(Anuja Jadhav – 2177) Assignment No: 01

Audit Course: Ethics and Values in Information Technology

Aim: Adapt the global ethical principles and modern ethical issues(CO1).

Theory:
➢ What are Ethical Principles?
Ethical principles are part of a normative theory that justifies or defends moral rules and/or moral
judgments; they are not dependent on one's subjective viewpoints. Ethical principles in public health
practice refer to those general judgments that serve as a basic justification for the many particular
ethical prescriptions and evaluations of public health activities.

The most recent lesson on the importance of business ethics came with the Wall Street collapse, as
once highly esteemed financial institutions made headlines for their bad choices and questionable
behaviour.

While businesses have to meet economic expectations, they also have ethical responsibilities.
Everyone, from the bottom to the top of the organizational chart, must take care to meet these
responsibilities.

According to Dr. Jill Young, an instructor in South University’s College of Business, integrity is the
most important ethical concept because it covers such a broad area. “If you act with integrity, ethical
behaviour is just a natural progression,” she says. “Those who have integrity are guided by a set of
core principles that influences their decisions and behaviours.”

People with integrity value other principles, including honesty, respect, personal responsibility,
compassion, and dependability. These qualities are integrated into the Six Pillars of Character offered
by the Josephson Institute, a non-profit organization that develops and delivers services and materials
to increase ethical commitment.
➢ 12 Ethical Principles for Business Executives:

1. HONESTY: Ethical executives are honest and truthful in all their dealings and they do not
deliberately mislead or deceive others by misrepresentations, overstatements, partial truths, selective
omissions, or any other means.

2. INTEGRITY: Ethical executives demonstrate personal integrity and the courage of their
convictions by doing what they think is right even when there is great pressure to do otherwise; they
are principled, honourable and upright; they will fight for their beliefs. They will not sacrifice principle
for expediency, be hypocritical, or unscrupulous.

3. PROMISE-KEEPING & TRUSTWORTHINESS: Ethical executives are worthy of trust. They

are candid and forthcoming in supplying relevant information and correcting misapprehensions of fact,
and they make every reasonable effort to fulfil the letter and spirit of their promises and commitments.
They do not interpret agreements in an unreasonably technical or legalistic manner in order to
rationalize non-compliance or create justifications for escaping their commitments.

4. LOYALTY: Ethical executives are worthy of trust, demonstrate fidelity and loyalty to persons and
institutions by friendship in adversity, support and devotion to duty; they do not use or disclose
information learned in confidence for personal advantage. They safeguard the ability to make
independent professional judgments by scrupulously avoiding undue influences and conflicts of
interest. They are loyal to their companies and colleagues and if they decide to accept other
employment, they provide reasonable notice, respect the proprietary information of their former
employer, and refuse to engage in any activities that take undue advantage of their previous positions.

5. FAIRNESS: Ethical executives and fair and just in all dealings; they do not exercise power
arbitrarily, and do not use overreaching nor indecent means to gain or maintain any advantage nor take
undue advantage of another’s mistakes or difficulties. Fair persons manifest a commitment to justice,
the equal treatment of individuals, tolerance for and acceptance of diversity, the they are open-minded;
they are willing to admit they are wrong and, where appropriate, change their positions and beliefs.
6. CONCERN FOR OTHERS: Ethical executives are caring, compassionate, benevolent and kind;
they like the Golden Rule, help those in need, and seek to accomplish their business objectives in a
manner that causes the least harm and the greatest positive good.

7. RESPECT FOR OTHERS: Ethical executives demonstrate respect for the human dignity,
autonomy, privacy, rights, and interests of all those who have a stake in their decisions; they are
courteous and treat all people with equal respect and dignity regardless of sex, race or national origin.

8. LAW ABIDING: Ethical executives abide by laws, rules and regulations relating to their business
activities.

9. COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE: Ethical executives pursue excellence in performing their

duties, are well informed and prepared, and constantly endeavour to increase their proficiency in all
areas of responsibility.

10. LEADERSHIP: Ethical executives are conscious of the responsibilities and opportunities of their
position of leadership and seek to be positive ethical role models by their own conduct and by helping
to create an environment in which principled reasoning and ethical decision making are highly prized.

11. REPUTATION AND MORALE: Ethical executives seek to protect and build the company’s
good reputation and the morale of its employees by engaging in no conduct that might undermine
respect and by taking whatever actions are necessary to correct or prevent inappropriate conduct of
others.

12. ACCOUNTABILITY: Ethical executives acknowledge and accept personal accountability for the
ethical quality of their decisions and omissions to themselves, their colleagues, their companies, and
their communities.
➢ What are Modern Ethical Issues?

Ethical issues in business affect a variety of aspects related to a business’s general operating standards.
The topic of ethical problems in business is focused on what actions a business takes and/or what
policies a business creates in its efforts to resolve ethical questions that come up.
The importance of ethical issues in business cannot be overstated, particularly in today’s day and age
of social movements and political correctness. All personal feelings set aside, it remains a fact that
current events have reshaped current ethical issues in business and, to a large degree, have increased
the focus placed on ethics in the workplace.
Establishing a code of ethics for your business to operate by will help you lay a firm foundation of
basic trust between you and your employees, clients, partners, suppliers, and so on. Fortunately, the
law often gives the answers to questions related to ethical issues in business, but that’s not always the
case. That’s why every business owner should familiarize themselves with what ethical problems in
business are, why they matter, and how they should be addressed.

➢ Common ethical issues facing businesses in 2021:

1. Sexual Harassment

The most important step in addressing sexual harassment as a serious ethical dilemma in business is to
implement employee training. Start by making sure everybody who works for you is made aware of
the rules, that those rules are posted around the workplace, and by enforcing a zero-tolerance policy
for sexual harassment.

2. Diversity & Discrimination

Discrimination in the workplace is essentially any aspect about the job itself or the duties related to its
which are treated differently with respect to any of the categories listed below. Ensuring diversity and
actively preventing discrimination are critical aspects of resolving ethical dilemmas in business.

The EEOC lists the following types of discrimination:

• Age • Pregnancy
• Disability • Race/Colour
• Equal Pay/Compensation • Religion
• Genetic Information • Retaliation
• Harassment • Gender
• National Origin
3. Social Media

One of the more current ethical issues in business is the question of employees’ personal behaviour on
social media outside of work hours. Granted, there’s still quite a large Gray area of situations that may
or may not make it ethically justifiable to fire an employee for their social media conduct.

4. Health & Safety

There are few ethical problems in business that are more serious than the health & safety of your
employees and customers. Besides the obvious ethical implications of people getting hurt or sick while
working for your business, there’s also the huge risk to your business’s financial stability and
reputation. The World Health Organization has gathered data to develop some fundamental advice on
how to promote safety and health in the workplace:

• Regularly inspect your workplace for any potential hazards

• Train your employees so they’re educated on safety protocols
• Promote healthy living (stock kitchens with healthy snacks & drinks)
• Inform employees that help is available
• Recognize and reward hard work
• Create opportunities for employees to grow
• Hold periodic meetings with employees to understand their needs

5. Environmental Responsibility

Environmental responsibility in business may seem like it’s targeted at big oil companies, lumber
businesses, farming, and other businesses that have a more direct impact on the environment. But that’s
not the case! Even if your business operates entirely within the confines of an office building,
environmental responsibility is still on the list of ethical issues in business that you should pay mind
to.
Every business owner is responsible for the carbon footprint that their company produces. That applies
to how your business affects air quality, water cleanliness, the safety of endangered species, the use &
conservation of other natural resources, the pristineness of protected nature reservations, and so on.
Fortunately, the government has made laws to address most of the environmentally-related ethical
dilemmas in business. Those laws include the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered
Species Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and more.
 6. Accounting Practices

This is one of the more ‘classic’ ethical issues in business and comes along with some very serious
legal implications as well. Manipulating a business’s financial data to make the company look more
successful – also known as “cooking the books” – is the most well-known form of accounting
misconduct (and is a federal crime). Beyond the legal boundaries that it crosses, the ethical dilemmas
in business related to bad accounting practices can put innocent people in harm’s way.

7. Data Privacy

To avoid the reputational and financial damage of a data breach, you’ll want to develop a small
business cybersecurity plan and put it into action as soon as possible. The ethical questions arise around
the specific aspects that make up your cybersecurity plan. To be more precise, when does monitoring
your employees’ behaviour on company devices cross the line and become unethical? Unlike some
other ethical problems in business, this one doesn’t have legal restrictions. Businesses have the legal
right to look into your browsing history and company email use, and they do!

8. Nepotism

Nepotism, in case you’re unfamiliar with the term, refers to a form of favouritism for family members
or close friends. While it can definitely introduce issues into the workplace under certain
circumstances, nepotism isn’t inherently a bad thing if the family member or friend is fit for the position
and gets along well with other employees.
The problem typically arises when that isn’t the case, and you wind up hiring someone based on your
personal relationship with them and not on their ability to do the job. But even when they are qualified
for the position, hiring a friend or family member can still breed resentment among other employees.
That’s why you need to be extremely careful when deciding to bring someone from your personal life
to work in your business.

Conclusion: Thus, we have understood and implemented the values and principles in the field of.
Information Technology(CO1).