Challenges Faced By ICT Professionals: An Analysis Based On A Case Study

Importance of Public Interest

Discuss about the ICT Professionals And Challenges .

ICT professionals face various challenges in their professional life that correspond to various ethical, legal, professional and personal factors. Every action of an ICT professional must be in the interest of the public. Serving the society must be their top priority as every action they take is judged in that factor. The ethical, the professional and the legal factors are the next in line as these are the factors that govern the outcome of the decisions taken by an ICT. The person must abide by certain rules and it would not be viable for the professional to do otherwise as such actions will either make or break the person’s entire career. These values guide the society and its beings towards a better life by providing with a set of guidelines that they must utilize to achieve better outcomes. A combination of various issues can be identified from the case study that can be used to analyse the different challenges that an ICT professional might face in their professional life. The case study consists of various scenarios from personal issues to professional issues. These issues imply that every decision of one’s life can affect one’s professional life. The decisions taken by a professional must not always be aimed at improving his or her career opportunities as lying to get a job or a promotion might not always be fruitful at a later point of time. The most important factor being that the ICT professional must have ethical and professional values that must be aimed at serving the society.

Bridget Donovan did not disclose any information about her information about her past to the insurance company she started working in. Legally, a candidate can withhold information until it is a mandate to provide such information. The insurance company had asked her about her past and any criminal activity that she might have been involved in. However, she did not disclose the information about it and violated the terms of her employment.

It is highly illegal that the project managers such as Bridget charge more money to the customer than the actual amount.  

Jamie had started a gossip at the insurance company about Bridget’s past. Sharing information about someone’s past is highly unprofessional. The information was not at all related to Bridget’s professional life and therefore the information that was shared was irrelevant in the work atmosphere.

Factors Affecting Professional Life

Bridget joined a state government department. The ERP system acquisition project was being focussed on. Here, Bridget was approached by the senior salesman of one of the contending companies to discuss the project’s requirements. The request is professional however the medium of request convey is not. Approaching a person for professional reasons through person means is not at all ethical. Roger wanted to shift the professional relationship to a personal relationship with Bridget. However, this proposition is not professional either as any advances from Bridget would man that she would be under pressure from Roger to recommend his firm in the ERP project and then Bridget might be accused of favouritism.

Jason had brought an issue to Bridget about the security vulnerability that he has discovered. Bridget decided to ignore the warning as it did not concern her department. Therefore, it can be seen ass highly unprofessional on Bridget’s part as she did not inform the other department about the vulnerability that their system has.

 Jason then approached Elizabeth, who also ignored the problem after having a discussion with Bridget. Jason should have been professional and respected the chain of command. However, he did not and decided to go for the media instead. This is highly unprofessional on his part as he is not only putting his job on the line, he is creating trouble for his co-workers and disrupting the workflow.

The budget scenario that comes right after where the customers are charged more money than the actual amount to cover the maintenance cost. This is unethical and unprofessional for project managers such as Bridget.

The employment factors signify the organizational factors that governs the employability of a person in an organization. The insurance company terminated Bridget as they did not want any controversies that may arise from keeping her in the workforce. Taking their perspective into consideration, if an employee lies for getting a job, then he or she can do the same for other purposes as well.

The gossip that Jamie spread inside the office can be analysed using the social factors. The rumours would have been rejected by the employees at the insurance company if Bridget would have spent more time to socialize with the people at the company. As the people there did not know her very well, they believed the information that was spread through a gossip instantly. Being socially acceptable is necessary as there might be a number of rumours about a person inside an office. However, if the person is sociable then everyone would know the person and they would not believe in the gossip that they are hearing.

Case Study: Analysis of Challenges Faced by ICT Professionals

The employment at a state government department has provided Bridget with an opportunity to work again. Bridget must have informed them prior to her employment about her past as it is sometimes mandatory to disclose past criminal record when getting employed at a government department.

The environment that a person lives in is vital for their growth. She wanted to indulge herself in studies and jobs by forgetting her childhood and her past.

She wanted to personally be with Roger. However, she had lost one job due to the actions of an acquaintance and therefore she became cautions as not to face the same consequences again.

Bridget did not want to act on the advice given by James as she did not want to get involved into any complexities that may jeopardise her current job.

The personal factors are responsible for shaping the personality and attitude of a person. Bridget has been living in foster homes and that sometimes changes the outlook of a person towards life. Getting arrested and sent to a correctional home at an early age can make or break a person. Bridget had undergone the same experience. This had an adverse effect on her. However, he was embarrassed from her life and wanted to leave it all in the past. She was however, not strong enough to defend her job at the insurance company and therefore she was fired. Here she could have easily defended herself by saying that the information about her past criminal record was irrelevant to her current job as it was a juvenile mistake that she had made. She had already served her time in a correctional home for that and since that time she had dedicated herself to her studies and her work.

The next job had some challenges that she would face being part of a state government department as this job posed some very serious responsibilities for Bridget. Therefore, despite being romantically attracted to Roger, she did not want to proceed in that path. Instead she removed all ties with him. This signifies that she would not let herself be removed from her current job.

She did not want to lose her job and wanted to avoid all forms of trouble. Hence, she did not want to indulge Jason’s request as the security issue would not have any impact on her department.

However, she got involved in the same unethical practice as the other project managers. She charged excess money to the client to compensate for the maintenance charges of her project.

Factors Related to the Case Study

Table 1: Priority List

Here, I can safely state that Bridget is certainly a strong person. Instead of facing her past, she decided to move on with her life. Although this would hold controversial opinion for some people, I would state that it takes a huge amount of willpower to forget the past and move on with one’s life. However, once she lost her current job due to an old acquaintance and her past, she became demotivated. Upon joining another job, she again showed her willpower by not indulging with anything that would create problems in her current job.

There were many factors involved in the assignment. However, only some of these factors bear importance in this case study of Bridget. The main factors are the professional factors, the intrinsic factors and the employment and social factors. These factors can directly impact Bridget and her career as an IT professional and as a human being.

The choice of these factors and the priority that has been chosen is based on the case study. It is evident from the case study that the case study that Bridget has been living in foster homes. Although it is not clear from the case study as to the care that she might have received from the individual foster homes, she had to change foster homes frequently, which suggests that she could not stay there for long. Such adversities change a person and makes him or her more susceptible to changes that may or may not be able to shape the person in a better way. These intrinsic factors have however instead made Bridget stronger in her approach towards life. This shows that had determination and the will to change her life for the better. Such determination is not common with people who have been in an adverse environment. Therefore, this determination is definitely an intrinsic factor that has shaped the personal as well as the professional life for Bridget.

The professional and the legal factors could have easily changed the course of her career of she had lost all hope after she lost her job at the insurance company. The insurance company looked at it legally, as Bridget had withheld legal information when she was asked about her past. She was however legally entitled to withhold information. The insurance company saw it as dishonesty. This factor is arguably professional and very little about legal. Nevertheless, if Bridget had broken a term of employability and hence it was seen as a legal factor and not a professional one. Withholding such information can also be termed under personal factors. This is because such information can be legally withheld if it was a juvenile crime and the respective sentence of correctional measures have been served. The factor is a personal one as she did not want the recruiters at the insurance company to think that that her past record would impact her professionalism and her productiveness. This is therefore understandable that she did not want to take any unnecessary personal risks as she had moved on with her life.

Discussion and Analysis

The gossip that was created by Jamie at the insurance company about Bridget’s dark past is definitely a professional factor and a hazard. It is evident from the case study that Bridget did not want her employers to know about it. The gossip has therefore caused a lot of professional as well as personal problems for Bridget. She could have handled the accusation from the management of the insurance company in a legal and professional manner. This is because she was professionally but not legally obliged to disclose the information and legal factors can always supersede professional factors. However, taking such a step would affect her at a personal level and she would not be able to work effectively due to the peer pressure that she would have to face every day after this incident if she had continued her work at the insurance company.

The professional factors get precedence again when she joined the job at the state government department. Roger wanted to change their personal relationship into a professional one and therefore to prevent any discrepancies at her current job, she rejected his offer to spend a weekend together. She gave her professionalism the highest priority over her personal wellbeing. In the event of the whistle blower scenario, Jason had informed Bridget about a flaw in the system of another department. Bridget could have followed the ethical and personally undertaken the responsibility of informing the other department of their flawed system. However, formally reporting a flaw takes a lot of time and it is a huge embarrassment on both sides. Therefore, Bridget took a professional decision and instead did not inform the other department of their system and its flaw as it did not concern her department. Jason had ignored the chain of command when he informed Elizabeth and then informed the media about the flaw. This is ethical yet highly unprofessional on his end as the matter did not get solved and instead his entire team got reprimanded for the matter.

The professional factor governs the overbilling scenario where it is seen every project manager including Bridget charges more to the client than the actual cost that the client should have incurred in the project. This is professionally acceptable however it is not ethical. However, the reason for such action is that the maintenance cost for the projects is not covered by the budget provided by the company.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that the professional life of a person consists of legal, professional, employment and other intrinsic factors. Some factors take priority while some do not. Factors such as the intrinsic factor can be termed as minor factor on some scenarios. However, it is seen that in this scenario the intrinsic factors were responsible for shaping the Bridget’s career as she might have lost all motivation due to her past instead she strengthened her will and moved on and made a better life for herself despite the setback.

Employment and Social factors