Ethics

What is Ethics?
Ethics is the branch of study dealing with what is the proper course of action for man. It answers the question, "What do I do?" It is the study of right and wrong in human endeavors. At a more fundamental level, it is the method by which we categorize our values and pursue them. Do we pursue our own happiness, or do we sacrifice ourselves to a greater cause? Is that foundation of ethics based on the Bible, or on the very nature of man himself, or neither?

Why is Ethics important?

Ethics is a requirement for human life. It is our means of deciding a course of action. Without it, our actions would be random and aimless. There would be no way to work towards a goal because there would be no way to pick between a limitless number of goals. Even with an ethical standard, we may be unable to pursue our goals with the possibility of success. To the degree which a rational ethical standard is taken, we are able to correctly organize our goals and actions to accomplish our most important values. Any flaw in our ethics will reduce our ability to be successful in our endeavors.

What are the key elements of a proper Ethics?

A proper foundation of ethics requires a standard of value to which all goals and actions can be compared to. This standard is our own lives, and the happiness which makes them livable. This is our ultimate standard of value, the goal in which an ethical man must always aim. It is arrived at by an examination of man's nature, and recognizing his peculiar needs. A system of ethics must further consist of not only emergency situations, but the day to day choices we make constantly. It must include our relations to others, and recognize their importance not only to our physical survival, but to our well-being and happiness. It must recognize that our lives are an end in themselves, and that sacrifice is not only not necessary, but destructive Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc. Major branches of ethics include:

Meta-ethics, about the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how their truth-values (if any) may be determined; Normative ethics, about the practical means of determining a moral course of action; Applied ethics, about how moral outcomes can be achieved in specific situations;

Moral psychology, about how moral capacity or moral agency develops and what its nature is; Descriptive ethics, about what moral values people actually abide by.

All professions were conspiracies against the laity Goerge Bernard Shaw

Professional Ethics
Professional ethics
The professional carries additional moral responsibilities to those held by the population in general and in society. This is because professionals are capable of making and acting on informed decisions in situations that the general public cannot, because they have not received the relevant training. For example, a lay member of the public could not be held responsible for failing to act to save a car crash victim because they could not give an emergency tracheotomy. This is because they do not have the relevant knowledge. In contrast, a fully trained doctor (with the correct equipment) would be capable of making the correct diagnosis and carrying out the procedure and we would think it wrong if they stood by and failed to help in this situation. You cannot be held accountable for failing to do something that you do not have the ability to do. Ethics are rules and values used in a professional setting (Changing Minds, n.d.). In the workplace managers and supervisors should set the standard for using ethics by showing respect, being honest, and promoting trust. If the management team uses unethical forms of communication, the team and business can fail. Ethics are used world-wide in large companies and small businesses. Promoting ethics in the workplace gives employees a sense of worth and trust that can help the business and employees succeed (Joseph, Joshua, 2000).

Codes of practice
Questions arise as to the ethical limits of the professionals responsibility and how power and authority should be used in service to the client and society. Most professions have internally enforced codes of practice that members of the profession must follow, to prevent exploitation of the client and preserve the integrity of the profession. This is not only to the benefit of the client but to the benefit of those belonging to the profession. For example, an American business may approach an engineer to certify the safety of a project which is not safe. Whilst one engineer may refuse to certify the project on moral grounds, the business may find a less scrupulous engineer who will be prepared to certify the project for a bribe, thus saving the business the expense of redesigning.[3] Disciplinary codes allow the profession to draw a standard of conduct and ensure that individual practitioners meet this standard, by disciplining them from the professional body if they

do not practice accordingly. This allows those professionals who act with conscience to practice in the knowledge that they will not be undermined commercially by those who have less ethical qualms. It also maintains the publics trust in the profession, meaning that the public will continue to seek their services.

Problems with internal regulation

There are questions surrounding the validity of professional codes of ethics. On a practical level it is very difficult for those independent of the profession to monitor practice, leaving the possibility that a code of practice may be self serving. This is because the nature of professions is that they have almost a complete monopoly on a particular area of knowledge. For example, until recently, the English courts deferred to the professional consensus on matters relating to their practice that lay outside case law and legislation.

Separatism
On a theoretical level, there is debate as to whether an ethical code for a profession should be consistent with the requirements of morality governing the public. Separatists argue that professions should be allowed to go beyond such confines when they judge it necessary. This is because they are trained to produce certain outcomes which may take moral precedence over other functions of society.[5] For example, it could be argued that a doctor may lie to a patient about the severity of their condition, if there is reason to think that telling the patient could cause them so much distress that it would be detrimental to their health. This would be a disrespect of the patients autonomy, as it denies them information on something that could have a great impact on their life. This would generally be seen as morally wrong. However, if the end of improving and maintaining health is given a moral priority in society, then it may be justifiable to contravene other moral demands in order to meet this goal.[6] Separatism is based on a relativist conception of morality that there can be different, equally valid moral codes that apply to different sections of society and differences in codes between societies (see moral relativism). If moral universalism is ascribed to, then this would be inconsistent with the view that professions can have a different moral code, as the universalist holds that there is only one valid moral code for all.[7] Professional ethics The concept of Professional Ethics is partly what a professional should or should not do in the work place. It also encompasses a much greater part of the professionals life. If a professional is to have ethics then that person needs to adopt that conduct in all of his dealings. Computer Societies around the world such as the IEEE and national bodies in Australia, Singapore, the UK and other countries have on their websites professional codes of ethics to consider and adopt in the way professionals conduct themselves in and out of the work place. Things that are included are concepts like: professional respect, avoidance of dishonest or fraudulent activity such as plagiarism and the professional development of the individual. Another aspect of this is the enhancement of the profession and the industry within which the professional works. This concerns a professional's conduct and behaviour while carrying out their professional work. This then, is work for the good of the community and mankind

The purpose of ethical standards is to provide an implicit foundation upon which human interactions can proceed smoothly. They answer questions such as

``How much credit do I need to give previous authors whose words or ideas I have used?" ``How much help can I get on a homework assignment without cheating?" ``Can I use the computers at school or work to earn extra money?" ``Should I ask my student for a date?" ``Should I warn a hospital that my company has delivered a shoddy piece of software to them?"

The next five subsections address each of these questions, and related issues, in turn.

Professional Ethics
The concept of Professional Ethics is partly comprised of what a professional should or should not do in the work place. It also encompasses a much greater part of the professionals life. If a professional is to have ethics then that person needs to adopt that conduct in all of his dealings. Computer Societies around the world such as the IEEE and national bodies in Australia, Singapore, the UK and other countries have on their websites professional codes of ethics to consider and adopt in the way professionals conduct themselves in and out of the work place. Things that are included are concepts like: professional respect, avoidance of dishonest or fraudulent activity such as plagiarism and the professional development of the individual. Another aspect of this is the enhancement of the profession and the industry within which the professional works. This concerns a professional's conduct and behaviour while carrying out their professional work. This then, is work for the good of the community and mankind.

Things to Do
1. 2. 3. 4. Do return value to your customer (internal and external) in all business decisions Do return value to your community locally and globally Do deliver quality in a timely fashion Do be honest in your work by telling the client, customer, or boss that the task or project you are working on will not meet the target date. 5. Do ask for help in order to meet the project or task deadline. A professional will not feel slighted if he or she acknowledges that he or she needs help. 6. When you accept an assignment, Do start using words like we, us and ours. A professional never works at cross-purpose with the employer. 7. If the employer wants respect from employees, he/she should treat all employees as professionals in their own right. Remember, if you treat someone as a professional, they will (hopefully) treat you like one too. 8. Promote your profession i.e. Information Technology 9. Do things for the good of yourself, the customer and the profession. You are not a true professional if you don't deliver outcomes that satisfy all three of these areas. 10. Do provide respect to others. This means truly thinking of their beliefs and desires, and the contribution they make to the organization, however small.

Things to Not Do
1. Do not tell the client, customer, or boss that you can do something when you cannot. 2. When you accept an assignment, Do not use words like me, mine, you and yours. 3. Do not steal from your employer. 4. Do not underestimate your capabilities

Online Behavior
Companies are increasingly writing guidelines for professional ethics online. Guidelines that are specific to blogging, wikis, forums and virtual worlds. While behavior online should be guided by Things to Do and Things Not to Do there are ways to act unprofessionally online through a lack of experience or understanding of the media being used.

Intellectual Property
In some cultures it has been acceptable to take another person's work and present it as your own. For instance, many Baroque music masterpieces are built upon musical themes ``borrowed" without explicitly giving credit. In current Western culture, this is unacceptable, whether it involves music, ideas, or words, and we define the taking of someone's words or ideas as plagiarism. (It was particularly disheartening to discover that someone had plagiarized this discussion of ethics!) Since ideas and words represent creative effort and have intellectual value, there is a well-defined system of property rights. Stealing words or ideas is theft, just as surely as stealing automobiles, and sanctions can be quite serious.

Thus, if you take a paragraph from someone else's written work and include it in your own work, you must enclose it in quotation marks and give a citation. Even if you change some of the words but leave the writing essentially unchanged, you must put the unchanged pieces in quotation marks and list your source. If a substantial part of your paper (say, a page or more) consists of a summary of someone else's work using a condensation of their words, or following the same outline as their work, then you must say so: ``This section is taken directly from [...]," or ``This summary closely follows [...]," etc. You cannot publish a work that is substantially taken from another; you must have ``added some value" by new ideas or new derivations or new implementations and you must clearly distinguish between your work and that of others.

The consequences of plagiarism might include an F in a course, expulsion from a graduate program, or banning from having any of your works published in a journal. Patent rights must also be respected. If a device or idea is patented, it should not be used in your work unless you obtain the necessary permission. People with a reputation for not giving due credit to other researchers generally find it hard to find collaborators and people who will write letters of recommendation for them.

Academic Integrity
The university system of education is built upon a high level of trust that students and faculty will be honest in their dealings with each other. It breaks down quickly if this honesty is lacking. Here are some actions that violate the trust, along with the definitions given in the University of Maryland Code of Academic Integrity. Some of the examples are taken from the University of Maryland's Student Guide to Academic Integrity.

cheating: ``intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise." It is cheating to use a solution set obtained by breaking into a professor's computer files, to use an unauthorized ``crib sheet" on an exam, to have a friend do your homework, to look at another student's paper during an exam, etc. fabrication: ``intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise." You fabricate if you enter false data in a log book, add unused references to a bibliography, change your answers before submitting a paper for regrade, etc. plagiarism: ``intentionally representing the words or ideas of another as one's own in any academic exercise." Some examples of plagiarism are copying homework from another student, claiming another person's idea as your own in a thesis, etc.

It is also a violation of integrity to help someone else in such actions for example, by lending your homework paper to someone else, letting someone copy your answers in an exam, revealing exam questions to people preparing for an exam, helping someone to break into a colleague's computer files, etc. Such violations of trust are taken quite seriously at universities and the consequences can include an F in a course or expulsion from the university. You should make yourself familiar with the code of academic integrity at your university.

Use of Computer Facilities

Each university has had to think very carefully about the ethics involved in the use of computer facilities, and most now have a formal document defining acceptable and unacceptable use. The issues to balance include free speech, communication of research without unnecessary obstacles, and responsible attention to law. Here are a few examples of activities that are universally prohibited:

trying to access private files or unauthorized computers. trying to alter computer hardware or software without authorization. trying to disrupt other's use of the computer, for example, by sending email in another user's name, by locking other user out of a machine, etc. violating copyright or software agreements on software packages. running a money-making operation using university computers without permission. spamming. This means sending large volumes of email, thereby disrupting communications for an entire set of users. The usual purpose is either harassment of an individual or widespread dissemination of a ``get rich quick" pyramidscheme mailing. using computers for illegal activities, including pyramid schemes, making threats, theft, child pornography, etc.

Again, these are serious matters and are usually dealt with either by suspension of computer privileges, expulsion from the university, or legal charges. You should make yourself familiar with the code of computer use at your university.

Human Relations
The United States is not alone in its history of discrimination toward large groups of people based on race, religion, or other factors, but the legacy of these actions continues to be divisive. In an attempt to redress past wrongs and prevent future ones, the United States has built perhaps the most complicated system of laws and regulations in existence, many of them contradictory to some extent. Rather than try to understand every fine point (e.g., when are distinctions based on mental ability discriminatory?), it is perhaps easier to be guided by two basic principles that motivated the laws:

It is wrong to use authority to coerce favors. You also cannot appear to be using your authority this way. o Thus you cannot ask students or employees to do personal errands for you as a part of their duties. This includes babysitting, shopping, etc. o What requests are permissible? You can ask students to do work assigned to the class. You can ask teaching assistants to do those duties associated with their assigned class: grading, office hours, recitation sections, etc. You can ask research assistants to do those duties associated with the research project: library work, programming, running experiments, writing reports, minor clerical work, etc. o Any requests outside of these boundaries must have the offer of compensation. For example, a babysitting request or a request to work at a professor's party must be accompanied by market-rate payment and must have the understanding of no penalty for saying ``no." If you are asked to work at a conference that a professor is organizing, the compensation is usually a waiver of registration fee and a chance to network with experts in the field. If you are asked to help a professor referee a paper, then your help should be acknowledged in the professor's letter to the editor. o Supervisors cannot ask to be listed as an author of a paper to which they made minimal contribution. The American Mathematical Society statement on authorship is typical of professional standards: The authors listed for a paper must all have made a significant contribution to its content, and all who have made such a contribution must be offered the opportunity to be listed as an author. See the section on ``The Life of a Graduate Student" 4 for some additional discussion.

Inappropriate use of authority is particularly difficult to sort through if the relationship is defined on multiple levels. If you want to have a dating relationship with your student or employee, it is dangerous to do it while you still have authority over that person. It poisons the atmosphere for the class or research group by giving the impression of favoritism. It opens you to charges of sexual harassment if the relationship sours. You must treat colleagues, supervisors, and students with respect. Even if you find it difficult to deal with their ethnic background, religion, etc., your actions or attitudes in response to these issues must not interfere with their work. You cannot use such personal issues as a basis for grading or promotion. You cannot harass anyone.
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Again, these issues are tied up in a tangle of laws. If you run into trouble, talk to a trusted colleague and check the human relations policy at your university.

13.5 Professional Integrity

Professional integrity encompasses a wide variety of responsibilities. Here are a few of them.

We must be honest in our professional dealings, giving due credit for other peoples' ideas and not claiming credit for work that we have not done. We must treat professional colleagues and students with respect. An old labor rallying cry says, ``A full day's work for a full day's pay." Every job has its pleasant and unpleasant aspects. (For me, the worst part of professional life is dealing with academic dishonesty.) But in accepting a job, we agree to perform all of its duties, not just the pleasant ones. We cannot use the institution's resources (computers, copying machines, postage, etc.) for nonbusiness purposes without permission. The confidentiality of knowledge obtained through professional activities must be respected. For instance, we must safeguard students' grades, the contents of private databases and papers we referee, and trade secrets. The physician's motto is, ``First, do no harm." This means that we must assure that any product or idea that we deliver is as correct as we can make it and has no unannounced defects. Our mathematical model may be used to determine load limits on a building or safeguards on a nuclear stockpile. Our computer program may be used as a module in a drug delivery system in a hospital or in a guidance system in a passenger aircraft. We must be sure that if our work is used as we say it can be, that it will perform as intended.

Values
``Some people live to work; others work to live." Whether your job is your greatest joy in life or just a duty, it is worth reflecting on whether what you do at work contributes to making the world better. Maybe your work won't win a Nobel Prize, a Turing Award, or

a Fields Medal, but you can use some of your creative energy to see that your efforts have some positive value. When all is said and done, your non-scholarly contributions might far outweigh your scholarly ones if you encouraged an at-risk student, wrote a clear textbook, helped a more junior colleague, organized a conference that catalyzed new research, or made a staff member's life a little easier. Whatever your values, bring them to work.