23CS1013

ETHICS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Dr. S. Jeba Priya

AP/CSE/KITS
MODULE- 1: Overview of Professional Ethics

Professional Ethics -Organizational Culture

and Climate- Engineering Ethics- Ethical
Problem Solving Techniques-Ethical Issues in
Engineering Practice-Leadership theories:
Transactional, Transformational, charismatic
leadership, situational leadership -
Participative style of management- Engineers
as Managers - Concept of Continuous
improvement- PDCA Cycle- Suggestion
Schemes and Quality circles
 ETHICS
• The word ethics has emerged from Latin
‘Ethicus’ or in Greek ‘Ethicos’.
• As per Oxford Dictionary the meaning of
Ethics is a “ system of moral principles, rules
and conduct.”
• Ethics is a “science of morals”.
• Ethics is a set of beliefs about right and wrong
behavior within a society
 MORALS
• Morals are one’s personal beliefs about right
and wrong.
• Morals are the prevailing standards of behavior
that enable people to live cooperatively in
groups.
• Morals refers to what societies sanction as
right and acceptable.
• Morals are principles that guide individual
conduct within the society
 LAWS
• Law is a system of rules that tell us what we
can and cannot do.
• It is enforced by a set of institutions(the police,
courts, law-making bodies)
• Legal acts are acts that conform to the law.
• Moral acts conform to what an individual
believes to be the right thing to do.
 VALUES
• Value– Latin word: ‘VALERE’ which means to
be of worth.
• Oxford Dictionary defines the term value as the
worth, desirability or utility of a thing.
• Values are defined as something which are
desirable and worthy of esteem for their own
sake.
• Values lay the foundations for the understanding
of attitudes and motivation.
• Values influence the attitudes and behaviours.
 PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
• Profession- commitment to a designated and organized
occupation by virtue of being an authority over a body
of knowledge with requisite skills acquired through
specialized training.
• Professional – practitioner belonging to a specific
profession.
• Professional ethics - principles that govern the
behavior of a person or group in a business
environment.
• Like values, professional ethics provide rules on how a
person should act towards other people and institutions
in such an environment.
 ENGINEERING ETHICS
• It aims at knowing moral values related to
engineering, finding accurate solutions to the
moral problems in engineering and justifying
moral judgments of engineering
• It gives a total view of moral problems and how to
solve these issues specifically related to engineering
field.
• It also concerns with discovering moral principles
such as obligations, rights and ideals in engineering
and by applying them to take a correct decision
 APPROACHES: ENGINEERING
ETHICS
MICRO-ETHICS:
• This approach addresses typical, everyday
problems that the engineers face in their
professional life.
• In other words, it describes ethical issues that
may affect an engineer’s professional and
personal life
 Contd…
MACRO-ETHICS:
• This approach deals with all societal problems
that engineers encounter during their
career.
• In other words, macro ethics discusses ethical
issues concerning all societal problems that
engineers might encounter.
 SENSES OF ENGINEERING
ETHICS
• There are two different senses of engineering
ethics:
❖ Normative Sense
❖ Descriptive Sense
 NORMATIVE SENSE

It includes:
• Knowing moral values, finding accurate solutions
to moral problems and justifying moral judgments
in engineering practices.
• Study of decisions, policies, and values that are
normally desirable in the engineering practice and
research.
• Using codes of ethics and standards and applying
them in their transactions by engineers.
 DESCRIPTIVE SENSE
• The descriptive sense refers to what specific
individual or group of engineers believe an act,
without justifying their beliefs or actions.
ETHICS IN BUSINESS WORLD
• Several trends have increased the likelihood
of unethical behaviour.
• First for many organizations, greater
globalization has created a much more
complex work environment that spans diverse
cultures and societies making it more difficult
to apply principles and code of ethics
consistently.
• Second, in today’s difficult and uncertain
economic climate, organizations are extremely
challenged to maintain revenue and profits.
Examples of lapses in business ethics
• Volkswagen has admitted that 11 million of its
vehicles were equipped with software that was used to
cheat for emissions tests. The company is now
contending with the fallout.

• Toshiba, the Japanese industrial giant whose

diversified products and services include information
technology and communications equipment and
systems, disclosed that it overstated its earnings over a
seven-year period by more than $1.2 billion
 Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR)
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the
concept that an organization should act
ethically by taking responsibility for the
impact of its actions on the environment, the
community, and the welfare of its employees.
• Setting CSR goals encourages an organization
to achieve higher moral and ethical standards.
Eg: Cisco
 Supply chain sustainability
• Supply chain sustainability is a component of
CSR that focuses on developing and maintaining a
supply chain that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their needs.
• Supply chain sustainability takes into account such
issues as fair labor practices, energy and resource
conservation, human rights, and community
responsibility.
 Why Fostering Corporate Social
Responsibility and Good Business Ethics
Is Important
• Organizations have at least five good reasons for pursuing
CSR goals and for promoting a work environment in which
employees are encouraged to act ethically when making
business decisions.

❖ Gaining the goodwill of the community.

❖ Creating an organization that operates consistently.
❖ Fostering good business practices
❖ Protecting the organization and its employees from legal
action
❖ Avoiding unfavorable publicity
Improving Corporate Ethics
• Research by the Ethics Resource Center (ERC)
found that 86 percent of the employees in
companies with a well-implemented ethics
and compliance program are likely to
perceive a strong ethical culture within the
company, while less than 25 percent of
employees in companies with little to no
program are likely to perceive a culture that
promotes integrity in the workplace.
The ERC has defined the following characteristics of a
successful ethics program:

• Employees are willing to seek advice about ethics

issues.
• Employees feel prepared to handle situations that could
lead to misconduct.
• Employees are rewarded for ethical behavior.
• The organization does not reward success obtained
through questionable means.
• Employees feel positively about their company.
 Appointing a Corporate Ethics
Officer
• A corporate ethics officer (also called a corporate compliance
officer) provides an organization with vision and leadership in the
area of business conduct.

Specific responsibilities include the following:

• Responsibility for compliance—that is, ensuring that ethical

procedures are put into place and consistently adhered to
throughout the organization
• Responsibility for creating and maintaining the ethics culture
that the highest level of corporate authority wishes to have
• Responsibility for being a key knowledge and contact person
on issues relating to corporate ethics and principles
Ethical Standards Set by Board of Directors

• The board of directors is responsible for the careful and

responsible management of an organization.
• A board of directors fulfills some of its responsibilities directly
and assigns others to various committees.
• The board is not normally responsible for day-to-day
management and operations; these responsibilities are
delegated to the organization’s management team.
• However, the board is responsible for supervising the
management team.
• Board members are expected to conduct themselves according
to the highest standards for personal and professional integrity,
while setting the standard for company-wide ethical conduct
and ensuring compliance with laws and regulations.
Establishing a Corporate Code of Ethics

• A code of ethics is a statement that highlights an

organization’s key ethical issues and identifies the
overarching values and principles that are important
to the organization and its decision making.
• Codes of ethics frequently include a set of formal,
written statements about the purpose of an
organization, its values, and the principles that should
guide its employees’ actions.
• An organization’s code of ethics applies to its
directors, officers, and employees.
 Conducting Social Audits
• An increasing number of organizations conduct
regular social audits of their policies and practices.
• In a social audit, an organization reviews how well it
is meeting its ethical and social responsibility goals,
and communicates its new goals for the upcoming
year.
• This information is shared with employees,
shareholders, investors, market analysts, customers,
suppliers, government agencies, and the communities
in which the organization operates.
• For example, each year Intel prepares its “Corporate
Responsibility Report,” which summarizes the firm’s progress
toward meeting its ethical and CSR goals.
In 2011, Intel focused on goals in three primary areas: (
1) the environment—with targets set for global-warming
emissions, energy consumption, water use, chemical and solid
waste reduction, and product energy efficiency.
(2) corporate governance—with goals to improve transparency
and strengthen ethics and compliance reporting
(3) social—with goals to improve the organizational health of the
company.
Requiring Employees to Take Ethics
Training
• An organization’s code of ethics must be promoted and continually
communicated within the organization, from top to bottom.
• Organizations can do this by showing employees examples of how to apply
the code of ethics in real life.
• One approach is through a comprehensive ethics education program that
encourages employees to act responsibly and ethically.
• Such programs are often presented in small workshop formats in which
employees apply the organization’s code of ethics to hypothetical but
realistic case studies.
• A critical goal of such training is to increase the percentage of employees
who report incidents of misconduct; thus, employees must be shown
effective ways of reporting such incidents.
 Including Ethical Criteria in Employee
Appraisal
• Managers can help employees to meet performance
expectations by monitoring employee behavior and
providing feedback.
• Increasingly, managers are including ethical conduct
as part of an employee’s performance appraisal.
Creating an Ethical Work Environment
• Employees must have a knowledgeable resource with whom
they can discuss perceived unethical practices.
• For example, Intel expects employees to report suspected
violations of its code of conduct to a manager, the Legal or
Internal Audit Departments, or a business unit’s legal counsel.
• Employees can also report violations anonymously through an
internal Web site dedicated to ethics.
• Senior management at Intel has made it clear that any
employee can report suspected violations of corporate business
principles without fear of reprisal or retaliation.
INCLUDING ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN DECISION
MAKING
 Develop 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 anyone else affected?

• How often does the problem occur? What is the impact of the
problem? How serious is the problem?
Development of a problem statement is the most critical step
in the decision-making process.

Without a clear statement of the problem or the decision to be

made, it is useless to proceed.

If the problem is stated incorrectly, the chances of solving the

real problem are greatly diminished.
 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.
• Brainstorming with others will increase your
chances of identifying a broad range of
alternatives and determining the best
solution.
 Choose alternative
• Once a set of alternatives has been identified, the group
must evaluate them based on numerous criteria, such as
effectiveness of addressing the issue, the extent of risk
associated with each alternative, cost, and time to
implement.
• An alternative that sounds attractive but that is not feasible
will not help solve the problem.
• The alternative selected should be ethically and legally
defensible to a collection of your coworkers, peers, and your
profession’s governing body of ethics;
 Implement the decision
• Once an alternative is selected, it should be
implemented in an efficient, effective, and
timely manner.
• This is often much easier said than done,
because people tend to resist change.
• In fact, the bigger the change, the greater is
the resistance to it. Communication is the key
to helping people accept a change.
 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
• The proper alternative may have been selected, but it was
implemented in a poor fashion so the desired results were
not achieved. This may require redoing some of the
implementation steps.
BIG PICTURE VIEW: Nazi experimentation
& Eugenics Movement
• Nazi scientists and doctors did all sorts of
experiments done, mostly on Jews, to show
the effects of freezing, poison and head
trauma, malaria and others involving twin
studies.
• Eugenics was trying to make the genes of
humans “better”, more “pure”
BIG PICTURE VIEW: DDT Pesticide
• Banned in US
• Concentrates in food chain(biological
magnification)
• Nerve toxin

• Causes cancer and other diseases.

 BIG PICTURE VIEW: Tuskeegee
Experiment
• This study began with good intensions: it
shifted from being about helping those
afflicted with disease to becoming a study
about the effects of untreated syphilis on live
patients.
• Free medical care, transportation, food, burial
stipened(if autopsy was allowed)
• 1932-1972 !!(pencillin was invented in 1947)
• Covid 19 (2019- till date)
LEADERSHIP
 What Is Leadership?
Leadership
• The ability to influence a group toward the
achievement of goals.
• Leadership, both as a research area and as a
practical skill, encompasses the ability of an
individual, group or organization to "lead",
influence or guide other individuals, teams,
or entire organizations.
 Qualities of a Successful Leader
• Honesty
• Delegate
• Communication
• Confidence
• Commitment
• Positive attitude
• Creativity
• Intuition
• Inspire
• Approach
 Developing leadership skills
•No one is a born leader—everyone can develop leadership skills and

everyone can benefit from using them. First, take time to honestly analyze
yourself.

Learn to understand yourself. It’s the first step to understanding others.

Consider these important questions:
1. What kind of leader am I? One who helps solve problems? A leader who
helps people get along? How do others see me as a leader?
2. What are my goals, purposes, and expectations in working with this
particular group?
 Transactional and Transformational
Leadership
Transactional Leaders
• Leaders who guide or motivate their followers in
the direction of established goals by clarifying role
and task requirements.
Transformational Leaders
• Leaders who provide individualized consideration
and intellectual stimulation, and who possess
charisma.
Characteristics of Transactional Leaders

• Contingent Reward: Contracts exchange of rewards for

effort, promises rewards for good performance, recognizes
accomplishments.

• Management by Exception: Watches and searches for

deviations from rules and standards, takes corrective
action.
 Characteristics of Transformational
Leaders
• Idealized Influence: Provides vision and sense of mission, instills pride,
gains respect and trust.

• Inspiration: Communicates high expectations, uses symbols to focus

efforts, expresses important purposes in simple ways.

• Intellectual Stimulation: Promotes intelligence, rationality, and careful

problem solving.

• Individualized Consideration: Gives personal attention, treats each

employee individually, coaches, advises.
 Charismatic Leadership
• It is the process of encouraging certain
behaviors in others via force of personality,
persuasion and eloquent communication.
Charismatic leaders inspire their followers to
do things or to do things better, this is done by
conjuring up enthusiasm in others for a stated
vision or goal.
Conger and Kanungo (1998) describe five behavioral
attributes of Charismatic leaders that indicate a more
transformational viewpoint.
1. Vision and articulation
2. Sensitivity to the environment
3. Sensitivity to member needs
4. Personal risk taking
5. Performing unconventional behavior
Assumptions of Charismatic leadership

• Charm and grace are all that is needed to create

followers

• Self belief is a fundamental need of leaders

• People follow others that they personally

admire