Ethics in a Computing Culture 2-1

Chapter 2

Computing Professions and Professional Ethics

At a Glance

Instructor’s Manual Table of Contents

 Overview

 Objectives

 Teaching Tips

 Quick Quizzes

 Class Discussion Topics

 Additional Projects

 Additional Resources

 Key Terms
Ethics in a Computing Culture 2-2

Lecture Notes

Overview
Chapter 2 explains the many ways we define the word ‘professional’ both in society and
in the computing world. In this chapter, students will be presented with various cases that
will make them question what makes a professional a ‘professional’, and what moral
obligations come with that responsibility.

Objectives
 Explain what defines a professional, in your own opinion
 Consider what ethical decisions you would make throughout the various scenarios
 Learn how theorists define the constituents of a profession

Teaching Tips
Fighting Injustice
1. Have your students explain why or why not Ms. McFarland is justified in
firing Rachael.
2. Ask your students to suppose Rachael was merely a student who had nothing
to do with IT services, and she happened to come across this information in
the same way. Should her actions be considered differently? Would the
morality of the situation change at all?

Refusing to Do a Favor for a Friend

1. Ask your students if they think Greg do the right thing in refusing Michael’s
request to submit his homework for him.
2. Have students discuss the implications of the university’s Code of Student
Conduct. Does the Code still apply to Greg, even though he is not a student
anymore?

Professions and Codes

1. According to Michael Bayles, what is a professional?
2. Should all work titles that require a license be considered a profession?

 Ask your students to consider the reasons why not all professions
require licenses, but occupations like those in law and medicine do.
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3. How does the definition provided by the Good Works Project at Harvard
Graduate School of Education differ from Bayles’ definition?

4. According to the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Bayles, would a

weather forecaster on a local television station be considered a professional?

5. What occupations, other than law and medicine, would you consider to be
professions? How well does it fit into Kultgen’s thirteen core attributes?

6. According to Michael Davis, what does every profession need to have in

order for it to be considered a profession?

 Ask your students to consider if being a university student is a

profession under Davis’ definition. Have them consider the conditions
of a student Code of Conduct.

Ethical Standards
1. Are there any ethical concerns with choosing a startup company, with
relatively inexperienced workers, over a proven company for a project that
deals with constructing software for a hospital?

 Suppose the startup asked for $100,000 to finish the job in six months,
and the other company quotes $300,000 to finish the job in two years.
Is it acceptable to choose the startup?

Quick Quiz 1
 According to Davis’ model, what are the three forms of ethical standards?

Rules, Principles, and Ideals

 How are ideals different than rules?

Ideals are goals that are inherently good to achieve. However, failure to achieve
them is not necessarily wrong. Rules tell us certain things we must do (obligations)
and certain things we must not do (prohibitions). If we fail to stay in line with the
rules, we will not be acting ethically.

 What does Davis mean when he says that a professional “puts profession first”?

When a conflict arises between the professional’s code and the policy of an
employer or perhaps even the law, the professional’s code must take precedence.
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Introduce your students to the AMC Code of Ethics, and have them pick out
Teaching Tip
what they consider to be a flaw in the code.

Professionalism and the Law

1. Refer to the case in 2.4.3 about the lawyer refusing to divulge information
regarding the location of a murder victim’s body.
 Make a case that the lawyer’s act was moral.
 Make a case that the lawyer’s act was immoral.
2. Refer to the case in 2.4.7 regarding Sheila’s discovery of pornographic videos
on the dean’s university computer. Ask your students what Sheila should do
in this case.
3. Might there be repercussions to Sheila for looking at data that had not been
her business? Make an argument as to why or why not Sheila should mention
her discovery to the dean.

Quick Quiz 2
 What is the only state in the United States that once conducted an effort to license
computer scientists?

Texas

 What ‘project’ provides the least restrictive definition of the word ‘professional’?

The Good Works Project

 What are Bayles’ three required attributes of a profession?

- requires extensive training

- involves significant intellectual effort
- provides an important service to society

Going into Business

1. Lead your class through 2.6, “Going into Business,” and explain why
Antonio’s actions would be considered moral from an act utilitarian
standpoint.
2. Do Antonio’s actions adhere to the ACM Code of Ethics? Are they broadly
moral or broadly immoral?
Ethics in a Computing Culture 2-5

Quick Quiz 3
 What is a moral ideal?

A moral ideal is a state of affairs that, though not morally required, everyone (that
is, every rational person at his/her rational best) wants everyone else to approach,
all else being equal. Moreover, everyone wants that so much that they are willing to
reward, assist, or at least praise such conduct if that is the price for others to do the
same.

 What is Davis’ definition of a profession?

Davis defines “profession” in terms of moral issues: A profession is a number of

individuals in the same occupation voluntarily organized to earn a living by openly
serving a certain moral ideal in a morally permissible way beyond what law,
market, and morality would otherwise require.

 What is a fuzzy concept?

Often, our perception of descriptive words varies according to the people with
whom we are talking.

The New Zealand Computer Society’s Code of Professional Conduct

Introduce your students to the eight tenets of the New Zealand Computer
Teaching Tip
Society’s Code of Professional Conduct.

1. Illustrate the similarities and differences between the tenets of the NZCS
Code and the principles in the AMC/IEEE Software Engineering Code.
2. Ask your students to discuss why neither the NZCS nor AMC/IEEE codes
specifically address bribery, yet the codes of some other countries have
explicit prohibitions.

Class Discussion Topics

 Looking back at Greg’s refusal to submit his friend’s paper, is there actually any
rule in the ACM/IEEE Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional
Practice that supports Greg’s decision? Would Greg have been breaking any rules if
he did help his friend with submitting the paper?
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 One might argue that there are various kinds of computing professions. Do you
think so? Explain.
 Suppose a team of engineers working for a software firm was negligent, and that the
team’s faulty software caused a major accident involving loss of life. The company
was sued and settled the case. What do you think should happen to the software
engineers? Specifically, should their company, their professional organization, or
the court system levy any punitive action against them? Explain.

Additional Projects
1. Look up the details of the Toyota recall of the Prius in 2010. Explain how, if at all,
the standards of professional practice in computing could have been involved with
this issue.
2. Every American university has a registrar. Research the duties of a registrar and
decide whether a registrar is a professional. If not, should a registrar be considered a
professional? Explain.

Additional Resources
A short essay on interpreting rules
Russell, J.S. “Taking Umpiring Seriously: How Philosophy Can Help Umpires Make the
Right Calls.” Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter’s Box. Bronson,
Eric, and Bill Littlefield, eds. Chicago: Open Court, 2004. pp. 87-104. Print.

A book on the Good Works Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education that
focuses on the problems young professionals face in trying to do “good work”:
Gardner, Howard, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and William Damon. Good Work: When
Excellence and Ethics Meet. New York: Basic Books, 2001. Print.

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics

Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice

http://www.acm.org/about/se-code

Key Terms
Association for Computing Machinery: the world’s first scientific and educational
computing society; founded in 1947

Asimov, Issac: a well-known science fiction writer who wrote a series of stories about
robots with three inherent laws: robots cannot injure humans; robots must obey orders
Ethics in a Computing Culture 2-7

given to them by human unless doing so interferes with the first law; robots must protect
their own existence as long as doing so does not interfere with the first or second laws

Bayles, Michael: a philosopher who argues that all professions require extensive training,
involve significant intellectual effort, and provide an important service to society

Ethics: according to Davis, a set of morally permissible standards of a group that each
member of the group (at his/her rational best) wants every other member to follow, even if
their doing so would mean that he/she must do the same

Good Works Project: a research project conducted at Harvard Graduate School of

Education that examines who young people deal with ethical problems in their professions

Ideals: according to Davis’ model, goals that are inherently good to achieve, although
failing to achieve them is not necessarily wrong

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: a non-profit professional association

headquartered in the United States that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation
and excellence; the institute has over 400,000 members

Kultgen, John: a professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia, who presents twenty
attributes compiled by sociologist Geoffrey Millerson from twenty-one scholars of
sociology as necessary for a vocation to be considered a profession

Moral Idea: according to Davis, a state of affairs that, though not morally required,
everyone (that is, every rational person at his/her rational best) wants everyone else to
approach, all else being equal; moreover, everyone wants that so much that they are willing
to reward, assist, or at least praise such conduct if that is the price for others to do the same

Principles: according to Davis' model, truths that are to be consistently maintained unless
there is a compelling reason to do otherwise; there are eight principles in the ACM/IEEE
Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice: public, client and
employer, product, judgment, management, profession, colleagues, and self

Rules: according to Davis' model, ethical standards that tell us certain things we must do
(obligations) and certain things we must not do (prohibitions)

System Administrator: a person who has access to all files of a computer system, and has
the authority to move, copy, and delete any or all files on the system