Ethical Analysis and Ethical Dilemma

Question: Discuss about the Ethical Analysis and Ethical Dilemma. Answer: Introduction: The case study shows that there is ethical dilemma in the above case. Harry by profession a network programmer in a private company ACE Inc. He invented antivirus program, which is suitable for a network environment. The antivirus that was developed by him is harmless to machines. The most important part of the developed program is it gives the user the option to copy viruses and then testing the antivirus on the copied virus. After developing this antivirus he walked up to Jill who is his manager for selling the antivirus to ACE Inc at a discount rate and get recognized for his work. The reaction of Jill on the developed software by Harry made him stunned. Jill, the head of IT security pointed the program as dangerous and brutally refused the offer, as she believes that the program will harm the global network. After he faced the rejection he decided and published the antivirus in a BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM by the name Safe-T and consulted under the name Lock Smith. After Jill discovered that Lock Smith is none other than Harry, she sacked him immediately. The first issue that Jill violated is by involving herself in privacy of Harry. The second issue is that by Golden rule of Ethics no superior employee has the right to sack his subordinate due to private work and personal opinion (Gensler 2013). The third ethical issue is Brockley Smetherton, manger of Jill has not review the decision of Jill and violated the conduct of ethics. The rise of Lock Smith forced Ima Bigwig to hire Lock Smith for the security of ACE and he gave Brockely the necessary instruction about i t. Harry a network programmer works in ACE Inc has developed an antivirus program, which could be run in network environment. The antivirus has a delicate Graphic User Interface. The antivirus has the capability to detect and remove all the old and new viruses. The user by using a disk might copy the virus and run on the machine for testing the antivirus. After developing the software, he went to Jill, the head of IT security for selling the antivirus at a discount rate. Jill rejects the offer and mark the software as useless and she told Harry that ACE would not accept the software even if it were provided free to the company. After Jill discovered that Harry has published it in a bulletin system, she sacked Harry. Brockley Smerthon, manager of Jill did not review the demanding situation and supported Jill. When company owner Ima Bigwig came to know about Lock Smith he ordered Brockley to hire him. Brockley knowing the full incident was in an uncomfortable position. The ethical issue raised is the accessibility of user to back up viruses which might harmed the network of user. Working of Harry under a fake name may harmed the program followed by a user and it also have a chance of incursion of privacy. The golden rule of ethics said that a employee could not be sacked for his private work. Brockley trusting Jill did not review the case of sacking which violates the conduct of ethics. The stakeholders listed in this plot are Harry- network programmer of ACE, Jill- Head of IT security, Brockley Smetherton- Executive Head of IT, Ima Bigwig- Owner of ACE. The case study has major ethical issues but the ethical dilemma that can be arise is the order given by Ima to Brockley for hiring Lock Smith who was been sacked from ACE by Jill. Consequentialism Comments: The talent of Harry was spreading in internet. If Harry is re-hired his talent may be used in ACE. If he is not hired ACE would be deprived of a talented developer (Martin et al. 2014). Harry being a network programmer has the right to promote antivirus software, Jill being his superior should evaluate the usefulness of the program. He could work personally but Jill should not judge him on his personal work (Scott 2013). Jill being manager of Harry has the righ to sack him but Brockley as the head executive has the duty to review that decision. Ima Bigwig being the owner of the company has the right to hire talented employee and Brockley has the duty to hire the talented developers. The right of one person might affect the duties of another person and force them to take harsh decisions. Kants Categorical Imperative (Orend 2016): Jill rejecting the software by Harry as it has a feature of copying the virus, which could affect the ACE network once the user made mistake. Re-hiring of Harry may disrespect Jill whereas not hiring Harry might affect the productivity of the company. Brockely Smith should hire Harry back and offer him the position from where he was sacked. The manager should do their duty for their organisation keeping their ego down. Brockley should confront the past situation to Ima Bigwig and the reasons for sacking Harry. He should inform the owner about reviewing the case of Harry in ethical way. Brockley and Jill should informed Harry about the limitations of the software and asked him to fix the matter. Jill should monitor Harry in future. The feedback that should be given by Jill to Harry must be accurate and maintain professionalism. The work done by Harry should be reviewed and verified by Jill. Reference List Gensler, H.J., 2013.Ethics and the golden rule. Routledge. Martin, W.M., LaVan, H., Lopez, Y.P., Naquin, C.E. and Katz, M., 2014. An Ethical Analysis of the Second Amendment: The Right to Pack Heat at Work.Business and Society Review,119(1), pp.1-36. Orend, B., 2016. Framing the Issues in Moral Terms II: The Kantian Perspective on Jus in Bello.The Ashgate Research Companion to Military Ethics, p.131. Scott, W.R., 2013.Institutions and organizations: Ideas, interests, and identities. Sage Publications.