Ethical Implications: A Case Study of a Computer Company's System

This case study analyzes an ethical dilemma within a computer company concerning the development and implementation of a new accounting system. The scenario involves a computer professional tasked with creating an efficient system for government use, leading to task delegation among team members. However, the system's user interface proves difficult for employees, causing management to halt funding and revert to a more expensive, older system. The case explores the facts, issues, affected parties (government, employees, management, computer expert, and public), and ethical implications, including the misuse of taxpayer money and the impact of technological change. The analysis considers various options, such as retraining employees, conducting audits, and restarting the interface development, ultimately suggesting an audit to understand the root causes of the interface issues as the best solution. The case study concludes with a discussion of the ethical considerations and the importance of addressing the underlying problems to resolve the dilemma effectively.

Computer Company 1
COMPUTER COMPANY
by Student’s Name
Code + Course Name
Professor’s Name
University Name
City, State
Date

Computer Company 2
COMPUTER COMPANY
Introduction
The Information technology sector has been increasingly utilized across the world. Just
like any other area, be it in the administrative sector, education, governance among others,
ethical scenarios always ensue and the need to handle them uncannily always knocks on the door
(Backus, Spinello and Tavani, 2016). Therefore, the judicious utilization of such scenarios in the
enhancement of ethics can be of great help to the society as a whole (Migga, 2015). Situations
that are designed in a careful manner allow perceived and real conflicts to be handled in no-
consequence and safe environments. Relying on the Actor Network Theory and the use of
research into scenarios, the Doing Ethics Technique is broadened to take good care of macro and
microenvironments in the technology sector in a bid to present a better alternative for an ethical
dilemma (Migga, 2015). In this regard, a case study of a computer company has been considered
to be viewed through the lens of “Doing Ethics Technique” in order to provide a better and
ethical solution without harming any of the involved party’s emotions (Simpson, Nevile and
Burmeister, 2014).
What’s going on?
From the perspective of the computer professional who is tasked to develop the
accounting system, system efficiency is needed so as to be used by the government and the need
is of great importance since it saves much money. In this regard, there is a need for delegation,
and as the lead project person, the professional assigns different tasks to her other workers.
The first person handles the reports; the other takes care of the system’s internal

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processing and the last one takes care of the system’s interface of the user. However, this does
not go well as the employees report to the senior management that it is so difficult to use the
interface (Cellucci, 2015). The problem ensues where the upper-level management decides not to
use the system and even inject any more finances, and as such, they choose to resume their
previous system that was expensive.
What are the facts?
- Evidently, the difficulty to use the new accounting system interface is real as the
employees have reported.
- The upper-level management has refused to provide more finances for the deployment of
the new system.
- It is only the person in charge of the development of the interface that messed up the
entire project.
- The new system was only at its first stage of writing.
- The government needed to use the system due to the expensive nature of the previous
system.
- The new system is expected to save massive amounts of money belonging to the
taxpayer.
- The manager agreed to the architecture of the new system and gave the go-ahead.
- The management at the upper level has the option of resuming to the previous but
expensive system of accounting (Deneulin, 2013).

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- The persons who handled internal processing and the reports were proficient, and no
complaints have been reported on their part.
- The upper-level management may revert their decision if good sense about the problem is
made to them and if the possibility of readdressing the system interface is assured.
What are the issues?
- Resumption to an expensive method of accounting.
- Lack of finances for the project (Management no longer want to invest in a flawed
process).
- Unclear procedures to guide the deployment of newer systems in cases of failure.
- People have lost confidence in the new systems of IT (The reason the managers want to
go back to the old system).
- Change of technology attracts uncertainties such as the employees having difficulties to
adjust to a newer interface, which could, in fact, be easier (Christiansen, 2015).
- Lack of computer literacy and awareness of diverse systems (Including interfaces).
- People are susceptible to the new looks of different aspects of society and therefore need
to be taken through a gradual process of change.
- Anxiety is exacerbated by change (Fisher, 2013).
- Professional handling of projects sometimes poses a challenge to the experts.
Who is affected?
Government: The people may view the resumption to the old system as an expensive move by
the government that is expected to be the custodian of the taxpayers’ money (Fisher, 2013). The
government itself may have problems in the efficiency of a new system thus slowing the
accounting processes (Koehn, 2016).

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The employees: They may have difficulties in executing their duties due to a complicated
interface. On the other hand, they may be wrongly judging the new system interface due to the
fear of change around them thus sending a wrong signal to the management.
The upper-level management: They may be faulted for contracting an incompetent computer
expert to develop the new accounting system. However, they may also be victims of their
employee’s fears of a change to a new system (Engineering Council, 2017). They may also be
blamed by the computer expert contracted to effect the project due to their rushed decision to
dismiss the project without carrying out a background audit and questioning of the employees, or
to the bear minimum, at least go through the interface themselves (Koehn, 2016).
The computer expert: She may be blamed for not coordinating her team that was working on the
project to ensure swiftness and effecting corrections. Also, she did not carry out a background
check to understand what the employees need or are used to.
The public: Their taxes may be misused on expensive projects, yet there are simpler options for
the accounting systems (Migga, 2015).
The person tasked to handle the interface: He/she may be faulted for using a complicated
interface even after knowing that the employees are not experts in computer matters (Migga,
2015). Therefore, he/she operated under the assumption that others may find the interface easy as
he does as well.
What are the ethical issues and implications?
- It is the government’s duty to safeguard the taxpayer’s money.
- The understanding between lack of education and faults brought about by technology.
- Adverse suffering of the innocent public due poor tax money management.
- A poor reputation for the upper-level management.

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- A bad reputation for the computer expert and her team who worked on the project.
- Employee conspiracy to harm the project’s reputation due to fears of change.
What can be done about it?
- Education of the employees on the gradual process of change from the previous system of
accounting.
- Reevaluate and make necessary changes to the entire interface of the system in order to
introduce an easier one suitable for the employees (Migga, 2015).
- Upper-level managers to repeal their move to stop funding and resume the older,
expensive system. After that, then they should allow the experts to make corrections to
the new system.
- Do background checks on employees to eliminate chances of sabotage.
- Monitor the whole process of restarting the project.
- Replace the expert who handled the interface stage with a competent one.
What are the options?
- Restart the entire process of making a new interface (Simpson, Nevile and Burmeister,
2014). This option is useful because it will make an easier way of satisfying the upper-
level managers, the employees as well as the reputation of the computer expert. However,
it will consume more time.
- Initiate employee education to make them familiar with the interface. This option is
amenable and easy because it will not necessitate restarting the entire interface
development process (The European Business Cooperation 2013). It also saves time for
the computer expert and the government. However, it means subsequent employees shall
have to undergo a training program before doing their job.

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- Conducting a thorough audit to establish the reasons behind the failure of employees to
comprehend the new interface (McDermid, 2015). It helps understand whether the
developer of the interface was the problem or the employees just feared the change of a
system that they are used to.
Which option is the best-and why?
The best solution is to do a background audit to identify the reasons that inform the
employees’ option of finding the new interface hard to comprehend (Simpson, Nevile and
Burmeister, 2014). Furthermore, this move would ensure that the primary cause of the
problem is established instead of relying on conjecture. For instance, if the employees give a
feeble reason such as a given feature of the interface, then it will be clear that the problem
was not entirely with the developer of the interface but the employees (Simpson, Nevile and
Burmeister, 2014). Again, if they give a genuine reason that substantiates its complex nature,
then the developer will have to make the necessary adjustments to the system (Quigley,
2013).
Conclusion
The establishment of a proper accounting system was marred with problems of interface
caused by its developer as assigned by the computer expert. The upper-level managers
quickly refused to fund the project further but resume the previous process which is
expensive for the taxpayer. As such, there was a big problem. The available options to solve
that ethical dilemma included; conducting an audit, educating the employees on the new
process, restarting the interface-development process, repeal of the decisions by the
managers among others. The best of these options was to do an employee-audit.

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Works Cited
Backus, A., Spinello, R. and Tavani, H. (2016). ICT Sector Ethics. Ethics and Information
Technology, 6(1), pp.1-3.
Cellucci, T. (2015). Raising the ethical floor: Ethical dilemmas today. PsycCRITIQUES, 60(46).
Christiansen, D. (2015). Doing Ethics in Business. Business and Professional Ethics Journal,
3(2), pp.79-83.
Deneulin, S. (2013). Ethics and Development: An Introduction from the Perspective of the
Capability Approach. Geography Compass, 7(3), pp.217-227.
Engineering Council (2017). Ethics in ICT - EPSRC website. [online] Epsrc.ac.uk. Available at:
https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/ethicsinict/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2017].
Fisher, C. (2013). Business ethics and values. Pearson.
Koehn, J. (2016). Accounting Ethics. Accounting Ethics Ronald F. Duska and Brenda Shay
Duska Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2003, 277 pp. Business Ethics Quarterly, 15(03),
pp.521-529.
McDermid, D. (2015). Ethics in ICT. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia.
Migga, J. (2015). Ethics in Computer Companies. 39(2), pp.271-271.
Quigley, M. (2013). ICT ethics in the 21st century. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

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Simpson, C., Nevile, L. and Burmeister, O. (2014). Doing Ethics: A Universal Technique in an
Accessibility Context. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 10(2).
The European Business Cooperation (2013). What Makes a Company Ethical?. Business Ethics:
A European Review, 1(1), pp.1-3.