Report on The Professional Ethics in ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Industry

The Professional Ethics in ICT Industry

            Every industry has its main professional ethics to keep things in order and to deal with any challenges related to professionalism. In this briefing paper, the focus will be given to professional ethics with regards to ICT industry. The main purpose of the paper is to review that what kind of challenges are faced by ICT professionals, and how professional ethics and code of conduct can help them to deal with those particular challenges. It is a fact that ICT professionals have to face various challenges ethically. They come up with day to day challenges and need a proper help from a code of conduct, which can provide guidance that how they can deal with those ethical situations as well as issues. So, this paper will closely look at some of the challenges, and then a comprehensive review of professional ethics and code of conduct will be presented in relation to ICT industry. The main objective of this paper is to help ICT professionals in knowing their role as well as responsibility while doing their work and dealing with any challenges like any ethical problems. For this purpose, the paper will review some literature from range of sources such as internet, articles, journal articles as well as books. The help will be taken from all of these sources to get a clear view of topic being explored here in this briefing paper.

2. Background of The Professional Ethics in ICT Industry.

            It is important to understand that what professionalism is and what kind of ethics should be followed in showing a professional behavior. The professionalism does not deal with the fact that what job or task is being done, rather it focuses on the fact that how it is being done. It is a fact to keep in mind that need for professional behavior will be more critical in few professions than the other. The information and communication technology (ICT) is one of those professions, where the presence of professionalism, ethics and code of conduct is more critical than many other fields. If ICT wants to work at its full potential, where it can reach the maximum performance for people, then ICT professionals have to show great ethics as well as professionalism so that things can move forward in right direction. The need for professional ethics as well as professionalism is growing with the passage of time because some of the technologies associated with ICT really need some law and regulations to follow so that they can be professionally regulated. The professionalism is needed in ICT conduct and a professional has to look at the bigger picture of things that how a particular technology will impact society at large, and how it can be ethically made fair to use, avoiding its any negative effects. It is crucial for ICT professionals to understand that their profession demands a lot of professionalism as well as moral responsibility, otherwise there may be technologies, which exploit others and maybe ethically wrong to use in so many ways (Lucas and Mason, 2008)

3. Analysis/Key Considerations of The Professional Ethics in ICT Industry

            In this information age, the need for professionalism and professional ethics is growing in so many ways. The fact of the matter is that ICT is relatively considered a young profession, which has not been spread like any other professions. So, ICT professionals are in a phase, where they have to understand their role to show moral and ethical responsibility. It is often thought that ethics maybe an extra burden, which is put on workers to follow, but professionals have to understand the fact that ethics are not separate from their professional conduct, rather its part of professionalism. If ICT industry wants to take an inspiration to follow professional ethics and code of conduct then they can benefit from other variety of fields, which are older than ICT. For instance, healthcare industry can be a good example to follow that how professionalisms and ethics are combined in this profession. ICT needs to understand that professional ethics are essential to follow a professional conduct; otherwise range of issues can come up. So, it can be determined here that ICT industry has to consider professional ethics by developing a comprehensive code of ethics (Burmeister, 2017)

            The businesses as well as professionals associated with ICT industry must understand that professional ethics along with a detailed code of conduct will not only benefit the industry overall, but it will also benefit ICT professional as well as ICT businesses. When there would be an updated code of ethics to deal with professional challenges, the ICT industry would be able to quickly handle issues in first instance. For instance, ICT industry has to face many issues related to information technology, so if there would be no code of conduct and professional ethics, then how industry will know that how to deal with such issues. If an ICT professional is involved in misconduct such as breaching any sensitive information; then code of ethics as well as conduct will help to handle the situation. Moreover, when ICT professionals will know that there are proper professional ethics along with code of conduct in place, and if they would breach any of the set codes, they will have to bear the severe consequences. It will certainly help to regulate ICT professionals to show professional, ethical and moral behavior in every job they do. The Australian Council of Professions (ACP) has described the importance of update code of conduct in following statement, which says that “It is inherent in the definition of a profession that a Code of Ethics governs the activities of each profession. Such codes require behavior and practice beyond the personal moral obligations of an individual. They define and demand high standards of behavior in respect to the services provided to the public and in dealing with professional colleagues” (Weckert and Lucas, 2013)

             It is important to understand that ICT professionals have to deal with various challenges in terms of performing their tasks as well as making sure that information security is protected. The cyber security issues are putting ICT professionals in trouble because in cyber space, the information as well as data is becoming more vulnerable with the passage of time, and if adequate measures will not be taken in time, the consequences can be severe. Moreover, ICT professionals have to realize that technologies being used and implemented by them are crucial in different ways, and they must follow a professional conduct so that things can be in right direction. There can be many concerning issues regarding safety of information, right use of technologies as well as protecting computer networks, software and hardware from any internal and external threats. So, it is important for every ICT company to develop their own code of ethics following general ethical guidelines. The professional ethics will not only provide better business guidelines for ICT industry, but it will also make ICT professionals more loyal and professional showing moral & ethical behavior. The data and its privacy will remain one of the top issues in ICT industry and companies have to make sure that they have code of ethics and code of conduct in place to handle such issues (Polkowski, 2015)

4. Research Findings on The Professional Ethics in ICT Industry

            Overall, review of different sources has revealed that ICT industry as well as ICT professionals are dealing with many ethical and professional issues, and if they want to make this profession more professional and based on ethical grounds, then lot of work needs to be done. One more finding was made that ICT professions is not old like many other professions such as healthcare, so it is quite young in nature, and ICT professionals do not know that how they may show a professional behavior based on professional ethics and code of conduct. Things are still in early phase, and research on this topic has not been in extensive amount yet, which clearly means that more research in this area is needed to find out that how ICT professional may deal with challenges they face, and what universal code of professional ethics can govern them. Moreover, research is also needed to find out particular professional ethics needs in different regions of the world along with implantation of some universal ethical standards for ICT industry.

5. Recommendations of The Professional Ethics in ICT Industry

            Keeping the above discussion in view, it is recommended that ICT professionals, businesses as well as policy makers should sit together to look at contemporary ICT ethical issues, and then develop comprehensive ethical framework, which conducts professional behavior in ICT industry. It is also recommended that more research should be done to find out real world issues from real world situations by keeping any previous incidents in view, and finding a way forward to develop professional ethics as well as code of conduct, which helps ICT industry to deal with ethical and moral issues. It would also allow ICT professionals to know their designated roles and responsibility in terms of showing professional, ethical behavior based on a proper code of conduct (Sargolzaei and Nikbakht, 2017)

References of The Professional Ethics in ICT Industry

Burmeister, O.K. (2017) 'Professional ethics in the information age', Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 348-356.

Lucas, R. and Mason, N. (2008) 'A survey of ethics and regulation within the ICT industry in Australia: ethics education', Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 349-363.

Polkowski, Z. (2015) 'Ethical Issues in the Use and implementation of ICT', 4th International Conference on "Business Ethics for Good Corpotate Governance & Sustainnability", Ahmedabad, India, 2-5.

Sargolzaei, E. and Nikbakht, M. (2017) 'The Ethical and Social Issues of Information Technology: A Case Study', International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 138-146.

Weckert, J. and Lucas, R. (2013) Professionalism in the Information and Communication Technology Industry, ANU E Press.