ICT Ethics: Report on Ethical Dilemma for ICT Professionals Analysis

This report presents an analysis of an ethical dilemma faced by ICT professionals, specifically focusing on a case study involving a CEO's directive to release an untested system. The report identifies the core ethical conflict, highlighting the tension between following orders and upholding professional standards as defined by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Code of Professional Conduct. It examines the actions of the employee, Ken, and the CEO in light of ACS principles such as honesty, professionalism, and public interest. The analysis explores three potential scenarios for Ken, evaluating each decision's ethical implications regarding competence, and public safety. The report concludes that while following the CEO's directive might seem professionally compliant, it is ethically questionable. It emphasizes that the most ethical action is to challenge unethical orders to protect the public interest. The report underscores the importance of upholding professional integrity, and the significance of the second option, which is to fight back against the CEO’s decision.

Running head: REPORT ON THE ETHICAL DILEMMA FOR ICT PROFESSIONALS
REPORT
ON
ETHICAL DILEMMA FOR ICT PROFESSIONALS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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Introduction:
The primary aim of this report is to discuss about the ethical dilemma which has been
accounted from the activities of ken. While discussing the mentioned aspect it will identify
the major ethical dilemma related to the ICT professionals in the provided case scenario and
it will analyse each of the actions with respect to the Australian Computer Society Code of
Professional Conduct.
Identification of the ethical dilemma:
The mentioned case study is based on ICT professional scenario in which it has been
noticed that Ken who is an employ of an organization where he has been instructed by the
CEO of the company to release an untested system to the public. Followed by this scenario
three possible actions are provided. Considering this aspect it has been observed that in this
case scenario there are several ethical dilemma is present among those one of the most
significant ethical concern in the instruction by the CEO of the company as he has ordered
Ken to release an untested system to the public. According to the ACS codes of conducts
honesty and professionalism is one of the most impactful code which holds significant impact
on the ICT professionals. Hence, it can be stated that the CEO of the company has
prominently violated the codes of professionalism as it is mentioned that the in the rule that
any of the stakeholder related with an organization must show respect towards other co-
stakeholder’s opinion as well as an ICT professional must follow the organization’s
objective. However, in this case scenario it has been observed that the CEO of the
organization does not follows any of the above discussed law as he has strictly ordered Ken
to release the product without even concerning with Ken about the system. Along with that
while considering the aspect to release any untested system in love situation it also includes
several other limitation related to the customer satisfaction which holds a significant impact
on the organizational objective. Thus, it can be stated that, this was an unethical move by the

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CEO according to the ACS codes of conduct. Followed by the action of CEO there is a
significant ethical dilemma present in the action of Ken as well. As it has been observed that
Ken has been instructed by his boss which he must follow. However, Ken knows that
releasing an untested system to go for live will be harmful as well. Hence, three different
situation has been provided in which there are three options were open for Ken which
includes the action to follow the orders by his boss, another one is to fight back to his CEO
about the major concerns to release the untested system and the third option is to resign as he
was not able to follow his boss rule since I was unethical and he was not ready to disobey his
boss as well. Followed by this aspect a detail analysis on these three actions by Ken with
respect to the ACS codes of conducts is provided below:
Analysis of the action(s):
In this part it will analyse each of the provided situation with respect to the ACS
codes of conducts.
Situation 1:
In the first situation in the case scenario it has been mentioned that Ken has followed
by the instruction that has given by the CEO and in has been also shown that after releasing
the system he has faced several problem from the public as. However, he had no option to
refuse the order which was made by his boss. In this case scenario several ethical
consideration has been accounted. Followed by that one of the major ethical dilemma in the
action of Ken was to decide whether to listen to his boss or not. As it is already discussed
above that the CEO of the organization has ordered for an unethical aspect. According to the
ACS codes of conduct professionalism is one of the most significant aspect for ICT
professionals as it has instructed to follow the organizational work flow as well as to provide
respect to the decisions which has been made by the higher authority thus, it can be stated

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that by obeying his boss’s decision Ken has done an ethical job. However, while considering
the aspect of public interest as well as the honesty it has been noticed that this action holds a
significant impact on these two codes of ethics as due to the release of an untested system
holds the possibility to significantly harm the public as well as the organizations good will
which is also not an ethical concern. Along with that while releasing any incomplete system
publically by saying that it is completed and will provide effective solution, it also harms the
code of honesty according to the ACS codes of conducts. Hence, it can be stated that in this
case scenario Ken’s action is ethical while considering the professionalism however, while
discussing the codes of honesty and public interest it is unethical.
Situation 2:
The second situation in the mentioned case scenario is as instructed by the CEO of the
organization to release an untested system on live, Ken has decided to fight back as he thinks
that it is entirely unethical as well as ICT professionalism does not allows any company to
harm the public interest. Followed by this aspect it has been noticed that the Ken has
effectively fought for not releasing the unverified system publically due to which he has to
disobey this boss’s decision. Thus, according to the ACS codes of conducts it has been
noticed that the mentioned case scenario holds several significant ethical concerns which
includes the codes of Public interest, Professionalism, Honesty as well as the competence.
While discussing the aspect of public interest it has been observed that the action made by
Ken not to release the unverified system to the public is an ethical movement according to the
ACS codes of conducts as it is mentioned in the code of public interest that one of the major
concern of any organization must be its customers satisfaction, hence by deciding not to
release the system was an ethical movement with respect to the code of public interest. Along
with that there is an another concern related to the professionalism as according to the ACS
codes of conduct Ken must follow the decision of his higher authority. However, in this

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situation ken has decided not the obeyed their instruction which is also an ethical dilemma.
However, while considering the aspect the honesty it has been observed that Ken has done
that right job as being dishonest is an unethical movement according to the ACS codes of
conducts.
Situation 3:
In this case scenario it has been observed that Ken has resigned to his job as he does
not wanted to support the activities by his CEO. As it is mentioned in the above scenario it
has been observed that the decision of Ken in ethically correct as per the ACS codes of
conducts. In this scenario Ken has refused to do such work which is unethical as per his
professionalism. Along with that it has been also noticed that Ken was also not allowed
himself to disobey his boss’s instruction. Hence, it can be stated that the decision of Ken is
ethically correct. Followed by this according to the professionalism code in ACS codes of
conduct it is mentioned that no matter what happed to the organization they cannot harm of
take any risk with its customers or with the public. Hence, in this scenario Ken has decided to
resign from the organization rather than defending his job by releasing an untested system
publically.
After analysing the above mentioned three case scenario it has been observed that the
second decision of Ken was right however, there are several ethical consideration present
according to the ACS codes of conducts. Protesting against unethical organizational activity
holds a significant impact towards the public interest as it will reduce the risk present while
releasing any untested system to the market for the company as well as for the public.
Conclusion:
After the completion of the above mentioned discussion it can be concluded that this
paper has effectively elaborated the ethical codes of ACS codes of conducts. Followed by this

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it has elaborated the case scenario with respect to the codes of conducts and it has been
identified that in this case scenario the one of the most unethical actions was the decision to
release an untested system to the market. Followed by this it has been also identified that this
was an order by the organization’s CEO, to his employ Ken. Considering this scenario it has
effectively discussed and analysed the actions which were provided, with respect to the ACS
codes of conducts. Hence, followed by the mentioned analysis it has been noticed that in the
first, second as well as the third scenario holds several ethical consideration. However, the
second option to fight back against the CEO’s decision was more ethical.

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