Digital Disruption in Telstra: Ethical Implications and Crowdsourcing Platform

This case study analysis discusses the ethical implications of digital disruption in Telstra, focusing on the crowdsourcing platform and its impact on the organization. It analyzes the situation using the Doing Ethics Technique and discusses various ethical issues such as data privacy, security, and job loss. The report also suggests options and solutions to improve the security and privacy of the organization and its customers.

Running Head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 1
Digital Disruption in Telstra

Case Study Analysis 2
Executive Summary
The present report sheds light on the ethical dilemma in Telstra organization, which is operating
in the telecom industry. The company has operated in the telecom industry; however, in the
recent years, the profitability of the company has declined due to the emerging mobile
companies. The present report sheds light in the new digital disruption event wherein the
company has developed a twenty-four hours customer support and changed the customer
relationship model. In the present report, several ethical issues such as data privacy and security
are discussed. Other than that, the issue of job loss has also been discussed.

Case Study Analysis 3
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations and Assumptions made.................................................................................4
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Analysis of the Situation using Doing Ethics Technique................................................................5
What’s going on?.........................................................................................................................5
What are the Facts?......................................................................................................................5
What are the Issues?.....................................................................................................................6
What are the Ethical Issues and the Implications?.......................................................................8
What can be done about it?..........................................................................................................9
What are the Options?..................................................................................................................9
Which is the Best option and Why?.............................................................................................9
IT Governance Framework............................................................................................................10
IT Governance............................................................................................................................10
Issues and Technical Solution in IT Governance.......................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

Case Study Analysis 4
List of Abbreviations and Assumptions made
ICT: Information Communication Technology
IT: Information Technology
Telecom: telecom industry

Case Study Analysis 5
Introduction
The present report discusses the digital disruption in the 24/7 Telstra app and the crowd support
platform and its digital implication. Due to the technological advancement, the telecom
companies are facing stiff competition with the mobile operators. Therefore, it is important that
the company adopts new technology to increase its core competency in the business
environment. The company adapted its engineering culture from the traditional engineering
culture to a fast-paced digital platform. With its new technology, the company is sourcing mass
of new talent and developed the best digital teams in the country. Telstra established a single
platform for the information architecture and become the top leader in the telecom industry. The
company adopted several changes such as delivering customer support, developing a
crowdsupport community and keeping in constant touch with the customers. However, changes
in the IT infrastructure resulted in various ethical implications for the company (Telstra, 2018a.).
The present report discusses the ethical implications of the case and the impact of the
crowdsupport platform on the organization. Telstra has revolutionized the manner in which the
company tries to service its customers. However, the company ambushed a large number of
employees without any notice. It is an ethical concern as job loss will result in unemployment.
Analysis of the Situation using Doing Ethics Technique
The doing ethics is an ethical framework, which supports ethical decision making. In the present
section, Telstra case study is analyzed with the help of doing ethics technique.
What’s going on?
The technological disruption in Telstra has resulted in various digital disruptions. In the recent
years, the technological advancements have resulted in the advent of the mobile
telecommunication companies, which has reduced the profitability of the telecom organizations.
The company has adopted the crowdsourcing model to attract the talented workforce towards the
business organization. The company has also created a customized application which can gather
user behavior and collect the information when the consumers operate the application. However,
there are certain challenges and ethical issues in the development crowdsourcing and application

Case Study Analysis 6
development. These technological developments have resulted in various ethical issues such as
privacy, intellectual property, accessibility and the information accuracy.
What are the Facts?
There are certain facts in the case study of Telstra, which shows the ethical implications of the
case:
 With the technological advancements, the profits of the company were declining.
 When the company was adopting 24*7 customer relationship mobile application, it
reduced the total number of jobs in the country, which is an ethical concern for the
organization
 Sudden job loss has also attracted the attention of the Australian government
 Creating a crowdsourcing platform will reduce the cost of the operations of the
organization
 The crowdsourcing will allow the company to get access to diversified talent at low cost
 The crowdsourcing will increase the concern related to the privacy and intellectual
property of the organization
What are the Issues?
There are certain ethical issues in the case study of Telstra as the crowdsourcing will result in
breach in the privacy and intellectual property of the employees. Further, in crowdsourcing,
the companies will collect the private and the personal information of the users of the mobile
application. There is also an issue of the intellectual property rights of the application users.
The company pays the contractors according to the amount of work. However, they do not
offer a long-term employment to the companies. The application developer is not given any
credit to the work and the intellectual property rights are taken by the organization.
There is ethical issue of data breach and as the data will be accessed by different software
developers and they will have access to the customer data. It can increase the probability of
the malware attack and the data can be used by the malicious intent. Any individual can
become the contractor of the organization and get access to the private user information. The
changes in the software will also impact on the privacy of the users.

Case Study Analysis 7
Another ethical issue is the probability of the foreign attacks in the organization. With
crowdsourcing, the company will not be able to implement the quality measures and it will
reduce the robustness of the IT infrastructure. If a foreign malware attack the organization, it
will negatively impact the credibility of the company. It will negatively impact the brand
image and the company might lose the trust on the organization.
The private data of the users can be manipulated by the cybercriminals and they might
threaten the users, who have stored their private information in the database of the
organization.
Another ethical challenge is the use of crowd support platforms, which is resulting in the
automation technology. As a result, a large number of people are losing their jobs, which is
also an ethical issue. It is an ethical issue as the company is firing the permanent employees
of the organization. It has created a negative brand image of the organization.
Who is affected?
There are various stakeholders in the present case, which are discussed in the present section.
Telstra Company: The Company is the major stakeholder of the organization as it is
employing an application, which has several ethical implications. Although the technical
advancements and the development of a completely automated application has reduced the
overall expenditure of the organization; however, it has negatively impacted the privacy and
security of the customers. The company has developed an open-source application, which
can be accessed easily by various stakeholders. Therefore, the company as well as the data of
the users has become vulnerable to the external attacks by the users. Further, it can be stated
that the application has been developed to provide excellent customer relationship services to
the customers (Birsh, 2013). The customers are obtaining 24*7 Support from the users;
however, the company is forcing out its long-term employees as a result of automation. The
technology has also reduced the overall implementation cost and reduced the operations cost
of the organization; however, it has increased the probability of impact. The data will
negatively impact the employee satisfaction as they will perceive that their employment is
not safe with the organization. The company stores its data in various data platforms, which
can be easily accessed by the business organization. The company will face several issues

Case Study Analysis 8
related to criticism and data privacy. It will also have to face regarding the employment rate
and the crowdsourcing platforms (Koslowski, 2013). The current process of the organization
will impact the security and the data procedures of the organization. It can create controversy
as the company will not be following the laws and policies in the organization.
Customers: The customers of the organization are the second biggest stakeholder as they will
receive the biggest impact as a result of the change. The company will resolve the personal
queries and establish a connection by constantly updating them about the personal threat in
the organization. These platforms offer quick resolution of the services and provide a high
quality customer engagement. From the above discussion, it can be analyzed that the
company is providing high level of customer service with the help of the application;
however, it is negatively impacting the data privacy measures of the organization.
Government: The government is another significant stakeholder in the decision of the
organization and the government is concerned about the consumer privacy and the data
security. The data collected from the database of the organization can be used to breach the
national security and steal confidential or sensitive information. Therefore, the government is
also a major stakeholder of the organization. The government is responsible to protect the
information against any potential threat from the external users. The government is also
responsible to maintain the security of the citizens (Grant, Butler, Orr, and Murray, 2014).
Cybercriminals: The cybercriminals are affected by the decisions of the organization
regarding crowdsourcing. It can be perceived that the technology will result the company to
outsource majority of its operations from other companies and contractors. The company will
compromise its security and the private data of the users with this technology. The
implementation of technology will assist the company in accessing the large amount of data
in an easy manner. These cybercriminals can easily access and collect the information of the
users. The digital medium can be used to access the private information of the users.
What are the Ethical Issues and the Implications?
There are several ethical issues in the case study. In the present section, the ethical issues and
its implications on different stakeholders of the organization are discussed with the help of
different ethical frameworks and theories.

Case Study Analysis 9
Deontology: The deontology theory states that an organization or an individual has to abide
by the rules at each instance. It means that the ethics of an action should be analyzed by the
ethics of an action rather than the consequences of the action. The actions of an individual
should follow the social and the ethical laws and only course of action could be used to
analyze the morality of an action. Therefore, it can be analyzed that the action of the
company is ethical as the company is not using unethical means to collect the funds or reduce
the cost of maintaining customer-relationship (Gaita, 2011). As long as the company is
following ethical means and course of action, it has to improve the experience of the
organization. The company should implement appropriate measures of privacy and even then
if any data breach occurs, it is not the responsibility of the organization. Therefore, the action
is legitimate as long as the company is following proper course of action (DesJardins, 2011).
Utilitarianism theory: The utilitarianism is the theory which states that ultimate goal of moral
theories is the public good and social justice. Therefore, all the actions are justified as long as
their result is positive for the larger section of the society. It measures the utility of action by
evaluating its impact on the society as a whole. According to this theory, the consequences of
action should be used to judge the actions rather than the means of achieving results.
However, there is inconsistency in the theory, as the result of a particular action is realized at
a later stage. The present technology will examine the security and the privacy of the users.
The privacy and security is the biggest challenge for the business organizations as the
information and the consumer information has become the biggest asset for the organization.
According to this theory, the business organization should not implement the technology as it
might impact the privacy of the customers (Foye, 2017).
Virtue Theory: According to this theory, the companies should evaluate the ethics and
morality of an action according to the honesty and the character of an individual or the
company. The theory states that the business organization or the firm should work as per the
policies, laws and ethics. They should try to fulfill the customer’s experience and complete
all the requirements of the organization (Gaita, 2011) . The decision of the organization
should be analyzed according to the established ethics.
Contract Theory: The contract theory states that each individual or organization establishes a
social contract as it is a part of the society. According to the contract theory, the ethics of an

Case Study Analysis 10
action are evaluated according to the legitimacy of action. The actions of the company are a
response of the digital disruption, which reduced the profitability of the organization. As the
organization is a part of the society, it is the responsibility of the organization to be ethically
responsible to maintain the data of the customers (Lewis, 2015). It is important that the
organization should take different steps to develop the IT infrastructure and enhance the
security of the organization.
What can be done about it?
It can be analyzed that there are certain privacy and data security concerns with the
development of technology. There are several technological solutions and infrastructure
facilities, which can be used to promote the security of the organization. The business
organizations should adopt a digital framework, which can provide a robust security solution
to the organization. The company can also promote the use of firewalls and use them to
design a proper security infrastructure (Driver, 2013). It will also be used to increase the
customer loyalty and trust in the organization.
What are the Options?
In the present, there are certain options which can be used by the organization to provide
better security solutions to the business organization and the consumer data. Accordingly,
there are a few options, which can be used by the organization:
Telstra can design its business model, so that it can provide better security to the consumers.
It can discard the traditional business model so that it can better control the privacy of the
consumers (Danielewicz-Betz, 2012).
As the company deals with the sensitive consumer data, it has to adopt different measures
and technology so that it can protect the personal data of the consumers. It is also important
to increase the customer awareness and improve the security of the customers. It is important
for the company to realize that if it will breach the privacy of the customers, it will negatively
impact the organization eventually (Penn, 2016).
Which is the Best option and Why?
It can be analyzed that the best option for the organization is to implement measures an
infrastructure technologies, which can enhance the cyber security of the organization. Telstra

Case Study Analysis 11
operates in telecom industry; therefore, it should take additional measures to protect the
consumer data as it handles sensitive data of the users. The company realizes that it should
handle the brand image of the organization and present itself as an ethically responsible
organization. Therefore, different IT security infrastructure measures such as firewall and
anomaly detection can be used to prevent any external intrusion to the organization.
Moreover, the company should only give access to the private user database to the trusted
customers or long-term employees (Telstra, 2018). It will assure that the security of the
company is not breached in future.
IT Governance Framework
The IT governance framework is used to handle ethical dilemmas in the information
technology field. It is embedded with certain principles, which assure that the companies and
IT professionals adopt an ethical stance. It also acknowledges that it is the responsibility of
the professionals and business organizations.
IT Governance
The IT governance represents the basic values, which can be used by the business
organizations to handle the IT related activities of the organization. It aligns the business
goals with the IT activities of the organization. Telstra should handle its database an IT
infrastructure so that it can provide better security privacy to the customers. The IT
governance principles are inspired by various organizational activities such as market
competition, selection and the benefits of the business organization. In the present, the
framework can be applied to identify that the business organizations should enhance the
privacy and security of the confidential data (Singer, 2013).
Issues and Technical Solution in IT Governance
The major issues in the IT governance are the privacy and security of the confidential data.
Other than that, the job loss is another issue in the IT governance of the organization. The
organization is responsible for handling the consumer data in a secure manner. Therefore,
there should be periodic check of the security measures and security infrastructure of the
organization. In the present, regular evaluation of the security measures is essential as the

Case Study Analysis 12
company has developed crowdsourcing, in which any external talent can be used for the
betterment of the organization (Hooker, 2012).
Telstra should adopt a strategy, which gives priority to the privacy and the security of the
consumer data. The organization should align the business goals and objectives with the
ethics, so that it can run the organization’s operations in a cooperative manner. The company
should emphasize the acquisition of IT technology, which can promote security and privacy
of the organization (Pink Elephant, 2016). It is necessary that the organization acquire
technology, which is well-aligned with the infrastructure of the organization.
Performance: The Company should try to achieve the best performance with the available
resources. Further, it should emphasize the acquisition of technology, which can create
robust system in the business organizations. Communication is also an important part of the
IT infrastructure of the organization. It means that the companies should communicate all the
latest development in technology with each stakeholder in a prompt manner (Telstra, 2018b).
In the IT system, there are a large number of employees, who support the delivery of the
services. It is important to reduce the manual errors with proper training.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that Telstra is facing an ethical dilemma regarding the implementation of
24*7 mobile app and complete automation of the customer relationship department. The
companies can adopt more robust technological solutions. The present case is identified and
solved using IT governance framework and doing ethics technique.

Case Study Analysis 13
References
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Chakraborty, S.K. and Chatterjee, S.R. eds., 2012 Applied ethics in management: towards new
perspectives. Springer Science & Business Media.
Danielewicz-Betz, A., 2012 Interrelation between Work Ethics and Business Ethics: A Cross-
Cultural Perspective.
DesJardins, J.R., 2011 An introduction to business ethics. McGraw-Hill.
Driver, J. 2013. Ethics: The Fundamentals. John Wiley & Sons.
Foye, B., 2017. Telstra to open two new security operations centres in Sydney and Melbourne.
[Online] CRN. Available at: https://www.crn.com.au/news/telstra-to-open-two-new-security-
operations-centres-in-sydney-and-melbourne-456404 [Accessed on 6th June 2018].
Gaita, R., 2011 Philosophy, Ethics and a Common Humanity: Essays in Honour of Raimond
Gaita. Routledge.
Grant, R., Butler, B., Orr, S. and Murray, P.A., 2014 Contemporary strategic management: An
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Hooker, B. 2012. Developing Deontology: New Essays in Ethical Theory. John Wiley & Sons.
Koslowski, P. ed., 2013 Contemporary economic ethics and business ethics. Springer Science &
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Lewis, V. 2015. Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues: Fourth Edition. W.
W. Norton & Company.

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Penn, A., 2016. Transforming the customer experience. [Online] Telstra. Available at:
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2018].
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https://exchange.telstra.com.au/ethics-values-governance/ [Accessed on 6th June 2018].
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