ACS Code of Ethics: Professional Conduct and Detailed Case Studies

This assignment presents a detailed analysis of the ACS Code of Professional Conduct through three case studies, applying ethical theories such as Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics, and Contract Theory to each scenario. The first case study examines a situation where an employee's boss takes credit for their work, highlighting issues of honesty and professionalism. The second case focuses on an HCI consultant discovering a patented GUI being used by a client, exploring obligations and conflicts of interest. The third case involves a software programmer uncovering a security hole and facing pressure from management to ignore it, raising questions of public interest versus company priorities. Each case study identifies relevant values from the ACS Code and evaluates the ethical implications of the actions taken, providing a comprehensive understanding of ethical decision-making in professional contexts. Desklib provides similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Running head: ETHICS AND ESSAY
Ethics and essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

2ETHICS AND ESSAY
Table of Contents
PART 1 – The ACS Code of Professional Conduct and Ethical Theory............................3
Case Study 1................................................................................................................3
Case Study 2................................................................................................................5
Case Study 3................................................................................................................8
PART 3 – Essay.................................................................................................................12
Question 7.2...............................................................................................................12
Question 7.3...............................................................................................................14
Reference...........................................................................................................................16

3ETHICS AND ESSAY
PART 1 – The ACS Code of Professional Conduct and Ethical Theory
Case Study 1
Question 1. ACS Code of Professional Conduct
What is the action in this case study that is raising an ethical issue?
The actions that were taken by Rahul’s boss taking all the credit for the
application which was developed by Rahul.
What is wrong with the action (from an ethical point of view)?
From an ethical point of view, it can be said that professionalism and honesty were not
maintained by Rahul's boss as he tried to take all the credit deserved by Rahul.
Who is responsible for that action?
The ethical issue of this case study is due to Rahul’s boss.
Who is affected by that action?
Rahul is the affected personnel due to the unethical issue raised by Rahul’s boss.
What is the effect of that action on the person affected?
The action taken by Rahul’s boss can have a significant impact on Rahul’s career
in his career as an application developer.

4ETHICS AND ESSAY
Which of the following values of the ACS Code are relevant to the above case study?
Case Study ACS Code of Ethics
Values and Ideals
ACS Code of Ethics
Standards of Conduct
Rahul works for a small
business developing apps.
His latest app, which he
developed to make it easier
for friends to catch up over
coffee, was a huge success
and Rahul’s company
received a Creativity
Award from Apple.
However, during an
interview with SBS TV,
Rahul’s boss took all of the
credit for the development
of the app, and Rahul
received no credit for his
work.
Honesty, Professional
Development and
Professionalism
Honesty: Misinterpretation
of skills and knowledge
should be stopped.
Professional
Development:
Development of the
employees in workplaces
should be encouraged.
Professionalism:
Professionalism should be
maintained even during
non-work situations.
Table 1: Relevant values of ACS Code for case study 1
(Source: Created by the author)
How the values you identified are relevant to the above case study?
The relevancy of the values identified are discussed below:
o Honesty: The action taken by Rahul’s boss is not at all honest as he did not develop the
application, Rahul should be getting the credits, hence honesty is not maintained by
Rahul’s boss during the interview.
o Professional Development: The professional development of Rahul is restricted even
after Rahul's company got the creativity award from Apple.
o Professionalism: The unethical action taken by Rahul’s boss is raising questions over his
professionalism.
Question 2. Ethical Theory
Utilitarianism Deontology Virtue Contract
The action taken by
Rahul’s boss is
neither good
Predefined set of
rules should have
been there in the
Considering the
normative ethics in
this case study it
Legally binding
contracts should
have restricted

5ETHICS AND ESSAY
enough for him or
Rahul or for the
business
organization
(Burmeister, 2017).
The action taken by
Rahul’s boss may
cause uncertainty in
the application
development unit of
the organization,
other employees
may feel insecure.
working
environment, as it
might have
restricted Rahul’s
boss in taking this
unethical action
(McDermid, 2015).
Morality of Rahul’s
boss is focused by
this ethical theory.
can be analyzed
that the actions
taken by Rahul’s
boss proves that
proves about his not
performing during
contractual role
with honesty and
dignity.
Rahul’s boss from
taking this action
which can have a
direct impact on
Rahul’s career
objectives.
Table 2: Application of ethical theories on case study 1
(Source: Created by the author)
Case Study 2
What is the action in this case study that is raising an ethical issue?
The ethical issue raised in this case study is when an HCI consultant found a GUI
which was already been patented by a rival company. She cannot communicate with
either of the organization as she was bonded by contractual arrangements.
What is wrong with the action (from an ethical point of view)?
From the ethical point of view, it can be said that the developers of Company A
unethically copied the GUI from company B.
Who is responsible for that action?
The software developers of company A is responsible for this unethical act.

6ETHICS AND ESSAY
Who is affected by that action?
Primarily the HCI consultant is affected by this unethical action and secondly the
software developers of company B may be affected by this action.
What is the effect of that action on the person affected?
The effect of that action may result in a severe business loss for company A as
any kinds of legal charges may have a direct impact on the reputation of the company A.
Which of the following values of the ACS Code are relevant to the above case study?
Case Study ACS Code of Ethics
Values and Ideals
ACS Code of Ethics
Standards of Conduct
Consider an HCI consultant
with extensive experience in
evaluating websites and
graphical user interfaces
(GUI). She has just received
an evaluation contract for a
new accounting product made
by Company A due to her
prior experience with an e-
commerce site evaluation.
The work involves assessing
the training requirements and
the usability of the system.
During the initial
configuration of her usability
laboratory, she becomes
aware that that software she is
to evaluate contains a GUI
already patented by a rival
Company B, which she
evaluated several weeks
before. Under her contractual
arrangements she is not
allowed to discuss the
evaluation of a product with
anyone outside the contract.
She, therefore, has an
Honesty, Competence and
Professionalism
Honesty: Misinterpretation
of skills and knowledge
should be stopped.
Competence:
Development of the
employees in workplaces
should be encouraged.
Professionalism:
Professionalism should be
maintained even during
non-work situations.

7ETHICS AND ESSAY
obligation to Company B not
to provide information
regarding their product to
anyone else without their
permission. She has a similar
obligation to Company A.
Can she continue with the
evaluation? If she cannot
continue with the evaluation
of how does she inform
Company A of the patent
violation? Does she have an
obligation to let company B
know Company A has copied
their GUI?
Table 1: Relevant values of ACS Code for case study 2
(Source: Created by the author)
How the values you identified are relevant to the above case study?
The relevancy of the values identified are discussed below:
o Honesty: The software developers of company A is not at all honest in their approach
before launching their software.
o Competence: The software developers choose the most incompetent way to provide their
software to the clients
o Professionalism: Professionalism is not maintained by the developers of company A.
Question 2. Ethical Theory
Utilitarianism Deontology Virtue Contract
The actions chosen
by the software
developers of
company A
regarding their
products are not the
best for their
consumers as the
same GUI has been
already provided by
their rival company
B.
Morality is not
maintained by the
software developers
of company A as
they copied a
product from their
rival organization
(Warren & Lucas,
2016).
Considering the
virtue ethics on this
case study in can be
said that company
A did not act
honestly as they
cheated their rival
organization by
copying one of their
graphical user
interface.
Commercial and
non-commercial
agreements would
have restricted the
software developers
of company A to
copy the products
of other
organizations
(Kovac, 2018).

8ETHICS AND ESSAY
Table 2: Application of ethical theories on case study 2
(Source: Created by the author)
Case Study 3
What is the action in this case study that is raising an ethical issue?
The ethical issue which is raised in this case study is when Faisal stated about the
security hole in the database of company Y to his manager, and in spite of knowing the
fact that this might have a negative impact on company X also the manager of company
Z asked him to avoid and issue and also want the software to run properly.
What is wrong with the action (from an ethical point of view)?
From the ethical point of view, it can be said that the manager of company Z did
not encourage Faisal to remove the glitch. They should have maintained professional
code of conduct by removing the security hole from the database of company Y.
Who is responsible for that action?
The manager of company Z is responsible for the action as he just discouraged
Faisal when he stated about the security hole in the database of company Y.
Who is affected by that action?
Considering the situation both company A and company B can be affected by the
security hole in the database of company Y as they have access to each other data in the
database.

9ETHICS AND ESSAY
What is the effect of that action on the person affected?
Faisal was really not sure how to react to the situation when his manager
discouraged him when he stated about the error. Stringent words could have a negative
impact on his role as software programmer in company Z at the same time he wanted to
maintain professionalism in the workplace which can be justified as he reported the error
to his manager when a he discovered a series of security hole in the database of company
Y.

10ETHICS AND ESSAY
Which of the following values of the ACS Code are relevant to the above case study?
Case Study ACS Code of Ethics
Values and Ideals
ACS Code of Ethics
Standards of Conduct
Company X has just signed a
business agreement with
Company Y, which entitles
both of them to access each
other clients’ records. Mr.
Faisal, a software
programmer at Company Z,
was assigned the task of
developing a software
program that handles the
access and retrieval of
records from each Company’s
database system into the
other. A first run of the
software on real data
indicated that the work was
well within the state of the
art, and no difficulties were
found or anticipated. Several
weeks later and during a
normal test on the software
developed, Faisal discovered
a serious ‘security hole’ in the
database system of Company
Y by which hackers can
easily obtain confidential
information about clients. He
was convinced that while the
software he developed could
correctly accomplish the task,
the code in Company Y’s
database system could not be
trusted as the security hole
posed a threat even on
Company X’s database
system. Faisal told his
manager about the problem
and explained its
significance. The manager's
response was, "That's not our
problem; let's just be sure that
our software functions
properly." Faisal is not sure
what to do. Refusing to work
on the project means
The primacy of public
interest, Honesty and
Professionalism
Honesty: Misinterpretation
of skills and knowledge
should be stopped.
Professional Development:
Improvement and increasing
capabilities through training
and education should be
always encouraged (Giorgini
et al., 2015).
Professionalism:
Professionalism should be
maintained even during
non-work situations

11ETHICS AND ESSAY
disobeying his manager’s
orders. Continuing to work on
the project, means disobeying
one of God’s commands, this
requires him to be truthful
and sincere in his dealings.
Table 1: Relevant values of ACS Code for case study 2
(Source: Created by the author)
How the values you identified are relevant to the above case study?
The relevancy of the values identified are discussed below:
o Honesty: The manager of company Z was not at all honest in his profession while Faisal
is very much honest in his role as a software programmer in the same company.
o Professional development: Professional development of Faisal in company Z is
restricted due to the unethical action taken by his manager.
o Professionalism: Professionalism is maintained by Faisal as he stated about the series of
security holes in the company Z but professionalism is not maintained by his manager as
he was only concerned with the software program which can handle the database of both
company X and company Y
Question 2. Ethical Theory
Utilitarianism Deontology Virtue Contract
Applying the
utilitarianism on
this case study it
can be said the
action taken by the
manager of
company Z is not at
Applying the
deontological ethics
on this case study it
can be said that the
morality is not
maintained by the
manager of
Applying the virtue
ethics, it can be said
that the virtues are
not acquired by the
managers of
company Z (Al-
Saggaf, Burmeister,
Applying the
contractual ethics
on this case study it
can be said that the
morale ethics and
behaviour of the
manager of

12ETHICS AND ESSAY
all sufficient to
maintain
professionalism in
their workplace as
it was their
responsibility to
look after the
wellbeing of the
database of
company X and
company Y.
company Z as he
did not take any
decisive steps even
after knowing about
the series of
security hole from
Faisal.
& Schwartz, 2017).
Virtue such as
honesty is not
maintained by the
manager of
company Z
however, it is
maintained well by
Faisal as he
maintained
professionalism by
letting his manager
know about the
error in the
database of
company Y
company Z could
have been saved
using this ethical
theory (Stillman,
2016).
Table 2: Application of ethical theories on case study 3
(Source: Created by the author)
PART 3 – Essay
Question 7.2
Introduction
The foremost determination of this essay is to highlight the ethical issue which is
being raised in the Elsevier Press as they restrict access to important information in their
journals. Their policies and pricing of the journals are being heavily criticised by the
mathematicians and scientists. Timothy Gowers the famous mathematician from
Cambridge University organized a formal boycott campaign in the year 2011, and the by
the end of August 2015 they collected 16000 signatures from scholar all around the world
pledging them not to publish their manuscripts for Elsevier.
Compare and contrast professional ethics