Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
and diehard bugs, which are typical barriers to IT professional accountability
(Nissenbaum 1994 ), could be avoided if IT professionals had no limits in cognition
and knowledge or could spend unlimited time and money. However, because IT
professionals play many roles, conflicts can arise between responsibilities to differ-
ent stakeholders, making it difficult to maintain a sense of professional responsibil-
ity (Johnson 2001 , pp. 74-76); in addition, time constraints may give IT
professionals an incentive to disregard democratic values and to make a decision
selfishly, or one based on the economic and political power of stakeholders.
4.3.2 Working Environment of IT Professionals
Complicated situations related to responsibility and accountability never lighten the
ethical burden of IT professionals. However, a highly stressful and physically
demanding working environment can disrupt the professional outlook of IT
professionals, causing them to have an irresponsible or an apathetic attitude.
IT professionals in business organisations do not operate in a vacuum, and are
not necessarily independent and unchallenged. Often they work in complicated
situations with conflicting responsibilities, and it can be difficult for them to
appropriately prioritise their professional responsibilities. IT-based information
systems are often developed within tight schedules and tight budgets, with mini-
mum number of personnel to meet a deadline. These factors may prevent
developers from addressing technological, social and ethical issues relating to
their information systems, which would seriously deteriorate the quality of the
systems and services the systems enable.
IT workers also tend to have a precarious position within business organisations;
in modern global capitalism, where investors are relatively powerful in relation to
business organisations as compared to other stakeholders, many business
organisations now adopt personnel policies centred on improving labour productiv-
ity and reducing personnel costs, forcing longer working hours and less rewards on
all office workers. IT has been integral to 'reengineering' business processes, the
result of which has been a reduction in redundant personnel since the early 1990s.
Today it is IT professionals who are threatened by cost-cutting employment
policies that recommend replacing full-time employees with contract workers or
temporary staff, and experienced IT professionals with fresh university graduates.
Rapid IT development, which has been described in 'dog years', may provide
human resource managers with an excuse for the dismissal of experienced IT
professionals; only those who have knowledge about state-of-the-art IT are consid-
ered indispensable. Because IT professionals produce information, which can be
immediately transferred anywhere via the global net, offshore employment or
global outsourcing of labour can also threaten the status of IT professionals in
developed countries. Consequently, IT professionals are often employed in a highly
stressful and physically demanding business environment, and it is likely that many
Search WWH ::




Custom Search