Analyzing Business Code of Ethics in Professional Environments

This case study analyzes the ethical, professional, and legal issues surrounding Alex, the Production Manager at Initech Corp, and the IT Manager's restrictive policies. The analysis identifies violations of the ACS Code of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct, particularly concerning the enhancement of quality of life, honesty, and professional development of employees. The IT Manager's restrictions hamper employee work processes, leading to potential unethical behavior. Recommendations include consulting management to address programmer concerns, granting employees greater work freedom while monitoring activities to protect company interests. The report references ACS guidelines and relevant literature on ethical challenges in IT.

Running head: CODE OF ETHICS RELATED TO BUSINESS
CODE OF ETHICS RELATED TO BUSINESS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction of the case
The analysis is based on case study of Alex who has been working in the IT field for
the last 10 years. He has been performing different roles including IT Manager, Business
Analyst and Programmer. Alex has recently joined Initech Corp. in the post of the Production
Manager of the company. The company already has an IT Manager who manages the
network infrastructure and the server of the company. However, the employees are not happy
with the working process of the IT Manager. The directors of the company are strict about the
privacy issues of the company. The IT Manager has therefore imposed many rules regarding
the use of the computer systems of the company on the programmers. The point of view of
Paul is that the restrictions are necessary to prevent wrong usage of the systems against the
interest of the company (Burmeister et al. 2014).
The ethical, professional and legal issues related to the case
The issues related to this case study are that the IT Manager of the company has
restricted the employees from performing their own duties and restricted them from the usage
of their own computers. The confidentiality agreements are signed by the employees of the
organization before they join, hence the issue related to trust on the employees is hampered
by the activities of the IT Manager (Clarke 2016).
Ethical issues in the case related to the ACS Code of Ethics
The decision of the CEO does not correspond with the following values as stated by
the ACS Code of Ethics (Acs.org.au 2017),
(2) The Enhancement of Quality of Life - The company has violated this code of
ethics as they are not trying to enhance the quality of life of the employees in the
organization. The work of the programmers has been made more complex and this hampers
their personal lives as well.

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(3) Honesty – The company does not trust the integrity and honesty of the
programmers even after their agreement with the organization before joining it.
(5) Professional Development – The company does not strive for professional
development of its staff. The reason is that the company is providing hindrance in the work of
the employees by not giving them any independence regarding their work process and
thereby restricting them from achieving their goals (Ferguson, Thornley and Gibb 2016).
Issues related to the Code of Professional conduct stated by ACS
According to the Code of Professional Conduct as stated by ACS, in relation to the
above stated values considered by the organization, the following points related to
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) are applicable (Acs.org.au 2017),
Code violated 1.2.2(c) The company is not trying to align their policies with the
perceptions and the likes of the employees working for them and providing hindrance in their
work process.
Code violated 1.2.2(d) The company is not taking any steps regarding the
improvement of the job satisfaction of the employees, their ability to achieve the goals and
the way they control the process of work.
Code violated 1.2.5(c) The company is not following this principle and not taking any
actions regarding the motivation and encouragement of the employees. On the contrary, the
restrictions that were imposed on the programmers was hampering their work process.
Code violated 1.2.5(d) The organization is therefore not supporting the professional
development of the employees and is not aware of the different needs of the employees.

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Code violated 1.2.6(c) The company is not taking any steps regarding the
opportunities that are provided to employees based on their skills and they are prevented from
achieving their goals and work in an independent manner.
Recommendations related to the case study
The recommendation related to this case study is that Alex should consult the
management of the company regarding the issues of the programmers. The steps taken by
Paul have restricted the work process of the employees and this can further lead unethical
steps taken by the employees to protect their own interests. This can be said as the employees
have already taken such steps like uploading and downloading the source codes. This can be
prevented by allowing the employees access to their own computers and giving them freedom
to work. The activities of the employees however need to be checked to protect the interest of
the company.

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References
Acs.org.au (2017). Search Results. [online] Acs.org.au. Available at:
https://www.acs.org.au/search.html?q=ACS+CODE+OF+PROFESSIONAL+CONDUCT
[Accessed 29 Nov. 2017].
Burmeister, O., Al-Saggaf, Y., Schwartz, M. and Johnson, L., 2014. Internet resources to help
Australian ICT professionals identify and solve ethical challenges. ACIS.
Clarke, R., 2016. Big data, big risks. Information Systems Journal, 26(1), pp.77-90.
Ferguson, S., Thornley, C. and Gibb, F., 2016. Beyond codes of ethics: how library and
information professionals navigate ethical dilemmas in a complex and dynamic information
environment. International Journal of Information Management, 36(4), pp.543-556.