Network Management Assignment: Ethical Issues Arising From Use Of ICT Technologies

Question

Assignment Description:

Smart technologies are on the rise.  There is a body of literature discussing the key benefits of Smart  Technologies; however smart technologies also introduce many ethical issues. 

1. Driverless car technology has attracted significant interest in manufacturing industry over the recent years. Please identify what ethical issues arise from use of driverless cars. Will you embrace this  emerging technology from ethical perspective? 
2. Cyberbullying has been a significant issue globally over the past few years. Cyber?technology has  exacerbated this problem due to proliferation of mobile applications in the marketplace. You receive  notification from a third party through one of the Apps that you use inviting you to participate in an  event. You are not sure how they received your details. Discuss what security issues arise due to sharing  of too much personal information on social media Apps. 
3. Smart phones are being used by nurses for clinical communications and workflow in hospitals. Using  smart phones to record patient data introduces ethical issues involving patient privacy. Identify what  privacy risks arise in such a context and explain the risks in detail. 
4. Technologies such as google glass and smart watches are coming into workplace. Given the intrusive  natures of these technologies it is easy for employees to take video or photographs of other people at  work and  share  it with others.  What ethical  issues  arise  from  use  of  wearable  technologies  in  workplace? 
5. There are many apps available for download for consumers (for example, health monitoring, booking  taxi, banking apps). While these Apps are user friendly and improve user experience, there is also a  security concern that hackers can use some loopholes in such apps to modify or delete customer  information. Discuss an App that you have used recently and if there have been privacy breaches? Is it  ethical for companies to introduce Apps with only basic level of security

Answer

Introduction: This network management assignment explored how technology has helped this world with the transformation process, however; the negative paradigm, which is associated with technological advancement, is raising ethical issues for modern business. For instances, few technological inventions such as Google Glasses or smartwatches, due to their intrusive nature are raising some ethical issues at workplaces. These are an example of some wearable technologies, which employees are allowed to wear inside the office without any restrictions. However, these technologies are making the office security vulnerable. Employees can easily use these technologies inside the office and take photos or video. The employee can share data with other through these technologies. This network management assignment helped to identify the potential ethical issues, which can arise from using wearable technologies at work.

Identification: Employees are using wearable technologies at work and using those technologies to take picture and videos, further sharing those data with others. This situation is indicating towards two ethical issues, and those are conflicts of Interest and issues of honesty and integrity.

Conflict of interest happens when individual choose an action which promotes their interest and interfere with the interest of the organisation (Jeanes, 2017).

Issues of honesty and integrity arise if an individual works against the rules and regulations of the company or acting is some way without the organisational consent (Jeanes, 2017).

Analysis: According to Botta et al. (2018), Conflict of Interest is one of the most common ethical issues, which can be found in most of the workplaces. It occurs when individuals choose from their interest rather than the interest of others. The conflict arises when the personal interest of the individual interfere or have the potential to interfere with the interest of the organisation or its stakeholders. It naturally creates a conflict of interest and employees tend to satisfy their interest by neglecting the interest of organisation-so, ethical issue arises due to conflict of interest. In this case an employee who is interested in carrying some organisational data outside the office premises can easily use technologies like Google glass or smartwatch. However, this is against the interest of organisation or its stakeholders (customer, owner and managers).

Issues of honesty and integrity are another matter of concern for most of the organisation. It can be found in many cases employees fail to maintain honesty and integrity to ensure their personal interest is satisfied. The ethical principle of the beneficence guide decision maker to act what is good and right. This principle also suggests the basic idea of ethical theories should be to produce 'good', as people get benefit from most good (von Haehling, Morley, Coats, & Anker, 2017). Therefore, anything, which goes against goods, is the reason for raising ethical issues. For instance, in this case, employees are using technologies to get access to the organisation and share data, which do not help the organisation and producing no good for the organisation. Henceforth, employees are failing to maintain honesty and integrity within the organisation.

Evaluation: Conflict of interest is the most common reason for ethical issues. People tend to act which is best to fulfil their interest, and while doing so, in most of the time people neglect what is right for other. In ethical scenarios, conflict arises when the interest of one person interfere with the interest of the organisations.

In many cases, it can be found that organisations do not allow employees to carry any devices, which are threats for the organisation's security, some of the devices are a mobile phone, laptop, Pen-drive or any technology with data carrying capacity. However, very few organisations have given any restrictions on wearable devices like a smartwatch or Google Glass. This network management assignment explores how employees can easily wear those technological devices and get into the working area. These devices allow employees to take a picture or share data with others; hence, employees can easily take a picture of data, which is against organisational ethics and organisation integrity. No organisation allows its employee to share their confidential data outside the organisation. By allowing or giving easy access to data sharing, wearable technologies are raising ethical issues within the organisation.

According to ethical principles, honesty and integrity are two best guiding principles of ethical actions (Resnik, 2018). Employees, who maintain honesty and integrity, cannot act unethically. An honest employee always acts what is good for the organisation as a whole. Therefore chances of a conflict of interest are very less.

Further, ethical principles have the ability to help people with the right decision making (Stenmark, 2017). Based on the justice offered on the network management assignment ethical principle decision makers should focus on their ability to take fair action for everyone who is involved in the situation (Nowak, 2017). It suggests if one act which is not fair for others can be considered as unethical actions. In this case, the wearable technologies can be used by employees for taking out information, which only belongs to the organisation. Thus, it is developing ethical issues.

Conclusion :The objectives of this study were to understand how ethical issues have arisen from the use of some wearable technologies in the workplace. From the above discussion, it can be concluded that two major ethical issues can be found in this situation, one conflict of interest and issues with honesty and integrity. From the above discussion, a clear idea can be driven that conflict of interest in certain situation when an employee chooses to act what is best for their interest and interfere in the best interest of the organisation. An employee uses wearable technologies. However, that can be against the data security of the organisation.

Issues with honesty and integrity are the second ethical issues, which can arise from the use of wearable technologies. Organisations do not allow their employees to get access to their organisational information or carry that information outside, however with the help of these technologies employees can easily transfer data outside. It is a strict violation of the organisational rule, and here employees fail to keep the honesty or integrity of the organisation. On the network management assignment it is recommended organisation must consider the type and functionality of any technology before allowing the employee to use them within the organisation or at the workplace to reduce the chances of ethical issues within the organisation.

Reference list
Botta, F., Bain, G., Ogundare, A., He, Y., & Li, Y. (2018). Ethical Principles highlighted by Nestlé. Munich: GRIN Verlag.

Jeanes, E. (2017). Are we ethical? Approaches to ethics in management and organisation research. Organization , 174-197.

Nowak, M. (2017). Typology of ethical theories based on the criterion of moral judgement and their applicability in the auditor's and accountant's professions. Research papers of the wroclaw university of economics/prace naukowe uniwersytetu ekonomicznego we wroclawiu, , 474.

Resnik, D. B. (2018). Trust as a Principle for Ethical Decision-Making in Research with Human Subjects. Journal of clinical research best practices , 1-5.

Stenmark, M. (2017). Environmental ethics and policy-making. London: Routledge.

Stenmark, M. (2017). Environmental ethics and policy-making. London: Routledge.