Incorporating Ethical Standards - Essay Example

Incorporating Ethical Standards I believe that today’s information technology environment help ethical actions within an organization. Information is better safeguarded than in the past. Information technology has replaced the need for paper in many office environments. Digital information is stored in safe places where hackers or any other digital or physical threats are eliminated. The use of digital cameras can be used to stream security videos into the internet live. By the time the criminal destroys the camera a digital copy of the action will be recorded on the internet. The ethical decisions managers have to make are made easier by information technology. Take for example a manager that needs to perform a human resource audit. This manager can pass off the task to another person. The use of information technology can streamline the audit procedure. Employees can give a thumb print to the officer. That is all that is needed to perform a full background check of the person using advanced HR information technology. A simpler and less digital solution would be to ask each employee for a certificate of good conduct. Performing other medical checks such as blood checks for high cholesterol and other physical test can help the company create a wellness program to increase the quality of life of its employees. 2. Incorporating ethical standards is beneficial in both the creation of contracts and technology information systems. Ethics can be included indirectly in a contract by incorporation clauses that include social corporate responsibility initiatives. For instance a contract can stipulated that the transportation vehicles used to move merchandise must be green vehicles that use an alternative fuel other than gasoline such as trucks powered by natural gas. Including ethical clauses can serve a social purpose, but often the inclusion of social clauses increase the operating costs of a company. Ethics can help legitimize an information technology system. Safeguarding a system is extremely important. The password of employees should be fully confidential and only the user of an account should know his / her password. In regards to email communication the employees should only use the corporate email for business matters, thus personal emails should be prohibited. All contracts must be signed by both the employee and the human resource department. The HR department must incorporate safeguarding protocols to ensure nobody has access to the privilege information written in the contracts. The use of privacy in the workplace can be considered an ethical action. 3. In your response you mentioned that technology keeps evolving at a rapid rate. I completely agree with your statement. Moore’s Law states that the speed of computing power doubles every two years. As computing power increases the consumer benefits because people are getting better computers at cheaper prices. In certain industries inflation negatively impacting costs. The cost of a developing a new drug during the last five years have increase from $800 million to $1.2 billion. Pharmaceutical companies need to find ways of incorporation technology to lower developmental costs. 4. People that work as telecommuters do not have boundaries as work and personal life become the same. A way for a telecommuter to separate home life and work is by creating a special office in their homes where they perform their work. I believe that ethics is very important for people working as telecommuters. Due to the lack of supervision telecommuters must act ethically and comply with the code of conduct of an organization. It would be unethical for a telecommuter to drink alcohol while performing work for the company. 5. A few years ago I worked at a company that had an IT specialist that often acted very unethical. He was constantly using his access to information to snoop into other employees’ lives. A coworker once told me that this IT person suddenly showed up at his house during a birthday party. When asked how he knew about the party he said that IT people know everything. I think that ethics should be incorporated into the IT function in order to raise the credibility and accountability of the department. 6. I agree with you that the assets of a corporation must be safeguarded at all times. The most important asset a firm has since this asset can be used to pay off the short and long term debt of a company is cash. A financial ratio that can be used to determine a company’s ability of pay off their short term debt is the current ratio. I think that managers should incorporate ethics in their safeguarding protocols. I also liked the comment you made in regards to the importance of surveillance to increase security in the corporate world. 7. I think that employees in the workplace should have cero expectations of privacy. During work hours your time belongs to your employer. The employer is paying you money for your time. It is reasonable for the employer to monitor emails in order to ensure you are not wasting the company’s time writing personal emails to your friends and family. I once worked with at person that sent over 10 emails everyday to friends during work hours. I estimated that she wasted over one hour per shift writing and reading emails. 8. I agree with you that information technology has changed the way people invest. I have an online trading account with Scottrade. In the past I used to call my broker to make an order. Today I can buy and sell stocks online by press a bottom. It has become so simply to participate in the stock market. Also advances in information technology have made it easier for investors to use the internet to perform market research. 9. I agree with you that an engagement letter is necessary during an audit process. The inclusion of ethical standards is needed for a contract to work well and as expected. I was once involved in a construction project in the home of my parents. The contractor was a friend of the family. Due to the friendship my parents did not sign a written contract for the renovation job. The original quotation for the construction work was $17,000. Towards the end of the job the contractor said he ran out of money and he needed an extra $5,000. I thought that the contractor was ripping off my parents. He stipulated a price and then he changed it. Since there was no written contract for the work my parents ended up paying the extra $5,000. 10. You are completely right in your assertion that security measures have to be implemented to safeguard the proprietary information of the company. The corporate emails of corporations must be audited by the information technology department on a recurrent basis. During working hours privacy does not really exist for employees since the employer is paying the worker to perform a job. In regards to personal emails I believe that they should be allowed, but the company has the right to audit the email account and read the personal messages that were send or received using the corporate email. Read More