Ethical Dilemma Analysis

This assignment requires students to analyze an ethical dilemma using the Doing Ethics Technique (DET). The technique involves identifying facts, non-ethical issues, stakeholders, and ethical issues. Students must evaluate other options that can resolve these issues and select the best option, justifying their choice with supporting arguments from the literature. Proper referencing in APA style is also essential.

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
Early Launch/Scenario 3
Assignment 1: Doing Ethics Technique
Your Name
Student Number
Word Count:

Early Launch/Scenario 3
Q1. What's going on?
The discussion of the project relates to the early launch of the system. In a project, there is a
need to properly plan the minute details so that the work delivered to the client is efficient
and free from errors. Here, in this video, we see that there is a major problem where Project
Director is trying to convince the Project Manager to ask his team to proceed with the work
faster. The main aim of CEO and company is to impress the client Wills with finishing the
work faster so that he gives his upcoming project worth 3 million to their company only.
They do not understand the complexity of going against the Project Management
Framework which includes a proper planning and the project closure. The defined standards
are set to match with problems related to encryption wherein Gregg predicts that an early
delivery of project will not include the encryption of the software program. This could lead
to the problems related to hacking and malware (Chughtai, Byrne, & Flood, 2015). But CEO
and the Project Director demands that they can do the encryption later after delivering the
project which is an impossible case as after the project is delivered successfully, it becomes
available to the clients and customers. The possible results could be a major loss of the data
of the customers as well.
Q2. What are the facts?
Here, the video clearly determines how the Project Director and CEO are only looking for
the profit of the company. They are not considering the problems related to encryption
which could lead to different complexity in the process. If the software is given to the client,
then there is a possibility that it can be hacked. CEO thinks only of the positive parts which
are related to the outcome of Wills Project rather than focusing on the loss of data and how
it can affect the people who are relying on it. Gregg is not mainly in favor of the decision as
he understands that there is a complete probability of facing the problems, where
employees and customers will have to face the issue (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015).
Q3. What are the issues (non-ethical)?
Here, the issues are related to matching with the project launch and its early setup. Here,
the suggestions are based on how the Project Director think that the early launch of the
project will help in impressing the client and they will be able to get his next assignment too
which is worth 3 million. CEO has not discussed the implications with the software
development team who have the complete project management framework to deliver the
project. Rather, he is ready to send the unencrypted project, where, he thinks that the
Your Name

Early Launch/Scenario 3
probability of hacking is negligible or next to impossible. The intention is also based on
defining the data that is differentiated when there is a proper encryption and when there is
un-encryption (Michaelson et al., 2014).
Q4. Who is affected?
The people who are connected to the project will the company, client, Manager, team
leader of the project and the employees. Apart from this, there will be customers, and the
legal authorities with a management team who is handling the progress of the project; will
be affected by the impact of project failure.
Q5. What are the ethical issues and their implications?
There are different issues like the major loss of confidentiality, honesty, and lack of
professionalism at work. It is important for the CEO to determine that honesty at work is
important rather than running just after the money. This is considered to be the deception
case, as the plan of Project Director is to deliver the unencrypted project to the client which
can lead to serious implications.
As per the analysis, the implications which could be seen would be the trust loss, leakage of
the details of the customer who are connected with it. The companies or the other clients
will never be able to rely on them for their future projects and they will ultimately be lacking
duty of care (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). Hence, for matching with expectations, the client
needs to be satisfied with working software program and relevant data that is delivered to
him, which should be appropriate enough.
Q6. What can be done about it?
It is expected out of the Project Director and CEO to apologize for their behavior where the
loss will impact the functioning of the company and the client too. There is a major
professional problem which can lead to the no-where situation. Hence, they should ideally
be apologizing to the people for the issues and then ask their team to rectify the problems.
The company Director should try to help the employees who are involved in it, with
providing them extra perks from their side so that the problem gets resolved before time.
Q7. What are the options?
There are three options for the team on advice of Project Director
a. Either they bound and then surrender to the pressure which has been laid down by
the CEO.
Your Name

Early Launch/Scenario 3
b. Either Gregg ignores the recommendation made by the Project Director and let the
project proceed the way it is.
c. There is also an option where Gregg listens to his team and understands the
complexity of the work if they deliver the unencrypted work.
Q8. Which option is the best and why?
The option b and c can be combined together as Gregg understands that if he surrenders
under pressure, then there will be a major loss don to the customers, clients and the
company. He understands the implications and so he can ignore the advice of Project
Director. Here, the option c says that the Gregg listens to the Software Team Development
Leader who advises him that the unencrypted work will lead to the major loss of the work
and it will not only impact the company but also the people who are related to it. Hence, a
proper SQL injection is important for Wills project.
References
Chughtai, A., Byrne, M., & Flood, B. (2015). Linking ethical leadership to employee well-
being: The role of trust in supervisor. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(3), 653-663.
Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson
Education.
Michaelson, C., Pratt, M. G., Grant, A. M., & Dunn, C. P. (2014). Meaningful work:
Connecting business ethics and organization studies. Journal of Business
Ethics, 121(1), 77-90.
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5M7ohdZ6qA
Your Name

Early Launch/Scenario 3
Do not remove the following marking sheet.
Marking Sheet
Criteria Standards
Marks
awarde
d
Analysis of
the ethical
dilemma
using the
Doing
Ethics
Technique
(DET)
(Value
70%)
HD: Answers all DET questions, lists all the facts, identifies all the non-ethical
issues, lists all the stakeholders, identifies all the ethical issues, evaluates OTHER
options can resolve them and selects the best option from these and the already
given and justifies why this option is the best using supporting arguments based on
the literature. (59.5-70)
DI: Answers all DET questions, lists all the facts, identifies all the non-ethical issues,
lists all the stakeholders, lists all the ethical issues and the OTHER options can
resolve them and selects the best option from these and explains why this option is
the best. (52.5-58.8)
CR: Answers all DET questions, lists most of the facts, identifies most of the non-
ethical issues, lists most of the stakeholders, lists most of the ethical issues and
OTHER options can resolve them and selects the best option from these and
makes an attempt to explain why this option is the best. (45.5-51.8)
PS: Answers some of the DET questions, lists a few facts, identifies a few non-
ethical issues, lists a few stakeholders, lists a few ethical issues and OTHER
options can resolve them and selects the best option from these but without
explaining why this option is the best. (35-44.8)
FL: Answers a few DET questions but fails to list important facts, fails to identify
relevant non-ethical issues, fails to list important stakeholders, fails to identify the
ethical issues and evaluates the OTHER options can resolve them and does not
select the best option or does not explain why the option selected is the best. (0-
34.3)
Writing &
structure
(Value
20%)
HD: Language features and structures are used to convey meaning effectively,
concisely, unambiguously, and in a tone appropriate to the audience and purpose
with no spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors. (17-20)
DI: Well developed skills in expression & presentation of ideas. Fluent writing style
appropriate to assessment task/document type. Grammar & spelling accurate. (15-
16.8)
CR: Good skills in expression & clear presentation of ideas. Mostly fluent writing
style appropriate to assessment task/document type. Grammar & spelling contains
a few minor errors. (13-14.8)
PS: The text contains frequent errors in spelling, grammar, word choice, and
structure, lacks clarity, and is not concise, but the meaning is apparent to the reader
with some effort. (10-12.8)
FL: Rudimentary skills in expression & presentation of ideas. Not all material is
relevant &/or is presented in a disorganised manner. Meaning apparent, but writing
style not fluent or well organised. Grammar & spelling contains many errors. (0-9.8)
Referencin
g
(Value
10%)
HD: Referencing is comprehensive, demonstrates academic integrity, and conforms
exactly to APA style conventions. (8.5-10)
DI: Very good referencing, including reference list and citations. High quality
references. (7.5-8.4)
CR: Good referencing, including reference list and citations. Good quality
references. (6.5-7.4)
PS: Referencing is comprehensive, mostly accurate according to APA style
conventions, and demonstrates academic integrity. Some minor errors or omissions
in style and formatting choices (e.g. italics, punctuation, etc) don’t impact on the
transparency and traceability of the source, or demonstration of academic integrity.
(5-6.4)
FL: Sub-standard (or no) referencing. Poor quality (or no) references. (0-4.9)
Your Name

Early Launch/Scenario 3
Total
Marks
Your Name