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Ethics in Information Technology, Sixth Edition
Ethics in Information Technology, Sixth Edition
Chapter 10
Ethics of IT Organizations
Self-Assessment Questions
1. b. professional employer organization (PEO)
2. Coemployment relationship
3. d. The contingent worker’s experience may be useful to the next firm that hires him or her.
4. b. The worker is protected by workplace safety and employment antidiscrimination laws.
Discussion Questions
1. Briefly summarize the similarities and differences among temporary staffing firms,
employee leasing organizations, and professional employment organizations. Which
approach provides an organization the most protection from potential coemployment
situations?
Temporary staffing firms recruit, train, and test job seekers in a wide range of job categories
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A professional employer organization (PEO) is a business entity that coemploys the
employees of its clients and typically assumes responsibility for all human resource
management functions. The PEO typically remits wages and withholdings of the worksite
employees and reports, collects, and deposits employment taxes with local, state, and federal
authorities. The client company remains responsible for directing and controlling the daily
2. What steps must an organization take to ensure that someone they hired as an
independent contractor cannot be considered an employee? Why is this important?
An independent contractor is an individual who provides services to another individual or
organization according to terms defined in a written contract or within a verbal agreement. The
following are characteristics of an independent contractor:
• No income, Social Security, or Medicare taxes are withheld from paycheck; worker must
make arrangements to pay his or her own taxes
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3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using contingent workers?
Advantages of using contingent workers: When a firm employs a contingent worker, it does
not usually have to provide benefits such as insurance, paid time off, and contributions to a
4. Some people feel that it is unethical to hire H-1B workers to work in the United States.
Prepare a brief summary of reasons why hiring H-1B workers might be considered
unethical. Make a list of reasons why hiring H-1B workers should be considered an
effective management strategy. Which set of reasons is stronger? Why?
Students’ answers will vary. Students may argue that hiring H-1B workers is unethical
because:
• Heavy reliance on the use of H-1B workers can lessen the incentive for U.S. companies
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5. How are unethical organizations gaming the H-1B visa program?
Even though companies applying for H-1B visas must offer a wage that is at least 95 percent
of the average salary for the occupation, some companies use H-1B visas as a way to lower
6. Do you feel that there is a shortage of experienced computer and information science
graduates? Why or why not?
Students’ answers will vary. Some students will likely to point to the statistics published by the
National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicating there are
7. What factors must a company consider in deciding whether to employ offshore
outsourcing on a project?
Students’ answers may vary. In considering the use of offshore outsourcing, a company must
carefully evaluate the outsourcing company. Successful offshore outsourcing requires five
basic prerequisites:
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8. Do research to learn more about the SSAE No. 16 audit report—how is it used, what are
its key elements, the different types of reports, and does it have any shortcomings? Write
a one-page memo summarizing your findings.
The Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 16, Reporting on
Controls at a Service Organization is issued by the Auditing Standards Board of the American
Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). A successful SSAE No. 16 audit report
9. While labor savings associated with offshore outsourcing may look attractive, what cost
increases and other problems can you expect with such projects?
Students’ answers may vary. Some of them may point to potential problems that could arise
due to some of the following factors:
• The cost advantage for outsourcing to places such as India used to be 6:1. But increased
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10. Your company has decided to offshore outsource a $50 million project to an experienced,
reputable firm in India. This is the first offshore outsourcing project of significant size
that your company has run. What steps should your company take to minimize the
potential for problems?
Students’ answers will vary. As stated in the chapter, “Companies cannot afford to outsource
responsibility and accountability.” Some of the recommendations for companies considering
offshore outsourcing include:
• Set clear and firm expectations for the work to be done. Define specifications that are as
• Require the vendors to have project managers at the client site to overcome cultural
barriers and facilitate communication with offshore programmers.
• Require a network manager at the vendor site to coordinate the logistics of using several
communications providers around the world.
11. Edward Snowden—an employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, working at
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the National Security Agency (NSA)—is responsible for what may turn out to be the most
significant leak of classified information in U.S. history. In June 2013, Snowden admitted
to passing classified documents to reporters at The Guardian and The Washington Post—
revealing details of NSA surveillance programs that collect and perform data mining on
hundreds of millions of U.S. phone and Internet traffic records to identify possible links
to known terrorists. Shortly after leaking the documents, Snowden fled the country to
avoid federal charges. Some people call Snowden a whistle-blower for drawing attention
to NSA programs they feel violate civil rights and the Constitution. Others consider him
a traitor and feel he should be heavily prosecuted. Do further research on this incident
and write a one-page paper explaining your point of view on Snowden.
Students’ answers will vary. Some of them may say that Edward Snowden was right to
12. Briefly describe a situation that could occur at your employer or your school that would
rise to the level of a potential whistle-blower situation. What steps would you take and to
whom would you speak to call this matter to the attention of appropriate members of
management?
Students’ answers will vary. Anyone considering becoming a whistle-blower is strongly
advised to seek legal counsel, and should consider a course of action that includes the
13. Visit the EPEAT Web site (www.epeat.net), and use the organization’s tool to select your
next laptop computer. How would you make trade-offs between an expensive machine
with a Gold rating and a less-expensive machine with the same features and performance
but only a Bronze rating?
Students’ answers may vary. Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) is a
system that enables purchasers to evaluate, compare, and select electronic products based on a
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What Would You Do?
1. Students’ responses will vary. Some students would probably be interested and happy to take
on the task assigned to them by their manager as a way to help a new team member become
acclimated to their new work environment and larger community. In addition to enjoying the
2. Students’ answers will vary. To improve the chances that the offshore outsourcing project will
succeed, students should advise the new hire to carefully evaluate whether an outsourcing
firm can provide the following:
• Employees with the required expertise in the technologies involved in the project
• A project manager who speaks the employer company’s native language
3. Students’ answers will vary. Students could choose to say nothing to the coworker and watch
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4. Students’ answers will vary.
• Wigand first took the executive position with the goal of developing a safer cigarette,
one less likely to cause disease. After Brown & Williamson scrapped those plans,
• Some students may say that if they were in Wigand’s position, they would not have
been willing to take the personal risks that he took when deciding to become a whistle-
blower. Others may say they would have followed a similar path, although they may say
5. Students’ answers will vary. The $96,000 additional cost represents an approximately $120
upcharge per device on an order of 800 new laptops. When purchasing that quantity of
laptops, a company may be able to negotiate a deal that closes or mitigates the price gap if a
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Cases
Case 1: Disney Workers Replaced with H-1B Visa Workers
1. Students’ responses may vary. Some students may argue that the H1-B visa program works
effectively as is and that it is not in the economic best interest of the United States to limit the
ability of U.S. companies to hire the people they believe will be most effective in completing
critical IT work for their organizations—even if those workers come from overseas and work
2. Students’ responses will vary depending on their research.
3. Students’ answers may vary. The Executive Order signed by President Trump in April 2017
was relatively limited in its immediate impact. It did, however, order a review of the H1-B
program, including the lottery-based selection process through which the program hands out
visas (and which tended to favor larger IT outsourcing companies). The proposed changes are
Case 2: E-Waste—An Important Global Environmental and Health Issue
1. Students’ answers may vary. Monitoring such a complex program with so many participants is
clearly challenging. Dell and Goodwill could address the problem in a variety of ways,
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2. Students’ answers may vary. The United States signed the Basel Convention in 1990, and the
U.S. Senate provided its advice and consent to ratification in 1992. However, before the
United States can ratify the Convention, there is a need for additional legislation to provide the
3. Students’ answers may vary. Two pending pieces of legislation dealing with e-waste and
electronics recycling include the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (H.R.2791)