PHI205 Business Ethics : Market Research and the Ethics of Big Data

Answer:

1.0 Description of the Case 

The relevant party is the organization that in which engineers recruited as sysadmins or programmers. The salient issue that is highlighted in the case is that most of the sysadmins and engineers automated their tasks to accomplish their job responsibilities and they utilize their time in entertainment, which is not ethical to follow at office hours.

Factual issue that is highlighted in the case study is many organizations has loopholes in their system or follow tedious way to attain job objectives. In such circumstances, effective programmers take some time to understand the system and automated their portion of work. The conceptual issue in this case is that the work is either so repetitive or tough to handle if followed the exact method that the organization is following, much time will be consumed and a sense of boredom in employees. Moreover, the engineers utilize their knowledge to get some relaxation time for entertainment and family. The social constraints in automating workplace job are that if knowledgeable to the organization, engineers or sysadmins might lose their job. In the given case study also it is stated that some organization adapts the ability to automate the work and allocate them other job roles and responsibility; whereas, some employees have a fear that their organization if came to know, take the automated program and ask them to leave the organization. Tapscott (2012) on the other hand depicts that until the automated work is done for accomplishing the office work and for good purpose, legal requirement might not taken into consideration. However, if automation process is done for robbery or some unethical work, legislations should have been followed.

2.0 Case Analysis

The primary ethical dilemma in the case study is that whether or not automating the task is ethical. Moreover, whether the organization considers the information of secret automation is positively. The role of the information technology is to accomplish the task according to the programmed application. This is the reason the sysadmins and engineers understand the entire system and then develop program that can complete the same work for them. The alternative courses of action is that the employee should suggest the managing authorities about the automation programs so that all can complete the work fast and the rest of the time can be utilized in other works like innovation for better future. The organization can create new products and plan for business expansion that can be the advantageous aspect of the organization. The pros of this alternative are that the benefit of the automation program for completing the work can be utilized by the entire organization. On the other hand, Davis et al. (2013) argued that in this way if the programmer is not appreciated or gifted by some financial or non-financial benefits, they may get de-motivated.

According to that case study, from a consequential perspective, the employee, who confess everything to their organization sounds ethical. The reason is that he desires to do all the work in front of his organization. As in this way, the organization supported that automation process and provides the person with additional roles and responsibility; this illustrates the growth for the organization. Tuzun et al. (2013) stated that according to non-consequentialist theory, based on properties intrinsic to the action the rightness or wrongness of an action is judged. Thus, it can be stated that, from a non-consequential perspective, the action of not telling the organization regarding the automated program sounds ethical from employee’s perspective. The reason is that, the final result is the financial benefits to the employee, which is required for the employee for the luxury and the family he has.

3.0 Case Solution 

In this case, it can be said that even if a person would feel hesitated first to tell the truth as there might be some possibility that the organization will not take this procedure ethical. However, the person should let the manager know by giving them the synopsis of the advantage that the organization can attain by adapting the automated program. In this way, the person can make the authorities believe that the developed program is for the advancement of the company and not for self benefits. The ethical philosophy should be to follow all the organizational regulations and then develop some process that is for good and advantageous to everybody. People should also have the desire to include people, who can suggest and guide to accomplish the plan that the programmer have planed. This shows their ethical decision-making framework that emphasizes on the greater good that is for the benefit of all the people. This sounds ethical as the organization, where the person or engineer is working will prosper and in future the person might also get the opportunity to perform more challenging job roles and responsibilities.

As mentioned earlier this approach does not have many cons apart from the adaptability power of some employees if they are incapable to utilize the formulated automated program. However, effective training can solve the issue and on adapting the program everybody can get much time after their work to learn about new technologies and work knowledge for their self-development. They can also get opportunity for career development in the same organization or in their desired department. The orgniza5ion can also give some time to CSR activities and other ethical social work which will enhance the social presence of the company. Moreover, all the desired work will be accomplishes prior to the mentioned timeline, this will enhance the relationship with clients and incorporation of technology will also ensure the accuracy of the work. Lastly, it can be also said that, the automation process will be beneficial as long it is a good automation that the system will reduce the time to complete a task and make people free for learning new organizational jobs. However, the process should not be used for disastrous work like hacking of the internal data and pass it to the other organization for the sole benefits. Moreover, the organization should also welcome every effort of their employee so that they can feel motivated and share everything without any hesitation. Leaders should always come up with positive and constructive feedback and utilize the knowledge of their employee and appreciate their effort.

Reference: 

Bowie, N. E. (2017). Business ethics: A Kantian perspective. Cambridge University Press.

Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Davis, M., Kumiega, A., & Van Vliet, B. (2013). Ethics, finance, and automation: a preliminary survey of problems in high frequency trading. Science and engineering ethics, 19(3), 851-874.

Hartman, L. P., DesJardins, J. R., & MacDonald, C. (2014). Business ethics: Decision making for personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Nunan, D., & Di Domenico, M. (2013). Market research & the ethics of big data. International Journal of Market Research, 55(4), 505-520.

Tapscott, D. (2012). Office automation: A user-driven method. Springer.

Tuzun, H., Akinci, A., Kurtoglu, M., Deniz, A. T. A. L., & Pala, F. K. (2013). A study on the usability of a university registrar's office website through the methods of authentic tasks and eye-tracking. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 12(2).

Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.