Transcript Ch10 Professional Ethics

Ch10 Professional Ethics
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Professional Ethics
Professional ethics has several characteristics
that give it a different emphasis from general
ethics.
First, the professional is an expert in a field that
the customer usually knows little about and
therefore the customer must rely on the
knowledge, expertise, and honesty of the
professional.
“Gift of Fire” Basse 1st ed.
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Professional Ethics (Cont.)
Second, the products of professionals can
profoundly affect large numbers of people and
do considerable harm to victims who are in no
position to protect themselves.
Standards change. Specific standards for ethical
behavior are developed gradually based not only
upon ethical theory, but also on what is possible
using current technology and what is generally
accepted practice.
“Gift of Fire” Basse 1st ed.
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Professional Ethics (Cont.)
Courage in a professional setting might include:
1. Disclosing the faults and limitations of a
product.
2. Declining a job that you are not qualified for.
(more on this later).
3. Whistle blowing.
“Gift of Fire” Basse, 3rd ed.
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Responsibilities
The professional has a responsibility to maintain
an expected level of competence and be up-to
date on professional standards and techniques.
Any claim to be a professional (stated or implied)
implies that the customer can expect a certain
minimum level of expertise, based upon current
knowledge, technology and standards of the
profession. There is also the responsibility to
learn enough about the application field to do a
decent job.
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Full Disclosure Required
To be an ethical professional you need to be
able to identify all the areas/topics/skills that
come to bare on the problem at hand and give
full disclosure on your level of expertise and
limitations.
This is a tough one to honor because the first
impact you will probably see is not getting a
work assignment and the pay check that
comes with it.
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Moral Status for Organizations?
All decisions and actions are made by
individuals, but an organization acts with
intention and a formal decision structure is
a moral entity.
Businesses do have a "corporate culture" or
"personality" which is shaped by the decision
makers (management) of the business.
A manager's ethical responsibility includes his
or her contribution to the company's ethical
personality.
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Responsibilities to the Employer
When acting in a professional capacity as an
employee there are responsibilities to the
employer.
Responsibilities can be listed explicitly or they
can be implied.
We have an ethical obligation not to break
agreements and contracts.
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Ground Rule
You can view a company policy as being
unreasonable but if you agree to it as part
of accepting employment, then you have
an obligation to honor it. Note: This does
not say that you have an obligation to
follow any policy that your company
develops and then lets you know of after
the fact.
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Ground Rule
If one decides to violate a law or rule
because it is viewed as unethical, or for
any other reason, one must fully accept
responsibility for one's actions and for
the consequences. (After a violation is
the wrong time to figure out why the broken
law or rule was in place.)
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Rules, Laws, and Common
Practice
Let your first reaction be to honor existing
rules, laws, and common practices. When
the chemistry professor gives directions
on mixing acid and water (acid to water
never water to acid) do it that way. When
the captain wants rope coiled clockwise
as opposed to counter clockwise do it
that way.
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Rules, Laws, and Common
Practice
Common practices is an interesting one.
There usually is no way of spotting the
motivation (there might not be one) but
seemingly non-significant practices might
be very significant to members of an
organization or family. Your first reaction
should be to honor common practices.
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Professional Societies
Most professional societies such as ACM,
IEEE, the British Computer Society, etc.
have codes of ethical practice for their
members.
Codes coming from engineering related
societies tend to place a very high emphasis
on safety aspects while computer related
societies give less emphasis and tend to
consider other losses as well.
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ACM
The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM),
established in 1947, is the oldest educational and
scientific computing society. With some 80,500
(35% foreign) members it is also the largest computer
professional organization.
This is the organization that sponsors the international
programming contest and the annual computer chess
contest. (They sponsored the contest in Philadelphia
where Deep Blue beat the world champion Kasparov.)
Conferences and publications are strong points of
this organization.
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Of Interest
Robert Hyatt, a USM undergraduate started writing a
program to play chess. He was joined in his efforts by
Albert Gower (music faculty) and Harry Nelson. “Blitz”
made it’s first move in 1968 and was in a constant state
of development and refinement through 1980 when
Cray Computers became a corporate sponsor. “Cray
Blitz” competed in computer chess contest from 1980
through 1994. It won the ACM contest several times
and was World Champion in 1983 and 1986.
The program left USM when Hyatt accepted a position
at the University of Alabama, Birmingham in 1986.
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BCS: Another Approach
The British Computer Society was formed in
1957 and under a Royal Charter granted in 1984
it has the responsibility for education and
training, for public awareness, and for standards
of competence, conduct, and ethical practice for
computing in the United Kingdom. It influences
legislation on data protection, safety, copyright,
and product liability, and in other areas it
provides experts for international standards
committees and expert witnesses for courts and
tribunals.
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UK Code of Practice for
Safety-Related Systems
• Take all reasonable care to ensure their
work and the consequences of their work
cause no unacceptable risk to safety;
• Not make claims for their work and the
consequences of their work that are
untrue, or misleading, or are not
supported by a line of reasoning that is
recognized in the particular field of
application;
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UK Code of Practice for
Safety-Related Systems (Cont.1)
• Accept personal responsibility for all work
done by them or under their supervision
or direction.
• Take all reasonable steps to maintain and
develop their competence by attention to
new developments in science and
engineering relevant to their field of
activity; and encourage others working
under their supervision to do the same;
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UK Code of Practice for
Safety-Related Systems (Cont.2)
• Declare their limitations if they do not
believe themselves to be competent to
undertake certain tasks, and declare such
limitations should they become apparent
after a task has begun;
• Take all reasonable steps to make their
own managers, and those to whom they
have a duty of care, aware of the risks
they identify; and make anyone overruling
or neglecting their professional advice
formally aware of the consequent risks;
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UK Code of Practice for
Safety-Related Systems (Cont.3)
• Take all reasonable steps to ensure that
those working under their supervision or
direction are competent; that they are
made aware of their own responsibilities;
and they accept personal responsibility
for work delegated to them.
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Ethical Obligations
We are going to look at a wide range of codes of
ethics and will use a framework proposed by
Deborah Johnson.
1. obligations to society
2. obligations to the employer
3. obligations to clients
4. obligations to colleagues and to professional
organizations.
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Similarities and Differences
While the wording might differ, all the codes
address the following points:
• educate the public about IT
• protect privacy and confidentiality of
information
• avoid misrepresentation of the members
qualifications
• avoid misrepresentation of IT capabilities
• obey laws
• do not take credit for others’ achievements
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Historically
Professional organizations have viewed codes
of ethics as a mechanism to establish their
status as a profession or as a means to regulate
their membership and thereby convince the
public that they deserve to be self-regulated.
Codes of ethics have tended to list violations
and threaten sanctions for such violations.
The “list violations” approach never seemed to
work very well.
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Revised ACM Code of Ethics
www.acm.org/serving
1. General Moral Imperatives.
As an ACM member I will...
1.1 Contribute to society and human well-being.
1.2 Avoid harm to others.
1.3 Be honest and trustworthy.
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More General Moral Imperatives
1.4 Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
1.5 Honor property rights including copyrights
and patents.
1.6 Give proper credit for intellectual property.
1.7 Respect the privacy of others.
1.8 Honor confidentiality.
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More Specific
Professional Responsibilities
2.1 Strive to achieve the highest quality,
effectiveness and dignity in both the process
and products of professional work.
2.2 Acquire and maintain professional
competence.
2.3 Know and respect existing laws pertaining
to professional work.
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More Specific
Professional Responsibilities
If one decides to violate a law or rule because
it is viewed as unethical, or for any other reason,
one must fully accept responsibility for one's
actions and for the consequences.
2.4 Accept and provide appropriate professional
review.
2.5 Give comprehensive and thorough
evaluations of computer systems and their
impacts, including analysis of possible risks.
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Professional Responsibilities
2.6 Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned
responsibilities.
2.7 Improve public understanding of computing
and its consequences.
2.8 Access computing and communication
resources only when authorized to do so.
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Organizational Leadership
Imperatives
3.1 Articulate social responsibilities of members
of an organizational unit and encourage full
acceptance of those responsibilities.
3.2 Manage personnel and resources to design
and build information systems that enhance
the quality of working life.
3.3 Acknowledge and support proper and
authorized uses of an organization's computing
and communication resources.
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Organizational Leadership
Imperatives
3.4 Ensure that users and those who will be
affected by a system have their needs clearly
articulated during the assessment and design
of requirements. Later the system must be
validated to meet requirements.
3.5 Articulate and support policies that protect
the dignity of users and others affected by a
computing system.
3.6 Create opportunities for members of the
organization to learn the principles and
limitations of computing systems.
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Compliance with the Code
4.1 Uphold and promote the principles of this
code.
4.2 Treat violations of this code as inconsistent
with membership in the ACM.
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