Introduction
An organization requires various ethical practices. This helps the employees to stay disciplined and well mannered. It also helps in smooth running of the activities under a particular system. Good ethical practices help the organization to maintain a good working environment (Morris, 2016). In the provided case study, an organization named NewAge Pty Ltd produces operating systems for another organization that manufactures tablets named XYZ. The former organization has developed an operating system and provided to the later one. After a while, Mr. McBright found out a bug in the system and informed the professional of the other organization. Mrs. Mcdonald, who was unformed about the bug decided to ignore it and allow the products to launch in the market (Morris, 2016). This report discusses some issues related to the case study such as the stakeholders involved in the matter, how it affected them and many more.
Discussion
Stakeholders involved
This case study involves many stakeholders such as Mrs. McMcdonald, Mr. McBright, Various teams involved in testing and the end users who receive the products after they are launched. These stakeholders have their own ethical responsibilities in this case study. Mr. McBright fulfilled his responsibility because he informed regarding the bug in the system to Mrs. McMcdonald. Mrs. McMcdonald did not fulfill her responsibility because she kept the bug secret and allowed the product to be launched. She did not apply the approach of ethical decision-making. She should have stopped the products from being launched and rectified the system by removing the bug. After that, the system could be installed in the products and launched in the market.
Ethical dilemma
The ethical dilemmas in this case study are as follows
- The first dilemma would be to reveal the fact that the system consists of a bug. This would result in rectifying the system by removing the bug (ACS Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf , 2018). After that, new system can be installed in the devices and then those can be launched in the market. This would increase the level of quality of product but the deadline of project delivery would have been missed. This as a result would piss the customers off and create a nuisance among them.
- The second dilemma would be that the product would be launched with the bug in its system (ACS Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf , 2018). This would result in faulty products, which would also create nuisance among the customers, but it would help the project to meet its deadline and finish within the desired time.
Ethical response
The decision that had been taken in the task is that the bug would be hidden from the professionals and products would be launched. This decision had affected all the stakeholders and customers greatly. Some ways by which this decision has affected the stakeholders are as follows
- Partners: Partners that work together with the company members have similar objectives to the company. They work for increasing the product of the organization and improving its performance (Schön & D. A. 2017). Some professionals that fall under this category are operations team, legal experts, support staff, installers, developers and many more. They develop as well as test the systems that are to be used for various purposes. When they detected the bug, they should have revealed it and stopped the organization to launch the products.
- Users: Users are the ones that purchase the end products for fulfilling their various needs. The customers are the ones that contribute in the development of the company (Schön & D. A. 2017). The company should have taken necessary steps in order to stop the faulty products to be launched.
ACS code of professional conduct
The ACS code of conduct consists of various values. The values are related to organization in numerous ways. The values are as follows
- Public interest: The public interest should have been the first priority to Mrs. McDonald instead of the business interest, personal and sectional interest (How SFIA supports the skills management cycle — SFIA., 2018). The major public interest is the quality of products. This should have been maintained in order to make the product famous among the customers.
- Honest: Being honest in the jobs is one of the most important factors for any professional (Johnson, 2017). Mrs. McDonald and Mr. McBright should have been honest in their jobs and revealed the fact that the system was infected with a bug, which makes the product faulty.
- Professional development: Professional development is an important factor in every organization (Johnson, 2017). The launch of faulty products have greatly affected the professional development of the organization
- Professionalism: professionalism makes an employee perfect for the organization. Professionalism is a characteristic that should be contained in every employee (Morris, 2016). Mrs. McDonald and Mr. McBright should have maintained their professionalism by disclosing that the system contained bug and allowed the team to rectify it instead of launching the faulty products.
- Quality of life: People purchase gadgets such as tablets in order to improve their quality of life. The best quality of products can contribute greatly in doing so but faulty products might make their life miserable (Lawrence & Weber, 2014). In this case study, the customers have faced a disaster due to the faulty products. The products exploded due to the bug in it and the owner of the gadget had to suffer.
Theories of ethical philosophy
Ethical philosophies consist of various theories that are applicable in different situations. The theories of ethical philosophy that are applicable in this case study are professionalism and public interests (Laudon & Laudon, 2015). Mrs. McDonald should have kept public interest as her first priority rather than business interests or personal interests. This should have helped her to take better decisions and allowed her to reveal the bug in the system. This would not have allowed the organization to launch faulty products making their as well as customers’ life miserable.
Carrier plan using SFIA 6
Students after perusing their graduation and want to peruse their desired job are mostly confused because they have no idea about the skills needed to appear for the job (Siedel, 2016). They need a carrier plan, which gives them a clear idea about the skills that they need according to their desired job. This would help them to acquire knowledge about the skills and characteristics that a professional should have. This as a result will help them to appear for a job after they have the skills in them (McKenzie, Coldwell-Neilson & Palmer, 2017). This will decrease the chances if rejection. The skills will help them to perform their job well. A carrier plan has been provided which states various responsibilities that a particular professional should follow. The required skills are marked from 1 to 4.
The skills having grade 1 states that the professionals might not have the skills but should be able to cope up with the skills if needed.
The skills having grade 2 indicates that the professionals should have the knowledge regarding background and the issues. He should be able to handle various critical situations.
Grade 3 indicates that the employees are supposed to have complete knowledge of the matter and should have the ability to suggest the best advice to other professionals.
Grade 4 indicates that the professional should acquire entire knowledge of the subject.
|
IT architecture roles
|
Architecture board member
|
Architecture sponsor
|
IT architecture Manager
|
IT architecture technology
|
IT architecture
data
|
IT architecture
application
|
IT architecture business
|
Program or project manager
|
IT designer
|
|
Technical IT
Skills
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Software engineering
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
|
Security
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
3
|
|
Network and system management
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
3
|
|
Transaction processing
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
|
Location and directory
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
3
|
2
|
3
|
|
User interface
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
|
Operations regarding International affairs
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
|
Interchange of Data
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
|
Management of Data
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
2
|
3
|
|
Network services
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
3
|
3
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
|
Communication infrastructure
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
2
|
3
|
Table 1: Required Technical IT Skills
Conclusion
From this report, it can be concluded that an appropriate decision-making is very important for an organization. It helps in managing critical situations and tackles with difficult obstacles. It would be beneficial for organization as well as customers. Wrong decision-making might result in disaster for the customers and organization similar to the situation in the given case study. The wrong decision would not just affect the organization but also the stakeholders involved in it.
References
ACS Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf (2018). Retrieved from https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/acs-documents/ACS%20Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf
Hartley, P., & Chatterton, P. (2015). Business Communication: Rethinking your professional practice for the post-digital age. Routledge.
How SFIA supports the skills management cycle — SFIA. (2018).
Retrieved from
https://www.sfia-online.org/en/framework/sfia-6/skills-management
Johnson, C. E. (2017). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow. Sage Publications.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2015). Management information systems (Vol. 8). Prentice Hall.
Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2014). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
McKenzie, S., Coldwell-Neilson, J., & Palmer, S. (2017). Informing the career development of IT students by understanding their career aspirations and skill development action plans. Australian Journal of Career Development, 26(1), 14-23.
Morris, R. (2016). The fundamentals of product design. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Schön, D. A. (2017). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Routledge.
Siedel, G. J. (2016). The three pillar model for business decisions: Strategy, law and ethics. Van Rye Publishing, LLC.
