Case Study: Jobs For You - Ethical Analysis and Professional Conduct

This case study examines the ethical dilemma faced by Stella, the recruitment manager at Jobs For You, an employment agency. The agency is embroiled in a lawsuit due to employee terminations, and the management instructs Stella to create non-evidentiary notes on employees, raising ethical concerns about privacy and misrepresentation. The analysis focuses on the application of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) code of ethics and professional conduct, specifically addressing issues of public interest, honesty, professionalism, privacy, and confidentiality. The case study compares Stella's situation to the Edward Snowden case and concludes that Stella is not obligated to follow management's instructions if they compromise ethical standards. The decision aligns with legal and organizational rules, emphasizing the importance of ethical decision-making in the workplace and the primacy of professional conduct.

Running head: CASE STUDY OF JOBS FOR YOU – EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
CASE STUDY OF JOBS FOR YOU – EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note

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CASE STUDY OF JOBS FOR YOU – EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to analyze the code of ethics and principles of code of conduct of Australian
Computer Society in reference to a given organization. This report will discuss a case study elaborately
and state the code of ethics and professional conduct, required to be observed by Stella, the recruitment
manager of the given organization. In conclusion it can be stated that Stella is not bound to follow the
orders of the management if she thinks it will be a misrepresentation of information.

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CASE STUDY OF JOBS FOR YOU – EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
Table of Contents
A. Recognizing the Moral Dimension.............................................................................................3
B. Who Are the Interested Parties? What are their Relationships?.................................................3
C. What Values are Involved?.........................................................................................................3
Relevant Values from Code of professional ethics......................................................................3
Relevant Clauses Code of Professional Conduct.........................................................................3
D. Weigh the Benefits and the Burdens...........................................................................................4
E. Look for Analogous Cases..........................................................................................................4
F. Discuss with Relevant Others......................................................................................................4
G. Does this Decision Accord with Legal and Organizational Rules?............................................4
H. Am I Comfortable with this Decision?.......................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

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CASE STUDY OF JOBS FOR YOU – EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
A. Recognizing the Moral Dimension
Jobs for You employment agency was sued by employees as they were terminated without valid
grounds. The Employment agency, in their defense stated that the employees had shown irresponsibility
and negligence on their part of which the agency was keeping a record. The agency feared that it might
face allegations by the present employees for keeping record of them which might seem discriminatory or
rude to the employees. Hence the management told Stella, the recruitment manager to make notes in the
name of employees which cannot be used as evidence in court.
Such being the scenario, Stella faces a moral dilemma as while is morally obliged to abide by the
instructions provided by her employee; she is also concerned about the privacy and ethical issues
associated with such an act.
B. Who Are the Interested Parties? What are their Relationships?
In this case the affected parties are Stella, the recruitment manager and the management of Jobs
for You .
The stakeholders have an employer-employee relationship.
C. What Values are involved?
The following values are associated with the case study.
Relevant Values from Code of professional ethics
Australian Computer Society code of ethics is an embodiment of some of the moral and ethical
guidelines as to how business should be conducted by a member of Australian Computer Society
(Acs.org.au, 2017). In this case the following codes are subject to analysis:
i. Primacy of public interest
ii. Honesty
iii. Professionalism
Relevant Clauses Code of Professional Conduct
The Code of Professional conduct is a set of rules and regulations regarding the conduct of
members of Australian Computer society and they must be observed (Acs.org.au, 2017). The following
codes of conduct in this case are subject to analysis:
Clause 1.a: The interest of those who are affected by the work of any member of the Australian
Computer Society should be taken into consideration.
Clause 1.g: The privacy and confidentiality of the information of others should be preserved.
Clause 3.c: Personal opinions and professional opinions are to be distinguished.
Clause 3.e: Form professional opinions based on very limited and insufficient knowledge.
Clause 6.e: Not to indulge in any activity or influence anyone to indulge in any activity which would result
in a breach of the code.

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CASE STUDY OF JOBS FOR YOU – EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
D. Weigh the Benefits and the Burdens
Benefits: The higher management of Jobs for You employment agency would recognize Stella’s
efforts in developing a defense mechanism.
Burden: On the other hand, she has the burden of abiding by the code of ethics and professional
conduct (McDermid 2015).
E. Look for Analogous Cases
Edward Snowden, the well known whistleblower took a similar decision of not adhering to the
organizational rules of CIA as he was concerned about the breach of privacy of the common people (due
to the surveillance program being conducted by the organization at that point of time).
As in case of Stella, Snowden had also considered the privacy issues and other ethical norm of
his act instead of abiding to the orders of his supervisors blindly.
However, in Snowden’ s case, the act conducted by CIA was against the Privacy of information
of all US citizens, as compared to only a handful of employees (as in case of Stellla). Besides this, there
hardly lies any chance that legal procedures can be initiated against Stella as was lodged against Stella
(Branum and Charteris-Black 2015).
F. Discuss with Relevant Others
In this case it is to be noted that Stella, the recruitment manager of Jobs for You has a moral
duty. According to the aforementioned code of ethics and codes of professional conduct, she should
refrain from making notes about the employees based on her personal opinion and limited knowledge.
She also has some obligations to her. However in this dilemma, she should still stick to the code of ethics
and professional conduct and act accordingly. The decision she would take would have consequences if
they are in violation of the aforementioned code as the same is substantiated by Australian legislation.
G. Does this Decision Accord with Legal and Organizational Rules?
The decision mentioned in the section above abides by the Law of Negligence and Limited
Liability Act 2008 (Legislation.gov.au, 2017).
H. Am I Comfortable with this Decision?
It can be stated that Stella is not compelled to make notes against the names of employees if she
thinks that it will be misrepresentation of information and will affect the interest of employees adversely.
As this decision bides by the ACS Code of Professional Conduct I am comfortable with it.

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CASE STUDY OF JOBS FOR YOU – EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
References
Acs.org.au (2017). [online] Available at:
https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf
[Accessed 26 Oct. 2017].
Acs.org.au(2017).[online]Availableat:https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/acsdocuments/Code-of-
Ethics.pdf [Accessed 26 Oct. 2017].
Branum, J. and Charteris-Black, J., 2015. The Edward Snowden affair: A corpus study of the British
press. Discourse & Communication, 9(2), pp.199-220.
Legislation.gov.au. (2017). Law of Negligence and Limitation of Liability Act 2008 (NI). [online] Available
at: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016Q00058 [Accessed 26 Oct. 2017].
McDermid, D., 2015. Ethics in ICT: an Australian perspective. Pearson Higher Education AU