Professional Issues Assignment: Part 2

This report analyzes the legal, professional, employment and social, personal, and intrinsic factors in the Professional Issues Assignment: Part 2. It discusses the unethical actions of Alex, such as appropriating intellectual property, recruiting unpaid interns, and cheating clients. The report also prioritizes the issues and provides a decision on how to handle the situation. The analysis highlights the importance of ethics and professionalism in personal and professional life.

Student Name
Student No.
3410ICT
Trimester n, 201n
Professional Issues Assignment: Part 2
Due Date: time, dd/mm/yy
Lecturer: David Tuffley
Campus (NA, LG, GC):

Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
Contents
1. Introduction 2
2. Analysis 3
2.1. Legal factors...............................................................................3
2.2. Professional factors....................................................................3
2.3. Employment and Social factors..................................................3
2.4. Personal factors..........................................................................3
2.5. Intrinsic factors............................................................................4
2.6. Prioritisation................................................................................5
2.7. Decision......................................................................................5
3. Discussion 7
4. Conclusions on Analysis 7
1. What I have learned from this course 7
1.1. Technology Ethics......................................................................7
1.2. The Ethical Technologist............................................................8
1.3. Habits of the Effective Technologist...........................................8
1.4. ACS Code of Professional Conduct...........................................8
1.5. Ethical Issues of the Information Age.........................................8
1.6. Thinking Machines......................................................................8
1.7. The Common Denominator........................................................8
1.8. AI and Human Potential..............................................................9
1.9. Final Comments (optional).........................................................9
<note, use the automatic Table of Contents update when
finished – right click mouse over the ToC, then select ‘Update
Field’ then ‘Update entire table’>
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
1. Introduction
The following report is based on on the topic of social and professional issues
that are been taken out of the topics. The case study which will be analyzed
through the templates includes a good number of professional as well s social
issues. The three chief character of the case study includes Alex, Sophie and
Richard. Both Alex and Sophie worked under Richard. Richard’s company,
Firestone had gained a huge success and a major part of the credit must be
given to the employees. However since Richard denies to do the same, both
Sophie and Alex along with the other employees were offended on Richard
due to his unappreciative attitude. Alex wanted to start a new agency with
Sophie and the latter agreed to it. They got into a relationship. However while
Alex started appropriating all the intellectual paper of Firestone, Sophie
objected and they broke up. And as a result of this Richard lodged a case
against Sophie and Alex. However, the case got dismissed due to lack of
evidence. A year later, Alex’s agency got established. However, he planned
to lower his production cost by employing interns who will work without salary.
Even after a year, he denied to pay the interns. Richard is currently planning
to obtain sensitive information form Alex’s unhappy interns so that he can file
a case against him in Australian tax office.
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
2. Analysis
2.1. Legal factors
Factor 1: appropriation of Firestone’s intellectual copies and stealing of
confidential data: Alex was found to be appropriating the intellectual property
of fire stone without the consent of Richard. Alex makes copies of everything
he can find on Firestone’s computer system; this includes the latest, fully
functional version of Reaper, the database of names, plus a list of Firestone’s
clients, past and present. He takes copies of all of the artwork and other
materials that have been done for clients over the years.
Factor 2: Recruiting interns and make them work for free: in order to lower his
production cost, Alex planned to get the work of his office done by interns free
of cost. He planned to recruit in turns and get them to work for free. When
they will burn out, he planned to recruit new in turns and thus the work
process will go on. Even after a year, he refused to pay his intern and asked
them to find another job in case of dissatisfaction.
2.2. Professional factors
Factor 3: Demotivating employees: the first unprofessional act that had been
pursued in the case study was by Richard, the owner of the firestone
organization. As a leader he is expected to praise and motivate his employees
for their hard work that had led to the increment in revenue of the
organization. This enhances the feeling of recognition within the employees
but also motives them to stay loyal to the organization. Richard demonstrated
an inflated ego towards his employees which was completely unprofessional.
Factor 4: Duplicity of office resources: since Alex had made the plan of
leaving the organization, he had made copies of all the major resources of the
office that included list of firestone’s clients, artwork as well as other materials.
This not non only a legal issue but also a professional issue According to
Australian Society’s code of professional conduct and professional practice
under H3.
Factor 5: In order to lower his investment cost, Alex used to recruit interns
instead of paid employees and let them work for free. His plan was to make
the interns work till they burn out and leave the organization. Even after one
year, he did not state paying his intern. This not only illegal but also highly
unprofessional to let people work for the company for free without paying
them.
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
Factor 6: In order to enhance his profit, Alex used to play a shrewd trick on the
clients. He used to sign a deal with the consumers at a certain rate and in the
middle of the project, the consumers were told that for some unforeseen
issues, the job would cost the client at least another 50% on top of the original
price. This act is highly unprofessional since exceeding the budget by 50
percent often makes it difficult for the clients to manage the extra financial
resource. At the same time, since they had already made partial payment and
a huge amount of time would have already gone, it becomes difficult for them
to close the contract from their end.
2.3. Employment and Social factors
Factor 7: Alex had cheated Firestone by appropriating the intellectual property
as well as by duplicating the confidential information of the company. This is
both intellectual as well as social factor since neither workplace ethics nor the
society prefers an individual who performs unethical acts for personal
benefits. Being a member of the society, it is expected that Alex will contribute
to the society. However performing illegal acts like duplicity of documents and
intellectual paper made him unacceptable by the society.
Factor 8: Alex started dating Sophie without informing her the fact that he was
married but separated. For any individual, who is entering into a relationship,
it is highly crucial that he or she possess the idea of his or her partner’s
marital state. Thus it can be clearly understood that this act of Alex can be
considered as a social issue.
Factor 9: Alex decided to recruit interns instead of paid employees in order to
reduce his investment costs. This act, along with being unprofessional and
illegal is unsocial as well. Expecting labour form an individual without making
payment to him or her is against humanity.
2.4. Personal factors
Factor 10: Alex started a romantic relationship with Sophie without letting her
know about the fact that he is married but separate. This is a personal factor
since Alex dated Sophie not only for his attraction towards her but also for the
fact that her cooperation will help him to develop their own organization.
Factor 11: Richard demonstrated unprofessional behaviour with his
employees by not appreciating them for their performance. According to him,
employees perform well when they are not praised. Praising has the potential
to develop ego in employees. This concept of Richard had its origin from his
father. During childhood Richard was being treated the same way by his
father. This act had eventually led Richard to act in such an unethical way.
2.5. Intrinsic factors
Factor 12: personal gain of Alex: Alex wanted to establish his own business
and obtain success within a limited period of time. For this he selected the
unethical paths. This aim was to gain a huge amount of financial resource and
become the rival company of firestone.
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
Factor 13: The decision of Alex to enter into a romantic relationship with
Sophie was also calculated. He is being as persuasive and charming as he
knows how to be. He is also attracted to Sophie, but he needs her
cooperation to make a rival agency work.
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
Prioritisation
<based on the list developed in the previous section,
create a prioritised list in the table below. Refer to the
textbook chapter on the EDM for guidance on how to
prioritise>
Factor Related Issue
1 Factor 1 appropriation of
Firestone’s intellectual
copies and stealing of
confidential data
2 Factor 2 Recruiting interns and
make them work for free
3 Factor 3 Demotivating employees
4 Factor 4 Duplicity of office
resources
5 Factor 5 making interns work for
free
6 Factor 6 Cheating the clients
7 Factor 9 Cheating the company
8 Factor 7 Unprofessional
behaviour with
employees
9 Factor 8 Unethical act towards
interns
11 Factor 10 Cheating in a
relationship
12 Factor 11 Reason behind
demotivating attitude of
Richard
13 Factor 12 personal gain of Alex
14 Factor 13 Persuasive nature of
Alex
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
2.6. Decision
From the above discussion it can be easily understood that Alex has
conducted a good number of unethical, illegal as well as unprofessional acts
for which he needs to be penalized. Considering the fact that Richard is
planning to collect information from the interns in order to use them as a
evidence to the Australian Tax Office, as per my opinion the decision is
appropriate in the provided scenario. This will be beneficial not only to the
interns but will also be beneficial for the society. According to the Australian
Professional code, no intern can be made to work more than 3 to 6 months
without payment. Considering the fact that Alex is planning to make the
interns work more than 1 year, it needs to be stopped in an emergency basis.
Not only this, Alex was also found to be misleading the client which is highly
unprofessional. Hence, it is highly crucial to deal with Alex in an professional
way. Considering the fact that currently there are no evince of the wrong
doings of Alex, he is able to pursue his job effortlessly. However, the plan
designed by Richard has the potential to collect strong evidence against
Alex’s unprofessional and unethical act against the interns.
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
3. Discussion
(a) what you thought were the important factors inherent in this scenario
The scenario has presented the action taken by Alex, a former employee of
the Firestone organization, in order to open her own organization. While this
can be done by Alex in an ethical way, Alex selected the unethical path in
order to experience rapid growth in profession. The scenario has described a
good number crucial professional, legal, employment and social, personal and
intrinsic issues that are performed by Alex. While the legal issues pointed out
how stealing of confidential information and intellectual property can lead to
imprisonment, the professional issues have made me understood what factors
are not expected from an employee or an employer. The social issues pointed
out in this report demonstrated what is expected from an individual as a
society member. Finally, when it comes to the intrinsic factors, it pointed out
what exactly is the reason behind the act of Alex or Richard or any other
characters of the case study. From the scenario it is understood that honesty,
ethics and professionalism is highly crucial in both professional as well as
personal life of an individual.
(b) Why you prioritised the list as you did (why were some factors more
important than others),
The Priority list has been designed on the basis of the rule that the legal and
professional factors take precedence since there is an obligation on everyone
when it comes to abiding by the law. His is how the society functions for the
benefit of the greater number of employees. The rule thus recognizes
personal freedom. It also says that where personal freedom ends, personal
interest begins. Hence, keeping accordance to the rule all legal and
professional factors were listed down in the initial portion of the
communication list. The second priority is given to the social and employment
factors. Considering the fact that we reside in a society where all the members
possess some basic expectation of honesty and ethical activity, performing
unethical activities can lead to tremendous social issues and hamper the life
of a good number of individuals. Hence the employment and social factors are
given priority. When it comes to the personal factor, it includes the aspects of
the “Nurture-Nurture” theory. These factors are acquired from the
environment, family, close friends as well as associates, peer groups and
others. Personal factors are responsible for the morality of an individual,
Keeping these information in mind, priority is given t the personal factors after
the social factors. Intrinsic factors include the innate qualities and the
behavioural disposition on the basis of which individuals were born. People
are born with differing degrees of wide variety of personality and traits. These
factors are the chief factors which are responsible for different kinds of actions
performed by n individual. The intrinsic factors are kept bellow the other
factors in the priority list since they are connected with the legal, professional,
personal as well as intrinsic factors as well.
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
(c) Overall why you came to the decision you did
According to the Australian Professional code, no intern can be made to work
more than 3 to 6 months without payment. Considering the fact that Alex is
planning to make the interns work more than 1 year, it needs to be stopped in
an emergency basis. Not only this, Alex was also found to be misleading the
client which is highly unprofessional. Hence, it is highly crucial to deal with
Alex in an professional way. Considering the fact that currently there are no
evince of the wrong doings of Alex, he is able to pursue his job effortlessly.
However, the plan designed by Richard has the potential to collect strong
evidence against Alex’s unprofessional and unethical act against the interns.
4. Conclusions on Analysis
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that it is highly crucial to stop
the unethical activities of Ale in order to ensure greater good. Alex was found to
be appropriating the intellectual property of fire stone without the consent of Richard.
Alex makes copies of everything he can find on Firestone’s computer system; this
includes the latest, fully functional version of Reaper, the database of names, plus a
list of Firestone’s clients, past and present. He takes copies of all of the artwork and
other materials that have been done for clients over the years. Not only this, in order
to lower his production cost, Alex planned to get the work of his office done by interns
free of cost. He planned to recruit in turns and get them to work for free. When they
will burn out, he planned to recruit new in turns and thus the work process will go on.
When it comes to his professional misconduct three major factors were noticed.
Apart from the above discussed factors, he used to play a shrewd trick on the clients.
He used to sign a deal with the consumers at a certain rate and in the middle of the
project, the consumers were told that for some unforeseen issues, the job would cost
the client at least another 50% on top of the original price. Considering the fact that
Richard is planning to collect information from the interns in order to use them as a
evidence to the Australian Tax Office, as per my opinion the decision is appropriate
in the provided scenario
1. What I have learned from this course
<The final 1000 words (included in the total word count)
will be a demonstration of your understanding of the total
course content, plus optional discussion of how your
ethical standards and ability to solve ethical dilemmas has
changed as a result of doing the course. We are testing
your understanding of the weekly content. Simply follow
the topic structure in the template. You will get marks for
demonstrating your understanding, and will lose marks if
evidence of understanding is not present.
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
Note: some topics, for example applying the EDM and
Normative Ethical Theories are already tested in the
main body of the assignment, so will not be repeated
here.>
1.1. Technology Ethics
According to the simple two part proposition, individuals must be informed
about the consequences of using a technology will be and must provide their
information consent and the user must not be harmed while using the
technology. In the individual level, the ethical technology is a individual of
integrity. They are someone who behaves the same regardless of who they
are with. When it comes to the definition of ethics it can be defined as the
general name from the branch of moral philosophy which deals with the
behaviour that enhances the well being of the individuals. According to
researchers, technology is ethical when it comes to improvement of their
quality of life, makes them happier as well as more fulfilled along with giving
them the freedom of selecting what they wants to be.
1.2. The Ethical Technologist
The six traits of a ethical technologists are as follows:
1. The ability to set a good example: One of the defining features of an ethical
leader is that they are seen to act from their own well developed set of ethical
principles while setting a constantly good example to follow
2. the personality to defy group think: effective leaders demonstrate specific
personalities which are common across the history as well as the cultures.
These include intelligences as well as imagination for creating a compelling
vision of the future.
3. Selflessness: Ethical leader are found to strong when it comes to providing
selfless service to the organization.
4. Approachability: They hear to the perspective of his opponents be it their
subordinate or others
5. Cooperative: They encourages everyone to become part of an ongoing
conversation
6. Responsible: they accepts the fact that they are directly or indirectly
responsible for every thing that is happening within the organization.
1.3. Habits of the Effective Technologist
Proactive as well as responsible: an effective technologist takes the
responsibility for performing everything they can for bringing projects to a
successful conclusion, defect-free, conclusion, within budget as well as a
system that user will like to use.
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
Clear end in mind: In technological development it is common for projects to
be launched without a clear end in mind. However an effective technologist
performs the same.
Able to priories: in technology projects there are a multitude things to perform.
Effective technologies posses the potential to priories’ on the basis of
importance
Win-win orientation: a successful project is considered to be one in which
everyone gets benefited. Effective technologists possess the potential to
create a win win orientation.
Keep an open mind: Effective technologists keep an open mind in order to
understand the issues
Look for synergy: When individuals approach a collaborative task in a win-win
way, possessing ca clear understanding of what they are working towards
along with putting their self interest.
1.4. ACS Code of Professional Conduct
Computer societies across the world are working for establishing codes of
professional conduct that are binding on its members. Moreover, these
societies are working for licensing its members so that like doctors, teachers,
and lawyers as well as some of the other profession, it is not lawful unless an
employee is licensed
1.5. Ethical Issues of the Information Age
One of the major ethical issues associated with the information age includes
privacy. Today’s technology makes the gathering as well as transmission of
data about individual really easy. Along with this, the value of the information
is rising. Due to stealing of technology, maintain privacy in this age has
become a major problem. When it comes to intellectual laws it chiefly covers
patents, copyrights, trademarks as well as trade secrets. Hundreds of millions
of individuals across the world are found to use torrenting service or
distributing movies, shows, music , software and books. Thus appropriation of
intellectual property can be considered as another major issue aced by
individuals in this age of technology
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Professional Issues Assignment What I have learned from this course
1.6. Thinking Machines
Majority of the job that can be described as a process can be done by
computer also known as thinking machine. However, some jobs will always be
for human. The reason behind this may include economic, social, nostalgic or
simple not practical enough to be done by robots. If it is considered that a
good number of jobs of the future have not been invented yet, it cannot be
told what job role will look like in future In order to survive adverse condition it
is highly crucial to develop thinking skills for the future workers along with
mastering the new media.
1.7. The Common Denominator
There present 6 moral dimensions when it comes tto the moral foundation
theory These dimensions include care or harm, fairness or cheating, liberty
and oppression, loyalty or betrayal an authority or subversion. The care/harm
foundation is associated with our long evolution s mammals whose winning
survival strategy is nurturing offspring. When iit comes to fairness or cheating,
this intuitive moral dimension appear to help individuals to regulate their
contribution to the good of the community.
1.8. AI and Human Potential
AI has the potential to enhance the potential of human beings in a good
number of ways. Firstly, robots can be considered as good company. User
friendly robot are designed through natural speech as well as effective
computing. Along with this, creative writers are also finding gainful
employment these days in the world of high technology.
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