Analysis of IT Ethics Case Study in Professional Environments Course

This case study analyzes an IT ethics dilemma within an accounting firm, where junior management staff are making data entry errors. The analysis employs the Thomas White methodology to evaluate the consequences of these errors, including potential impacts on consumer retention, revenue, and company reputation. The assignment outlines actions Brenda, the protagonist, can take to mitigate these issues, such as staff training, improved working environments, and data verification processes. It further relates the scenario to the ACS Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, as well as relevant Australian legislation concerning data privacy and government access to user information. References are provided to support the analysis.

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS
Assignment Cover Sheet
Subject Name: Professional Environments
Assignment Name/Number:
Date of Submission:
Participant Name:
ACS Member Number
Email Address:
Declaration:
I declare that the assignment is based on my own work and that all
material previously written or published in any source by any other person has
been duly acknowledged in the assignment. I have not submitted this work, or
a significant part thereof, previously as part of any academic program. In
submitting this assignment, I give ACS permission to copy for assessment
purposes only.

1INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS
ANSWER TO CASE STUDY 4:
Accounting is a systematic method to measure, communicate and record data
regarding the financial transactions. Accounting plays an important role for a business
because it helps to make successful decisions by the managers about the profit of the
company, profit status of the company (Hilton and Platt 2013). In this case study, Brenda
found that the staff of junior management are making wrong data entry in the software,
which further results to company’s loss. The dilemma for Brenda will be discussed and
handled using Thomas White methodology.
THOMAS WHITE METHODOLOGY
STEP 1: ANALYZE THE CONSEQUENCES: The world is full of competition. One
organization is looking for the corruption of its competitor (Gershon 2013.). Errors in the data
of the software will result in various kinds of negative consequences which will be a good
opportunity for other organization to compete in the market. As the staffs of junior
management entered bad or inaccurate data in a software it can leads to many negative
consequences like (RingLead 2019)
 The rate of consumer retention and satisfaction will be lowered
 Loss in the market revenue
 The production of the organization will become low
 Resources consumed by the products will be high
 The reports regarding organization’s products and market place will changed
 The delivery regarding the product and the mails will be distorted
 The churn rate of the organization will increase
 Negative effect on the company’s reputation.
The dilemma directly hurts the organization (reputation, market competition, operations),
customers of the organization. The long term consequences are the company’s reputation
revenue loss, reports distortion while the short term consequence are the productivity loss,
less resource consumption.
STEP 2: ANALYZE THE ACTIONS: According to the case study, Brenda can take
multiple actions to avoid this type of misconduct in the organization. The level or the rate of
Data entry errors is high which implies that the error is done unintentionally. Now, Brenda
should imply some critical steps to recover the dilemma and make sure that the organization
does not faces this type of dilemma in future again. Some of the steps that can be taken by
Brenda are-
 The staffs of the organization should be trained on the importance of data by some
specialist because the employee will reduce this type of error only when they know
the importance of information for the organization.
 The organization should provide a good working environment for the employees by
offering the employees with regular breaks, provide suitable lightning and desktop to
the employees
 Overloading should be avoided by hiring suitable number of staffs. The work of an
organization should be divided among the employees which will reduce the stress of
the employee.
 Priority of Accuracy should be higher than Speed. Data entry based organization
always focus on the typing speed but it is also important for this type of organization
to also focus on the typing accuracy of the employees.
 Double check the entered data. A data entry method should always contain a
manager who will check the entered data and examine whether the data is accurate
or inaccurate.

2INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS
STEP 3: MAKE DECISIONS: The accounting firm can face different problems due to the
bad data entered by the staff of junior management. Brenda should focus on the loss of
the organization keeping the company’s policy in mind. She can talk with the higher
authority of the organization to deduct the minimum amount from every employee’s
salary and the dilemma should be recovered immediately. Brenda should confirm that
this type of dilemma should not be repeated in the organization.
ACS CODE OF ETHICS: The mentioned scenario follows the following code of ethics
(McDermid 2015)-
 PRIORITIES
 HONESTY
 SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS
ACS CODE OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT: The clause of professional conduct that are
relevant to the professional conduct are (Gotterbarn 2013)-
 I must endeavour to preserve the confidentiality of the information of others
 I must advise my clients and employers as soon as possible of any conflicts of
interest or conscientious objections which face me in connection with my work
 I must not knowingly mislead a client or potential client as to the suitability of a
product or service.
 I must consider and respect people's privacy which might be affected by my work.
 I must respect my employees and refrain from treating them unfairly.
RELEVANT AUSTRALIAN LEGISLATION: The government of Australia passed a new
legislation which allow the authorities of law enforcement to force the tech companies which
will hand over the information of user even it is encrypted by BBC (end to end) encryption
(Zwart, Humphreys and Dissel 2014).

3INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS
REFERENCES:
Gershon, R.A., 2013. The transnational media corporation: Global messages and free
market competition. Routledge.
Gotterbarn, D., 2013. 13. ICT governance and what to do about the toothless tiger (s):
Professional organisations and codes of ethics1. Professionalism in the Information and
Communication Technology Industry, 3, p.267.
Hilton, R.W. and Platt, D.E., 2013. Managerial accounting: creating value in a dynamic
business environment. McGraw-Hill Education.
McDermid, D., 2015. Ethics in ICT: an Australian perspective. Pearson Higher Education
AU.
RingLead, R. (2019). 100 Consequences of Bad Data Standardization. [online] RingLead.
Available at: https://www.ringlead.com/blog/consequences-of-bad-data-standardization/
[Accessed 18 Apr. 2019].
Zwart, M.D., Humphreys, S. and Dissel, B.V., 2014. Surveillance, big data and democracy:
Lessons for Australia from the US and UK. UNSWLJ, 37, p.713.