IT Ethics Report: Case Study on IT Professional Practice and Ethics

This report examines IT professional practice and ethics through a case study involving an IT technician, Joe, facing an ethical dilemma regarding employee email monitoring. The report analyzes the situation, identifying stakeholders (Joe, management, staff, union, supervisor), emphasizing ideals like ...Read More

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I.T PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ETHICS
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Introduction
The purpose of this report is to discuss IT professional practice and Ethics based on a
case study. IT professional practice and Ethics is a set of rules that define the minimum
acceptable behavior of an IT professional (Kenneth McBride 2014). The case study has
presented an ethical dilemma to the IT professional concerned and therefore, this report focuses
on how to analyze such ethical situations and make the most appropriate decision. The report
also provides insights on real workplace scenarios that an IT professional is likely to encounter.
The report has been divided into 4 parts and each part has subparts. The structure is as
follows; Part 1, a description of the case study that forms the basis of this report. Second, a list of
the stakeholders involved in the case study. Part 2, ideals that play a role in decision making and
the criteria which are to be emphasized. Secondly, the obligations of the stakeholders in the case
study. Part 3, actions that will harm or benefit the stakeholders. Secondly, what the stakeholders
want to happen. Part 4, the best solution to the problem.
Part 1:
The case study is about Joe who has been faced by an ethical dilemma in his line of duty.
Joe is an It technician of the organization. The organization’s management is holding
negotiations about pay and conditions with the staff’s union. The negotiations are not
materializing and therefore the senior management has ordered that staff emails be monitored in
order to aid in negotiations. Joe advises the management that monitoring staff emails without
their consent will be an invasion of the staff's privacy (Xu et al. 2011). However, the
management insists that all emails sent via the business account remain the property of the
organization and thus the organization has the right to access the content of these emails.

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In regard to that Joe is instructed by his supervisor to conduct the monitoring and advice
management accordingly so that actions can be taken against the staff members who violate the
organization’s policy. Now Joe is in a dilemma on what to do. He has to choose between two
option which are; first, follow his professional ethical code of conduct which requires him to
honor and uphold the privacy of others (O'Leary 2016). Secondly, follow the directive by the
management based on the argument that all emails in the business account are a property of the
organization.
The main stakeholders in this case study are; Joe the IT technician in the organization and
who has encountered an ethical dilemma. Secondly, the management of the organization. The
management has instructed Joe to monitor the staff email and advise them accordingly. Third,
the staff who are the workers in the organization, they are the ones whose emails the
management has instructed to be monitored. Fourth, the union which is holding negotiations with
management. Fifth, Joe’s supervisor who is the person that Joe reports to.
Part 2:
In making the decision they are two ideals that are to be emphasized on which are; first,
the issue of the privacy of the staff members. The main consideration here will be whether
monitoring of staff emails without their consent will be an invasion on their privacy (Chang, Liu,
and Lin 2015). The second ideal is that of ownership of information communicated via business
email account. The consideration here will be the extent to which both the organization and the
staff have control over the information in a business email account (Xu et al. 2011).
The third ideal will be the organization’s policy regarding the use of business email
accounts by staff. The consideration here will be the type of communication that the organization

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has permitted the staff to have using the business email accounts. This will help in determining
what can be considered a violation of organizational policy regarding the use of business email
accounts (Hu et al. 2012).
An obligation is a cause of action or an act in which a person or an entity is legally or
morally bound (Ananthanarayanan et al. 2013). From the case study, the organization owes the
staff a set of obligations and the staff to owe the organization a set of obligations. The
organization is obligated to uphold and respect the privacy of its staff by all means (Yerby 2013).
Therefore, the organization has no right to access any information about its staff without the
consent of the staff affected. The organization is also obligated to inform their staff about the
policy regarding the use of business email accounts.
The staff/ employees are obligated to familiarize themselves with the organizational
policies provided to them by the organization (Hu et al. 2012). Ignorance of the policies should
be considered as a defense in matters regarding policy violation. The staff are also obligated to
use the resources provided to them by the organization in the right way as per the provisions of
the organization's policy (Banks 2016). The staff, therefore, have no right to misuse business
email accounts to have their private conversations with their peers or collogues.
Part 3
Monitoring the staff business email accounts without notifying the staff members
affected will greatly affect them. The staff may feel that their privacy is being invaded by the
organization’s management. This may lead to a sour relationship between the two parties in the
short term (Gelfand et al. 2012). The issue may escalate to long term consequences such as legal

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battles between the staff and the management. This may highly affect the loyalty of the staff to
the organization which will then lead to reduced productivity.
The staff may decide to report the issue to the trade union which may take ruthless
actions such as calling for a staff demonstration. The action may also lead to resistance by the
employees. The staff may end up resisting any policy that the management formulates since they
feel that the management is unfair to them. Employee resistance is a major drawback to the
implementation of change in an organization (Rainey and Fernandez 2012)
The management which is one of the major stakeholders wants the staff business email
accounts to be monitored. The management argues that they intend to use the insight obtained
from monitoring in solving the stalled talks between them and the staff’s union. The
management also wants to use monitoring to catch the staff who are violating the organization’s
policy and punish them accordingly. The management demands this without considering the
impact that it will have on the staff. Failure of the management to consider the interest of its staff
may lead to dissatisfaction among the staff members thus creating fertile grounds for conflicts
between the two parties (Chen et al. 2012).
No stakeholder should be given any greater consideration in coming up with the solution.
This is because a suitable solution is one which is unbiased and based on consideration of the
interest of both parties equitably. A biased solution will cause more harm than good since it will
escalate the problem leading to resistance by the party that feels offended (Gelfand et al. 2012).
Therefore, Joe, in this case, should be allowed to act under no duress or undue influence by the
management.

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Part 4:
According to Field, Tobin, and Reese-Weber (2014), the best way to manage conflicts is
by developing an amicable solution which defines a solution that is fair to all the stakeholders
involved. From the case study, the best solution would involve a series of actions which are;
first, the organization should ensure that the staff clearly understands the organization’s policy
regarding the use business email accounts and any punishment that is to be suffered by those
who violate the policies. This will prevent staff members from violating the organization’s policy
due to ignorance.
Secondly, the organization’s management should communicate to the staff members that
it intends to be monitoring the email conversation in the business email accounts. The
organization’s management should also explain to the staff members the reasons as to why they
will be conducting the monitoring. This will enable the organization to get the consent of the
staff on the monitoring issue (Xu et al. 2011).
Third, the staff members should respect and adhere to the organization’s policy regarding
the usage of business email accounts. This will prevent any staff member from facing
punishment as a result of the violation of the organization’s policy. According to Hu et al.
(2012), every worker has the responsibility to adhere to all rules and regulations set by the
employer as they form part of the employment contract.
Monitoring of staff business email accounts should only be done once the above three
actions are implemented. This is will not be considered as privacy invasion since the staff will be
aware of the activity (Posey et al. 2011). The staff will also be aware of what they are expected
to do with business email accounts, therefore, any violation of the same will justify a

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punishment. Implementation of the above three actions will promote cohesion between the
organization and its staff since there will be a common understanding between the two parties.
References

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Ananthanarayanan, R., Mohania, M.K., Gupta, A.K., Powers, C.S., Joshi, S. and Bhide, M.A.,
International Business Machines Corp, 2013. Automatic enforcement of obligations according to
a data-handling policy. U.S. Patent 8,561,126.
Banks, S., 2016. Everyday ethics in professional life: Social work as ethics work. Ethics and
Social Welfare, 10(1), pp.35-52.
Chang, S.E., Liu, A.Y. and Lin, S., 2015. Exploring privacy and trust for employee
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Chen, X.H., Zhao, K., Liu, X. and Dash Wu, D., 2012. Improving employees' job satisfaction
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Field, R.D., Tobin, R.M. and Reese-Weber, M., 2014. Agreeableness, social self-efficacy, and
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Gelfand, M.J., Leslie, L.M., Keller, K. and de Dreu, C., 2012. Conflict cultures in organizations:
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O'Leary, D.E., 2016. Ethics for big data and analytics. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 31(4), pp.81-84.

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Posey, C., Bennett, B., Roberts, T. and Lowry, P.B., 2011. When computer monitoring backfires:
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Rainey, H.G. and Fernandez, S., 2012. Managing successful organizational change in the public
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