Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
due to the Japanese egalitarian culture. Japanese IT professionals are usually
motivated to take responsibility for their teams and companies, not for their
performance, meaning that Japanese business practices would have to change.
On the other hand, one of the most serious problems with respect to business
practices in the Japanese IT industry is that written contracts often do not have
practical force. This is true not only for development contracts between companies,
but also for employment contracts between IT professionals and the companies
hiring them; moreover, the contracts tend to be downplayed. In the industry, the
contents of implicit contracts are often stretched, with the more powerful parties to
the contracts holding the advantage.
Examining how written and implicit contracts should function in the Japanese IT
industry is an urgent issue to improve business practices and thus to establish a
reasonable level of IT professionalism. Everyone in the industry must understand
the importance of the contracting process (Uchida
2000
) and develop an appropri-
ate respect for contracts.
4.5 Conclusion
In an information society, IT professionals in business organisations have power
over the general public's quality of life. Thus, IT professionals are responsible to
the public and need to develop a professional outlook and ethical attitude in order to
attain a high level of quality of IT-enabled services and consequently to create and
preserve a safe and reliable information society.
However, individual IT professionals are not necessarily independent and
unchallenged individuals; their behaviour can be affected by stress and pressure
experienced in the workplace. Accordingly, organisational as well as social
measures are needed to construct an appropriately professional working environ-
ment in which IT professionals are supported in maintaining their professional
ethics and outlook.
An appropriately professional working environment has practical value as well
as ethical value for business organisations and IT-enabled services they provide,
and is beneficial to society. Such a working environment could constitute the basis
for professionalism in IT professionals, which, in turn, would provide the basis for a
safe and reliable society. The efficacy of codes of professional conduct can only be
ensured through the construction of an appropriately professional working
environment.
Acknowledgments
This study is supported by the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology, Japan) Programme for Strategic Research Bases at Private
Universities (2012-16) project “Organisational Information Ethics” S1291006 and the MEXT
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) 22530378.
