IT Ethics: Scenario 3 - Early Launch Ethical Dilemma Analysis Report

This report analyzes an IT ethics scenario centered around an early product launch. The scenario presents an ethical dilemma where a CEO pressures a project director to deliver a product ahead of schedule without encryption to secure a new contract, despite the project manager's concerns about security risks. The project manager grapples with whether to prioritize potential profits or the security of the client's data and the company's reputation. The report utilizes the Doing Ethics Technique (DET) to analyze the situation, addressing key questions such as the facts, issues, affected parties, ethical implications, and potential solutions. The analysis considers the impacts on the company, customer, and employees, and explores options for the project manager, ultimately suggesting a meeting with all stakeholders as the best approach. The report references various sources to support its ethical analysis and decision-making process.

Running head: IT ETHICS: SCENARIO 3-EARLY LAUNCH
IT Ethics: Scenario 3-Early Launch
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IT ETHICS: SCENARIO 3-EARLY LAUNCH1
Ethical dilemma refers to the problem related making of decisions between two possible
moral imperatives (Allen, 2012). In the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=v5M7ohdZ6qA the CEO of the company asks the project director to deliver a product three
months early without any encryption for the purpose of making much more benefits. So the
project director haves a conversation with the project manager and tells him that they can deliver
the product early without any encryption and would include the encryption in the later updates
(youtube.com, 2018). The project director also tells the project manager about the various profits
they would be getting if they deliver the products early. But the project manager explains all the
issues that might arise after delivering of the products due to lack of the encryption (Ford &
Richardson, 2013). The situation puts the project manager into a situation of ethical dilemma
whether he should proceed with the ideas of the project director and CEO so as to get much more
profits or should he think of the about the security of the client.
The project manager faces a dilemma about what decision he should take. The main
thoughts that arose in his mind was if to proceed with the instructions of the project director and
earn more profits or should he think about the security of the application that is going to be
delivered to the client (youtube.com, 2018). The manager thinks of the security of the client as
any kind of breach would lead to leakage of vital data and would also effect the reputation of the
company as well. Along with this it would be totally unethical to provide a product not according
to the criteria’s of the customer that is without encryption (McShane & Von Glinow, 2013).
Along with this if the project manager is capable of delivering the product before deadline
without encryption then the company tells them that they would be providing addition benefits
for him and his team. The company would also get extra benefits if they deliver the product
before time. But certainly the reputation of the company get effected it encryption of the clients

IT ETHICS: SCENARIO 3-EARLY LAUNCH2
application is not done. Thus the manager faces a very complex situation of ethical dilemma but
if he applies the DET then he could surely find a way out of this situation.
Doing Ethics Technique can be used by the manager for analyzing the situation and this
would initially help him out coming out of the situation of ethical dilemma (Lo, 2012). The
analysis of the situation can be done by answering the questions given below:
Q1. What's going on?
Ans: The CEO has asked the Project Director to instruct the Project Manager deliver the product
before the deadline without providing any feature of encryption (youtube.com, 2018). This
instruction has been provided so as to get a new contract of 3 Million and this early delivery
would help a lot in getting the new contract and would also open the gate for more opportunities.
Q2. What are the facts?
Ans: Following are the facts responsible for the dilemma:
 Delivery of the product without encryption would make it face the risk of getting hacked.
 The delivery of the product before time would affect the reputation of the company in a
positive way.
 In case of failure of the product then the reputation of the company would get affected in
a negative way.
 Delivery of the product before time would help the company get new contract thereby
providing the company with more benefits.
 The project manager and his bonus would get a handsome amount of bonus if delivered
before time.
Q3. What are the issues?
Ans: The main issues of the dilemma are given below:
 If to proceed with the instructions provided by the project director and the CEO.
 If to wait and provide a completed product that would be consisting of encryption without
thinking about the bonus
Q4. Who is affected?

IT ETHICS: SCENARIO 3-EARLY LAUNCH3
Ans: The failure of the product would affect the company, customer as well as all the employees
of the organization. If hacking occurs then breach of customer’s data can occur which will affect
the client along with the customers of the client as well. The reputation of the company would
also get affected (youtube.com, 2018). The employees who have worked in the project would be
totally demotivated and career of those employees would also get effected. The project manager
might also get dismissed if he ignores the instruction of the project director (Wachs, 2017). Even
if the project manager proceeds according to the instruction then he only has to answer if failure
of the project takes place.
Q5. What are the ethical issues and their implications?
Ans: The main ethical issue that might arise is that the client would be provided with a product
which would not be according to their requirement and along with this the client would also be
not informed about the missing encryption feature. Another dilemma that the project manager
faces is weather to think about the extra bonus for himself and his team.
Q6. What could have been done about it?
Ans: This ethical dilemma might be tackled if the company thinks in proper way and does not
force the employees to follow their instructions (youtube.com, 2018). The whole project tem
along with the project manager, project director and the CEO might arrange a meeting where
everyone would present their views so as to take the correct decision. Or simply the project
manager could have followed the instructions, thought about the bonus and the reputation and
then proceed with the delivery of the product with missing feature (Black, (2013).
Q7. What are the options?
Ans: There are various options for the project manager and those options are listed below:
 Proceed according to the instructions of the higher officials and release the product and
later release an update of the product with the addition of the encryption feature which
was missing in the previous version.
 Can talk with team and discuss about the matter and analyze each and every risk that
might arise due to lack pf the encryption along with analyzing the possible outcomes if
the product faces a problem.
Q8. Which option is the best and why?

IT ETHICS: SCENARIO 3-EARLY LAUNCH4
Ans: The best option for the project manager is to arrange a meeting between everyone involved
in the project so as come out with a proper result. Besides this the project manager can explain
all the negative outcomes that might arise due to missing feature of encryption to the project
director after discussing with other team members (Sieber & Tolich, 2013). Along with this the
project manager should also think of positive reputation that can be earned when proper product
is delivered and not about the bonus that they might receive after delivering the unfinished
product.

IT ETHICS: SCENARIO 3-EARLY LAUNCH5
References:
Allen, K. (2012). What is an ethical dilemma. The New Social Worker, 19(2), 6-7.
Black, J. (2013). Mixed news: The public/civic/communitarian journalism debate. Routledge.
Ciulla, J. B. (Ed.). (2014). Ethics, the heart of leadership. ABC-CLIO.
Ford, R. C., & Richardson, W. D. (2013). Ethical decision making: A review of the empirical
literature. In Citation classics from the Journal of Business Ethics (pp. 19-44). Springer,
Dordrecht.
Lo, B. (2012). Resolving ethical dilemmas: a guide for clinicians. Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins.
McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. (2013). M Organizational Behavior. New York, New York:
McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Sieber, J. E., & Tolich, M. B. (2013). Planning ethically responsible research (Vol. 31). Sage.
Wachs, M. (Ed.). (2017). Ethics in planning. Routledge.
youtube.com. (2018). Scenario 3: Early Launch. YouTube. Retrieved 22 March 2018, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5M7ohdZ6qA