Ethical Dilemma in ICT: Analysis, Recommendation, and ACS Code Review

This report analyzes an ethical dilemma faced by an ICT professional named Ken, as depicted in three YouTube videos. The assignment identifies the core ethical conflict, focusing on the decision-making process regarding a new information system and its implementation. The analysis utilizes the ...Read More

Running head: ETHICAL DILEMMA RELATED TO ICT
ETHICAL DILEMMA RELATED TO ICT
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1ETHICAL DILEMMA RELATED TO ICT
Table of Contents
Identification of Ethical Dilemma..............................................................................................2
Analysis of Ethical Dilemma.....................................................................................................3
Recommendation based upon Dilemma.....................................................................................5
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................7

2ETHICAL DILEMMA RELATED TO ICT
Identification of Ethical Dilemma
Ethical Dilemma also referred to as the ethical paradox is problem, which brings in
the process of decision-making between two of the existing moral imperatives, neither of the
which is unambiguously accepted or preferred (Anderson & Anderson, 2014). The
complexity takes a definite place and arises out of which the conflict related to the situation
which obeys the result related to the other transgressing issue.
Within the scenario of this case, Rob is a part of the management for the organization, which
has been aimed down this scenario. Ken, who is referred to as the Information and
Communications Professional, has built a new information system for the organization.
While, right before the day the system was about to go live, to, which Ken had already agreed
to, Rob gets a message about the system not going live on Monday to, which john is taken
aback (Yeslam Al-Saggaf, 2016, 1:22). He within no time calls John to his office and lets him
know of the situation. The next day, John visits Rob’s office and puts Ken over the call. Ken
while talking over the call with Rob says that, the System which was about to go online has
been undergoing tests for a long time. However, there are some of the tests, which are yet to
be run over the system to check whether the system is working fine without any flaws. For
the running of the tests over the system, Ken wants Rob to have a talk with the management
as well as the client to extend the deadline for the new system implementation for at least a
period of one month only (Yeslam Al-Saggaf, 2016, 2:34). Rob being tired that day, tells Ken
that he will have a talk with the client and get a month’s extension if possible. Within the
third scenario, the bank’s lending officer has called Ken to her office where he has been
asked by the officer reasons for the delay of his payment to the money, which Ken was lent
over by the bank. A default notice has been issued against Ken for not paying the last two
payments to the bank. To, which Ken puts forward the concern that he has resigned from the

3ETHICAL DILEMMA RELATED TO ICT
company and that it has been a concern for him to make payments but he ensures the bank
officer that he will not make delay in his further payments (Yeslam Al-Saggaf, 2016, 1:18).
The main ethical dilemma through, which Ken is undergoing in all of the three
scenarios, is that, firstly he is confused with the fact that whether he should put forward the
system to get live on Monday however knowing the fact that there are certain tests, which are
yet to be run over the new system (Mette & Scribner, 2014). Secondly, Ken again decides the
fact that he should stop the system from going live since, he realizes lately that if the system
goes live on Monday then there might be the occurrence of glitches or errors while the system
is in use. This might result to the causing of breakage within the work of the organization
hampering the business of the organization concerned with. Thirdly, Ken is again called by
the lending officer of the bank due to issues related to delay of payment. Ken left the job
within the organization instead of knowing that he had to pay his bills as well as the money
back which he had taken from the bank, hence, Ken was into an ethical dilemma in either of
the situations related to the implementation of the system as well as the leaving of his job
from the organization.
Analysis of Ethical Dilemma
One of the essential characteristic is related to the need of members to abide by the
code of ethics. Particularly for the ACS, the code has been established as the code related to
the professional conduct and forms a part of the regulations working within the society
(Kuntz et al., 2013). The Code of Professional Conduct has been identified with the help of
six core values related to ethics as well as associated with the specific requirements related to
the same (ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian
Computer Society, 2014). The members of the Society are required to abide by all of the

4ETHICAL DILEMMA RELATED TO ICT
ethics along with the acting of responsibility as well as integrity lying within all of the
dealings taking place professionally.
Being a member of the Australian Computer Science Code of Conduct, exists a
responsibility to uphold as well as advance forward with dignity, honor as well as effectively
standing out as a real professional (Iacobucci et al., 2013). The ACS values which have been
related to the ethical dilemma within this case needs to be analyzed with the help of the
following values mentioned down the preamble of the ACS Code of Conduct. These are,
 The Primary of the Public Interest- the interest which are directly as well as indirectly
related to the general public need to be placed at a position higher than that of the
personal, business as well as the sectional interests of the professional. Herein, related
to the case, Ken is a professional who was given a deadline to conduct the
implementation of the system and get it done with all of the test that need to be
worked upon the system for a proper checking (Wang & Calvano, 2015). However,
having some personal interest Ken delayed the work and ended up asking for an
extension of one month, which is required for the running of tests over the system.
This led to a delay of work on the organization’s end resulting in the upset of the
client deadline.
 The Enhancement of Quality of Life- it is required to strive for the enhancement of
the life quality for those who have been linked to the work and get affected directly or
indirectly. Within this scenario, Ken ended up asking for a one month extension and
was done with his work. While, John had to call the client up on behalf of the
management and ask for the deadline extension which led to a ruining of image for
John in front of the client.
 Honesty- honesty must be maintained in relation to the representation of skills along
with knowledge, services as well as products. Ken was however, honest in accepting

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the fact that the system still needs some tests to be run upon and honestly asked for a
deadline extension, which was very well appreciated by John as well as Rob
(Ametrano, 2014).
 Competence- the work needs to be done with competency as well as with diligence.
Related to the scenario, Ken did not work with competence neither with diligence
which led to a delay of work clearly.
 Professional Development- enhancement of the professional development of all the
workers working within the organization related to a specific project (Burlea &
Idowu, 2016). While, Ken committed a mistake, John as well as Rob was there to
provide him support in order to be done with the work leading to the satisfaction of
the client.
 Professionalism- enhancement within the integrity of the ACS Code of Conduct in
respect to the members for each other within the organization (FitzPatrick, 2014). Ken
was a failure in adhering to the Code of Conduct, however Rob and John was there to
provide him with a helping hand so that his mistakes are not blatantly visible to the
issues related to missing of the deadline as well as the satisfaction of the client.
Recommendation based upon Dilemma
As evident from the scenario, the deadline, which was given to the client for the
submission of the work was clearly missed by Ken. The missing of the deadline had a direct
effect upon the management including the likes of Rob as well as John who were a part of
management working within the organization. Hence, it can be recommended that the
deadline, which is anytime given to the client should be made after having a talk with the
team who will be entrusted upon with the work to have a clear understanding as to how much
time is needed by the team to reach towards the completion of the task. This will lead to a
proper work enabling the team working upon the project to have a clear idea about how much

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time they have in hand to complete with the task in hand. Relating to this, if still the team
fails to meet the deadline, then the entire responsibility will be of the team and not of the
management.
In relation to the above scenario, it will be far better if the team, which is working
upon the project shall have a direct conversation with the client to place their problems in
front of the client having a better implementation within the system. However, the team needs
to increase their work efficiency in relation to the task in hand relating to the status of the task
if that is urgent or they have an ample amount of time. Ken and his team, however had
neither of these with the client and hence, led to a deadline miss and client upset.

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Bibliography
ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian Computer
Society. (2014). [Ebook]. Retrieved from
https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-
Conduct_v2.1.pdf
Ametrano, I. M. (2014). Teaching ethical decision making: Helping students reconcile
personal and professional values. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 154-
161.
Burlea, A. S., & Idowu, S. O. (2016). The independence of managers: an ethical
dilemma. International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 4(2), 152-
171.
FitzPatrick, W. J. (2014). Dilemma for Ethical Realism. Challenges to moral and religious
belief: Disagreement and evolution, 237.
Iacobucci, T. A., Daly, B. J., Lindell, D., & Griffin, M. Q. (2013). Professional values, self-
esteem, and ethical confidence of baccalaureate nursing students. Nursing ethics, 20(4), 479-
490.
Kuntz, J. R. C., Kuntz, J. R., Elenkov, D., & Nabirukhina, A. (2013). Characterizing ethical
cases: A cross-cultural investigation of individual differences, organisational climate,
and leadership on ethical decision-making. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(2), 317-
331.
Mette, I. M., & Scribner, J. P. (2014). Turnaround, transformational, or transactional
leadership: An ethical dilemma in school reform. Journal of Cases in Educational
Leadership, 17(4), 3-18.

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Wang, L. C., & Calvano, L. (2015). Is business ethics education effective? An analysis of
gender, personal ethical perspectives, and moral judgment. Journal of Business
Ethics, 126(4), 591-602.
Anderson, M., & Anderson, S. L. (2014, June). GenEth: A general ethical dilemma analyzer.
In Twenty-Eighth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
Yeslam Al-Saggaf, 2016, August 18. Ken lets the system go live [video file] Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVpQ7OwPmK0
Yeslam Al-Saggaf, 2016, August 18. Ken fights back [video file] Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhkoGQNuCNE
Yeslam Al-Saggaf, 2016, August 18. Ken resigns [video file] Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxHeH86HVeY