Ethical Dilemmas for IT Professionals

This assignment examines the ethical responsibilities of IT professionals. It presents two scenarios: encountering company trade secrets and discovering potential legal violations within the organization. The solutions provided analyze the moral obligations and potential consequences of actions in each situation, emphasizing the importance of upholding ethical standards even when faced with difficult choices.

Running head: SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF IT PROFESSIONALS
Social Responsibility of IT Professionals
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1. What if your perusal of random documents reveals company trade secrets? What if you
later leave the company and go to work for a competitor? Is it wrong to use that knowledge
in your new job? Would it be "more wrong" if you printed out those documents and took
them with you, than if you just relied on your memory?
Solution
Being the Information Technology or IT professional of the company, it is my right to
know every trade secret of my company. These trade secrets might help me in my job and the
organizational goals and objectives can be achieved easily. Therefore, my sudden examination of
perusal of random documents will help me in my job, if the trade secrets.
After knowing the trade secrets of my company, it is my social responsibility to protect
them and make sure that nobody knows about it (Tai & Chuang, 2014). If in future, I will the
organization, it will be my ethical and moral duty to protect the trade secrets of my previous job
place.
It will be absolutely wrong to use the confidential trade secrets of my previous company
in my new job. Every organization has their own trade secrets. It is my social responsibility to
keep them secret.
Printing of those documents will not only be ethically but also legally and socially wrong.
I will be violating laws if I print those confidential papers and take them with me in my new job.
My organization will have the right to take legal actions against me at any point of time.

2. What if the documents you read showed that the company was violating government
regulations or laws? Do you have a moral obligation to turn them in, or are you ethically
bound to respect your employer's privacy? Would it make a difference if you signed a
nondisclosure agreement when you accepted the job?
Solution
If I find out that, the documents I have read suddenly are showing that my company is
violating government rules and laws, I will definitely stand against this act. It my ethical and
social responsibility to disallow any kind of illegal act in the organization.
I cannot allow any kind of illegal activity in my surroundings. I have a moral obligation
to stand against the act (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). Supporting an illegal or unethical act will even
make me an unethical person and I cannot allow it. I am not ethically bound to respect my
employer’s privacy if he is into any type of illegal act.
It will not make any difference in my decision even if I have a signed a nondisclosure
agreement while accepting the job. I can get another job but I cannot be morally incorrect in my
life.

References
Aguinis, H., & Glavas, A. (2012). What we know and don’t know about corporate social
responsibility: A review and research agenda. Journal of management, 38(4), 932-968.
Tai, F. M., & Chuang, S. H. (2014). Corporate social responsibility. Ibusiness, 6(03), 117.