GLOBAL LEARNING SOLUTIONS CASE STUDY
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Executive Summary
Ethical dilemmas are a common phenomenon in many organisations whereby it becomes crucial to determine whether an action is ethical or unethical and the potential rewards or losses . This report begins by providing definition to the topic whereby the aspects of ethical and unethical decisions have been considered. The ethical analysis has also been provided which identifies various incidences that have happened within the organisation and determined whether they are ethical or unethical using the ethical theories such as relativism, Kantianism and utilitarianism (Quinn, 2006).
This has been followed by the identification of various stakeholders who are directly involved with this issue whereby three main stakeholders have been identified which are the board of directors, organisation employees and the clients. The evaluation of how they are likely to be affected by this situation has also been analysed. However, the situation has also been analysed using the Boomer et al’s model whereby all the aspects of the model has been considered in determining whether these decisions were ethical or unethical. Various environments such as the social, personal, individual, work, professional, as well as government or legal environments have been collectively considered to determine whether the actions in the organisation were ethical or not (Banerjee, Jones and Cronan, 1996).
Moreover, there has been identification of various potential solutions to the prevailing situation. The main among them being the issue of rectifying the mistake that has occurred leading to the release of a defective software in the market (McDonald and Nijhof, 1999).
Table of contents
Executive summary…………………………………………………………………………………………..2
Table of contents………………………………………………………………………………………………3
1.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….4
1.1 Purpose…………………………………………………………………………………………..5
1.2 Scope……………………………………………………………………………………………..5
1.3 Definitions………………………………………………………………………………………5
2.0 Ethical Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………….6
3.0 Stakeholder Identification……………………………………………………………………………7
4.0 Bommer et. Al’s Analysis……………………………………………………………………………8
5.0 Solutions…………………………………………………………………………………………………..11
6.0 Reference List……………………………………………………………………………………………12
1.0 Introduction
Ethical dilemmas are nowadays on increase mainly because of the diverse situations facing professionals in the information technology. However, the misuse of as well as unethical behaviours toward the organisation’s information systems have led to significant losses and negative impact to society and businesses. Companies continue to investing in developing as well as implementing on measures to ensure that that there are no issues of unethical incidences that occurs in the information systems within their organisations (Quinn, 2006). However, despite the measures the problem has not yet been solved costing the companies and societies monetary losses amounting to billions of dollars on annual basis.
Moreover, there is need for the professionals in the information systems sector to conduct themselves in a professional way and shun away from the unethical behaviours (Banerjee, Jones and Cronan, 1996). Unacceptable, unethical and/or illegal behaviours of professionals in the information systems sector pose a lot of concerns as a result of the potential harm it is capable of causing to the society as well as the integrity of the entire information systems profession. Therefore, they always the need for the professionals in this field to uphold very high integrity by ensuring they stick to ethical behaviours when discharging their duties (McDonald and Nijhof, 1999).
However, this report is expected to analyse the information systems ethical dilemma involving the Global Learning Systems. The topic is first defined followed by the provision of the purpose and scope of the report. Moreover, the ethical analysis of the dilemma usually involves the identification of the incidences in the case study that seem unethical (Quinn, 2006). The report will also identify the stake holders involved in this case study as well as determining whether the actions taken were ethical or unethical on the basis of Bommer et al’s analysis and viable solutions to the incidence (Banerjee, Jones and Cronan, 1996).
1.1 Purpose
The purpose of this report will be to evaluate the situation in which the Global Learning Solutions is in and through an ethical analysis identify different issues facing the organisation. This will be mainly to determine whether the actions taken by the organisation stakeholders were ethical or unethical using the ethical theories.
1.2 Scope
The scope of this report is relatively wide since it starts by defining the topic which is then followed by the ethical analysis of the situation using the ethical theories whose purpose is to determine the status of the actions taken within the organisation. However, the stakeholders have also been identified whereby the main three were the board of directors , employees and clients. The Boomer et al’s model has also been used to analyse the situation where all aspects have been addressed. Moreover, the potential solutions to the problems facing the organisation have also been identified.
1.3 Definitions
Throughout the report various terminologies have been frequently used which deserves providing their definitions such as code of conduct, ethics, ethical dilemma and morals. Code of conduct are the rules and regulations that guides employees in an organisation (Quinn, 2006). They also consist of specified disciplinary actions to be take upon their violation. Ethics is usually the philosophical study of morality. Morals are thus the beliefs and concepts that have been generalised within societies or groups. An ethical dilemma is a complex ethical situation which does not have an obvious solution (Banerjee, Jones and Cronan, 1996).
2.0 Ethical Analysis
Ethical dilemmas are quite often and more preferably within the organisations where professionals are involved in offering certain services to their clients. Mostly these dilemmas occur as a result of ethical considerations that arise from ethics whereby is the study involved with morality whereby moral beliefs or concepts are usually generalised within the societies or groups from which they exist (Quinn, 2006).
The analysis of ethical dilemmas calls for the utilisation of the ethical theories which are responsible to enable a universal analysis of situations which poses an ethical dilemma hence the ethical theories such as relativism, Kantianism and utilitarianism are very crucial in providing succinct analysis of ethical dilemmas. For instance, there are several questionable acts that have been identified in the case study. The issue of Nicole Smith being so much attracted to online chatting seems questionable since his colleague David does not support her move to meet with the guy she has just encountered over the internet alone. However, on the basis of relativism ethical theory whereby there is the assertion that there is no universal moral norm proves both of them to be right (Singer, 2002). For instance, Nicole is right because according to her there is nothing wrong with doing that, also David is right because he is worried of what may happen when Nicole happens to meet a stranger in a bar alone hence it is not that he is jealous (Banerjee, Jones and Cronan, 1996).
Moreover, concerning the controversial release of a defective software into the market by the Global Learning Solutions proves to be unethical when both the Kantianism and utilitarianism ethical theories. For instance, the Kantianism advocates that the organisation and the clients should have been considered as the ends without considering the clients as the end means. However, considering how the company board of directors are handling the situate it becomes apparent that according to Kantianism this is unethical (Quinn, 2006). This is because they are envisaging to exploit their clients through the defective software upon which they will charging to repair upon failure.
However, considering the utilitarianism which advocates for doing the greatest good to the greatest number of people as well as an action to be wrong or right depending on the consequences then the board of directors and the employees have acted unethically. This is mainly because the release of this defective software stands to cause a lot of losses to the clients but the company is not willing to fix the problem prior to failure despite being totally aware of the situation (Banerjee, Jones and Cronan, 1996).
Also the incidence of David accessing confidential information belonging to the company also stands out to be unethical mainly because upon the code of ethics he is not supposed to access other people’s or company confidential information (Singer, 2002). Moreover, he goes beyond just seeing the information but also call Josephine his friend and colleague to inform her. Thus this happens to be unethical because faced with the dilemma he should have explored for the next course of action without necessarily informing her colleague.
3.0 Stakeholder Identification
The dilemma currently facing the Global Learning Systems involves almost all the stakeholders of the organisation ranging from the board of directors to employees and finally clients and customers. This is due to the fact that all these stake are directly involved to the major issue or stands to be affected by it. However, they all bear different responsibilities and weights considering that they play different roles in the whole situation (McDonald and Nijhof, 1999).
The board of directors are the major stakeholders on this issue since they are usually the ones responsible for making important decisions about the organisation. Hence their role is very critical in determining the direction to be taken by the organisation (Banerjee, Jones and Cronan, 1996). For instance, upon realising that a defective software has already been released to the market it very important for them to take the most appropriate measures to ensure that the clients do not stand to lose or feel short-changed upon realisation of what had happen.
However, the organisation employees also constitute another major stakeholders in this issue mainly because they themselves also had a role to play. Most preferably Craig who is the head of IT department and the newly appointed software project manager Nicole Smith. This is mainly because they are key players among the employees on the issue since they had the option of the action to take concerning the incidence and also first task accorded to Nicole involves the same issue. David and Josephine also had a role to play after realising what is happening in the company.
The company clients and customers are also stakeholders on this issue since they are the consumers of the organisation products and services. This is mainly because they stand to lose a lot in case the defective software happens to breakdown. Thus there is need for them to be notified thereby be aware of what may happen if necessary action is not taken. Moreover, the company board of director are just taking advantage of the situation because the company stands to make more money in fixing the problems about to occur (Reynolds, 2009).
4.0 Bommer et. al’s Analysis
The situation which is facing the Global Learning Solutions can very effectively analysed by the use of the Bommer et. al’s model in order to determine whether the decisions that were made by different stakeholders in the company were ethical or unethical (Bommer et al. , 1987). The Bommer et. al’s model covers almost all the aspects that are concerned with the determination of whether a decision is unethical or not by considering all factors that may influence the process of making a decision.
For instance, all the complex aspects of the this model has to be collectively considered including the environments such as work, professional, personal, government/legal, social and finally the individual environment (Bommer et al. , 1987).
When this situation is considered on the basis of professional environment there are different issues which must be addressed such as the code of conduct, professional meetings as well as the licensing requirements. The code of conduct always acts as a guide to what is expected of all the employees in an organisation (Reynolds, 2009). Hence an employee is subject to disciplinary action upon violation of the organisation code of conduct. However, most of these code of conducts have a lot of similarities since most of the things outlined in them are mainly based on moral standards (Bommer et al. , 1987). Moreover, considering the licensing requirements the actions were unethical since they may lead to the revocation of the license in case the incident is revealed to the clients (Bommer et al. , 1987).
However, when the work environment is considered where factors such as corporate goals, corporate culture and stated policy the action is not unethical to the board of directors because they have endorsed to remain silence hence within the organisation they are not perceiving the action wrong (Bommer et al. , 1987). This is because they are expecting to rip more from the situation. However, when the government or legal environment is considered the decision seem to be unethical mainly because it involves the legislations that ensures that there is consumer protection (McDonald and Nijhof, 1999). Hence the board of directors just decides to overlook the aspect of the harm potentially to be caused to the clients by taking advantage of them. This seems to be very unethical and also unprofessional since it amounts to exploitation of the clients by giving them substandard services which are potential to cause more harm to them both in the job wise and financially. Hence it is possible for disciplinary action to be taken towards such actions upon revelation to the public (Singer, 2002).
The personal environment likely involves the peers and the family of which are likely to also influence your opinion against that action. Chances are very high that the personal environment will definitely term the action unethical considering all the involved factors and the expected effects of the action (Bommer et al. , 1987). Moreover, the social environment which seems to involve the religious values, cultural values, societal values and religious values is obviously likely to term the action unethical (Kizza, 2010). This is mainly because when all these factor are considered the action and the decision taken by the board of directors and some of the employees to allow such an action is unacceptable considering the harm it is likely to cause to the clients. Also this is usually happening with their full knowledge thus not accidental but deliberate (Reynolds, 2009).
Individual environment which is constituted by the personal attributes consideration should also term the action unethical because it mainly considers the moral standards of an individual. Also personality, personal goals and motivation are also part of the individual environment all of which are likely to influence the decision of the action being unethical (Bommer et al. , 1987). Thus considering the Bommer et. al’s model analysis it becomes apparent that through a cognitive process the perceived losses exceeds the rewards through the evaluation of the acquired information hence such a decision should be termed unethical (Bommer et al. , 1987).
5.0 Solutions
Upon the evaluation of the case study there are ethical issues that have been identified hence there possible solutions should be provide. For instance, the issue of releasing a defective software to the clients deliberately is one of the unethical incidence identified. Hence there is need to address it amicably through following the right procedure (Quinn, 2006). For example, any human being is potential to make mistakes hence the issue of a defect in the software should have been normal considering this. Therefore after realising that there is a defect in the already released software it would have been a noble thing to follow up the clients and rectify the problem without any charges because the defect is originating from the company.
This would have otherwise been perceived by the clients as a noble step since the organisation would have saved them from a disaster which could have occurred later hence this would end up boosting the client’s loyalty to the organisation (Kizza, 2010). This is because the company will have portrayed an image of a caring partner compared to the effects that may occur if the information is leaked by a whistleblower. The latter would have a lot of detrimental effect hence noble thing would be facing the situation face to face and not taking advantage of it (Quinn, 2006).
Moreover, the other solution to this situation would be ensuring that in future such incidences does not occur by putting in place a very effective quality assurance measures that will be responsible in ensuring that any product released to the clients is up to the required standards (Kizza, 2010). Thus this would be ethical from the fact that the organisation will not be taking advantage of the situation to exploit the clients.
6.0 Reference List
Banerjee, D., Jones, T.W. and Cronan, T.P. (1996). The association of demographic variables and ethical behaviour of information system personnel. Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 96 no. 3, pp. 3 – 10.
Bommer, M., Gratto, C., Gravander, J. and Tuttle, M. (1987). A behavioural model of ethical and unethical decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 6 pp. 265-80.
Kizza, J.M. (2010). Ethical and social issues in the information age. (4th ed.). London: Springer-Verlag London Limited.
McDonald, G. and Nijhof, A. (1999). Beyond codes of ethics: an integrated framework for stimulating morally responsible behaviour in organisations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 20 no. 3, pp. 133 – 147.
Quigley, M. (2008). Encyclopaedia of information ethics and security. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Quinn, M. (2006). Ethics for the information Age. (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson
Quinn, M.J. and Quinn, M. (2010). Ethics for the information Age. (4th ed.). Boston: Addison Wesley
Reynolds, G.W. (2009). Ethics in Information Technology. (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology Cengage Learning.
Singer, P. (2002). One World: The ethics of globalisation. Melbourne: Text Publishing
