YZON B.

FABRIAG
BSCPE 3-1
Activity 02 – Ethics on IT Workers and IT Users

Relationship between IT Workers and Employers

Like any other job application, It Workers and Employers do agree on a bunch aspect of
relationship defined in company’s policy and code of conduct before accepting job offer. As one
of the organization’s IT resources, IT worker and employer must enforce policies with regards to
ethical use of IT especially in software piracy. Software Piracy is the act of an unauthorized
downloading, copying or distribution of software enabling them to gain access to that specific
software. They must also execute policies in terms of Trade Secret- business information must be
unique, thus confidential, and generally unknown to public. Business Software Alliance (BSA),
the world’s largest software and hardware manufacturer has the mission of eliminating software
piracy of the software made by its members.
Relationship between IT Workers and Clients
IT Workers and Clients relationship are usually documented in contractual terms. IT
workers provides Hardware and software or any services at a certain cost within a given time
frame. They trust clients to provide relevant information, listen to what it says and ask question
to fully understand the use of information to make wise decision. Clients on the other hand trusts
IT worker to act in client’s best interest and provide compensation, access to key contacts and
workspace. Both must trust each other to lessen conflicts, problems, or Ethical problems to arise.
Some of the problems that may appear and can be classified as cybercrimes are the fraud,
misrepresentation, and breach of contract.
Relationship between IT Workers and Suppliers
Supplier is a person or organization and its role of is to provide high-quality products to
another entity at a good price. And so, for the company to have quality-supply resources needed
to run the business, IT Workers must deal fairly with the supplier by not making unreasonable
demands. They might also need to encourage flow of useful information and ideas to develop an
innovative and cost-effective ways of using the supplier. Good working relationship with
suppliers is the absence of illegal act particularly bribery which means giving or offering
something, often made indirectly, to encourage and obligation to the recipient to act favorably
towards the donor.
Relationship between IT Workers and other Professionals
Good interconnection with other professionals will absolutely encourage a much effective
and productive company. All professionals feel a degree of loyalty and owe adherence to each
other profession’s code of conduct. Ethical problem could easily be solved when IT Workers
team up with other professionals. However, there’s a chance of inappropriate sharing of
corporate information, this means that the information might be share informally or be sold
intentionally for one’s own benefit.
Relationship of IT Workers and IT Users
IT Users is often referred to end users, they are group of people that uses a hardware or
software product or simply individuals who are involved with supporting or developing a
computer or service. Meanwhile, IT Workers have the duties of; understanding user’s need and
capabilities, deliver products and services that meet those needs, as well as establish an
environment that supports ethical behavior. Discouraging software piracy, minimize
inappropriate use of corporate computing resources and avoid inappropriate sharing of
information are some examples duties that supports ethical behavior.
Relationship between IT Workers and Society
Society is an organization/ community or club formed for a particular purpose. And with
this, society expects members of a profession, particularly IT Worker, to contribute significant
benefits as well as to not cause impairment to the society along with their actions. Every action
of an IT worker can greatly affect society, it’s either in a positive way or negative way. And
that’s the reason why Professional organizations provide codes of ethics to guide every IT
Worker’s action.
Professional Codes Ethics
Code of ethics is a general guide of principles and core values designed to help
professionals to conduct business honestly and with integrity. It often includes what the
organization aspire to become as well as rules and principle of which a member is expected to
abide. It also includes commitment to continuing education for those who are working on for
profession literacy. Companies incorporate professional code of ethic to promote high standards
practice of ethical behavior such as ethical decision making, trust and respect, and evaluation
specification for self-assessment.
Professional Organization
Professional Organization is membership-based of which they serve the interests of
professionals in a given industry or occupation. There are no universal code ethics IT
professionals, no fix formal organization and every IT expert were distinct and has emerge as
preeminent. Here are some of the most prominent organizations create to resolve issues
regarding IT professions; Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineering Computer Society (IEEE-CS), Association of IT Professionals
(AITP) and Sysadmin, Audit, Network, Security (SANS) Institute.
Certification
Certification is evidence that a professional possesses a particular set of skills,
knowledge, or abilities that is recognized by the certifying organization. It can also be applied to
products and it’s generally and voluntary given by the employers as they view it as benchmark of
Knowledge. In an IT organization, there are two classifications of certification – first one is the
Vendor Certifications which training could take years and so much money and requires passing
written or hand-on lab exams. Second is the industry association certifications – it’s much
broader perspective compare to vendor certification and requires an elite level of experience,
must pass written exam and may need annual renewal fees, earn credits and or pass renewal test.
Government Licensing
Professionals such as doctors, lawyers, CPAs and Engineers must obtain their license for
them to have a permission of engage in an activity and/or operate a business. It’s a government-
issued with the goal of protecting public safety and generally administered to IT professional that
passed the exam. There are cases for licensing an IT worker, must manifest highest standards of
profession and encourages practicing code of ethics in which violator would be punished. The
thing about licensing is that we could have requirements for heightened care and concept of
professional malpractice.
IT Professional Malpractice
It involves an improper, illegal, or negligent professional activity, something that a
reasonable professional would not do. Professional Malpractice simply means a professional
violates the duty of care and are reliable for injuries that their negligence causes. Meanwhile,
Duty of care is the obligation of a professional to safeguard people against any unreasonable
harm/risk.
IT User
IT Users is often referred as end users, they are the employees or individuals who are
involved with supporting or developing a computer or service. Employees must involve ethical
practices and principles when using IT as it increases access to personal computer. It also helps
IT professionals to make use of corporate information system and data as well as the internet.
Common Ethical Issues for IT Users
Sometimes, IT users unknowingly make an inappropriate and unethical act, but most the
time they’re doing things like that intentionally and for purpose. Commonly, IT users execute
Software Piracy, it is the act of an unauthorized downloading, copying or distribution of software
enabling them to gain access to that specific software. They also make an inappropriate sharing
of information such as private data of an employee or customer and confidential information of
the company. With this, IT users use the computer resources to erodes companies’ productivity
that could lead to lawsuits.
Supporting the Ethical Practices of IT Users
There exist so many ethical practices or policies to protect IT User against abuses. This
includes establishing guidelines for using company software and clarify how to appropriately use
IT resources. They use structuring systems in order to protect data and information by means of
installing and maintaining a corporate firewalls. IT Users’ ethical practitioners already set for
general rights and responsibilities of the user. They also created boundaries of appropriate
behavior that an IT user must develop as well as delegate a management that will punish
violators.
Compliance
Compliance is an action or fact of complying with a wish or command in accordance
with established policies, guidelines, specification, and legislation. It includes Sarbanes-Oxley
that established requirements for internal controls and HIPAA that ensures security and privacy
of employee’s healthcare data. Compliance with different industry is considered as a major
challenge that needs an Implementation of software that tracks and record compliance actions.
There is the need of hiring management consultants and the chief compliance officers. Lastly,
they should have an audit committee- a subset of board of directors- to determine if the internal
system and control are working effectively and reliably.