Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University

College of Computer and Information Sciences

Information Systems Department

IS 1180
IS and ethics
 Chapter 2
Ethics for IT Workers and IT Users
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. What relationships must an IT worker manage, and what key ethical
issues can arise in each?
2. What can be done to encourage the professionalism of IT workers?
3. What ethical issues do IT users face, and what can be done to
encourage their ethical behavior?
ORGANIZATIONS BEHAVING BADLY
• Queensland, a state in Australia, awarded an outsourcing contract to
IBM to build a new payroll application for its Department of Health at
an initial cost estimate of $5 million. The project wen horribly wrong
that it the project cost ballooned out of control, eventually reaching
more than $1 billion.
• IBM claimed that Queensland employees did a terrible job in
managing the project—a claim supported by the state’s own
investigation
• Successful IT outsourcing projects require the development of strong
working relationships among members of the client organization and
the outside organization.
IT WORKER RELATIONSHIPS THAT MUST BE
MANAGED
IT workers typically become involved in many different work
relationships:
1. Employers
2. Clients
3. Suppliers
4. Other professionals
5. IT users
6. Society

In each relationship, an ethical IT worker acts honestly and appropriately.

1. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Employers
• This relationship require ongoing effort to keep it strong:
• before the worker accepts an employment offer. For example: salary, working
hours, location of employment
• in a company’s policy and procedures manual or in the company’s code of
conduct . For example: protection of company secrets and vacation policy.
• over time depending on circumstances. For example: whether the employee
can leave early one day if the time is made up another day.
• based on the nature of the work or project. For example: the programming
language to be used
1. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Employers
IT workers must set an example and enforce policies regarding the
ethical use of IT
• IT workers often have the skills and knowledge to abuse systems and data or
to enable others to do so.
• Software piracy is an area in which IT workers may be tempted to violate laws
and policies. Software piracy in a corporate setting is sometimes directly
traceable to IT staff members—either they allow it to happen, or they actively
engage in it, often to reduce IT-related spending.
1. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Employers
Trade secrecy is another area that can present challenges for IT workers and
their employers.
• A trade secret: is information, generally unknown to the public, that a
company has taken strong measures to keep confidential. It represents
something of economic value that has required effort or cost to develop
and that has some degree of uniqueness or novelty.
• For example: design of new software code, hardware designs, or even the
Colonel’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices used to make the original KFC
chicken or the formula for Coke.
• Companies often require employees to sign confidentiality agreements and
promise not to reveal the company’s trade secrets.
1. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Employers
Another issue that can create friction between employers and IT
workers is whistleblowing
• Whistle-blowing is an effort by an employee to attract attention to a
negligent, illegal, unethical, abusive, or dangerous act by a company
that threatens the public interest.
• Whistle-blowers often have special information based on their
expertise or position within the offending organization.
• Obviously, such actions could have negative consequences on the
employee’s job, perhaps resulting in retaliation and firing.
2. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Clients
• In relationships between IT workers and clients, each party agrees to
provide something of value to the other.
• sometimes those “clients” are coworkers who are part of the same
company as the IT worker. In other cases, the client is part of a
different company.
• Both parties share trust and the responsibility for decision making
2. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Clients
• One potential ethical problem that can interfere with the relationship
between IT workers and their clients is when the IT consultants or
auditors recommend their own products and services or those of an
affiliated vendor to remedy a problem they have detected.
• conflict of interest—a conflict between the IT worker’s (or the IT
firm’s) self-interest and the client’s interests.
2. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Clients
• Problems can also arise during a project.
• the client may not be informed about a problem by the project manager
until it has become a crisis. What would the managers hide the truth ?
• contractual penalties for failure to meet the schedule or to develop certain system
functions
• want to keep resources flowing into the project and hope that problems can be
corrected before anyone notices

• What caused this issue in the first place?

lack of information, tools, or experience needed to perform an accurate
assessment.
2. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Clients
• When the truth comes out it can lead to charges of:
• Fraud: the crime of obtaining goods, services, or property through deception
or trickery.
• Misrepresentation: misstatement or incomplete statement of a material fact.
If the misrepresentation causes the other party to enter into a contract, that
party may have the legal right to cancel the contract or seek reimbursement
for damages.
• breach of contract: when one party fails to meet the terms of a contract.
2. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Clients
3. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Suppliers
• IT workers deal with many different hardware, software, and service
providers.
• Suppliers strive to maintain positive relationships with their customers in
order to make and increase sales.
• To achieve this goal, they may sometimes engage in unethical actions—for
example, offering an IT worker a gift that is actually intended as a bribe.
• Clearly, IT workers should not accept a bribe from a vendor, and they must
be careful when considering what constitutes a bribe
• Bribery: Providing money, property, or favors to someone in business or
government in order to obtain a business advantage
• There is growing global recognition of the need to prevent corruption.
3. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Suppliers
At what point does a gift become a bribe ?
4. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Other Professionals
• Professionals often feel a degree of loyalty to the other members of
their profession. As a result:
• They are often quick to help each other obtain new positions but slow to
criticize each other in public.
• They have an interest in their profession as a whole, because how it is
perceived affects how individual members are viewed and treated.
• A number of ethical problems can arise among members of the IT
profession:
• résumé inflation: which involves lying on a résumé
• inappropriate sharing of corporate information: might be sold to other
organizations or shared informally during work conversations.
4. Relationships Between IT Workers and IT
Users
• IT user: refers to a person who uses a hardware or software product.
• IT workers have a duty to understand a user’s needs and capabilities
and to deliver products and services that best meet those needs—
subject, of course, to budget and time constraints.
5. Relationships Between IT Workers and
Society
• Society expects members of a profession to provide significant
benefits and to not cause harm through their actions.
• The actions of an IT worker can affect society.
• For example: a systems analyst may design a computer-based control
system to monitor a chemical manufacturing process. A failure or an
error in the system may put workers or people who live near the plant
at risk. As a result, IT workers have a relationship with members of
society who may be affected by their actions
ENCOURAGING THE PROFESSIONALISM OF IT
WORKERS
• A professional: is one who possesses the skill, good judgment, and
work habits expected from a person who has the training and
experience to do a job well.
• IT workers of all types can improve their profession’s reputation for
professionalism by:
1. Subscribing to a professional code of ethics,
2. Joining and participating in professional organizations,
3. Obtaining appropriate certifications, and
4. Supporting government licensing where available.
ENCOURAGING THE PROFESSIONALISM OF IT
WORKERS
1) Professional Codes of Ethics
• States the principles and core values that are essential to the work of a
particular occupational group.
• Laws do not provide a complete guide to ethical behavior. Nor can a
professional code of ethics be expected to provide an answer to every ethical
dilemma
• many benefits for the code of ethics : Ethical decision making, High standards
of practice and ethical behavior, Trust and respect from the general public,
Evaluation benchmark.
ENCOURAGING THE P ROFESSIONALISM OF IT
WORKERS
2) Professional Organizations
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers Computer Society (IEEE-CS) are examples of
professional organizations that disseminate information to IT workers
through email, periodicals, websites, social media, meetings, and
conferences.
• many of these organizations have developed codes of ethics

3) Certification
indicates that a professional possesses a particular set of skills,
knowledge, or abilities, in the opinion of the certifying organization.
ENCOURAGING THE P ROFESSIONALISM OF IT
WORKERS
4) Licensing of IT Professionals
government license: is government-issued permission to engage in an
activity or to operate a business.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO ENCOURAGE THE
ETHICAL USE OF IT RESOURCES AMONG USERS?
• IT users often face common ethical issues discussed earlier like:
Software Piracy, Inappropriate Use of Computing Resources. and
Inappropriate Sharing of Information.
• Companies have recognized the need to develop policies that protect
against abuses, and there are several actions that can be taken when
creating an IT usage policy:
1. Establishing Guidelines for Use of Company Hardware and Software.
2. Defining an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) which is a document that
stipulates restrictions and practices that a user must agree to in order to use
organizational computing and network resources.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO ENCOURAGE THE
ETHICAL USE OF IT RESOURCES AMONG USERS?
3. Structuring Information Systems to Protect Data and Information
4. Installing and Maintaining a Corporate Firewall.
5. Compliance which means to be in accordance with established policies,
guidelines, specifications, or legislation. R
Summary
• What relationships must an IT worker manage, and what key ethical
issues can arise in each?
• What can be done to encourage the professionalism of IT workers?
• What ethical issues do IT users face, and what can be done to
encourage their ethical behavior?