Professional Ethics - Ethics for the Information Age - page 423

4. Treat others justly.
Everyone deserves fair wages and appropriate credit for work performed. Do not
discriminate against others for attributes unrelated to the job they do. Do not pe-
nalize others for following the Code. (Supports clauses 5.06, 5.07, 5.08, 5.09, 5.10,
5.11, 5.12, 7.03, 7.04, 7.05, 7.07, and 8.07.)
5. Take responsibility for your actions and inactions.
As a moral agent, you are responsible for the things you do, both good and bad.
You may also be responsible for bad things that you allow to happen through your
inaction. (Supports clauses 1.01, 3.04, 3.05, 3.06, 3.07, 3.08, 3.10, 3.11, 3.14, 3.15,
4.02, and 7.08.)
6. Take responsibility for the actions of those you supervise.
Managers are responsible for setting up work assignments and training opportuni-
ties to promote quality and reduce risk. They should create effective communication
channels with subordinates so that they can monitor the work being done and be
aware of any quality or risk issues that arise. (Supports clauses 5.01, 5.02, 5.03, and
5.04.)
7. Maintain your integrity.
Deliver on your commitments and be loyal to your employer, while obeying the law.
Do not ask someone else to do something you would not be willing to do yourself.
(Supports clauses 2.01, 2.04, 2.08, 2.09, 3.01, 3.02, 3.09, 4.03, 4.04, 6.06, 6.10, 6.11,
8.08, and 8.09.)
8. Continually improve your abilities.
Take advantage of opportunities to improve your software engineering skills and
your ability to put the Code to use. (Supports clauses 8.01, 8.02, 8.03, 8.04, 8.05,
and 8.06.)
9. Share your knowledge, expertise, and values.
Volunteer your time and skills to worthy causes. Help bring others to your level of
knowledge about software engineering and professional ethics. (Supports clauses
1.08, 6.01, 6.02, 6.03, 6.04, 7.01, 7.02, and 7.06.)
In the following section, we use these fundamental, discipline-independent princi-
ples to facilitate our analysis in four case studies related to computing.
9.5 Case Studies
Throughout this text we have evaluated a wide range of moral problems. Our method-
ology has been to evaluate the moral problem from the point of view of one or more of
these theories: Kantianism, act utilitarianism, rule utilitarianism, social contract theory,
and virtue ethics.
Another way to evaluate information technology-related moral problems is to make
use of the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice. We follow a
three-step process: