ITE4103 IT Professionalism Tutorial 3
HONG KONG INSTITUTE OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION / 34
Tutorial 3: Ethics and Social Issues Koo Kwok Ho (210336497)
Module Intended Learning Outcome (#2):
On completion of the module, students are expected to be able to:
exercise appropriate judgments as IT practitioners according to the codes of conduct of leading professional bodies of related disciplines in
various ethical and legal aspects related to IT professions
Lesson Intended Learning Outcome:
On completion of this tutorial, students are expected to be able to understand:
Ethics and decision making
Ethical issues and making moral decisions
Preventive measures for unethical and immoral behaviors in organizations
IT professional codes of conduct and practices
Section A: True and False (enter T/F in brackets) (5 marks)
(F ) 1 It is considered illegal to use the Internet for private use while at work.
( F ) 2 All ethics principles that are universal, i.e. they are the same in every part of the world.
Most ITPs would agree that the application of ethics in their field is more difficult than in other
2. ( T ) 3 disciplines
3. ( T ) 4 Moral relativism is ethical principle focus on situation without absolute reference
4. ( F ) 5 Ethical standard is generally lower but boarder than legal standard
Section B: Match the followings: (5 marks)
Manner / behaviours Typical examples of violations
Action can benefit to myself while may cause my colleagues or
A Honesty 1
my company to suffer.
The sale of an IT company misled his clients to believe that the
B Integrity 2
IT system will be available and free of bugs next week.
Action can solve the problem, at the risk of health and safety of
C Conflict of interest 3
a group of people.
D Lack of responsibility 4 Unable to keep the promise and leaking customers’ details.
Not willing to develop a free accessibility website without
E Fairness and equality 5
justification.
A- ( 2 ) ;B- ( 4 );C- ( 1 ) ;D- ( 3 );E- ( 5 ) ;
Section C: Multiple Choice Questions (10 marks)
1. Having very good knowledge in IT could be dangerous sometimes if one does not have the corresponding
ethics to use the knowledge properly. It is because:
(a) The technology is used by many people and a lot of harm can be done to many people.
(b) The position may need to access sensitive information and sometimes there is great temptation to use this
for personal gains.
(c) The more knowledge one has on the technology, the more serious the potential damage that can be done
to others.
(d) All of (a), (b), (c) and (d).
2. Which one is a bigger domain, being “ethical” or being “legal”?
(a) “Ethical” is bigger than “legal”.
(b) “Legal” is bigger than “ethical”.
(c) They are about equal in size.
(d) “ethical” is a subset of “legal”
(e) “legal” is a subset of “ethical”
3. One of the differences between “legal” and “ethical” is:
(a) “Legal” takes reference from an external reference system and judgment. “Ethical” comes from one’s
own internal personal value.
(b) “Legal” takes reference from one’s own internal personal value and judgment. “Ethical” comes from an
external reference system.
(c) “Legal” take reference from its own, and “Ethical” come from different culture and background.
(d) “Legal” and “Ethical” take the same reference.
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ITE4103 IT Professionalism Tutorial 3
4. Which statement is true about ethical and legal training for IT professionals?
(a) Ethical training focuses on establishing correct personal values for doing good things. Legal training
focuses on establishing limits below which doing bad things will be punished.
(b) Ethical training focuses on establishing limits below which doing bad things will be punished
(c) Ethical training focus on punishment, and legal training focuses on establishing correct personal values
for doing good things.
(d) Ethical training focuses on learning, and legal training focuses on doing
5. Which statement below is most correct?
(a) What is ethical is always legal and there are no exceptions.
(b) What is ethical is often legal but there are sometimes exceptions.
(c) What is ethical is very seldom legal.
(d) What is legal is very seldom ethical.
Q 1 2 3 4 5
Ans d a a a b
Section D: Short Questions (14 marks)
1. Legal and ethical are two different concepts that affect people’s behaviors.
a) For each of the below category (i.e. I to IV), give ONE example related to IT. (8 marks)
b) Which category is/are considered in grey area? (2 marks)
Legal illegal
Ethical I II
Not ethical III IV
a) I: Firing a programmer who does not perform according to expectations.
II: Copying copyrighted software to use only as a backup, even when copyright agreement
specifically
prohibits copying.
III: Using an unlicensed copy of MS-Office in a country that has no software copyright laws.
IV: Planting virus in someone else’s computing system with malicious intent.
b) Category ii, iii
2. Give TWO reasons to explain why ethical issues are considered more difficult for IT Professionals
to handle when compared with other professionals. (4 marks)
Many IT related activities are anonymous and difficult to track, and making improper cyber behavior
very common. Also, ITPs had a lot of opportunities to contact with sensitive information, for example,
as a database administrator there is a lot of temptation of violating data privacy.
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