Discuss About The ACS Code Of Professional Conduct

Professional development

Discuss about the ACS Code of Professional Conduct.

As per the type of ethical dilemma that was discussed in the assignment1, further researches have taken place in this document. Hence it becomes possible to draw a clear picture on the activities of whistle blower. Hence, it becomes possible to take corrective actions against the whistle blowers of a company. Whistle blowers generally go against the company rules and regulation in order to raise voices against the misbehavior or mislead of business ethics or some time it may happen that whistle blower are those who revel companies private information intentionally in order to harm business processes.

While whistle blowers are concerned, they come into picture, when someone inside the organization is not trustworthy in order to maintain dignity and effectiveness on the work font being professional. ACS has introduced some values to maintain professionalism and the honesty in the work font, such as-

• The dominance of the public interest
• Honesty
• The advancement of the quality life
• Competence
• Professionalism
• Professional development

The above mentioned list of requirements is not viable enough to define as a professional conduct applicable for several practical situations. This list of codes is expected to resolve the ambiguities that are going on inside the organization concerning professional conduct. ACS Code of Professional conduct helps to resolve the ethical dilemmas related to ethical dilemmas (Bia and Kalika, 2007).

With the rapid changes, ICT industry is incorporating so many new characteristics and some relative changes. All people have right to be treated with the dignity and respect. Discrimination is unprofessional behavior without knowing the exact scenario. That can lead towards a form of harassment. ACS provides support to take appropriate action against whistle blowing, if a member of ACS found engaged in unethical behavior. According to this value, appropriate actions can be taken on order to punish the whistle blower while violating Code of Professional Conduct (den Bergh and Deschoolmeester, 2010).

Public interest takes more importance than the private and social interests. Any conflicts can also be resolved in favor of the public interest. It is required to safeguard the interest of the immediate stakeholders. It should be kept in mind that the personal interests do not conflict with the loyalty and duty for offering service to the public. To prioritize the value given to the public interest, list of steps are required (HR Update - Blowing the whistle, 2013).

• An employee needs to identify them who are potentially impacted by his work.
• An employee needs to preserve the security, integrity, utility and continuity of ICT
• An employee needs to safeguard the confidentiality in order be consistent with the information privacy.
• An employee should be conscious enough in order to understand the effects of his work upon the organizational value (Hunton and Rose, 2010).

As per the ACS code of conducts, an employee should not violate the trust of stakeholders or the trust of the public. Circumstances may appear like that an employee may gain more benefits by adopting unethical way. In this scenario it may happen that an employee will get benefits if he revel company’s data to other parties. This type of activities must not be tolerable when profession conduct is concerned. In order to maintain this professional value an employee is needed to-

• Reject to give or to offer any bribe to other parties in exchange of confidential data about the company.
• An employee should provide rational estimates for the task or the project in hand.
• An employee should not mislead clients as to the suitability of services or the products (Reynolds, 2012).

The dominance of the public interest

With the technological advancement, ICT technology has become a part of our life with many of its positive impact. With the technological advancement, major issues are coming up with the adverse effect of ICT. An ethical approach to identify and to solve the issues can minimize the unfavorable effects. To conduct this value an employee needs to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the impacts of their work using ICT, i.e. role of ICT to conduct the work of an employee (Richardson, Wang and Hall, 2012).

For an employee it is required to accept only those works, which are suitable to perform as per their knowledge. Even that employee should not hesitate to acquire additional knowledge from an appropriate knowledgeable person. That employee needs to be always aware about his own limitations in order stay in touch with the expertise and also in order to update himself on the required information. An employee needs to-

• Protect and respect stakeholders’ proprietary interest.
• An employee should be aware about the legislation, act and standards accordingly.
• An employee should not misinterpret his knowledge or skills.

Professionalism: An employee should engage himself to be updated as per the required knowledge and expertise in the work. He needs to increase awareness about the issues that can affect the profession and relationship with the organization and public.

Conclusion:

While whistle blowers are concerned, they come into picture, when someone inside the company is not trustworthy in order to maintain dignity and effectiveness on the work font being professional. With the rapid changes, ICT industry is incorporating so many new characteristics and some relative changes. ACS supports to take appropriate action against whistle blowing, if a member of ACS found engaged in unethical behavior. According to this value, appropriate actions can be taken on order to punish the whistle blower while violating Code of Professional Conduct.

References

Bia, M., & Kalika, M. (2007). Adopting an ICT code of conduct. Journal Of Ent Info Management, 20(4), 432-446. doi:10.1108/17410390710772704

den Bergh, J., & Deschoolmeester, D. (2010). Ethical Decision Making in ICT: Discussing the Impact of an Ethical Code of Conduct. CIBIMA, 1-11. doi:10.5171/2010.127497

HR Update - Blowing the whistle. (2013). Nursery World, 2013(4). doi:10.12968/nuwa.2013.5.4.1097735

Hunton, J., & Rose, J. (2010). Effects of Anonymous Whistle-Blowing and Perceived Reputation Threats on Investigations of Whistle-Blowing Allegations by Audit Committee Members. Journal Of Management Studies, 48(1), 75-98. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00934.x

Reynolds, G. (2012). Ethics in information technology. New york: Cengage learning.

Richardson, B., Wang, Z., & Hall, C. (2012). Blowing the Whistle Against Greek Hazing: The Theory of Reasoned Action as a Framework for Reporting Intentions. Communication Studies, 63(2), 172-193. doi:10.1080/10510974.2011.624396