Ethical Concerns in Telstra's Digital Transformation: An Analysis using Doing Ethics Technique

PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICE IN
IT

1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report identifies the problems that are faced by the company of the scale of Telstra
which is one of the biggest communication firms in Australia. Since the company has huge
amount of resources hence they would have to think about the ways in which they can avoid
the problems that is arising in the process of change. This report shows the ethical concerns
that might arise while the changes are going on in such a big organisation. It also analyses the
situation of the company with the help of Doing Ethics Technique. The ethical consequence
that has been used within the organisation has been assessed. In the later section of the report
there must be analysis of the situation from the view of ICT professionals working inside
Telstra by using ACS code of ethics.
Contents
List of Abbreviations.............................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................1

2
Analysis of situation using Doing Ethics Technique.........................................................................1
Ethical consequences assessment......................................................................................................5
Analysis of situation from the point of view of ICT professionals....................................................6
Recommendations.............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................8
List of Abbreviations
IT: Information Technology
ICT: Information and Communication Technology
ACS: Australian Computer Society

3
INTRODUCTION
In the modern world of communication, it has become important for all the organisations to
adopted one of the best technological cultures within the company (Gaita, 2011). All around
the world there are many industries who have changed their working mechanism. This
change is not easier to adapt but needs to be more carefully so that no ethical concerns arises
with the change process. Since the change of working mechanism has the greater impact on
the stakeholders of the firm hence it is crucial that they take care of the problems that might
arise in this regards. The use of technology is also crucial as it helps the firm to make their
business process smoother as well as of high quality. The major benefits include
improvement in efficiency, flexibility in the operations etc. but somehow it has ethical
concerns attached with it. The major issue that arise while bringing the technology into use is
the threat of increasing cybercrimes (Chakraborty and Chatterjee, 2012). As the companies
these days have data in very large amount hence they face many kinds of ethical issues
related to information. Telstra which is one of the largest communication firms in Australia
had to make an effective relationship among the moral and ethical principles related to
communication. Policies related to IT governance needs to be taken care of so as to eliminate
ethical issues attached with it. This report evaluates the situation with the help of Doing
Ethics Technique. It also evaluates the ethical consequences that arise due to such changes
and the factors that are involved in it.
Analysis of situation using Doing Ethics Technique
It has become highly essential for an organisation to make sure that they analyse the
situations that may arise while making the changes. Along with this Telstra also needs to
analyse the current business environment situation that is prevailing in Australia and all
around the world. Since the changes bring ethical issues with it hence a company needs to
analyse it in various aspects (Danielewicz-Betz, 2012). There are various techniques using
which the analysis can be done. One of the most common is the Doing Ethics Technique.
Doing Ethics Technique
DET is the technique that helps in analysing care from an ethical point of view. The
technique throws light on asking simpler questions that will assist in analysing the most
crucial issues in this case (Grant, et. al., 2014). Prime focus of this technique is to analyse the
care ethically instead of finding the best solution.
What’s going on?
Australia’s biggest telecommunication firm Telstra was established in the year 1975 and it
has services related to telecommunication sector in their portfolio. It is present in more than
20 nations and in Australia is understood to be the Australia’s fastest mobile network. The
firm gives over 17.6 million retail mobile services, 3.5 million retail fixed broadband services
and 5.1 fixed voice services to its consumers alone in Australia (Thomas, Burmeister and
Low, 2017). For giving appropriate services to its clients, the firm has adopted a digital route.
This cited company heavily relies on innovation which results in disruption and hence
ultimately helps in gaining competitive advantage in the industry. There was change in their
conservative engineering culture. They implemented a must fasted structure which relies on