Case Study: Ethical Dilemma in IT Professional Practice

This case study examines an ethical dilemma within an IT context, focusing on the scenario of a talented employee, Courtney, whose contributions to a successful project are overlooked in favor of her manager. The assignment analyzes the situation using McDonald's framework for ethical decision-making, which involves gathering information, identifying alternatives, evaluating them against ethical standards, and proposing resolutions. The case highlights the importance of employee recognition and its impact on motivation and future performance, emphasizing the need for managers to acknowledge and reward individual contributions. The study references relevant literature on employee recognition and ethical business practices, providing a comprehensive analysis of the ethical issues at hand and proposing actionable recommendations for resolving the dilemma and promoting ethical conduct within the organization. The student has provided a detailed analysis of the case study with the help of the McDonald's framework for the ethical decision making.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN IT
Professional Practice In IT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN IT
Case study 1
Ethical issue raised: In this case study, Courtney is a very young and ambitious lady who has
played a the most important role in bringing success for the company by developing a new
user interface. The company has also received the business award for the same but all the
credit has been taken by the manager, Michael himself whose contribution is near about
negligible in the project. Courtney has received no acknowledgement for her great efforts.
Though Courtney has got the recognition of the ‘Employee of the Month’ within her
company for her great contribution but the award that was given to the company was all in
the name of the manager Michael.
Recommendation- Since all the contribution was of Courtney herself, she must be given the
credit. Though it is true that while giving the awards, usually the name of the head of the
organization is announced, but Michael must have declared the name of Courtney who
deserves the entire credit. Courtney should be given bonus for such act and the company
should praise her deed not only within the four walls of the company but also externally
either by printing about her efforts in newspaper or in company’s magazine so that people
could be aware of her actions.
Reason: Awards and recognition is one of the greats force behind employee satisfaction
(Conley, 2017). In order to be effective in the job, there is a high need to understand the
psychology behind praising others and acknowledge for their efforts and good works. It is a
fundamental need of every human. Every human being feels the need to be recognized as a
member of a group as well as to feel the sense of achievement for a valiant effort (Harrison,
2013). If an employee finds that his/her efforts are not being acknowledged by their
superiors, it is likely that he would not continue to put the same efforts after the success of
any of the company’s up-coming project. This in turn will harm the business alone.

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Question
In order to analyze the case study 1, McDonald’s framework for the ethical decision
making is very useful, as this framework states that:
 Collection of the information available and identification of the main issue
 Finding out the feasible alternatives
 Finding out the correctness of each of the alternatives by appropriate ethical standards
 Proposing and testing possible resolutions
 Making final choice
I have chosen McDonald’s framework for this scenario as it provides a very detailed and
step by step solutions for dealing with the situations about ethical dilemma as well as, it
focuses on the primary issue with the person (Crane & Matten, 2016). In this, the ethical
dilemma is taking of all the credits of someone else’s work. Furthermore, McDonald’s
framework emphasizes on dealing out with the actual situation in spite of just opposing and
resisting it. Therefore, this framework is applicable and is very useful in the above stated
scenario.

3PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN IT
References:
Conley, C. (2017). PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow Revised and
Updated. John Wiley & Sons.
Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Harrison, K. (2013). Why employee recognition is so important. Cutting Edge PR. Harting,
D.(2010). Employees your most valuable asset. Retrieved January, 3, 2013.