H 201 Work Ethics

Dr. Marwa Mostafa

Lecture 1
Ethics in Information Technology
 Year Work
Assessment Grade

Assignments/ Reports/ Presentations 20

Mid-term 20

Final exam 60

Total 100

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Ethics
 Ethics

• Ethics
– Standards or codes of behavior expected of an
individual by a group

• Virtues
– Habits of acceptable behaviour

• Vices
– Habits of unacceptable behaviour

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 Morals

• One’s personal beliefs about right and wrong

• Morals may vary according to:
– Religion
– Cultural group
– Age
– Life experiences
– Education
– Gender

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 The Difference Between
Morals, Ethics, and Laws
• Morals: one’s personal beliefs about right and wrong

• Ethics: standards or codes of behavior expected of

an individual by a group

• Law: system of rules that tells us what we can and

cannot do
– Laws are enforced by a set of institutions
– Legal acts conform to the law

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 The Importance of Integrity

• Integrity is a cornerstone of ethical behaviour

• People with integrity:
– Act in accordance with a personal code of principles
– Extend to all people the same respect and consideration
– Apply the same moral standards in all situations
• Lack of integrity emerges if you apply moral standards
differently according to situation or people involved
• Many ethical dilemmas are not as simple as right
versus wrong

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 Why Raising Good Business Ethics
Is Important
• To gain the good will of the community
• To create an organization that operates consistently
• To stand-in good business practices
• To protect organization/employees from legal action
• To avoid unfavorable publicity

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Gaining the Good Will of the Community

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Gaining the Good Will of the Community

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Gaining the Good Will of the Community

• Organizations have fundamental responsibilities to

society
• Making contributions to charitable organizations and
non-profit institutions
• Providing benefits for employees in excess of their legal
requirements
• Choosing economic opportunities (projects) that
might be more socially desirable than profitable
• Socially responsible activities create good will, which
makes it easier for corporations to conduct business

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 Good Business Practices

• Suppliers/business partners place priority on

working with companies that operate in a fair and
ethical manner
• Bad ethics means bad business (declining profits)
– Bad ethics can lead to bad business results
– Bad ethics can have a negative impact on employees

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 Protection From Legal Actions

• An employer can be held responsible for the acts of

its employees (respondeat superior)

• Union of several legal organizations argues that the

establishment of ethics programs should reduce
criminal responsibility of organization

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 Avoiding Unfavorable Publicity

• Public reputation of company strongly influences:

– Value of its stock
– How consumers regard products and services
– Degree of monitoring received from government
– Amount of support and cooperation received from
business partners

• Organizations are motivated to build strong ethics

programs to avoid negative publicity

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Establishing a Corporate Code of Ethics

• Corporate Code of Ethics

– Highlights an organization’s key ethical issues
– Identifies primary values and important principles
– Focuses employees on areas of ethical risk
– Offers guidance for employees to recognize and deal
with ethical issues
– Provides mechanisms to report unethical conduct
– Help employees stand by the law, follow necessary
regulations (rules), and behave in an ethical
manner

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 Weak Corporate Code of Ethics

Examples of unethical employee behavior.

• A company holds people accountable to meet “stretch”
goals, quotas, and budgets, causing employees to think,
“My boss wants results, not excuses, so I have to cut
corners to meet the goals he has set.”
• A company fails to provide a corporate code of ethics
and operating principles to make decisions so employees
think, “Because the company has not established any
guidelines, I don’t think my conduct is really wrong or
illegal.”

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 Weak Corporate Code of Ethics

• A manager fails to act in an ethical manner and instead

sets a poor example for others to follow so employees
think, “I have seen other successful people take unethical
actions and not suffer negative consequences.”

• Managers fail to hold people accountable for unethical

actions so employees think, “No one will ever know the
difference, and if they do, so what?

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 Creating an Ethical Work
Environment

• Good employees may make bad ethical choices

• Employees need a knowledgeable resource to
discuss perceived unethical practices
– A manager
– Legal or Internal Audit Department
– Company’s legal counsel
– Anonymously through internal Web site

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Creating an Ethical Work
Environment

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 Board of Directors
• Board of directors members of a company are
expected to:
– Conduct themselves according to the highest
standards of integrity
– Set standard for company-wide ethical conduct
– Ensure compliance with laws and regulations
– Create environment in which employees can seek
advice, raise issues and report misconduct

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 Corporate Ethics Officer

• Corporate ethics officer

– Should be well-respected, senior-level manager who
reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
– Ensures ethical procedures are put in place
– Provides vision and leadership in business conduct
– Creates and maintains ethics culture
– Is responsible for key contact person for ethical
issues

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 Ethics Training

• Comprehensive ethics education program

encourages employees to act responsibly and
ethically
– Often presented in small workshop formats
– Employees apply code of ethics to hypothetical but
realistic case studies
– Demonstration of recent company decisions based on
principles from the code of ethics
– Improves employee personal beliefs

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 Ethics Training

• Training increases the percentage of employees

who report incidents of misconduct
• Employees must:
– Learn effective ways of reporting incidents
– Be reassured their feedback will be acted on without
revenge

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 Including Ethical Criteria in
Employee Appraisals
• Only 43% of companies include ethical conduct in
employee’s performance evaluation
• Ethical criteria include:
– Treating others fairly and with respect
– Operating effectively in a multicultural environment
– Accepting personal accountability
– Continually developing themselves and others
– Operating honestly

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 Social Audits

• Social Audit
– Reviews how well organization is meeting ethical and
social responsibility goals
– Communicates new goals for upcoming year
– Publicly shared with employees, shareholders,
investors, market analysts, customers, suppliers,
government agencies, and local communities

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 Characteristics of
Successful Corporate Ethics Code

– Employees willing to seek advice about ethical issues

– Employees feel prepared to handle situations that
could lead to misbehavior
– Employees are rewarded for ethical behavior
– Employees are not rewarded for success obtained
through questionable means
– Employees feel positive about their company

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Microsoft’s Core Values

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 Microsoft’s
Standards of Business Conduct

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ITWORX Mission, Vision and Values

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 Case Study
• A staff member on the U.S. House Ethics Committee
accidently leaked a sensitive document containing the names
of over 30 lawmakers under investigation by the Ethics
Committee and Office of Congressional Ethics.
• The staffer was working at home on a computer with file-
sharing software that was not secure.
• The staff member’s innocent mistake gave others the
opportunity to access the document without authorization.
• The list eventually found its way to the Washington Post.

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 Exercises: Replace With Key Term
1. One’s personal beliefs about right and wrong.
2. Enables an organization to review how well it is meeting
its ethical and social responsibility goals and
communicate new goals for the upcoming year.
3. Characteristic of an organization that strongly influences
the value of its stock.
4. A principle that states that an employer can be held
responsible for the acts of its employee.
5. Committee responsible for the careful and responsible
management of an organization.

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 Exercise: Replace With Key Term
6. Habits of unacceptable behavior
7. A senior-level manager who ensures ethical procedures
are put in place.
8. Highlights organization’s key ethical issues and identifies
primary principles important to its decision-making
process.
9. Set of beliefs about right and wrong behavior within a
society.
10. System of rules, enforced by a set of institutions, that
tells us what we can and cannot do.

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 Exercise: Complete

1. ----- emerges if you apply moral standards differently

according to situation or people involved.
2. Bad ethics means bad business resulting in -----
profits.
3. Employees are ----- for success obtained through
questionable means.
4. ----- increases the percentage of employees who
report incidents of misconduct.
5. Organizations are motivated to build strong ethics
programs to avoid -----.
6. Organizations favour economic opportunities that are
socially ----- more than profitable. 39
The Ethical dimensions of technology
Software Engineering
Software engineering plays a pivotal role in shaping the
modern world, with applications spanning across various
industries and domains.
Software Engineering
Software engineers play a crucial role in solving complex
challenges and improving the quality of life for people around
the globe.

Software Engineering Applications:

1. Mobile App Development

2. Web Development
3. Embedded Systems
4. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Software engineering ethics
Research assignment
Thanks