SOCIAL AND

PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN
IT
 INCLUDING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN DECISION
MAKING
 ETHICS, LAW AND ETHICAL THEORIES

MS. LESLYN BONACHITA - REAZOL, MIT

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL AND
PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
• Understand the relationship between the law, ethics and
computer technology
• Identify an ethical issue
• Understand at least two basic ethical theories
• Understand the application of law and professional codes of
Conduct to the IT and computing industries
INCLUDING ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
IN DECISION MAKING
We are all faced
with difficult
decisions in our
work and in our
personal life.
Most of us have
developed a
decision-making
process that we
execute
automatically,
without thinking
about the steps
we go through.
DECISION – MAKING PROCESS
DEVELOP A PROBLEM STATEMENT
• A problem statement is a clear, concise description of the
issue that needs to be addressed. A good problem statement
answers the following questions:
- What do people observe that causes them to think
there is a problem?
- Who is directly affected by the problem?
- Is anyone else affected?
- How often does the problem occur?
- What is the impact of the problem?
- How serious is the problem?
Development of a problem statement is the most critical step
in the decision-making process.
DECISION – MAKING PROCESS:
Developing a Problem Statement
The following list includes one example of a good problem
statement as well as two examples of poor problem statements:
• Good problem statement: Our product supply organization is
continually running out of stock of finished products, creating
an out-of-stock situation on over 15 percent of our customer
orders, resulting in over $300,000 in lost sales per month.
• Poor problem statement: We need to implement a new
inventory control system. (This is a possible solution, not a
problem statement.)
• Poor problem statement: We have a problem with finished
product inventory. (This is not specific enough.)
IDENTIFY, EVALUATE AND CHOOSE AND
ALTERNATIVE
• During this stage of decision making, it is ideal to enlist the help of others,
including stakeholders, to identify several alternative solutions to the
problem. Brainstorming with others will increase your chances of
identifying a broad range of alternatives and determining the best solution.
• Once a set of alternatives has been identified, the group must evaluate them
based on numerous criteria, such as effectiveness at addressing the issue, the
extent of risk associated with each alternative, cost, and time to implement.
• As part of the evaluation process, weigh various laws, guidelines, and
principles that may apply. You certainly do not want to violate a law that
can lead to a fine or imprisonment for yourself or others.
• Also consider the likely consequences of each alternative from several
perspectives: What is the impact on you, your organization, other
stakeholders (including your suppliers and customers), and the
environment?
IDENTIFY, EVALUATE AND CHOOSE
AND ALTERNATIVE
The alternative selected should :
• be ethically and legally defensible;
• be consistent with the organization’s policies and code of ethics;
• take into account the impact on others; and,
• provide a good solution to the problem.
• Philosophers have developed many approaches to aid in ethical
decision making. Four of the most common approaches
• It provides a framework for decision makers to reflect on the
acceptability of their actions and evaluate their moral
judgments. People must find the appropriate balance among all
applicable laws, corporate principles, and moral guidelines to
help them make decisions.
FOUR COMMON APPROACHES TO
ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
Approach to dealing with Principle
ethical issues
Virtue ethics approach The ethical choice best reflects moral
virtues in yourself and your community.

Utilitarian approach The ethical choice produces the greatest

excess of benefits over harm.

Fairness approach The ethical choice treats everyone the same

and shows no favoritism or discrimination.

Common good approach The ethical choice advances the common

good
VIRTUE ETHICS APPROACH
• It focuses on how you should behave and think about
relationships if you are concerned with your daily life in a
community. The assumption is that people are guided by their
virtues to reach the “right” decision
• A problem with the virtue ethics approach is that it doesn’t
provide much of a guide for action. The definition of virtue
cannot be worked out objectively; it depends on the
circumstances—you work it out as you go.
Example: Bravery is a great virtue in many circumstances, but
in others it may be foolish. The right thing to do in a situation
also depends on which culture you’re in and what the cultural
norm dictates.
UTILITARIAN APPROACH
• States that you should choose the action or policy that has
the best overall consequences for all people who are directly
or indirectly affected.
• The goal is to find the single greatest good by balancing the
interests of all affected parties
• Fits concept of value in economics and the use of  cost-
benefit analysis 
• A problem with this approach is measuring and comparing
values is often difficult and predicting resulting benefits and
harm is difficult.
FAIRNESS APPROACH

• The fairness approach focuses on how fairly actions and

policies distribute benefits and burdens among people
affected by the decision. The guiding principle of this
approach is to treat all people the same.
• A problem with this approach is that decisions can be
influenced by personal bias and other may consider it unfair.
COMMON GOOD APPROACH

• The common good approach to decision making is based on

a vision of society as a community whose members work
together to achieve a common set of values and goals.
• Decisions and policies that use this approach attempt to
implement social systems, institutions, and environments that
everyone depends on and that benefit all people.
• A problem with this approach is that consensus is difficult
and some required greater cost than others.
ETHICS, LAW & MORAL THEORIES
We could ask why we need ethical principles to guide our decisions
when we have the law to turn to.
• LAWS, should (at least in principle) tell us when it is right or
wrong to do something. However, laws are not always ethical –
they are created by governments and may be introduced to further
ethical or not-so-ethical aims.

• As far as law and ethics are concerned, we can have laws that are
ethical, and laws that are unethical. When we pursue a course of
action it can be:
● Legal and ethical ● Not legal but ethical
● Not ethical but legal ● Not ethical and not legal.
THEORIES are commonly used to explain natural phenomena and so
provide us with an understanding of the world in which we live.
 ETHICS, LAW & MORAL
THEORIES
• ETHICS – describes the way in which
we look at and understand life, in terms of
food and bad or right and wrong.
• MORAL THEORIES – are frameworks
we use to justify or clarify our position
when we ask ourselves “What should I
do in this situation?” or “What is right
or wrong for me?”
ETHICS, LAW & MORAL THEORIES

ETHICAL/MORAL THEORIES attempt to explain

human morality, and why we think some actions are
good, while other actions are bad.

ETHICS falls within the domain of philosophy and, as

with other theories, different philosophers have come
up with different ethical theories.
MORAL THEORY: (1) RELATIVISM
• The theory that there are no universal moral
norm of right and wrong. According to this
theory, different individuals or groups of
people can have completely opposite views of
a moral problem., and both can be right.

• 2 KINDS OF RELATIVISM
1. SUBJECTIVE RELATIVISM
2. CULTURE RELATIVISM
1.1 SUBJECTIVE
RELATIVISM
• Holds that each person decides right and wrong for
himself / herself.
“What is right for you may not be right for me.”

Example:
1. Issue about Reproductive Health (RH) bill in our
country.
2. The way professors treat their students. (Education
teachers are kind and considerate while Engineers,
IT an Law professors would fail their students
notwithstanding only 2 or 3 in a class will pass.
1.2 CULTURAL RELATIVISM
• Is the ethical theory that the meaning of
right and wrong rests with a society’s
actual moral guidelines. These guidelines
vary widely from place to place.

Example:
• Philippine politics (Losing official will be given
position after a year by a winning party friend)
WRITE YOUR THOUGHT ACTIVITY

• This activity will allow you to discuss your thoughts

or personal opinions regarding a specific topic. (The
KEY is to EXPRESS YOUR SELF  )
• Please discuss your answer properly.
• Submit your answer in our GOOGLE
CLASSROOM CLASSWORK tab using google
docs or Word file.
WRITE YOUR THOUGHT 1: Cultural Relativism

• Your BFF hits a pedestrian in

a private subdivision during
12 noon. There is no other
witness other than you. What
will you do?
A. Tell lies and defend your
BFF (falsely testify for his
benefit)
B. Tell the TRUTH (9th
commandment : Thou shall
not bear false witness)
WRITE YOUR THOUGHT 1: Cultural
Relativism
• The F2 Epidemic:
(f2 function key allows to
save the file and
automatically shares the
saved file)
You are able to write the
appropriate code for your
activity. What will you do?
a. Don’t share the code
b. Share the code
to your classmates
 MORAL THEORY:

(2) DIVINE COMMAND THEORY

• The theory is based on
the idea that good
actions are those
aligned with the will of
God and bad actions
are those contrary to
the will of God.
• Holy Book / Bible as Abraham and Isaac:
guide in making moral Is killing a person/son
decisions. good?
MORAL THEORY:

(2) DIVINE COMMAND THEORY

• Moral guidelines are not the result of a logical progression
from a set of underlying principles, and this is a significant
problem.
• It fails to produce arguments that can persuade skeptical
listeners whose religious beliefs are different.

• Example:
• Jehova’s witness – do not eat blood and do not allow blood
transfusion
• Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) – do not eat blood but allows blood
transfusion.
MORAL THEORY:

(3) ETHICAL EGOISM

• The philosophy that each person should focus
exclusively on his or herself interest.
• “The morally right action for a person to take in a
particular situation is the action that will provide that
person with the maximum long-term benefit.

Example:
Atty Juan Matulungin is assisting Jojo Binay for
Presidency. Why? Because if Jojo will win the
Presidency, it would be certain that Jojo will appoint
him in a position Juan ever dreamed of, to become the
Justice Secretary.
WRITE YOUR THOUGHT 2: ETHICAL
EGOISM
Applying Ethical Egoism what is the reason behind such act?
1. If there is only one bread for a mother and her child, the
mother may deprive herself of the bread and allows her child
to consume the bread.
2. The father will always work overtime just to provide the needs
of his family.
3. One of the siblings may volunteer to stop studying so that his
other siblings may continue studying because their parents
cannot afford to send them to schools simultaneously.
4. A student who allows his seatmate to copy his answer during
examination ☺
(3) ETHICAL EGOISM
EXAMPLE
THE THAT YOU DON’T
LIKE

When you go to the restaurant to eat, you will

surely order the food you really like. However,
there are several instances that using our FB
Account, somebody would request us “pa LIKE
naman” in response we would be force to “LIKE
IT”
QUESTION: What could be the reason why we
do click LIKE? ☺
Answer:
1: The Mother acted for her own benefit because she cannot
afford to see her child go hungry. To help her ease her pain, she
allowed her child to consume the bread.

2: Father works hard for himself because it would be a disgrace

for himself if he fail to provide for his family.

3: Siblings don’t like to see their brother or sister not going to

school and their parents having a hard time looking for money to
support all of them with their studies.

4. Because of fear of rejection

Answer
• We like something we really do
not like so that in the near future
our facebook friends will also
“like” our status even if they don’t
like it.
MORAL THEORY:

(4) CONSEQUENTIALISM
“ The end will justify the means.”
• The consequence of an action justifies the
moral acceptability of the means taken to reach
that end.
• It is the consequence of the action which
determines whether or not the action is moral.
Example:

The CONSEQUENTIALIST IT STUDENT

• In one programming class, the instructor gave a machine
problem for his students. The problem states that the
program must accept as input an integer number and
must output the same in reverse order. The program
must use an integer data type and a string is not allowed.

• CORRECT ALGO:
1. Get an integer.
2. Divide the integer by 10 and display the remainder
3. Update the integer to the value of the quotient
4. Do step 2 to 3 while integer >=10
Consequentialist Student will do this:
1. Ask the user to input an integer and store
it into a string variable
2. Display the string variable beginning
from the last character up to the
beginning character

The result will be the same. The end will

justify the means.
MORAL THEORY:

(5) KANTIANISM
• Deontology or Kantianism is an obligation –
based theory whose chief author was Immanuel
Kant, who lived in the 18th century.
• This theory emphasizes the type of action rather
than the consequences of that action.
• Deontologists believe that moral decisions should
be made based on one’s duties and the right of
others.
• According to Kant, morality is based on pure
reason. “Act morally regardless of the
consequences”.
EXAMPLE FOR KANTIANISM
HYPOTHETICAL STORY
A rich old man gave his lawyer, his priest and his doctor each a million
dollars on the condition that they put it in the coffin with him when he
died so he could prove “you can take it with you”. At the funeral, they
all put in their envelopes, then the priest said “I have to be honest,
part of the job you know, I only put 25% in. The rest went to the needy
in my parish”. The doctor said, “I better be honest too, I only out in half
the money, the rest went to operations to save needy patients lives”.
The lawyer said, disdainfully, “How dare you not honor the last wishes
of a dear old friend! I gave him a check for the whole amount!”

QUESTION: From among the three persons, who did their

sworn duty to their deceased friend and client?
ANSWER: NONE OF THEM DID.
• The doctor and the priest, if they believe that their deceased friend
cannot really take his money to heaven had spent 75% and the 50% for
some other good things. They adopted the consequentialism theory. On
the other hand, the lawyer, who claimed that he had fulfilled the last
wish of their old friend adopted the cultural relativism theory.

• KANTIANISM is mostly adopted by lawyers. For example, a criminal

lawyer will defend his client notwithstanding that the latter is really
GUILTY of the crime charge. Lawyers will do their duty to win the case
for their client irrespective of its consequences.

• Policemen and soldiers to maintain peace and order and defending their
country for possible invasion is adopting this theory when, in the
performance of their duty, take lives of many people. Killing of people is
condemned, it is bad. However, Kantianism, will just tell those religious
people adopting the divine command theory that, killing is justified
when duty calls. They can even sight an example in the book of Samuel
where God commanded Elijah to kill all the prophets of Baal.
MORAL THEORY:

(6) PERSUASIVE POWER OF ETHICS

AND THE LAW
• It cannot be denied that the persuasive power of ethics and morals
to every person is weak compared to the persuasive power of law.
• Example
You are inside your house having a siesta, when suddenly someone
knocked at your door. Upon opening your door, you suddenly saw an
old woman with a stain of blood in her head and ask your help. You
have a money, car and helper in your house wherein you can pass to
him the duty of sending the old woman to the hospital. In other
words, you can help her if you want to. Undoubtedly, helping her is
the right thing to do. It is a kind act. Although helping is a good act
BUT 9 out of 10 will NOT HELP HER.
WRITE YOUR THOUGHT 3:
APPLYING ETHICAL THEORIES
• A programmer, after returning from a holiday to an underdeveloped country, was deeply
affected by the level of poverty. When he returned to his job in a large international
corporation, it occurred to him that he could write a program that filtered off small
amounts of money from the advertising account and pay it in to a private account. His
idea was to collect enough money to provide IT equipment and training to the people in
the town he had visited on holiday. However, he is not sure about his decision. What
should he do?
a) What solution does a Kantian approach offer?
b) What solution does a consequentialist approach offer?
c) Are their conclusions the same?
d) What do you think he should do?

RUBRIC in checking your activity output:

• Content & Organization - 5 points
• Relevance of the Discussion – 10 points
• Paragraph Composition - 5 points
:

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