INFO5990 Professional Practice in IT
Professional Ethics Dilemmas
1. What is meant by ‘Ethics’?
In our society we have several sets of ‘interaction rules’ that we employ in our work and in our everyday life.
These rules can be classified as etiquette, law, morals and ethics.
Etiquette establishes codes of behaviour and courtesy. Failure to observe these can cause you much pain.
Law consists of a series of rules that are enforced by the police and the courts. Failure to observe these an
cost you money and worse.
Morals are accepted standards of right and wrong. We develop a system of morals throughout our life.
Ethics consist of general and abstract concepts of right and wrong which can guide our actions,
particularly in our business life.
There are several ethical theories1 that may be broadly called consequentialist, meaning that the morality or
otherwise of an action is determined by its consequences. A division is usually made according to the answer we
give to the question “consequences to whom?” and runs as follows; an action is morally sound for:



Utilitarianism: if the consequences are positive for everyone;
Ethical Altruism: if the consequences are positive for others;
Ethical Egoism: if the consequences are positive for the individual.
It is helpful to consider the outcomes of possible courses of action from each of these standpoints in order to
make our decision.
Another ethical framework that we often rely on to make moral decisions is the so-called Golden Rule, which
states that “we should do unto others as we would have others do unto us”.
By listing some of the ethical issues recently or still under debate, we can understand the importance of this area
of philosophy and how the ethical frameworks described above can have a bearing on our everyday and
professional lives. For example, consider the following questions from an ethical stand point:















Should we permit stem cell research?
Should we allow abortion, whether at all or under what circumstances?
Should we keep information confidential? Consider medical records and crime prevention here.
Should we tell the truth to worried relatives or dying patients?
Should parents be allowed to decide what education their children receive?
Should religious beliefs overrule doctors when choosing treatment?
Should we stop or discourage people from committing suicide if we can?
Should we allow or support euthanasia or assisted suicide?
Should we allow animal research?
Should we allow the killing of whales for scientific research? For food?
Should we allow capital punishment?
Should we support marriage as an institution?
Should people be monogamous?
Should we allow gun ownership?
Should we act pre-emptively against potential criminals?
Many professional organisations, such as Engineering Australia and the Australian Computer Society, formulate
codes of conduct which exhort their members to behave ethically in their professional activities. You will hear
about these later in the course.
Professionals in the IT industry are expected to behave ethically and professionally 2. The code of ethics
espoused by the Australian Computer Society expects its members to:
1.
2.
3.
Protect the public safety, health, and welfare.
Perform duties only in areas of competence.
Be truthful and objective.
1
See Paul Newall Ethics (2005) http://www.galilean-library.org/int11.html
2
See Holtzapple and Reece, Concepts in Engineering, McGraw-Hill, 2004, p48
1
Ethics Supplement
INFO5990 Professional Practice in IT
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Behave in an honourable and dignified manner.
Continue learning to sharpen technical skills.
Provide honest hard work to employers or clients.
Inform the proper authorities of harmful, dangerous, or illegal activities.
Be involved with civic and community affairs.
Protect the environment.
Do not accept bribes, or gifts that would interfere with engineering judgment.
Protect confidential information of employer or client.
Avoid conflicts of interest.
2. Conflicts of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when an engineer’s loyalties and obligations may be compromised because of selfinterest or other loyalties and obligations. For example, suppose you are responsible for selecting an alternator
for an engine your company is constructing. It so happens that your father owns an electric motor company that
you will inherit when your father dies. It turns out the alternators manufactured by your father’s company are
the best ones for the job. How should you proceed with the selection of a supplier for the alternators?
3. Whistle Blowing
Whistle blowing is a term used to describe the act of an employee informing authorities of harmful, dangerous,
or illegal activities being carried out by the company he works for. When performing such a public duty, the
whistle blower must be prepared to pay the consequences. He may lose his job and may find it difficult to find
new employment. It clearly faces the employee with a difficult ethical decision.
No code of ethics can cover every possible ethical situation. You will need to make your own ethical judgments
when the need arises. Hopefully this discussion of ethical issues will help you to decide what to do.
4. Further food for thought
In relation to the readings and lectures for this week, answer the following questions:
1.
In the case of flaw found in the Intel Pentium chip, what would you do if you were the engineer who found
out the flaw? If you were the managing director of that Intel Pentium project, what would you do if you
know about the flaw?
2.
Is the impact of engineering and computers in medicine and health care, manufacturing industries and
scientific research and business always bad? Give examples of good or bad impacts.
3.
Does automation always lead to job-losses? What measures might be taken to reduce the impact of
automation on unskilled labour?
4.
Find out how common computer viruses work such as worms and trojan horses work. Find out about the
cost of computer viruses to society.
5.
How hard would it be for you to create and release a computer virus into society? Under what conditions
would you do this?
Make a note of any further questions or issues that you would like to raise at next week’s tutorial.
5. Ethical Dilemmas – what would you do?
On your own, or in company with your project teams consider each of the following situations and decide what
you believe to be the ethical decision.
Make use of the ethical frameworks described in this week’s readings and be prepared to explain how you/your
group arrived at your/.their decision. Was it a unanimous decision? If not, which issue(s) were not agreed upon?
1.
You have a friend who has bought a piece of useful software and is prepared to lend you the CD so that you
can install it on your computer.
2.
You find a friend busily creating a new virus which he believes will be hard to detect. He says that it does
not destroy any data, it just causes a silly face to pop-up on the screen for 15 seconds then disappear each
time the infected machine is booted.
2
Ethics Supplement
INFO5990 Professional Practice in IT
3.
You are visiting a colleague who is supervising the construction of a new road bridge, which currently
meets safety requirements, but because of inferior (though cheaper) materials being used, it is likely to
become defective within ten years. You are not directly responsible but are aware of what is going on.
4.
You are responsible for quality control in the manufacture of small wooden toys. You have the choice of
using a lead-based paint, which has been used for years and is relatively stable, or to specify an acrylic paint
which wears less well and is about twice the cost.
5.
You receive a ‘good luck’ email message suggesting that if you send copies of the message to ten of your
friends you will be sure to have very good luck for the coming year.
6.
You are sent to train users of a new piece of equipment or software. During training it becomes apparent to
you that the equipment or software has a small defect, not too serious, but potentially annoying. It is going
to cost a lot, and take up a lot of time, if you decide to report the defect either to your company or to the
client. Perhaps you can just ignore it, get on with your training and hope that it will not show up.
3
Ethics Supplement