IT 134

SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL

PRACTICE

TOPIC 1:

WMSU AIDA A. ESCORIAL, MIT

Institute of Computer Studies

Department of Information Technology
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Learning Outcomes
The institute shall provide academic excellence in the
field of Information and Communication Technology, with
emphasis on the following goals:

a. Produce quality, excellent and eco-friendly graduates

imbued with gender responsiveness.
b. Achievement of highest level of accreditation and center
of excellence imbued with outcomes-based education.
c. Partner with national and international industries as an outlet
for research development and extension.
d. Support faculty members through faculty development
programs to be competitive with the highest global standards.

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 OVERVIEW ON
ETHICS AND ETHICAL
ANALYSIS

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WHAT IS ETHICS?
• Each society forms a set of rules
that establishes the boundaries
of generally accepted
behavior. These rules are often
expressed in statements about
how people should behave,
and they fit together to form the
moral code by which a society
lives

• Morality refers to social

conventions about right and
wrong that are so widely shared
that they become the basis for
an established consensus.
Definition of Ethics

• Morality refers to social conventions about right and

wrong that are so widely shared that they become the
basis for an established consensus.

• Ethics is a set of beliefs about right and wrong

behavior within a society.

• Ethical behavior conforms to generally accepted

norms—many of which are almost universal
Definition of Ethics
• Virtues are habits that incline people to do what is
acceptable.

• Vices are habits of unacceptable behavior.

* Fairness, generosity, and loyalty are examples of virtues,

while vanity, greed, envy, and anger are considered vices.

* People’s virtues and vices help define their personal value

system—the complex scheme of moral values by which
they live.
The Importance of Integrity
• Your moral principles are statements of what you
believe to be rules of right conduct.

• A person who acts with integrity acts in accordance

with a personal code of principles.

• One approach to acting with integrity—one of the

cornerstones of ethical behavior—is to extend to all
people the same respect and consideration that you
expect to receive from others.
• Unfortunately, consistency can be
difficult to achieve, particularly
when you are in a situation that
conflicts with your moral standards.
• Another form of inconsistency
emerges if you apply moral
standards differently according to
the situation or people involved.

• To be consistent and act with

integrity, you must apply the same
moral standards in all situations.
The Difference Between Morals, Ethics,
and Laws
• Morals are one’s personal
beliefs about right and
wrong, while the term
ethics describes standards
or codes of behavior
expected of an individual
by a group (nation,
organization, profession) to
which an individual
belongs.
The Difference Between Morals, Ethics,
and Laws

• Law is a system of rules that

tells us what we can and
cannot do. Laws are
enforced by set of
institutions (the police,
courts, law-making
bodies).

• Legal acts are acts that

conform to the law.
The Difference Between Morals, Ethics,
and Laws

• Moral acts conform with what

an individual believes to be the
right thing to do

Laws can proclaim an act

as legal, although many
people may consider the
act immoral—for example,
abortion.a
Morality vs Ethics
C:\Users\Aidz\Downloads\What Is Morality_
(See link below for more video lectures on
Ethics).mp4

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Creating an Ethical Work Environment
• Most employees want to perform their jobs
successfully and ethically, but good
employees sometimes make bad ethical
choices.

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Creating an Ethical Work Environment
• Employees must have a knowledgeable
resource with whom they can discuss
perceived unethical practices.

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Ethical Considerations in Decision Making

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Step 1: Develop a Problem Statement
• A problem statement is a clear, concise description
of the issue that needs to be addressed.
• A good problem statement answers the following
questions:
– What do people observe that causes them to
think there is a problem?
– Who is directly affected by the problem?
– Is there anyone else affected?
– How often does it occur?
– What is the impact of the problem?
– How serious is the problem
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Step 1: Develop a Problem Statement
• One must gather and analyze facts to develop a
good problem statement.

• Seek information and opinions from a variety of

people to broaden your frame of reference.

• Stating of facts as much as possible as “ a neutral,

logical exercise” (Kallman and Grillo).

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Step 1: Develop a Problem Statement
• Part of developing a good problem statement involves
identifying the stakeholders and their positions on the
issue.

• By involving stake holders in the decision, you gain their

support for the recommended course of action.
– What is at stake for each stakeholder?
– What does each stakeholder value, and what outcome
does
– each stakeholder want?
– Do some stakeholders have a greater stake because they
have special needs or because the organization has
special obligations to them?
– To what degree should they be involved in the decision? 21
Step 1: Develop a Problem Statement
• Good problem statement: Our product supply organization is
continually running out of stock of finished products, creating
an out-of-stock situation on over 15 percent of our customer
orders, resulting in over $300,000 in lost sales per month.

• Poor problem statement: We need to implement a new

inventory control system.

• Poor problem statement: We have a problem with finished

product inventory.

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Step 2: Identify Alternatives
• During this stage of decision making, it is ideal to
enlist the help of others, including stakeholders, to
identify several alternative solutions to the problem.
• In providing participants information about the
problem to be solved, offer just the facts, without
your opinion, so you don’t influence others to
accept your solution
• During any brainstorming process, try not to be
critical of ideas, as any negative criticism will tend
to “shut down” the group, and the flow of ideas will
dry up.
• Simply write down the ideas as they are suggested.
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Step 3: Evaluate and Choose an Alternative

• The group attempts to evaluate them based on

numerous criteria, such as effectiveness at
addressing the issue, the extent of risk associated
with each alternative, cost, and time to implement.
• As part of the evaluation process, weigh various
laws, guidelines, and principles that may apply.
• Also consider the likely consequences of each
alternative from several perspectives—
– What is the impact on you, your organization, other
stakeholders (including your suppliers and
customers), and the environment?

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Four common approaches to ethical decision
making

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Step 4: Implement Decision
• Once the alternative is selected, it should be
implemented in an efficient, effective, and timely
manner.
• It is imperative that someone whom the
stakeholders trust and respect answer the following
questions:
– Why are we doing this?
– What is wrong with the current way we do things?
– What are the benefits of the new way for you?
• A transition plan must be defined to explain to
people how they will move from the old way of
doing things to the new way.
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Step 5: Evaluate the Results
• After the solution to the problem has been
implemented, monitor the results to see if
the desired effect was achieved, and
observe its impact on the organization and
the various stakeholders.
– Were the success criteria fully met?
– Were there any unintended consequences?

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ETHICS IN INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY

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ETHICS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
• Many employees might have their e-mail and
Internet access monitored while at work, as
employers struggle to balance their need to
manage important company assets and work time
with employees’ desire for privacy and self-
direction.
• Millions of people have downloaded music and
movies at no charge and inapparent violation of
copyright laws at tremendous expense to the
owners of those copyrights.
• Organizations contact millions of people worldwide
through unsolicited e-mail (spam) as an extremely
low-cost marketing approach. 29
ETHICS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
• Hackers break into databases of financial and
retail institutions to steal customer information,
then use it to commit identity theft—opening
new accounts and charging purchases to
unsuspecting victims.
• Students around the world have been caught
downloading material from the Web and
plagiarizing content for their term papers.
• Web sites plant cookies or spyware on visitors’
hard drives to track their online purchases and
activities.
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AIMS OF THE COURSE

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Aims of the Course
• Students must also be exposed to the larger societal
context of computing to develop an understanding of
the relevant social, ethical, legal and professional issues.
• Undergraduates also need to understand the basic
cultural, social, legal, and ethical issues inherent in the
discipline of computing.
• Students also need to develop the ability to ask serious
questions about the social impact of computing and to
evaluate proposed answers to those questions.
• Finally, students need to be aware of the basic legal
rights of software and hardware vendors and users, and
they also need to appreciate the ethical values that are
the basis for those rights.
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Aims of the Course
• As technological advances continue to
significantly, impact the way we live and
work, the critical importance of social issues
and professional practice continues to
increase.
• Much of this course is concerned with how
one decides what to do in situations.
• The topics to be addressed specifically
include:

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A. SOCIAL CONTEXT
• Computers and the Internet, perhaps more than
any other technologies, have transformed society
over the past 75 years, with dramatic increases in
human productivity;
• an explosion of options for news, entertainment,
and communication;
• Includes fundamental breakthroughs in almost
every branch of science and engineering.
• Social Context provides the foundation for all other
knowledge units, especially Professional Ethics

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B. ANALYTICAL TOOL
• Ethical theories and principles are the
foundations of ethical analysis because they
are the viewpoints from which guidance
can be obtained along the pathway to a
decision.
• However, in order for an ethical theory to be
useful, the theory must be directed towards
a common set of goals.
• In order to make decisions a basic ability in
ethical argumentation is required.
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C. Professional Ethics
• Computer ethics is a branch of practical
philosophy that deals with how computing
professionals should make decisions
regarding professional and social conduct.
• There are three primary influences:
– 1) an individual’s own personal code;
– 2) any informal code of ethical behaviour
existing in the workplace; and
– 3) exposure to formal codes of ethics.

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D. Intellectual Property
• Intellectual Property Intellectual property
refers to a range of intangible rights of
ownership In an asset such as a software
program.
• There are essentially four types of intellectual
property rights relevant to software:
– patents, copyrights, trade secrets and
trademarks.

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E. PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
• Privacy and Civil Liberties Electronic
information sharing highlights the need to
balance privacy protections with
information access. The ease of digital
access to many types of data makes
privacy rights and civil liberties more
complex, differing among the variety of
cultures worldwide.

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EXPLORING SOCIAL AND
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
ISSUES

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ACTIVITY
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Activity1: What would you do?
A. Read the following scenarios. Analyze and discuss you answers
comprehensively.

Scenario 1: Should I copy software?

“Rajesh invests small amounts on the stock market.
Last year he bought and successfully employed a
software package to help him with his investments.
Recently, he met Fundiswa who was also interested
in using the software. Fundiswa borrowed the
package, copied it and then returned it. Both
vaguely knew that the software was proprietary but
did not read up the details.

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Activity1: What would you do?
A. Read the following scenarios. Analyze and discuss you answers
comprehensively.

Scenario 2: Should a company mine data?

Consider the case where Tisetso sells hardware and software

to over 100 000 customers per year. She has 10 years of
experience. As part of the billing process she keeps
information on customers. She buys and uses a data mining
tool to derive useful information about her client’s information
such as postal codes, credit card numbers, ID numbers, etc.
Most of this information identifies groups and not individuals.
She can then use the information to market her wares more
efficiently. Is this ethical since customers did not give her the
information for this purpose?
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 Activity1: What would you do?
B. Use the five-step decision-making process to analyze the
following situations and recommend a course of action.

Scenario 1:
A coworker calls you at 9:00 a.m. at work and asks for a
favor. He is having car trouble and will be an hour late
for work. He explains that he has already been late for
work twice this month and that a third time will cost him
four hours of pay. He asks you to stop by his cubicle, turn
his computer on, and place some papers on the desk so
that it appears that he is in. You have worked on some
small projects with this co-worker and have gone to
lunch together. He seems nice enough and does his
share of the work, but you are not sure what to tell him.
What would you do? 43
References
• Social Issues and Professional Practice in IT & Computing
Lecture Notes (2019). Department of Computer Science
University of Cape Town
• Baase, S. (2013) A Gift of Fire – Social, Legal and Ethical Issues
for Computing and the Internet, 4th Edition
• Reynolds,G. (2010). Ethics in Information Technology 3rd
Edition.
• Internet Sources
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9A4UHYeBcE
– https://youtu.be/zPsoFhUDLuU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=x6oSJ
g6wuBg&list=TLPQMjMwMTIwMjJtU_M54aziYA&index=3
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxBVMI2UJS0&t=15s

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