Professional Issues Assignment Part 1

This document is about the application of the ethical decision model at Firestone associates. It discusses the ethical issues present in the organization and evaluates the decisions and actions of the stakeholders. The analysis includes legal factors, professional factors, employment and social factors, personal factors, intrinsic factors, prioritization, and decision-making.

Student Name
Student No.
7101ICT
Trimester n, 201n
Professional Issues Assignment Part 1
<For the postgrad version of this course, your assignment should be 2500 – word
count is calculated as everything from the Introduction to the Conclusion – it doesn’t
include the Table of Contents, or References – delete this advice before submitting>
Due Date: time, dd/mm/yy
Lecturer: David Tuffley
Campus (NA, LG, GC):

Professional Issues Assignment Conclusion
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. Conclusion 7
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Professional Issues Assignment Conclusion
1. Introduction
The report is regarding the application of the ethical decision model at the Firestone
associates. There are many ethical issues present with the flow of incidents in the
Firestone. Sophia Rayder is appointed as technical consultant for the development
of the marketing database name Reaper.
However, the new company was formed by the project manager of the Firestone and
reputation of the one of the employees in the organization hampered due to the
issues the organization has faced (Wood et al.,2015). Firestone develops the
promotional campaigns by conducting the surveys. For making the people interested
to participate in the competition awards are declared to be given. For the conduction
of the survey, the detailed information regarding the participants are kept in the data
storage of the organization (Davies, 2016). It has been noticed that the users are
unaware about the fact that the information they are providing the Firestone for taking
part in the survey is being used in commercial purpose. In this section, the ethical
dilemma raises.
The main objective of this paper is to understand the ethical aspects of the actions
taken by the stakeholders present in the Firestone. At first, the responsibility of the
Sophia Rayder evaluated along with her decisions and actions (Gupta, Goul & Dinter,
2015).
The decisions of Richard Blaine the senior partner of the organization is evaluated.
The approach of Mr. Blaine towards Mr. Rushby has been evaluated in detail and the
ethical aspect of this action is considered.
The further step taken by the Aliex and Sophia has been discussed from the
professional and ethical aspects. The conclusion is drawn from the factors identified
in the discussion part.
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Professional Issues Assignment Conclusion
2. Analysis
Firestone has hired technical consultant Sophie for the development of
the Reaper. However, Both Sophie and Alex have left the
organization and started their own company. However, there
were unethical practice in the organization of Alex. The analysis
of the whole situation can be done through the different factors
mentioned below.
2.1. Legal factors
Factor 1- The contacts of the users are taken by the Firestone as they will provide
the users participation in the contest. However, users are not aware about the fact
that their personal information can be used for the commercial purpose. This is not
an ethical practice as it does not have clarity in the actions (Wallace &
Sheldon,2015). It can be said that the respective user can control the use of their
personal information. However, in this case, the consumers are not aware about way
their personal information are used.
Factor 2: Richard Blaine has provided Mr. Rushby, the directors of Moral Guardians
of Australia the list of the users belonging to the LGBT community. In this case Mr.
Rushby has lied to Richard Blaine for getting the list. He tells Mr. Blaine that the list is
required for sending some mails to the people from the list. The selling of the list is a
verbal agreement which is not a good practice for conducting the business in a
proper way (Dion,2017). However, the some of the people were bashed. Police
investigation that the incident was carried out by the group called Moral Guardians of
Australia.In this case, there are two illegal factors identified which does not maintain
ethics. The business deal was not carried out in a proper way, which is a fault of
Richard Blaine. On the other hand the intention of Mr. Rushby was not ethical and it
was a violation of the law.
Alex, the project manager of the Firestone has started his own company. However,
during the formation of the company, Alex uses Reaper, the data base system that
was previously used at Firestone. While doing this he has not taken any permission
from the Firestone. Alex has recruited some of inters for working without any pay.
They are working for a year, however, the organization leaded by Alex does not give
any clarity regarding the salary of those interns (Gilbert, 2016). According to the
labour law and conduct this can also be considered as unethical practice.
2.2. Professional factors
Factor 3: The breaching of the data has been done when Richard Blaine has given
the list to Mr. Rushby. The business deal regarding the list of the people from the
LGBT community was verbal. However, there should be a written communication for
making the business deal which was not maintained in a proper way (Zimmerman &
Blythe, 2017). Apart from that the steps taken by the Mr. Rushby for getting the lists
and the usage of the list by his organization is not ethical from the professional
perspective.
Alex, the former project manager of Firestone has used the Reaper, the system used
for storing of data in effective way form the surveys used in the Firestone, However,
Alex has not taken any permission for using the system from Firestone. This can be
considered as the violation of the copyright (Griffiths & Lucas, 2016) .
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Professional Issues Assignment Conclusion
Apart from that business idea of Alex and his mentality towards the employees are
not professional. Alex has hired some of the interns to do the functions of the daily
work. These interns are fresh graduates from the university working under Alex to
gain the experience. However, the interns are not paid and they are working for one
year (Quarshie, Salmi & Leuschner, 2016). Alex does not have any intention to pay
the salary to the interns, however, he does not reveal his thoughts thus not making a
clarity for the interns about the salary. This behaviour is professionally illegal.
The whistle blowing is done by the former boss of Alex at the Firestone. The activities
of the organization has been recorded through the private investigator recruited by
Richard Blaine. On the other hand the unethical behaviour with the interns at Alex’s
company has been noted down. All these documents will going to be submitted to
the tax office (Ferrell, 2016). Alex is not providing the right information regarding the
progress and the pricing of the projects to the clients (Kopnina & Blewitt, 2018). It has
been seen Alex is tricking the clients by asking more money for the compilation of the
project. Apart from that he is providing wrong information regarding the progress of
the project. All these activities re considered as unethical.
2.3. Employment and Social factors
Alex has cheated Firestone as he has used the Reaper for the development of the
business for his own company. This is an illegal practice. Apart from that Sophie
Rayder has the written agreement with the Firestone for not revealing the confidential
data and the use of the Reaper (McGee, 2016). However, she has broken the rule by
providing the way for controlling and access of the Reaper to Alex for the
development of his organization.
The interns are not treated in a proper way. In this case, it has been seen that Alex is
not treating the employees in an ethical way. The interns are working for 1 year
without any salary which is unethical.
Alex getting interested about Sophie:
Alex is getting interested about Sophie and romantically involved with her. However,
the main objective of Alex is to use the support and the skills of Sophie for the
development of the business as Sophie was the technical consultant for Firestone
and was dealing with the functionalities of Reaper (Fiolleau & Kaplan, 2017). Making
Sophie to join the organization established by Alex was important because as the
technical consultant, Sophie knows all the functionalities of Reaper. In this situation
involving with the Sophie is not ethical as the intention was to gain the profitability in
the business.
Working experience of Sophie: Sophie has good work experience and she was
doing well in her previous workplace (Shaw & Barry, 2015). However, she left the job
to join the company founded by Alex. The unethical practices at the organization has
forced her to left her job. It has also affected the goodwill of her career and he cannot
get the desired job and is forced to move from Brisbane to Perth. However, she has
the opportunities to improve her career rather joining the organization of Alex.
2.4. Personal factors
Sophie has opposed the decision of using the confidential information from the
database of the Firestone by the organization Alex. However, her advice was not
taken by Alex. As one of the working partner of the organization Sophie did not take
any action regarding this matter.
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Professional Issues Assignment Conclusion
While working at Firestone, Sophie has opposed the decision regarding usage of the
personal data of the users for the commercial reason (Pearson, 2017). However, in
this case also the idea of Sophie was not taken in a proper way. As a result the
organization has faced several problems.
After the incident of the group called Moral Guardian of Australia, the senior partner
of the company Richard Bilane became cautious about dealing with the list of
consumers. Simultaneously, the team managed by Sophie was doing well in
collecting the information regarding consumers and using the data for the commercial
purpose (Kavathatzopoulos, 2019). However, this activity has not made Mr. Bilane
impressed.
2.5. Intrinsic factors
Alex has the intention to open the new company after serving Firestone for 10 years.
This intention has lead Alex to get separated from Firestone and develop a new
organization of his own. Apart from that for running the business of the organization
in a successful way, Alex has used the system Reaper from the Firestone without
nay permission. The intention of Alex can be considered as personal reason and the
use of Reaper can be regarded as unethical practice. However, as a technical
consultant, Sophie can have the better career opportunities rather joining to Alex’s
company.
With a successful career as technical; consultant, Sophie may not have to go to
Perth as she would hold her reputation as a technical consultant in Brisbane.
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Professional Issues Assignment Conclusion
2.6. Prioritisation
Factor Related Issue
1 Legal- Using consumer data without
permission
The use of public
information for the
commercial use may
threaten the privacy of
the respective people.
2 Legal- Providing the list of LGBT
community.
The list was
misused by an extremist
group and some of the
people from that lists
were attacked.
3 Legal- Use of Reaper by other
organization
Reaper was
initially designed for the
use in Firestone.
However, the
functionality of Reaper
was stolen by Alex for
using it in his own
organization.
4 Professional Not showing enough
professionalism
The business deal
regarding the list
between the Moral
Guardian of Australia
and the Firestone was
verbal. There was no
written documentation
for the business deal
which was not
professional.
5 Professional Disclosure of information The information
gathered by the
Firestone was used for
the commercial purpose
without taking
permission from the
owner of the
information.
6 Employment improper treatment to the
employees
In the Alex’s
organization the interns
are working for a year
without pay. However,
the owner of the
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Professional Issues Assignment Conclusion
company. Alex does not
seem to be interested to
provide them a fixed
salary.
7 Professional lack of clarity in client
interaction
Alex is claiming the
higher price for the
development of the
project from the client in
an unethical way.
8 Intrinsic Social involvement The involvement
between Sophie and
Alex has gone wrong for
Sophie. If this
involvement did not
happen Sophie could
have a better career
graph.
9.
Socia
l
Maintaining an unfair relationship. The
involvement with Sophie
is completely a strategy
for Alex to influence
Sophie to join his
company. Sophie in this
case is a valuable
employee for him as
she was the technical
consultant at Firestone
and knows the
functionality of Reaper.
2.7. Decision
It has been seen that Firestone is suffering from the
breaching of the internal data. In this case the
organization can directly complain to ACS. However, at
the end it has been seen that the partner of the
organization Richard Blaine has taken some of the
measures for taking action against Alex.
However, the same charge can be taken against
Firestone as the organization is involved in using the
consumer’s data in commercial use. This type of practices
are needed to be stopped. Serious actions are needed t
be taken against Alex. Apart from that Firestone is
needed to maintain the clarity and transparency in doing
business.
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Professional Issues Assignment Conclusion
3. Discussion
From the discussion it can be said that Sophie is the
victim for the whole situation. Although her intention was
not unethical. Even she has raised her opinion against
using of the consumer’s data for commercial purpose. It
can be also said from the discussion that the over
ambitious nature of Alex has made the situation worse.
Apart from that the behaviour of Alex towards the
employees of his organization is unethical and illegal as
he was not paying them for doing the work in the
organization. Moreover, Alex was using the Reaper which
is the project of Firestone for maintaining the database of
the consumers without taking any permission from the
former company. Apart from that Alex has manipulated
Sophie not do whistle blowing against the unethical
practice regarding the business and the data. However,
there were some ethical problems regarding the business
at Firestone. Firestone has used the data of the
consumers without taking permission from them.
However, it can be said the degree of unethical practice is
higher for Alex than Firestone.
4. Conclusion
The discussion is regarding the flow of incidents that
happened with the Firestone and the organization
founded by Alex. It has been seen that Alex, who wanted
to do something different has followed many unethical
practices due to the development of his own business.
Apart from that he has lied to his business partner and
used her intelligence for the development of the
organization. However, all his misdoings are noticed by
his former boss. It is expected that the law governing
organization and the tax departments will going to notice
about his unethical practice and will take action
accordingly.
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Professional Issues Assignment Conclusion
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