PROFESSIONAL ETHICS: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

 
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Introduction
Modern life often puts people in front of significant ethical challenges. Unfortunately,
in most cases the simple ethical dilemma of “good and evil” does not work. As multiple case
studies clearly demonstrate (e.g.: Enron, Parmalat or ImClone cases) corporate ethic in
business is always closely interrelated with the issue of profit. Money for jam has made
modern businessmen and even common employees to become the “knights of fortune” who
easily betray ethical fundamentals looking for rapid commercialization.
There are globally known cases which serve the classic illustration to the issue. These
are the cases of Enron, WorldCom, Vivendi and other commercial giants. These cases often
give people a palliative feeling that these challenges are extremely remote and cannot
influence their lives. However, also we do not often recognize it, we face contravenes of
ethical principles quite often in our everyday lives. Joan Callahan (1988) in her “Ethical
Issues in Professional Life” gives a number of examples. Doctors who make surgeries
knowing beforehand that it will give patient more harm than benefits; engineers who scrimp
expensive materials and make our buildings less reliable than it is required; designers who
economize on development of passive and active safety of the car, etc. are all perfect
illustration to the idea.
Whether we like it or not, but we all have recently become the hostages of business
ethics. As a result, citizens’ privacy, financial welfare and even safety may be somehow
endangered. I will provide only few examples to illustrate the ethical risks we face every day.
The cods of citizens’ identification cards do not remain secret, as they are known to
the banks and police officers. Security-codes of credit cards do not belong purely to their 
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holders. Medical information is stored in a database which is not difficult to access. The
planes people fly may fail to pass a required technical evaluation. People’s dwelling may be
built without following necessary standards. Yet, nation’s government may fail to warn
citizens about the inflation or coming defaults, etc (Daly, 1996).
However, regardless the number of examples people often underestimate the grave
importance of ethic in their everyday life. The recent events in which the ethic was involved
demonstrate that we are often excessively trustworthy when confide in our banks, engineers,
doctors, attorneys, etc. The following case study serves a perfect illustration to challenges in
modern business ethics and associated risks for the common people.
Identification of the case
In the present survey I will assess the issue of business ethics in banking and IT
sector. In terms of modern digital society we seem to rely too much on our banks and
software without recognizing that all our welfare and personal information may appear in
danger. Also this is an invented story it seems to accumulate different ethical challenges in
business sector, particularly those described in Callahan’s (1988) book.
A software engineer is given a project to develop software for one of the top national
banks that performs online banking services. The software involves share and exchange of
large amounts of private information (e.g.: security codes, personal data, banking accounts,
etc.) belonging to the vast customer base. Besides, as the bank provides a large number of
services, it shares client’s medical insurance codes, credit cards services, chequeing, deposit’s
codes, etc. Apparently, if this information comes in wrong hands it could lead to lose of
critical financial and ultra-sensitive information.
The engineer realizes the importance of designing extremely reliable software but he
faces a kind of an ethical dilemma. In fact, the engineer is given only six months to develop, 
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finish and launch the project, whereas at least nine months are normally required to produce
this kind of product. Nine months are usually the average timeline necessary to produce
reliable banking software which will maintain highest possible commitment to quality and
security of the clients. Otherwise the software risks to appear underdeveloped and easy to be
accessed by hackers.
Taking into account the sensitivity of information which is at stake, the engineer
informs the managers of the issue. He tries to persuade them that it will be at least unwise to
launch the software in six months, as its efficiency will only be about 80% versus 95% that it
is normally required to ensure the best possible service.
After the lasting deliberations company’s CEO and managers decide to continue with
this online banking product due to the competition from other industry players who as well
design the online banking software for a hypothetic bank. It appears a kind of a tende