INTRODUCTION
What is Ethic?
Ethic, also known as moral philosophy, us a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. The term comes from the Greek word "ethos", which means "character". Ethics is a complement to Aesthetics in the philosophy field of Axiology. In philosophy, ethics studies the moral behavior in humans, and how one should act. Ethics may be divided into four major areas of study.
- Meta-ethics, about theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how their truth values maybe determined;
- Normative ethics, about the practical means of determining a moral course of action;
- Applied ethics, about how moral outcomes can be achieved in specific situations;
- Descriptive ethics, also knows as comparative ethics, is the study of people's beliefs about morality.
Another way of defining 'ethics' focuses on the disciplines that study
standards of conduct, such as philosophy, theology, law, psychology, or
sociology. For example, a "medical ethicist" is someone who studies
ethical standards in medicine. One may also define ethics as a method, procedure, or perspective
for deciding how to act and for analyzing complex problems and issues.
For instance, in considering a complex issue like global warming, one
may take an economic, ecological, political, or ethical perspective on
the problem. While an economist might examine the cost and benefits of
various policies related to global warming, an environmental ethicist
could examine the ethical values and principles at stake.
Many
different disciplines, institutions, and professions have norms for
behavior that suit their particular aims and goals. These norms also
help members of the discipline to coordinate their actions or activities
and to establish the public's trust of the discipline. For instance,
ethical norms govern conduct in medicine, law, engineering, and
business. Ethical norms also serve the aims or goals of research and
apply to people who conduct scientific research or other scholarly or
creative activities. There is even a specialized discipline, research
ethics, which studies these norms.
IMPORTANCE
As
mentioned above, ethics is important without regard of one’s field of
professionalism. Ethics is very important among IT professional.
With
ethics being applied among IT professionals, the process of working
together can be improved. IT professionals can create strong bond among
members thus producing a better teamwork. DrResnik(2010) mentions in his article:
“ethics
is important since research often involves a great deal of cooperation
and coordination among many different people in different disciplines
and institutions, ethical standards promote the values that are
essential to collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual
respect, and fairness.”
Ethics is something of a subjective topic, but it is nevertheless of
immense importance across all areas of business. From the way in which
sales and marketing is handled through to product development and
customer service, and even to some extent finance, ethics has a
significant role to play in ensuring business success and ultimately
living up to the corporate social responsibility. Thus adopting a
ethics-specific approach to doing business is critical towards ensuring a
legitimate business model with long term potential.
Business ethics is especially important in dealing with customers. Maintaining integrity in the customer facing side of your business is crucial to building client relationships, to assisting the overall branding efforts. Likewise, it's an important step in minimizing returns and protecting business goodwill, which will have a tangible effect on the success or otherwise of your business.
Ethics wise, it's also important to consider how you deal with customer issues and customer service. While some businesses are prepared to sacrifice customer service for pound signs, there is not only a sensible business reason for providing adequate support but also strong ethics and moral reasons for providing help and assistance to your customer base.
Business ethics is especially important in dealing with customers. Maintaining integrity in the customer facing side of your business is crucial to building client relationships, to assisting the overall branding efforts. Likewise, it's an important step in minimizing returns and protecting business goodwill, which will have a tangible effect on the success or otherwise of your business.
Ethics wise, it's also important to consider how you deal with customer issues and customer service. While some businesses are prepared to sacrifice customer service for pound signs, there is not only a sensible business reason for providing adequate support but also strong ethics and moral reasons for providing help and assistance to your customer base.
On the
administrative and strategic side of your business, it's also important
to adopt an ethical approach which takes account of your various
responsibilities as a business - to shareholders, employees and the
community at large. Embracing these concepts of ethics as part of the
way you do business is vital to ensuring your run an honest, successful
business with the potential to grow and develop over time, and is one
way of ensuring that you develop relationships across all aspects of
your business that are conducive to success and profitability over the
long term.
Establishing a code of ethics for information technology professionals
encourages an IT worker to behave ethically and responsibly with the
tools and information of which his employers have put him/her in
control. Information is power. Computers are devices that have some of
the most personal information and useful program in them. Some of the
issues surrounding ethics for IT professionals include workplace
computer use, computer related crimes, privacy, intellectual property
and professional responsibility.
A
code of ethics reminds IT professionals that they are not to impede or
manipulate pre-authorized access to the information or hardware of which
they are in control. Without the authorizations of the management, IT
professionals can’t just easily use their level of knowledge hacking
into the company confidential profile and use it for their own benefits
like sell it to other company and get money out of it.
Ethics
also helps in preventing the IT professionals from behaving in a
malicious or harmful manner with company information and equipment. IT
professionals should act like a true professional who has swear to
protect the information of the company not doing unethical activities
which could lead to problems for companies. Hacking is an example of an
activity where breaks into computers to obtain data for their own
benefit.According to Bynum (2008), a risk to computer security are people
called hackers who breaks into an individual’s computer system without
permission. One of the IT professional’s job is to maintain the
confidentiality of data not hacking into computers to steal or
manipulate them. The equipment also must be taken care in good manner,
not vandalize it with their emotions or anger or use it harm other
people.
According to Thea Mcbride(2012), there
are five(5) importance of codes of ethics that encourages IT
professionals to behave more ethical and responsible in their jobs.
Standards
-
A code of ethics document sets the standards for what is expected of the IT professional. It reinforces what is considered right and wrong by using verbiage such as "always" or "never" to be as clear as possible.
Access
-
A code of ethics reminds IT professionals that they are not to impede or manipulate pre-authorized access to the information or hardware of which they are in control.
-
A code of ethics helps prevent IT professionals from behaving in a malicious or harmful manner with company information and equipment.
Skills
-
A code of ethics helps motivate an IT professional to stay current in her chosen skill set in order to be more effective on the job for her employer. A motivated IT professional may also be encouraged to learn new skill sets as technology changes.
Types
-
Code of ethics documents can be tailored with verbiage that specifically affects only certain types of IT professional, such as programmers, networkers or cyber forensics expert.
