Assignment Cover Sheet

Subject Name: Professional Environments

Assignment Name/Number: Ethics, Professionalism and Governance /1

Date of Submission:27/10/2017

Participant Name: Santosh Budhathoki

ACS Member Number: 4001637

Email Address: santyosh113@gmail.com

Declaration:
I declare that the assignment is based on my own work and that all material previously written or
published in any source by any other person has been duly acknowledged in the assignment. I have not
submitted this work, or a significant part thereof, previously as part of any academic program. In
submitting this assignment, I give ACS permission to copy for assessment purposes only.
Case study 7- Website Links

In the given scenario, Sally the IT manager has been assigned Han a project where he has the responsibility
to develop a tourism website. During the website development process Han added various links to news
services to enliven the government webpage. Later, when the webpage went live they found that those
sites sometimes provides news on court case which were currently under suppression order which caused
a huge embarrassment to the government department. In the process of adding various links in the
webpage Han was not considering the fact of confidentiality and Privacy.

In this scenario, there are few things Sally needs to consider. She needs to identify whether using the news
links in the webpage was ethical or unethical. She needs to determine who should be taking the
responsibility for the problems occurred, either herself or Han. Now Sally needs to ask herself questions
about what needs to be done and should analyse the situation based on facts and results.

Now Sally needs to review all the ACS code of Ethics, ACS code of professional conduct, different
legislations that are related to this case. She can reference the Code of Ethics that has been outlined by
ACS which should be known by all the IT professionals. Some of the Code of Ethics that align in this
scenario are as bellows:

 Honesty
The code abides the professional to be honest in representing skills, knowledge, products and services.
 Competence
The code abides the professional to work competently and diligently for our stakeholders.
 Professionalism
The code abides the professional to enhance the integrity of Society and the respect of its members
for each other.
(ACS, 2017)

Likewise, there are different code of professional conduct enlisted by ACS which can be reviewed by Sally.
Some of the Code of Professional Conduct which can be applicable in this scenario are as follows:

a. Know the difference between professional and personal opinions and advice (Honesty).
b. Do not try to develop your own reputation by ruining the reputation of another person (Honesty).
c. Don’t give hope to others if you are not sure if you can fulfil it (Honesty).
d. Get familiar with the organizations standards and legislation and act accordingly (Competence).
e. If you are not sure about the work that you are doing, ask for help and suggestions from the
professional expertise or colleagues in their areas of competence (Competence).
f. Protect the stakeholders' proprietary interests and intellectual property (Competence).
g. Accept the responsibility for your work (Competence).
h. Take appropriate action against members who have violated the code of ethics of the organization
(Professionalism).
i. Do not attempt to influence any person to violate or involve in breaching the code of ethics
(Professionalism).
j. Try to extend public knowledge and understanding of ICT (Professionalism).

(ACS Code of Professional Conduct, 2014)

Further in process of identifying whether the situation to be ethical or unethical, Sally can take the
approach of MacDonald’s Guide to Moral Decision Making. Following are the steps on MacDonald’s
approach:

1. Recognizing the Moral Dimension

In this step, Sally needs to understand the morality of the situation and should think about the
situations like will her actions against Han cause dispute between them, will it affect her and Han’s
reputation?

2. Who are the interested parties and their relationship?

In this step, Sally should be able to identify the people who are involved and who are affected by her
decision. She needs to think professionally and should come up with the solution where everyone is
satisfied with the decision.

3. What are the values Involved?

In this step, Sally need to analyse the outcome that will occur after she makes the decision. She need
to identify the consequences that will affect the parties directly or indirectly. She also needs to think
about the Hans’s reputation, her department’s reputation.

4. Weigh the benefits and Burdens

In this step, Sally should calculate the benefits and consequences of her decision. She should consider
about the facts like what happens if she took all the responsibility for the issue? what happens if Han
is considered responsible for the issues? She needs to consider different things in terms of physical,
emotional, financial and social. She can use the SWOT analysis for better decision making and to
identify the pros and cons of her decision.

5. Look for Similar Cases

Next thing what Sally can do is, review a similar case that might have happened in the past either with
her or within the organization or outside the organization. What decisions were made and what were
the impact of those decision. Were all the involved parties happy with the decision? If she can get the
references form the past cases, then it will help her to decide which can be an ideal solution for this
case.

6. Discuss with others

In this step Sally can ask help with her supervisor or friends. She can ask for their opinions and ideas
on how she can solve this issue. Further she can consult with a professional expert and have a healthy
conversation with them and can sum up the ideas that can help her in decision making.

7. Does this Decision Accord with Legal and Organisational Rules?

Sally needs to identify all the legal and organizational rules that are related to this scenario. She needs
to review and understand them properly so that she can come up with a solution and can give a valid
reason to support her decision.

8. Am I Comfortable with this Decision?

Sally need to be confident about her decision. She needs to understand the fact that she need to make
a decision that is professional. She needs to think about her employee, department’s reputation, and
her own reputation. She needs to ask questions to herself whether her decision will maintain the
department’s reputation, whether she have found a good solution for the issue or not, will all the
 parties support her decision? Has she followed the ACS code of ethics, National Law, rules and
regulation? And many more. (MacDonald, 2015)

Once Sally had successfully completed the Macdonald’s guide to Moral Decision Making and reviewing all
the legislation she can identify the issues and can analyse the fact and figures that needs to be considered
while making decision. She can also identify that Han’s and Her actions might have violated the Australian
Privacy ACT 1988 and Public Interest Disclosure ACT 2013 for disclosing the information that was
suppressed by the local court. Sally should have made her employee aware about all the legislations, Act
and code of ethics and professional conduct.

In my opinion, the work done by Han and Sally can be considered ethical until the local court raised the
publication suppression order which can be considered as an uncertain risk. However, while adding the
additional features in the webpage Han should have communicated with Sally and should have asked
about her opinion. Since the damage has been done, I think both Sally and Han should take responsibility
for the issues and should assure the department that this kind of error would never happen again.

Finally, I would like to suggest some of the ideas that should have been followed while executing the
project.

1. Han should have consulted with Sally about including the links or any other add-ons in the
webpage.
2. Han could have used different filtering modules to filter the news that can be included in the
webpage.
3. Sally should have identified the issues that can occur and should have suggest a feasible solution
to overcome those issues.

References

ACS. (2017). ACS Code of Ethics. [online] Available at: https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/acs-

documents/Code-of-Ethics.pdf.

ACS Code of Professional Conduct. (2014). ACS Code of Professional Conduct V.2.1. [online] Available at:
https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-
Conduct_v2.1.pdf.

Australian Government. 2016. Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013. [Online] Available at:
https://www.legislation.gove.au/Details/C2013A00133.

MacDonald, C. (2015). A Guide to Moral Decision Making. [online] Ethical Web. Available at:
http://www.ethicsweb.ca/guide/guide2010.pdf.