Program: Professional Year Program
Course:
Assignment: 1 Professional Environments
Topic: Ethics, Professionalism and Governance
Available: Week 3 open
Due: Week 4 close (Saturday midnight AEST)
Read the 3 Case Studies below and select ONE as the basis of your
analysis and discussion. Please indicate clearly which Case Study you
have chosen
Case Study 2 – Conflict of Interest
Hardeep is the IT manager in a government department with more than
500 staff members and six branches across Australia. His department has
decided to acquire an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. A
request for proposal (RFP) for the procurement of the software has been
advertised in a number of Australian newspapers. Two local companies
have responded to the advertisement and have sent their offers to the
department.
When Hardeep has examined the offers, he has found that Company A’s
offer is slightly better than that of Company B. To his surprise,
Company B’s offer has been made by Mandeep, who is his best friend, and
the general manager of Company B.
Although the initial cost of Company B’s software appears less than
that of Company A, Company B’s software may require some modifications
which could eventually increase the total cost.
To complicate matters, Hardeep has received a phone call from Mandeep, urging him to favour his offer as he needs this work.
Discuss briefly how Hardeep’s friendship with Mandeep causes an
ethical problem. Follow your brief discussion with a recommendation on
this issue. Be sure to support this recommendation with reasons informed
by your research and thinking on the ethical issues identified in your
discussion.
Case Study 5 – Use of Company Computers
Joseph is a security administrator for a company with 500 employees,
this is an ongoing job (not a short contract) and he wishes to stay at
this company for a long time. His manager gives him the task of
providing weekly reports showing which web pages have been accessed by
individual employees and flagging any websites that are questionable
(such as pornography).
Joseph is aware that employees have not been asked to sign any
agreement about which web page they visit while at work using work
computers. He is also aware that employees may be penalised.
Discuss briefly the ethical dilemma that this presents to Joseph
outlining the potential outcomes if he provides the report. Show your
utilisation of either Thomas White or Chris MacDonald's methodology to
demonstrate how Joseph might analyse and resolve the dilemma. Provide a
recommendation of what actions Joseph should take and how he should
communicate his choices.
Include in your answer those clauses from the ACS code of Ethics and
ACS code of Professional Conduct that are relevant and briefly explain
why. Refer also to any relevant legislation again with an explanation of
how it relates.
Case Study 12 – Trans Australia Solutions
“Trans Australia Solutions” has been operating as a solutions
provider for many years. Despite the grand name, it had actually been
quite a small company for over half that time, but work was increasing
and the company was growing rapidly.
Fortunately, the management team had been formed from ACS PY
graduates, and so when they originally started the company, they put in
place a governance structure, a code of ethics, a project management
methodology, and they used SFIA for recruitment and career paths.
As the company continued to grow, they often found that they were
too busy to interview contractors, and sometimes a project was delayed
because of staff shortages. So they decided to employ a full-time HR
manager to look after their employment requirements.
Pradip was hired as the HR manager. Not only was he experienced, he
was familiar with SFIA and he had many contacts in the recruitment
industry.
Everything seemed to go smoothly at first, and contractors were always available when required.
However, the CEO became concerned when the Accountant informed him
that the company’s contractor wage costs had increased 20% over the past
year (adjusted for inflation). The Accountant said that almost all of
the contractors were being supplied by a new recruitment company “Job
4U”, instead of being employed directly.
The CEO was concerned and asked the company auditor to investigate.
The auditor discovered that Jobs 4U was owned by Pradip’s wife. He also
questioned several of the contractors who said that Pradip had refused
to employ them unless they applied for work through Jobs 4U.
The CEO called Pradip and accused him of unethical behaviour.
However, Pradip defended his actions saying that under his management,
the company always had the right staff and the right times, so that the
project were not delayed. This saved the company more than the 20%
increase in staff costs.
Do you believe that Pradip’s actions are ethical?
Assignment Task
From what you have learned during Week s 3 and 4 of your
Professional Environments Course, discuss ethical, professional and
legal issues which you consider arise from this scenario. Make some
recommendations of actions which could be taken to resolve the situation
and/or to minimise the chance the scenario may recur. Support your
answers with relevant references (as well as the Codes and Laws).
Things to Consider in Your Assignment:
• You should list at least 3 values from the ACS Code of Ethics and
up to 5 clauses from the ACS Code of Professional Conduct, you think are
specifically relevant in deciding how to resolve the situation. Make
sure that you refer to the most up to date ACS Codes which are available
on the ACS website – www.acs.org.au.
• You should also list any relevant Australian legislation that you think applies to this scenario.
• Your analysis, discussion and recommendations should use the framework you selected in Week 3 – Solving an Ethical Dilemma.
Your assignment should be 400 -500 words in length (excluding your code lists, legislation list and references).
You may need to undertake a small amount of research, however, most
information you will need is available via the seminars and their
references. Also,
• use a cover page – as per the suggested template,
• use in-text referencing,
• use complete Harvard Notation, submit in “Word” format or
equivalent format that can be readily opened in MS Word, keep your
formatting simple: Arial 11pt, 10pt after paragraph, single line
spacing, headings in bold, maximum 2 indent levels/bullet levels. Do not
use page borders, word art, page backgrounds or similar extraneous
decoration
• Your uploaded file name should identify you as part of its name – e.g.
PE_Assignment1_William_Smith.
Marking Guide
Marks will be awarded using the following guidelines.
• 15% meeting the procedural requirements, including, spelling, grammar, number of words, document formatting,
• 30% how logically and thoroughly you identified and described professional ,ethical and legal issues arising in the scenario,
• 30% how well you developed your recommendations and supported them with relevant, correct referencing,
• 20% how well you convinced the reader that you understood the issues,
• 5% did the material generate interest in the reader?
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