Professional Ethics in ICT: Swinburne Briefing Paper, Semester 1, 2020

This briefing paper, prepared for Swinburne Business School's ICT30005 course, delves into the critical role of a code of ethics for ICT professionals. It begins by defining the concept of a code of ethics and its importance in guiding professional conduct, ensuring integrity, and promoting ethical decision-making within organizations. The paper highlights the need for such codes in addressing challenges like data manipulation, unauthorized access, and maintaining honesty and privacy. It analyzes key considerations, including the implementation of ethical policies, employee engagement, and awareness programs. The research findings emphasize the positive impact of a well-defined code of ethics on business performance, reputation, and employee responsibility. The paper concludes with recommendations for ethical leadership, including aligning organizational values, fostering open communication, and integrating core ethical principles such as integrity, objectivity, competence, confidentiality, and professional behavior. The paper utilizes several sources to support its arguments and offers a comprehensive overview of ethical considerations in the ICT sector, underscoring the importance of ethical practices for both individual and organizational success.

Code of Ethics- ICT professionals
Date: <please fill>
Prepared by: <please fill>
Subject: <please fill>
Tutor: <please fill>
1. Subject
The topic that is selected for the assessment is code of ethics. The brief is prepared for the purpose
highlighting the issues that are faced by the ICT professionals. This will include also highlight a better
option for enhancing the performance of the professionals. The main objective behind developing the paper
is to identify the current challenges that are faced by the ICT professionals. In order to research effectively
about the code of ethics that is associated with the working of ICT professionals it is important to review the
articles. With the help of this article it becomes easy to understand the concept.
2. Background
Code of ethics is referred to the guide of principles that is designed for the purpose of providing support
towards the professionals so that they can carry out the activities with proper integrity and honesty. Code of
ethics helps in ensuring that proper values are associated with the ICT professionals so that they can meet
their official work. Code of ethics is considered to be one of the most essential components while working
within an organization as this helps in evaluating the performance as an individual. There is a need to
establish code of ethics for ICT professionals as this helps in encouraging the behavior of the workers and
ensures that their performance are evaluated on the basis of ethical considerations. Code of ethics document
is developed with proper standards that are expected from ICT professionals important to distinguish
between the correct doings and wrong discussions so that it becomes easy to manage the overall
performance of the ICT professionals. According to the code of ethics that is developed for ICT
professionals, it states that they are not allowed to manipulate any data or to access unauthorized. Thus
every professional of ICT must follow this rules and regulations.
3. Analysis/Key Considerations
The main reason behind analyzing the importance of code of ethics for ICT professionals is to provide
them with proper working structure. It is important to ensure that proper methodology has been
followed for managing the code of ethics while working within an organization. Code of ethics is
importance as this ensures that every professional in ICT works efficiently with honesty and integrity.
In order to implement code of ethics it is important to make aware the employees about the
changes. The essential elements that are associated with the code of ethics include preparing
proper policies and guidance for managing the relationships between the other stakeholders. It is

important to engage the employees properly so that it becomes easy to create awareness among
the individuals for making ethical decision. With proper knowledge about ethical working it
becomes easy to manage the activities.
The ethical issues that are faced by ICT professionals at their workplace are wide in number. This
includes failure in maintaining privacy, honesty maintaining within the workplace, controlling the
employees working behavior and accuracy control. This issue has the potential to hamper the overall
performance of the employees. Thus there is a need to integrate proper resolution within the
professional area so that the overall performance can be enhanced. Hence it is recommended to
integrate the workplace with proper code of ethics so that the business ICT professionals can carry out
their activities effectively. There is a need to ensure that every employee follows proper code of ethics
and work accordingly. Hence with the implementation of proper code it will become easy to improve
the performance. The performance within the organization needs to be enhanced so that the overall
performance can be informed. It is important to enhance the business performance so that the overall
individuals performance can be enhanced.
4. Research Findings/Outcomes/Conclusions
a. After evaluating the code of ethics importance in the professional lives, it can be stated that there is
a need to manage the activities efficiently so that it can offer better support at the workplace. The
finding states setting right culture within an organization ensures that the business performance has
been improved. This also helps in establishing a good reputation. With an efficient code of ethics it
becomes easy to manage the overall performance within an organization. Proper use of ethics
ensures that the employees are responsible enough to meet the expectations of the business. With
the help of proper code of ethics within and business organization it becomes easy to enhance the
performance of the employees. The main purpose behind establishing an efficient code of ethics
within an ICT organization is that it ensures that that every employee within the organization
abides by the code of ethics. This reduces the chances of ethical issues that can take place within
an organization. Thus in order to enhance the performance of a business it is important to establish
proper ethical considerations that will prevent the employs from doing unethical works.
5. Recommended Action
As an ethical leader it is important to define and align all the essential values associated with the
organization so that each employee can work efficiently. This will enhance the way works are
carried out within an organization. Every employee working with an organization must be aware
about the communication process so that they do not face any issue while working with an
organization. An ethical leader must always focus on creating awareness among the employee’s
about thee ethical issues. With proper implementation of code of ethics it is expected that the
chances of errors can be reduced. Code of ethics is essential for performing activities with proper
honesty and reliability. The leaders must ensure that the organization is implemented with 5 basic

codes of ethics that are integrity, objectivity, professional competence, confidentiality and
professional behavior. Hence it can be concluded that with the help of proper code of ethics it will
become easy to improve the performance of the employees within the ICT sector. Thus there is
need to implement proper measures that will be capable of enhancing the performance.
6. References
Gotterbarn, D.W., Brinkman, B., Flick, C., Kirkpatrick, M.S., Miller, K., Vazansky, K. and Wolf,
M.J., 2018. ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
Hartman, L.P., DesJardins, J.R. and MacDonald, C., 2014. Business ethics: Decision making for
personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kelchner, L., 2017. The importance of ethics in organizations. Accessed May, 10, p.2017.
Knapp, S., Gottlieb, M.C. and Handelsman, M.M., 2018. The benefits of adopting a positive
perspective in ethics education. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 12(3), p.196.
Maxwell, B., 2017. Codes of Professional Conduct and Ethics Education for Future
Teachers. Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 24(4), pp.323-347.
Mintz, S., 2017. Reimagining Ethics Education. The CPA Journal, 87(9), pp.8-9.
Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it
right. John Wiley & Sons.
Walters, S., Heilbronn, R. and Daly, C., 2018. Ethics education in initial teacher education: pre-
service provision in England. Professional Development in Education, 44(3), pp.385-396.
March 2020 Page | 1