Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
et al.
1999
). However, these codes of conduct may not function well alone. We
cannot ignore the fact that the majority of IT professionals are employed by for-
profit businesses. Moreover, any code of conduct is subject to interpretation, and the
extent to which IT professionals in business organisations actually follow a code of
conduct tends to be influenced by their organisational and social structures and
cultures.
This chapter will clarify the conditions that must be met in order to enhance
professional outlook and ethical behaviour of IT professionals that will help to
provide safe and reliable IT-enabled services:
- IT professionals should develop their sense of professional ethics and their
professional attitude; and
- Organisational and social measures should be taken to establish appropriately
professional working environments, in which IT professionals are supported in
behaving according to their professional code of conduct.
The next section points out how important a sense of professional ethics and
professional attitudes are to IT professionals. Section
4.3
examines some typical IT
working environments, including an illuminating Japanese case and the working
environment of IT professionals in Japan. Section
4.4
explores organisational and
social measures required for the construction of an appropriately professional
working environment.
4.2
Importance of a Professional Outlook to IT Professionals
4.2.1 The Notion of Profession and IT Professionals
The word profession has various meanings, from broad to narrow. In academic
fields, this word is used in a restricted sense, which may be summarised into the
following criteria or characteristics (Flexner
1910
,
1915
; Johnson
2001
; Kizza
2003
; Yamada
1998
):
- A highly specialised body of knowledge and technique: members of a profession
have an advanced, systematic, and exclusive body of knowledge, as well as
techniques acquired through long-term education and training; furthermore, they
continue to derive their raw material from science and learning.
- Autonomy with responsibility: professionals apply knowledge and techniques to
problems freely and autonomously, assuming substantial personal responsibil-
ity; they are governed by a developed sense of personal discretion.
- Self-organisation: the social and personal lives of professionals tend to be
organised around a professional nucleus; professional associations or groups
are organised in order to set definite and practical ends, to set standards for
practice, and to control the qualifications related to the profession and its
membership based on its ends and responsibility.
