2013
p.67).
The competence code suggests that an employee should only accept tasks which the IT official
could perform competently. This makes it necessary for the IT official to have knowledge of
his/her strengths and weaknesses.
The connection between professional ethical code and ethical theories.
The theories usually provide a structure that is commonly used to resolve any ethical related
issue within the ICT industry. The following steps are usually followed in resolving an ethical
issue. Information collection, identification of the parties affected, ethical issues which are
involved and finally identifying the basic principles.
Conclusion
Setting of standards is important as they as it bars IT professionals from performing illegal
actions and unethical dealings. The ethical codes give the relationship between legal actions and
moral ones. They hence help the IT professionals to act with integrity in all their dealings.

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References
Bayo-Moriones, A., Billón, M. and Lera-López, F., 2013. Perceived performance effects of ICT
in manufacturing SMEs. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 113(1), pp.117-135.
García-Muñiz, A.S. and Vicente, M.R., 2014. ICT technologies in Europe: A study of
technological diffusion and economic growth under network theory. Telecommunications
Policy, 38(4), pp.360-370.
Kiveu, M. and Ofafa, G., 2013. Enhancing market access in Kenyan SMEs using ICT. Global
Business and Economics Research Journal, 2(9), pp.29-46.
Lurie, Y. and Mark, S., 2016. Professional ethics of software engineers: An ethical framework.
Science and engineering ethics, 22(2), pp.417-434.
Rienties, B. and Townsend, D., 2012. Integrating ICT in business education: using TPACK to
reflect on two course redesigns. In Learning at the Crossroads of Theory and Practice (pp. 141-
156). Springer, Dordrecht.
Stahl, B.C., 2011. Teaching ethical reflexivity in information systems: How to equip students to
deal with moral and ethical issues of emerging information and communication technologies.
Journal of Information Systems Education, 22(3), 76-89.
Thapa, D. and Sæbø, Ø., 2014. Exploring the link between ICT and development in the context
of developing countries: A literature review. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in
Developing Countries, 64(1), pp.1-15.
Valaei, N. and Rezaei, S., 2016. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment: An empirical
investigation among ICT-SMEs. Management Research Review, 39(12), pp.1663-1694.

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Wright, D., 2011. A framework for the ethical impact assessment of information technology.
Ethics and information technology, 13(3), pp.199-226.
Xiao, X., Califf, C.B., Sarker, S. and Sarker, S., 2013. ICT innovation in emerging economies: a
review of the existing literature and a framework for future research. Journal of Information
Technology, 28(4), pp.264-278.