Ethical Law Case Study: ACS Code of Conduct and Ethics

This case study examines an ethical dilemma faced by a programmer, John, who incorporates code from a coworker and commercial software without attribution to meet a deadline. The analysis identifies the interested parties, their relationships, and the values at stake, including public interest, honesty, and professionalism, as outlined by the ACS Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. The study explores various options and weighs the benefits and burdens of John's actions, considering analogous cases and relevant legal aspects, such as intellectual property law in Australia. The decision's ethical implications are evaluated through a series of questions concerning personal comfort, family, and moral principles. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of ethical decision-making and the potential consequences of violating professional standards. The case study also references relevant resources such as the ACS Code of Ethics, and guides on moral decision-making.

Running Head: ETHICAL LAW
CASE STUDY
Name Of the Student
Name Of the University
Author’s Note

1
ETHICAL LAW
RECOGNIZING THE MORAL DIMENSION:
The moral dimension in the case is whether John was ethical in incorporating the
segment of code from the work of his co-worker.
WHO ARE THE INTERESTED PARTIES? WHAT ARE THEIR
RELATIONSHIPS?
John is the party who has breached the code of ethics.
His co-worker is indirectly involved for sharing his work with John.
Manager is directly involved for not recognising the problem and in return,
pressurising John for an effective outcome.
WHAT ARE THE VALUES OR PRINCIPLES INVOLVED:
The ACS Constitution has laid down the provision for the recognition and
implementation of six Code of Conduct to be abided by the financial accounting experts.
These principles are discussed below:
Public Interest: this principle enhances the applicability of the accounting standards and
the profession with that of the interest of the public. Public in this domain refers to those
who are engaged in business and they are dependent upon the accounting experts for
the calculations and the auditing of their companies and the experts are expected to
work in the best interest of such people.

2
ETHICAL LAW
Quality of Life: the accountability standards should be maintained to continue the
goodwill and the business of the company affected by such expert work.
Honesty: Accounting Experts at all times should maintain honesty and integrity in their
work with respect to the financial confidentiality and interests of the company.
Competence: Experts should work to enhance their competency with other experts and
hold their position in the company and organizations.
Professional Development: Every Expert should thrive to grow and develop in his career
graph by maintaining work ethics and standards.
Professionalism: experts should maintain professionalism in their work and behaviour at
all times.
Sketch out options -- not just actions, but courses of action:
John had an alternative to research thoroughly about the sources of the
segments incorporated by him so that he can gain effective knowledge of the same and
further enhance their applicability in the programming. John had turned in the work one
day ahead of the deadline. He could have waited till the final minute and researched
about the program and inform the same to his superior the technicality complexity of the
task and his act of taking an idea from the segment of work done by his co-worker as a
help.
WEIGH THE BENEFITS AND BURDENS:
Benefits:

3
ETHICAL LAW
 He may be praised for his early submission of the task.
 He may be praised for solving a complex task of his own.
Burden:
 He may always be under the scrutiny of his consciousness that what if he got
caught.
 If caught, he may face tremendous shame and professional consequences for
the same.
 Fear is the biggest enemy and living with fear is the biggest dilemma.
LOOK FOR ANALGOUS CASES:
Case of Harris Scarfe (Cavrar and Yilmar 2001): in early 2000, the
Australian corporate collapsed because of the auditing and accounting standards
being not up to the mark as expected by the corporates and in non-compliance with
the ethical laws and codes.
DISCUSS WITH RELEVANT OTHERS:
As per the application of ACS Code of Ethics, the principles can be discussed as:
Public Interest: John took the drastic step to comply with the decision of his superior
and the best interest of the company. However, one aspect of his dilemma was to save
himself from the outcome of his superior. Therefore, he chose to not disclose about the
incorporation of his co-worker’s work in his own.

4
ETHICAL LAW
Quality of Life: John took the drastic step only to save himself from his superior without
considering the working standards of the company being affected.
Honesty: John was not being honest with his work because he copied the work of his
co-worker and did not disclose about the same to anyone.
Competency: if anyone comes to know of the work that John had copied, his
competency in the market with fellow experts will get affected and the company or
organization will chose somebody with originality in the work.
Professional Development: After losing competency, John may not be trusted by his
organization for the originality of the work and hence, his career may not get developed.
Professionalism: Such an act of John has resulted in him losing his policy of maintaining
professionalism in his work.
DOES THIS DECISION ACCORD WITH LEGAL AND
ORGANIZATIONAL RULES:
According to Intellectual Property law of Australia, infringing the intellectual
property rights of any person shall attract the provisions of legal actions. Such
intellectual property shall include all kinds of confidential information, ownership
protection, infringement of rights, selling and licensing of intellectual property, moral
rights, patents, trademarks, designs.
Privacy Act 1988 contains 13 principles that govern the Australian and the
Norfolk Island Government Agencies and other few private entities for the protection

5
ETHICAL LAW
and compliance related to the customer’s personal information (Intellectual Property
2019).
AM I COMFORTABLE WITH THIS DECISION:
The reliability of the auditing profession has been affected in this regard and
hence, compliance of ethics would require certain sanctions to maintain such
compliance. Thus, I am comfortable with the decision. However, with John, he may not
be comfortable with his decision of incorporating someone else’s work into his own due
to the moral and ethical issues.
If I carry out this decision, would I be comfortable telling my family about
it? My clergyman? My mentors?
If John is held liable for his actions, then it shall be for the consequences against
his own actions. He wilfully incorporated his co-worker’s work into his own. Such
decision can be discussed with family or clergyman to ensure that the decision has
been taken in good faith for the compliance of ethics. However, John may not like to
discuss about it with his family or mentor for the fear of losing his reputation.
Would I want children to take my behaviour as an example?
John would not want his children to follow his actions as an example to their
moral.
Is this decision one which a wise, informed, virtuous person would make?
This decision may not be taken a wise reasonable man because such work of
incorporating other’s work as one’s own is not considered to be ethical.

6
ETHICAL LAW
Can I live with this decision?
Acting upon such a decision takes a moment of consciousness though living with
the same creates a feeling of fear and insecurity at all times for getting caught and
creating a bad name among one’s co-workers. It is said that fear is one’s biggest enemy
and living with one’s enemy may not be possible. It may lead to stress and
subconscious guilt leading to low morale of the person.

7
ETHICAL LAW
REFERENCES:
MacDonald, C. (2010). "A Guide to Moral Decision Making". Accessed 29 September
2013, http://www.ethicsweb.ca/guide.
Anon (2014). “ACS Code of Ethics”, Australian Computer Society. Accessed 29th Aug 2019,
https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Ethics.pdf
Anon (2014). "ACS Code of Professional Conduct", Australian Computer Society. Accessed 29th Aug
2019, https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-
Conduct_v2.1.pdf
Scribd. (2019). A Guide to Moral Decision Making | Value (Ethics) | Decision Making. [online] Available at:
https://www.scribd.com/document/40611626/A-Guide-to-Moral-Decision-Making [Accessed 23 August
2019].
White, T (Unknown). "Resolving an Ethical Dilemma", African Sisters Education Collaborative. Accessed
23 August 2019. http://www.asec-sldi.org/dotAsset/ 292830.pdf.
Protecting customers' personal information. OAIC. Available at:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/guidance-and-advice/protecting-customers-personal-information/
[Accessed August 30, 2019].
Intellectual Property. Intellectual Property | Not-for-profit Law @ Justice Connect. Available at:
https://www.nfplaw.org.au/ip [Accessed 31st Aug, 2019].
Kavrar, O. and Yılmaz, B., 2001. Corporate Collapses in Australia: Case of Harris Scarfe