Week-10

Codes of Ethics
 Background (Relationship between
Code of Ethics and Professional
Conduct)
• The term professional code of conduct
and code of ethics both are used.
• The code of ethics is seen as being more
aspirational and less regulatory than a
professional code of conduct.
• Both professional code of conduct and
code of ethics is distinct from code of
practice, which is concerned with good
practice in doing the job.
• Ethical code of conduct
• It is not possible to develop a detailed set of rules,
policies or procedures that cover all circumstances.
The best guidelines are individual integrity, common
sense and compliance with law.
• The code of ethics provides a basic guide to assist
our management, employees and others acting on
our behalf in understanding their responsibilities.
• Code applies to each of our directors, officers,
employees and other representatives.
• Individuals should have legal and ethical
behavior is one of our most valuable assets. We
are responsible for safeguarding this important
assets.
• Company should have a policy of strict
compliance with all laws, whether federal, state,
local or foreign. The highest standards of moral
and ethical behavior are essential to maintaining
a good reputation. We do not tolerate unethical
or dishonest conduct.
• Professional codes of conduct: are
particularly valuable in addressing conduct
which can be seen as an abuse of the
professional status.
• For e.g. Doctors can be struck off, that is
deprived of their registration, for entering
into sexual relationships with their patients
or for drug taking.
• Professional codes of conduct are, by their
very nature, collectivist and rule-based.
Nevertheless, rule-based ethical systems
always seem too rigid and restricted to
handle complicated situations on their own
and they are incapable of handling
situations in which rules conflict or several
different actions are possible but all in
some way violate the rules.
 Codes of Conduct of
Professional Bodies
• Australian Computer Society, Code of
Ethics and Professional Conduct. (ACS)
• British Computer Society Code of
Conduct. (BCS)
• Institute of Electrical & Electronic
Engineering Code of Ethics (IEEE).
 British Computer Society (BCS)

The BCS vision and mission statements

• Vision Statement (Long-term aim of BCS)
• Our vision is to see the IT profession recognized
as being a profession of the highest integrity and
competence.
• Mission Statement (Core purpose of BCS)
• BCS will lead the development and
implementation of standards for the IT profession
through innovative and valued products and
services and by being the respected voice
informing and influencing individuals,
organizations and society as a whole.
• BCS will lead the change in the standing of
the IT profession by creating an
understanding of what is required to
implement successful IT projects and
programmes, and to advise, inform and
persuade industry and government on what
is required to produce successful IT
enabled projects.
 BCS Values

Focus on serving the profession

• Providing superior quality service that meets the individual
needs
• Developing and delivering valued products and services
that makes a difference to people worldwide
Recognition and Concern for People
• Respecting the individual
• Advocating fair treatment
• Rewarding exceptional performance
• Showing commitment to personal and professional growth
• Encouraging teamwork
 Maintain High Ethical Standards
• Treating customers and suppliers with integrity,
fairness and respect
• Avoiding even the appearance of conflict of interest
• Providing leadership in industry, government and
trade and regulatory associations
Innovative and Results-oriented
• Dedicating ourselves to maximising the value of the
organization for stakeholders
• Encourage creativity
 ACS Code of Conduct
• The Australian Computer Society (ACS) is the
recognized association for Information &
Communications Technology (ICT) professionals,
attracting a large and active membership from all
levels of the ICT industry.
• The society was founded in 1966.
• ACS members work in all areas of business and
industry, government and academia, and are
qualified and experienced ICT professionals
 Mission and Objective
Mission
• To advance professional excellence in
information technology.
Principal Objective
• To promote the development of Australian
information and communications
technology resources.
• Secondary Objective
• To advance professional excellence in information and
communications technology.
• To further the study, science and application of information and
communications technology.
• To promote, develop and monitor competence in the practice of
information and communications technology by persons and
organizations.
• To define and promote the maintenance of standards of knowledge
of information and communications technology for members.
• To promote the formulation of effective policies on information and
communications technology.
• To extend the knowledge and understanding of information and
communications technology in the community.
• To maintain and promote the observance of a code of ethics for
members of the Society.
 IEEE Code of Conduct
We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in
affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation
to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit
ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:

1. to accept responsibility in making decisions consistent with the safety, health and
welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public
or the environment;

2. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose

them to affected parties when they do exist;

3. to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;

4. to reject bribery in all its forms;

5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential

consequences;
to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake
technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or
experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;

7. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to

acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the
contributions of others;

8. to treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion,

gender, disability, age, or national origin;

9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by

false or malicious action;

10. to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional

development and to support them in following this code of ethics.
 Public interest and Social
implications
• Health and safety issues
• Health and safety at work usually only hits the
headlines when there is a major disaster.
Unfortunately, in recent years there has been an
unprecedented number of these.
• we can still recall the horror of Zeebruggeferry
disaster and Paddington rail crash etc. although all
of these involved the activities of people at work,
one circumstance that made them particularly news-
worthy was that, with exception of Piper Alpha, the
majority of people who suffered as a consequence of
the incidents were members of the public.
• Number of fatal accidents at work has fallen sharply
since the beginning of the 1970’s but around 200
employees each year still die as a result of accidents at
work and significant number of members of the public
lose their lives as a result of work activities.
• There is nothing like an accident for motivating people
to adopt safe working practices. The problem lies in
changing attitudes before disasters occurs and in
creating a safe working environment, or at least one
that is as safe as is possible.
• The best way of achieving this is by building in
safety from the start in plant design, factory layout,
training and so on, but so often this is compromised
by other considerations which may seem to be more
important in the short-term, such as pressure of time
or financial concerns.
• This has obvious implications for the design of the
control software that is now everywhere. In many
high-risk areas, such as the oil, chemical and
nuclear industries, the safety systems themselves
are often computer controlled; the software must be
of the highest integrity and must handle safety all
foreseeable (predictable) eventualities (possibilities).
• Similar considerations apply to other
applications such as “fly-by-wire” aircraft
where proper control is wholly dependent
on the correct and safe operation of the
aircraft’s computer systems.
• To summarize, the main recommendations
of the Robens (chairman) Committee on
Safety and Health at work (1972) were:
• Safety and health objectives should be clearly
defined at all levels within firms.
• Workers should be more involved in safety and
health at their workplace.
• There should be a legal duty on employers to consult
their employees on safety and health matters
necessary at their workplace.
• A National Authority for safety and health should be
established.
• Existing statutory (legal) provisions (terms) should
be replaced by provisions under a new enabling Act.
• Voluntary (intentional) codes of practice should be
introduced.
• The scope of the legislation should be extended to
include all employees (with minor exceptions) and the
self-employed (temporary).
• The existing safety and health inspectorates should be
amalgamated (merged).
• New administrative sanctions should be adopted.
• Local authority work should be coordinated with that of
the new authority.
• The interests of the public should be taken into account
in the new legislation.
• The Employment Medical Advisory Service should
function as part of the new authority.
 The Health and Safety at Work
etc. Act 1974
• General Terms
• Section 2(1): 'It shall be the duty of every
employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably
possible, the health, safety and welfare at work
of all his employees'.
• Section 3 of the Act requires both employers and
the self-employed (temporary) to ensure that
persons not in their employment (i.e. the general
public) are not thereby exposed to risks to their
health and safety.
• Section 4 of the Act places a similar duty on
persons in control of premises.
• Section 7 places duties on employees. These
duties are to take reasonable care for the health
and safety of themselves and of others who
might be affected, and also to co-operate with
the employer in complying with the relevant
statutory provisions (legal terms).
• Section 8 contains a global requirement that no
person, whether employee or not, adult or child,
should deliberately interfere with anything
provided to ensure health and safety.
 Environmental protection
• Environmental Law
• 1990: Environmental Protection Act
• Environmental law is a body of law, which is a system of
complex and interlocking statutes, common law, treaties,
conventions, regulations and policies which seek to protect
the natural environment which may be affected, impacted
or endangered by human activities. Some environmental
laws regulate the quantity and nature of impacts of human
activities: for example, setting allowable levels of pollution.
Other environmental laws are preventive in nature and
seek to assess the possible impacts before the human
activities can occur.
• In this Act,
“adverse effect” means one or more of,
(a) impairment of the quality of the natural environment for
any use that can be made of it,
(b) injury or damage to property or to plant or animal life,
(c) harm or material discomfort to any person,
(d) an adverse effect on the health of any person,
(e) impairment of the safety of any person,
(f) rendering any property or plant or animal life unfit for
human use,
(g) loss of enjoyment of normal use of property, and
(h) interference with the normal conduct of business;
(“consequence préjudiciable”)
• For further read that Act from internet