Ethical Dilemma Report: Analysis of IT Ethical Dilemma in Software

This report presents an analysis of an ethical dilemma faced by Ken, a software developer, who was pressured to upload untested software for a bank project. Despite his concerns and lack of testing, the software was released, leading to potential malfunctions. The report identifies the ethical dilemma, analyzing the conflicting imperatives of meeting deadlines versus ensuring software quality. It explores violations of the ACS code of professional conduct, including competence, honesty, and the primacy of public interest. The analysis examines the roles of Ken and his senior, Jon, in the decision-making process and the impact of the software's potential failures. Recommendations include the importance of testing, seeking expertise, and adhering to ethical guidelines. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of ethical conduct in IT and the potential consequences of neglecting it, highlighting the importance of responsible decision-making and the need to prioritize public interest and professional integrity in the software development process.

Running Read: ETHICAL DILEMMA
Ethical Dilemma
Name of the University
Name of the Student
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Identification of ethical dilemma.....................................................................................................2
Analysis of ethical dilemma............................................................................................................4
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Ken, who is a software developer, was developing software for a bank. In the haste of
submitting the task within the approaching deadline, decides to upload the task online. Prior to
this uploading, he informs John, his senior, about the uncertainty of the software as it was not
tested at that time and requests for an extension of the time period. Despite of informing people
of the untested software application, the scenario becomes topic of discussion and it spreads in
newspaper. Though Ken informs his senior before uploading it, as an IT expert he should have
abided by the code of ethics of the Information Technology (Jin, Drozdenko & DeLoughy 2013).
There are three videos provided to give a better idea of the scenario. The following report
analyzes the ethical dilemma presented in the videos. It discusses what could have been the
consequence if the software malfunctioned.
Identification of ethical dilemma
Ethical dilemma is the difficulty of decision making between two imperatives (Shapiro &
Stefkovich,2016). The dilemma is always between one right and one wrong thing and these two
imperatives occurs simultaneously (Schwartz,2016). In the course of decision making one
imperative would be chosen and the other imperative would be neglected.
In the identification of an ethical dilemma several steps must be followed, such as:
 Acknowledgement of issues
 Recognition of problem and involvement of people
 Relevant principles and facts must be considered
 Determination and analyzation of possible actions
 Solution implementation

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 Keeping track and evaluation the solution
Ethical dilemmas generally occur in professional field. Different company has different
code of conduct and ethics that are to be followed by all the employees working there, starting
from the Company head to an executive (Bodolica & Spraggon , 2015). In any company ethical
dilemmas can occur in any kind of situation. It may arise with the management, business partner,
client or co-worker. The inability to reach an optimal solution in a company can lead to serious
consequences in any organization or business. The arise of ethical dilemma is very common in
those company which values the outcome more than their employees. In order to rectify the
ethical dilemmas organizations and companies must issue rules to follow the ethical standards
for all the employees working in that particular organization (Lodhia, 2015). All the
organizations and companies must make aware the employees about the ethical norms and must
provide training of ethics to the employees.
As the technologies have emerged drastically in this new era of world, all the technical
systems going online must be checked, tested several times before presenting any technology to
the world to use. According to the videos, the IT professional Ken has allowed an untested
system to go live as directed by his manager, which raised issues for the company (Salim,
Arjomandi & Seufert,2016). Those issues also appeared in the newspaper. Minor faults and
deficiencies may cause huge loss to the enterprises as well as the people.
As the deadline for going live of a system was approaching. Ken could not arrange a
person for the testing of the system and uploaded the untested system anyway. This is an ethical
dilemma, as Ken must have decided whether to make the untested system live or not. Ken had

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the choice of informing the higher authorities about the problems occurred for the testing process
prior to the deadline however he did not.
Another ethical dilemma is the fault of going live with an untested system is of Ken or
his immediate senior Jon. The conflict between moral values and self-interest arises. Jon
reminded Ken about the system and its deadline. Ken cleared him saying that the person
responsible for the testing of the system was absent (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). However, Jon
pressured Ken to complete the system within the deadline. Therefore, Ken may have made the
system live under the influence of his senior Jon, so the dilemma for decision making could be
seen here, being a junior employee, he had to choose between his professional position and work.
Analysis of ethical dilemma
According to ACS code of professional conduct, the members must maintain
professionalism in workplace (Burmeister, 2017). Here, according to one of the video Ken being a
professional in ICT industry, he could have arranged other system tester and prepared the system
before the deadline. However, he did not and casually say that the work would not complete
within the given time earlier. Later on, Rob confronted ken for the issue in the system and Ken
asked for extension of time. Also, after a month ken resigned from his post. The ACS code for
professionalism was not maintained here (Weckert, Lucas & Selgelid, 2013). Ken could have
prepared the required system within the extended deadline of one month and then made the
system online, however he chose to back off and leave the untested system in the middle. The
ACS code of professionalism is violated very badly. This unprofessional behavior from an ICT
professional is very much unexpected to the senior heads.
As stated by ken untested system might work in wrong order in the transfer of money,
correct amount of money must reach the correct amount of people. The components of the

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system started malfunction, the components were not doing which they supposed to do. Also,
another ACS code such as The Primacy of the Public Interest is affected, this code states that
public interest must take precedence over any private, sectional or personal interest (Clarke,2016).
The failure of the system could affect hundreds of people and the company would be held
responsible for negligence, incompetence etc. and as a whole the company’s reputation would go
down. Irrespective of knowing all the demerits of the untested system, Ken chose to resign.
However, it is expected of Ken to take the responsibility of the situation and do something about
it, to find an appropriate solution to the occurred problem.
According to the ACS code of professional conduct, Competence must be followed,
which is the member must accept those offers that they are confident to perform (Weckert, 2016).
Own limitations must be known and unknown areas of performance shows incompetence, so that
further guidance could be obtained from additional experts. The works that the member think is
under their expertise only those must be taken under consideration. When Ken got to know that
the testing of the system can only be done by someone else and that person is not present, he
should have asked the heads to provide other tester as the testing of system is out of his
expertise. However, he did not ask for the help and continued with work anyway.
Another ethical dilemma showed by Ken was that he had the choice of informing and not
informing the bank about his resignation from his company, however he chose not to inform and
due to which several dues of ken have stacked in the bank. Irrespective of being a professional of
ICT, Ken showed dishonesty toward the bank. Ken could have informed the bank officer about
his resignation and not wait until they called him. The bank had even issued a forged notice on
Ken’s account (Tondeur et al., 2016). Therefore, according to the ACS code of professional,
honesty has been violated by Ken toward the bank official. The trust of a stakeholder has been

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broken by Ken. Integrity and honesty must be shown in the professional field. The behavior
shown by Ken is not acceptable by the professional conduct.
Recommendation
From the above report it could be recommended that:
 Ken should have known about the testing of system or he could have asked for expertise
in that field when the person appointed for the system testing was absent.
 Making the untested system live was unethical, an unfinished work is always dangerous
for the public use as well for the company. Ken should have asked for the extension of
time before making the system live.
 Pressurizing a junior in a workplace is never ethical, here Jon could be seen doing that to
Ken.
 Several testing and trial should be done before launching any system as the system is in
the interest of public. Any wrong decision can hamper the public, where the public is the
main client.
 As given by ACS code, a person must always take those work which are known to the
and which those which an be taken help from the co-workers or heads.
 Ken should have informed the bank authorities earlier so that the forging against the
account and due payments could have never occurred.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be said that a simple mistake of not verifying software before releasing
it online can be fatal. The malfunctioning of the software can be the cause of many sufferings
and hassle for both the bank and the customer. Violating the ethical code of conduct is

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considered as an irresponsible act by IT personnel. The report also explains how ethical dilemma
works in a person while the decision making becomes the priority. Ken’s decision was indeed
wrong, but John can be termed as irresponsible, because he sanctioned the uploading process
even after reminder has been provided that the work is untested. Moreover, portrayal of
spreading awareness through media and newspaper in this scenario helped the banking officers
to fix the issue in no time.

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Reference
Bodolica, V., & Spraggon, M. (2015). An examination into the disclosure, structure, and
contents of ethical codes in publicly listed acquiring firms. Journal of Business
Ethics, 126(3), 459-472.
Burmeister, O. K. (2017). Professional ethics in the information age. Journal of Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society, 15(4), 348-356.
Clarke, R. (2016). Big data, big risks. Information Systems Journal, 26(1), 77-90.
Jin, K. G., Drozdenko, R., & DeLoughy, S. (2013). The role of corporate value clusters in ethics,
social responsibility, and performance: A study of financial professionals and
implications for the financial meltdown. Journal of business ethics, 112(1), 15-24.
Lodhia, S. (2015). Exploring the transition to integrated reporting through a practice lens: an
Australian customer owned bank perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 129(3), 585-
598.
Salim, R., Arjomandi, A., & Seufert, J. H. (2016). Does corporate governance affect Australian
banks' performance?. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and
Money, 43, 113-125.
Schwartz, M. S. (2016). Ethical decision-making theory: An integrated approach. Journal of
Business Ethics, 139(4), 755-776.
Shapiro, J. P., & Stefkovich, J. A. (2016). Ethical leadership and decision making in education:
Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.
Shapiro, J. P., & Stefkovich, J. A. (2016). Ethical leadership and decision making in education:
Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.

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Tondeur, J., Forkosh-Baruch, A., Prestridge, S., Albion, P., & Edirisinghe, S. (2016).
Responding to challenges in teacher professional development for ICT integration in
education. Educational Technology and Society, 19(3), 110-120.
Weckert, J. (2016). Perceptions of incompetence in the ICT workplace. ACM SIGCAS
Computers and Society, 45(3), 11-17.
Weckert, J., Lucas, R., & Selgelid, M. J. (2013). Professionalism in the information and
communication technology industry (Vol. 3). ANU E Press. Al-Saggaf, Y., Burmeister,
O. K., &