Professional Issues And Ethical Guidelines In Computing

Discuss About The Professional Issues Are Ethical Guidelines?

Professional issues are ethical guidelines or code of conducts that governs how individuals discharge their duties in their different professions or areas of expertise (Babcock, 2008). This document entails a thorough analysis of professional issues in computing based on a given scenario carried out by our team. Having studied the scenario which includes all the activities carried out in various computing environment given as well as how different employees reacts or behave in different situations  (Bott, 2010). This therefore will provide guidance in deducing some of the issues such as legal issues, employment and social issues, personal issues, professional issues and intrinsic issues related to Hullaballoo.com and Jimmy’s experience on different work environment  (Drevin, 2009). A thorough prioritization factors is also provided, how they made their decision as well as a thorough discussion and a conclusion on the professional issues based on the findings (Artinian, 2010).              .
Analysis

The professional issues are analyzed below as per the Jimmy’s scenario.

Ignorance of international laws – Hullabaloo.com where Jimmy secures his first job has its website registered and hosted in the country that do not recognise (SVANTESSON, 2017).

Information Theft – Jimmy’s CEO want him to steal his former employer’s IT project pricing strategy. This is unlawful and unethical since it breaches Jimmy’s former employer information confidentiality and ownership.

Below standard services – Jimmy realises after sometime that the journalist at Hullabaloo have low standards. That is, they publish stories without verifying the facts and they go to extent of publishing fake news as bait to attract more readers. This is a breach of code of ethics and laws that govern business quality (Amarakoon, 2016).

Integrity – The integrity of the news provided by hullabaloo is compromised since they propagate false and fake news in favour of their clients. They are paid to post positive news about their clients and negative about their client’s competitors (liverpool, 2014).

Confidentiality –.People’s demographic details stored in the “Reaper” database is not treated as confidential and the information is distributed to other parties without the owner’s consent.

Misuse of people’s information – Subscriber’s information is used over and over and even sold to other third parties contrary to what the information was initially intended for (Feretic, 2011).

Work Experience – Jimmy finds another job with an ecommerce company based on his home city. He is given the job on the basis of his experience with hullabaloo’s reaper data collection project.

Legal Factors

Above average pay – Jimmy was pay was above average for a 25 hours commitment by working virtually at hullabaloo.

Deception – Hullabaloo asked for more information from people for newsletter subscription and then went ahead to trick them to accept a 2000 words legal document to give hullabaloo right to sell their information to third parties. This is unethical.

Leader’s position – After getting another job at Ecommerce Company, jimmy sees an opportunity to become a team leader after his boss Alec Smith quits.

Firm in his decision – Even after Alec held a closed meeting with jimmy to cancel Dev A performance review, Jimmy refuses the requests.

Vengeance – Alec provided a bad report about Jimmy which led to his interview being cancelled.

Degree in IT – Jimmy is a graduate of Griffith University IT as a web developer and this helped hi secure a job at hullabaloo.

Team Leader – Jimmy was confirmed team leader by the directors at Ecommerce Company after his boss Alec Smith left suddenly.

Responsible – Jimmy replaces Dev A after realizing he was incompetent and was performing poorly..

Self-conscious – Jimmy raises concerns with his boss at hullabaloo about the demographic information stored in the reaper database and then sold to third parties without the owner’s consent.

Prioritization of professional issues as obtained from the scenario is depicted in the table below.

Table 1: Priority List

Decision to prioritize the issues as shown above based on the importance and weight that each factor carries as depicted in the scenario. From the scenario, Hullabaloo where Jimmy secures his first job has its business registered and operating on a country that does not observe international laws that govern such business. This lawlessness lead to other professional issues encounter by jimmy such as misuse of information, deception, bribery, low standards, lack of integrity among others  (Computing, 2015).  Therefore, legal factors are more important since they dictate how people will conduct their businesses professionally and also observe employment and social factors, personal and intrinsic factors respectively. Professional factors depends on the international laws, Employment and Social factors on the other hand relies on the professional factors and then the employment and social factors defines how personal and intrinsic factors would be.

Under this lack of international law is given the first priority (Law, 2017). Hullabaloo has their website registered and hosted in a country which does not recognise international laws governing matter such as privacy protection and censorship. This is the ignorance of high order since these laws are there and are being implemented by other countries. The fact that hullabaloo has gone ahead to have their business registered with this country, shows that the company does not care on the integrity and privacy of peoples information. Secondly information theft is a concern. When the CEO asks Jimmy to provide them with the pricing strategy of his former boss violates the ownership right or intellectual property of the information. Another thing is the fact that Hullabaloo clients pay so that the company can publish news that favour them but demean their competitors. This is a form of bribery which is illegal and unethical in nature.

Professional Factors

First there is an integrity issue where hullabaloo publishes fake news that are not supported by any facts. This compromises the professional integrity of the information provided by hullabaloo since there are reliable sources or supporting content to validate the news. Another thing is about the confidentiality of the information provide by those subscribing for newsletter. Hullabaloo goes ahead to share and even sell these information third parties without the consent of the subscribers. This is unethical behavior and violates professional confidentiality (essays, 2016).

Deception is one issue that is highly witnessed. Hullabaloo asks for more information than it is required for newsletter subscription and then goes ahead to trick subscribers to accept 2000 words legal document which gives hullabaloo right to sell the information. Though this might be legal, it is unethical since it does not give the subscribers an option to subscribe for newsletter without accepting the terms and condition laid. This is a deception of a high order and violates the freedom of the subscribers. Work experience is another issue. Jimmy is employed at Ecommerce Company out of his experience with the reaper data collection project despite the project having built on fake news and deception. Also Jimmy was paid above average in 25 hours of working in a week since the project he was working on was so valuable to hullabaloo as it was to be used to deliver fake news (Gulbahar, 2008).

Code of Ethics is an issue observed under personal factors in the scenario (Babcock, 2008). Despite the fact that Jimmy realized that the information published by Hullabaloo was fake and non-factual, Jimmy went ahead to develop the website for the company. This compromised Jimmy’s integrity as a person. Thus, making him engage in unethical behavior contrary to his profession. Another personal issue is leadership position. Jimmy was able to see a leadership opportunity immediately after Alec Smith left. He stepped up and carried out his former boss duties and later was given the team leader role. Another issue involves vengeance, as portrayed by Alec towards Jimmy is unethical.

Jimmy was a graduate of Griffith University with a degree in IT. He had skills in Web development and this made him secure his first job with hullabaloo. He was also a self-conscious person. He portrayed this when he realized that subscriber’s information being misused by misleading them to accept terms and condition that gave hullabaloo right to sell their details without their consent. This prompted him raising concerns about it to his boss. He later get another job at Ecommerce Company where he sees an opportunity to become a team leader and goes for it. Being a responsible and competent person he replaces Dev A in his team who was incompetent with another person. Then later carries a performance review on Dev A despite being asked to cancel by Ale, his former boss.

Conclusion

In conclusion it is evident that there are so many ethical factors that come to play in the whole scenario involving Jimmy experience after graduating and securing his first job at hullabaloo. These ethical issues range from legal issues, professional issues, employment and social issues, personal and intrinsic issues (Chen, 2012). These professional issues affect individuals as well as society at larg

Reference

Amarakoon, R. (2016). Social and Professional issues in IT. Sri Lanka: Slideshare.

Artinian, C. J. (2010). CODE OF ETHICS. Chicago,: MORTON'S RESTAURANT GROUP, INC.

Babcock, D. D. (2008). Social and Professional Issues in Computing. penyslavia: York University of pennyslavania .

Bott, F. (2010, May 20). Professional Issues in Information Technology. Retrieved August 8, 2017, from IT Governance: https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/shop/product/professional-issues-in-information-technology

Chen, W. (2012). "Extrinsic and intrinsic barriers in the use of ICT in teaching". Wellington: Ascilite.

Computing, A. o. (2015, May 4). Academic accreditation. Retrieved August 16, 2017, from Academy of Computing: https://academy.bcs.org/content/legal-social-ethical-professional-issues-lsepi

Drevin, L. (2009). Social, Legal and Professional Issues of Computing. In L. Drevin, contents and ethical awareness (pp. 3-5). London: North-West University.

essays, U. (2016, June 19). Essays. Retrieved August 16, 2017, from UKEssays: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/nursing/legal-ethical-professional.php

Feretic, E. (2011). Business Intelligence. The Use and Misuse of Information , 1-5.

Gulbahar, Y. (2008). Educational Technology and society. In Y. Gulbahar, Survey on ICT Usage and the Perceptions of Social Studies Teachers in Turkey (pp. 37-51).

Law, W. C. (2017). Online Certificate in International Communication Regulation and Policy . Washington: Washington College of Law.

liverpool, U. o. (2014, November 5). techtarget. Retrieved August 17, 2017, from What is: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Confidentiality-integrity-and-availability-CIA

SVANTESSON, D. J. (2017). THE DIVERSITY OF INTERNATIONAL LAWS. Stockholm: The Masaryk University.