Principles of Morals and Legislation

Question: Discuss about the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Answer: Introduction: Wayne Davidson is a software engineer with a firm named Occidental engineering, he is currently working in the aerospace division of the company. The company has won a contract from the federal aviation Agency for building software for the traffic control system. As this one was a crucial contract for the company, they have created a bid for the project. As the company was facing some issues related to the finance and works so this project was considered as one of the most important projects for the company. At starting the company got a deadline under which the software must be building and tested for the deployment. As the company was not in a condition to miss the deadline or recruit new peoples for the project so they worked extensively on the project and created the software before the deadline. At the time of the testing, the team has found some bugs in the software which has affected the overall function of the software. The project engineer of the company Wayne Davidson has c ontacted project manager Deborah for an extension. The request got declined by the project manager as it was impossible to miss the deadline of the project. This can impact the image of the company and the further contract could get affected by these moves. Wayne approached with a solution for the software bug which was found by the testers. The engineer has planned to do a patch coding which could help in fixing the bug found in the software (McFarland, 2016). Deborah declined this approach as the manager was not willing to deliver a loosely tested and build software to the Federal aviation Agency. This was under the code of conducts of the company and the service manual of the company. Manager Deborah has provided an extension of days to the project team so that they can fix the problem associated with the project as fixing the bug will require recoding, testing and this will require an extension of 1 months. The whole situation comes into a critical situation where the corporate ethics and code of conducts are needed to access. Ethical Dilemma: The story of the Wayne Davidson and the Occidental engineering illustrates different important points about the ethics of the work. As we know ethics is considered as Normality, it is about taking judgment based upon the standard which is right and which is wrong in some perspective. In the case study, Wayne and Deborah are arguing whether they should release the software to the FAA or they should not release the software. The discussion and the scenario are not about it but it is about selecting an ethical approach to a problem which has occurred in the organization. Wayne as well as Deborah is trying to choose the action which should be right as per the circumstances (McFarland, 2016). The judgment of the team is based upon certain standard and principles for evaluating behaviors. At a case when Wayne tells Deborah that he cant lie to the agency regarding the project as he doesn't want to deliver a bug affected software to the agency. In the case of Wayne, he is following the princ iple which supports this action. He can not make a statement which is untrue, this is the principle Wayne is following. In another case, Deborah is responsible for the welfare of the company and the peoples working on the projects. This is her principle duty to take care of the company needs and employees without harming anyone. There could be uncertainty and conflict within a company related to the decision and principles. As Deborah as well as Wayne is following a set of principles and duties regarding their works but none of them has ignored the safety concern of the peoples. The ethical behavior of two peoples generally describes all the required and assumed things (Quinn Seattle, 2014), (Bowman, 1994). Course of Action: In the case of these Ethical dilemma, Engineer Wayne and Project manager Deborah must select the steps which are as per the Guideline of the company and code of conducts (Kaptein, 2013). These are some of the steps which could be applied during ethical dilemma in the organization. Deborah and Wayne must address the concerns with the team related with the software. In other case they should interact with the FAA officials for a extension in the deadline of the project. Overall they must ensure the safety and law protocol of the aviation agency so that can so that the public interest needs to be addressed perfectly (OBrochta,2016). Potential consequences to the project client of accepting this aggressive bid: As a company, Occidental engineering has won the contract for this project because the aerospace division of the company was in financial trouble and out of projects at a time. This could be considered as a good opportunity to them. The software developed by the company has reported some bugs which may impact the proper functionality of the whole Operation. If the client company FAA accepts the aggressive bids there may be following consequences; The software has some problems in the coding and the testing of the software. In the case of overload, the software may miss a flight and each anti-collision equipment may not look over the flight. This can lead to an accident in the airport. Any kind of accident due to the software bug may become a subject of an investigation by the Government agencies and ultimately the project manager of the client company ay face trouble. The service company Occidental engineering may face some legal trouble or fine because of their faulty products. Risk of suffering as a result of this aggressive bid: If the project software gets accepted by the Federal aviation agency, there are chances that the contract company may face some trouble as they have created and tested the product and lied about the accuracy and the bug problem in the software. The project manager of the company Deborah, engineer of the company Wayne Davidson and other team members could face a fine of some sort of legal action from the government. If any kind of accident occurs in the case of the software failure the air traveler may get affected because they may be flying in the flight which went missing in the software and avoided all anti-collision equipment (William, 2016). ACS Codes: According to the ACS code of professional conduct , there are six primary values, which are needed to be followed by each member of the company or organization. They must uphold and advance the honor, dignity, and effectiveness of being a professional. Apart from this they must uphold their duties as a citizen of the country and act as a responsible citizen of the country. There is 6 code of conducts of the ACS, The Primacy of the Public Interest: The concerns related to the public should be kept in the first place as they are the primary stakeholder and their safety and interest should be above personal, business and other interests. The Enhancement of Quality of Life: A personnel must work towards enhancing the life of a person who is affected by the work. Honesty- Honesty should be considered as the best policy towards the works and the overall approach of the worker. Competence- A worker must work competently and diligently for the peoples who are directly or indirectly affected by his works. The professional Development-Each worker must work towards Professional development, they need to take a different approach towards improving the professional abilities. Professionalism- Each one should show professionalism. This is the code described by ACS. Each member needs to follow these codes for successfully. As per the policies of the ACS in the case of conflict between organizational peoples regarding any kind of project, the public interest and safety must be considered as the primary factor (ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian Computer Society, 2014). Duties: In the case of project delivery after 3 days, there are some duties of the project manager and the engineer, Project manager: The project manager must ensure that the working team is perfectly and completely involved with the project and they will deliver the completed project on time. The testing of the software project should be under the surveillance of the project manager so; the project manager must ensure that he is engaging himself in the project. Duties of Engineer: An engineer is responsible for the Development and testing of the software to the client. In the case of 3 days before delivery, a project engineer has following duties, 1. An engineer must ensure that the project is working as per the requirement of the client. 2. He must ensure that the project is successfully completed and checked. He will determine the possibilities of failures and how he can solve the issues (Weick, 1995). Conclusion: The report is based on the case study of Wayne Davidson and Project manager Deborah, which was written by Michael McFarland, S.J. The case study gives an insight into the ethical behavior and dilemma within an organization and the conflicts. The report address this case to describe the ethical measure in a company, the case which was described in the story defined different dimensions of the ethical behavior in an organization. The report perfectly describes the ethical issues related to the case study and what principle they are following in the organization. I have described the ACS code of conducts which provide a way to the peoples to face ethical issues inside the organization. I have listed and described 6 different ethical codes which are proposed by the ACS. The duty of a project manager and an Engineer before 3 days of project delivery is also described. Reference: McFarland, M. (2016).Occidental engineering case study: Part 1. Retrieved August 30, 2016, from https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/more/engineering-ethics/engineering-ethics-cases/occidental-engineering-case-study-part-1/ Quinn, M. J., Seattle (2014).Ethics for the information age: 6th edition(6th ed.). United States: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers. ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian Computer Society. Retrieved August 30, 2016, from https://www.acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/4901/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf Bentham, J. (1981).An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation. New York: Garland Pub Kaptein, M. (Ed.). (2013).Workplace morality: Behavioral ethics in organizations. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing. Bowman (1994).Ethical frontiers in public management: Seeking new strategies for resolving ethical dilemmas. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.,U.S. Benn, P. (1997).Ethics (fundamentals of philosophy). London: Taylor Francis. Weick, K. E. (1995).Sensemaking in organizations. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Mascia, A. (2014). Project manager: Leader, influencer e conflict manager.PROJECT MANAGER (IL)1923. doi:10.3280/pm2014-020007 William, M. (2016).BASF Ireland - home. Retrieved August 31, 2016, from https://basf.com OBrochta, M., Ethics in Project Management Retrieved August 31, 2016, from https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics.