Report: Ethical Codes and Enforcement in IT for Align Technology

This report examines the importance of ethical and legal measures within IT, using Align Technology Inc. as a case study. It covers the enforcement of IT ethics policies, addressing privacy, equal opportunities, sexual harassment, and criminal conduct. The report details disciplinary actions, including warnings, penalties, and termination, and highlights resources like human resources, senior management, and legal support. It also emphasizes the code of conduct for IT professionals, data security measures, and the importance of maintaining data integrity and customer trust. The report concludes by underscoring the significance of ethical and legal measures for productivity and profitability.

Task 5

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Enforcement of IT codes of Ethics Policy..............................................................................1
Disciplinary Actions...............................................................................................................3
Resources ...............................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
The ethics and the legal measures are required to be followed by the all sort of the
organisations. The better enforcement and proper disciplinary actions that are been taken into the
consideration by firm. For report, Align technology Inc. is taken as company of context. It is a
USA based firm working in IT services. This report covers various ethical measures and there
enforcement for better management of ethical operations (Commonly Requested U.S. Laws &
Regulations. (2017)).
Enforcement of IT codes of Ethics Policy
The effective management of IT ethics is very necessary for the effective running of the
various operations of the company. It involved the various legal, social and philosophical issues
such as:
 Privacy: The cited firm has to look after the effective management of the various
operations of the company that helps the company to increase the level of protection of
its employees in a better way to meet the requirements of the customer's as well as the
employee's. Business must take effective measures to protect and safeguard the personal
information of the employee's.
 Equal opportunities: The organisation must look after the effective management of
providing the equal opportunities to all of its employee's in the organisation, in regard of
their colour, race, nationality, religion, and gender. It involves the enforcement of the
equal pay, training and job opportunities to all the employee's on the basis of their
competence and knowledge.
 Sexual harassment: The company must look after the effective measures to prevent any
sort of sexual harassment with any employee, in order to maintain the goodwill and trust
level of the employee's over the organisation. Any sort of complaint on such issue must
be dealt with utmost sensitivity (U.S. Federal. (2017)).
 Criminal conduct: The cited firm has to look after the effective measures to see through
it that the employee's which are been recruited in the company doesn't possess or have
any criminal record. Any employee found with such indulgence should be handles with
appropriate disciplinary actions.
Various legal and ethical issues related is related to IT security and privacy are as
follows:
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 The improper or illegal use of the various mobile cellular or wireless devises in the office
has to be prohibited in order to avoid the transferring of vital and important data of the
company to outsiders.
 Unethical access to the systems or the devices of the company is meant to be not allowed,
in order to safeguard the personal data or information of the company.
 The employee's in any circumstance must not provide the cited firm's intellectual
property to anyone, which may affect the growth and development of the cited firm or the
other employee's.
 Also, the cited firm must possess ethical and legal licences to carry out certain operations
that can affect the productivity of company. This will help the company to maintain its
informational security (Woo, (2017)).
Code of Conduct of IT professional
IT professional has to follow a significant code of conduct to maintain the dignity,
integrity and productivity of the company. Some major codes of conduct are:
 Ethically using the various IT components that are been placed into the organisation.
 Avoiding to gain the access to others personal or confidential data information or data.
 Not possessing any sort of unethical devices that can make the company to lose a better
share of the profitability, data integrity and customer's trust level.
 Not using unlawful measures or practices, getting the work done and meet the
requirements of the operations or the clients.
 Denying the bribe or other unlawful measures to provide or compromise the intellectual
properties of the company.
Measures to improve data security
Different measures to improve the data security are:
 Establishing the proper measures to safeguard the personal or confidential data or
information that are been stored by the company for the better management of the firm
and impacting the growth of cited firm.
 Placing firewalls and other restrictive software's and hardware to prevent the stealing of
data from the systems of IT firm.
 Validating the employee's before their recruitment in order to prevent any sort of legal
issue.
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Disciplinary Actions
Various disciplinary actions can be taken into the consideration by IT firm are such as:
 Giving the warnings in verbal or written form to indicate the employee about its
misconduct .
 Penalties, deductions or demotions can be made as an attempt to provide the idea of the
severity of the misdeed and preventing its future occurrence.
 Termination of the employment or business contract can be followed after the integrity
and ethicalness is been compromised and breached.
 Legal actions can be taken in order to sustain the integrity and wellness of the actions in
the firm.
 Regular check must me done in order to provide the suitable idea to the employees about
the ethical measures and practices that are been followed by the company.
Resources
Various resources are been taken into the consideration that helps the firm to improve the
integrity and ethicalness of the system. Some major resources are:
 Human resources: They will be the driving force behind the management of the various
operations of the company and meet the requirements that helps in the effective
management of the ethical practices in firm (Zaineb, (2018)).
 Senior management: They will be the persons who will decide and draft the policies,
which is meant to be implemented in the firm. Any issue of great seriousness must be
handled by them.
 Company legal support: They will look after all the legal measures of the company and
will provide the better idea and guidance of the various legal issues.
 CEO office: They are on the highest authority and will look after all the ethical and legal
aspects of the company.
CONCLUSION
Thus, from the report, the importance of ethical and legal measures are been discussed.
Its appropriate enforcement and the code of conduct of IT employees are been discussed along
with the different sort of legal measure's that are been followed by the firm to have a better
productivity and profitability. Other than this, the resources of various legal aspects are also been
considered.
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REFERENCES
Online
Commonly Requested U.S. Laws & Regulations. (2017). [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.usa.gov/laws-and-regulations>
U.S. Federal. (2017). [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/federal.php>
Woo. M., (2017). Ethics & IT Professional. . [Online]. Available through:
<https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/3/ethics-and-the-it-professional>
Zaineb. A., (2018). Ethics in the Workplace . [Online]. Available through:
<https://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-design/ethics-in-the-workplace>
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