ITC506 Information Technology Ethics for Staffs of the Willis Company

Q1. What's going on?

In the provided situation the project manager is having a conversation with the senior developer for the Willis project. It is seen that the project manager is enquiring the senior developer about the progress of the project and is informing him about the deadline of the project is near. In addition to this he is also enquiring about the testing of the project (YouTube, 2017). The senior developer provides the answers to his queries. The senior developer answers to this that the project is having a very efficient progress and also the project would be completed within a day or two.

Q2. What

are the facts?

The developer says that they are developing three systems for the project and also says that they have sent the project overseas for the testing purpose. Now, the main issue with this is that the developer is using too much of finance for the development of the project. In addition to this the credibility of the testing for the system done overseas is also under question. The project manager also says that the development of three systems would be too much. On asked whether the systems have been checked by the senior developer himself, he says that this has not been done yet. Hence, this further raises the accountability of the system that is being currently developed.

Q3. What are the issues?

There are various types of issues that have been raised due to the situation and the implications (Wouters et al., 2014).

The main ethical issues are:

• The effectiveness of the system is questionable.
• The security of the system is also under question.

The non ethical issues that would arise with the situation are:

• The cost for the implementation of the system is increasing and has become more than the allocated budget.
• In addition to this, it has not been checked if all the functionalities of system have been implemented properly.
• Since, there are multiple versions of the system hence; there would compatibility issues over the installation of the system.

Q4. Who is affected?

The main stakeholders that would be affected by the issues that have been raised with the system are (Dilling & Berggren, 2015):

• The Staffs of the Willis Company: The staffs of the Willis Company would face difficulties in handling the system if the functionalities of the system have not been implemented properly.
• The project manager: The project manager would also face the blame if the project is not delivered properly. This would result in bad reputation of the project manager.
• The staffs of CIA Company: The staffs of the CIA Company would also face the blame for the inefficiency of the project.

Q5. What are the ethical issues and their implications?

The main ethical issue is that the testing of the system is questionable and the project manager would be in complete dark regarding the functionality of the system that has been implemented. There are various types of implication for the system and the situation is violating all the major theories of the classical ethical theory (Caroll & Bucholtz, 2014).

• Firstly, the system would not be able to provide efficient security to the company. Hence, this would result in the violation of the deontological theory (Paquette, Somerfeldt & Kent, 2015).
• In addition to this the system would also not be efficient for the staffs of the Willis Company and hence the resources would not be utilized equally by all the people and this would result in the violation of the utilitarianism theory (Goetghbeur et al., 2015).
• In addition to this, there is a question mark over the charter of the senior developer who is involved with the project and this violates the virtue ethics of the classical ethical theories.

Q6. What could have been done about it?

The project manager who have to deal with this situations and there are a number of options available to him:

• Firstly, the project manager can request the senior developer to design only one version of the system.
• Secondly, the project manager can disapprove the decision of the senior developer.
• Lastly, the project manager could encourage the senior developer to implement the system more efficiently.

Q7. What are the options?

The project manager can take several steps for the improvement of the situation and also would help in the mitigation of the issues that have come up with the situation.

• The project manager can request the senior developer to design only one version of the system so the cost for the system would be reduced.
• Secondly, the project manager can disapprove the decision of the senior developer and ask him to think of alternate procedures.
• Lastly, the project manager could encourage the senior developer to implement the system more efficiently so that he is motivated and complete the task with more effort.

Q8. Which option is the best and why?

The first option is the best for the manager as this would help the project to be completed in time and also this would reduce the overall cost of the project and in addition to this, this would also keep the staffs of the company and also company very happy.

References

Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.

Dilling, L., & Berggren, J. (2015). What do stakeholders need to manage for climate change and variability? A document-based analysis from three mountain states in the Western USA. Regional Environmental Change, 15(4), 657-667.

Goetghebeur, M. M., Wagner, M., Bond, K., & Hofmann, B. (2015). Analysis Of Ethical Theories And Principles Embedded In Holistic Mcda: A Primer To Ethics-Based Appraisal Of Value In Healthcare. Value in Health, 18(3), A101.

Paquette, M., Sommerfeldt, E. J., & Kent, M. L. (2015). Do the ends justify the means? Dialogue, development communication, and deontological ethics. Public Relations Review, 41(1), 30-39.

Wouters, K., Maesschalck, J., Peeters, C. F., & Roosen, M. (2014). Methodological issues in the design of online surveys for measuring unethical work behavior: Recommendations on the basis of a split-ballot experiment. Journal of Business Ethics, 120(2), 275-289.

YouTube. (2017). Scenario 1 Overseas Codeshop. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBfJ07gfHyc [Accessed 8 Aug. 2017].