Ethics - Professionalism - and Governance Communication Technology (IC

Question: Describe about the Ethics, Professionalism, and Governance for Communication Technology (ICT). Answer: Professional development is defined as a process of improving the competence of staffs through training and providing further education opportunities. Also, it is an act of building and maintaining the morale of staff members and instilling discipline to comply with professional regulatory requirements. In the past decades, many implied that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals operate in an ethical vacuum profession. However, the growing concerns in careers demand an outline of values be followed by workers. In ICT industry, it is one of the tactics used to promote human welfare (Weckert, Lucas Selgelid, 2013). In the Conflict of Interest a case study, Michael an IT manager in one of government departments decided to sign a contract with Stevens company to install an enterprising resource planning system. His decision was highly influenced by his past encounter with Steven. By the time he was issuing the tender to him they had developed a close friendship. S teven also called Michael asking for a favor from him making the tendering process disputable. Above all the biggest concern was Michael had a better option from Company A whose software was more economical and with better qualities but decided to turn their offer down in favor of Stevens company. As an ICT professional, the provision of Australian Computer Society and Professionalism will ensure that one behaves ethically at all times. Conflict of interest makes decision-making process very difficult. The Australia Computer Society (ACS) demands that as a professional you need to maintain and advance the formality, honor, and value of the profession in all activities and keep high standards of ethical conduct and competence as you deal with employers, clients, and the public. Therefore it is necessary to explore ethics in a detailed manner to understand what the codes demands from the staffs at personal and professional levels. Acting in an ethical manner ensures that the decisions made where a conflict of interest is evident are right and that ethical course of action prevails. For instance where ethics and professionalism are observed fairness, justice, respect for human rights, best outcomes and humanity among other principles takes the day (Communications.gov.au. 2016). T herefore, Michael was not honest with Company A and his action was unethical and unprofessional. Favoring Steves company whose software was substandard meant that Company A was treated unfairly, and therefore he did not strive to enhance the quality of life to those affected by his actions (Courses.cs.vt.edu, 2016). Lastly, he violated the primacy of the public interest and acted against the profession. IT governance and legal requirement Governance in ICT is paramount as it involves areas affecting control, accountability, authority and responsibility of all the staffs involved. In ethical terms, governance is defined as beliefs, values, and morals of an organization. However, IT governance sets organizational cultures and outlines the acceptable behaviors within the organization. The legal requirement in IT demands that there is a need for some standards to be followed by all professionals either locally or internationally. Development of such standards establishes some principals for the effective, efficient and acceptable use of IT. Governance then ensures that their organizations operate under the set standards to balance risks and encourage equal opportunities arising from IT development (MacDonald, 2016). Conflict of interest should be avoided at all cost such that companies or individuals already playing a certain role with a given client should disqualify themselves from playing another. For this reason, it i s unethical and is illegal to have a conflict of interest which is not acknowledged in the organization. In the case study, Conflict of Interest Michael was supposed to overcome conflict of interest by letting a different person take over the tendering process. It was unprofessional for him to precede over the process and assign Steves company the tender. His decision meant the company would incur more in acquiring and maintaining the software. Therefore his action was self-driven and managements should avoid similar situations by adopting some legislations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Legislation to ensure accuracy and reliability of contracts with other companies. References Communications.gov.au. (2016). Department of Communications and the Arts. [Online] Available at: https://www.communications.gov.au/. [Accessed 19 Sep. 2016]. Courses.cs.vt.edu. (2016). Australian Computer Society CODE OF ETHICS. [Online] Available at: https://courses.cs.vt.edu/professionalism/WorldCodes/Australia.Code.html [Accessed 31 Aug. 2016]. KHOSROW-POUR, M. (2015).Encyclopedia of information science and technology. MacDonald, c. (2016). A Guide to Moral Decision Making. [Online] Ethicsweb.ca. Available at: https://www.ethicsweb.ca/guide. [Accessed 19 Sep. 2016]. WECKERT, J., LUCAS, R., SELGELID, M. J. (2013).Professionalism in the information and communication and technology.