Revision 5.1 Flashcards
(7 cards)
What is ethics?
Ethics refers to what is right and wrong. The following issues are often linked to or backed up by legislation.
Whistle Blowing
Definition:
When a member of staff reveals that the organisation they work for are engaging in unlawful practices. This could include breaking privacy laws, threatening staff and environmental damage.
In some countries, like the UK, whistle-blowers are protected by law.
Whistle-blowers are protected from being fired or not being considered for promotion as a result of their actions.
A famous whistle-blower is Edward Snowden, who revealed in 2013 that many governments, including the USA and the UK, were spying on their civilians with widespread undocumented surveillance.
Discrimination
Definition:
When an employee is treated unfairly because of a personal or physical characteristic over which they have no control.
The Equality Act (2010) ensures equal treatment for all people irrespective of:
* race
* sexuality gender * disability
* marital status (and many more)
Examples of discrimination include offensive talk, harassment, unequal pay and being ignored for promotion.
Use of Information
Definition:
Laws such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and specifically the Data Protection Act (2018) ensure that organisations must responsibly process personal data.
Organisations have a legal obligation to keep their employee and customer personal data secure and out of reach from unauthorised viewers. Considerations should be made about how the information is ethically collected, stored and processed.
Codes of Practice
Definition: A set of rules which explains how people working in certain professions are required to behave. Organisations may have a code of practice.
for:
-Confidentiality (rules on what data can and cannot be shared with others),
-Quality assurance (ensuring high quality is maintained for all products/services), -Behaviour (setting out how employees are expected to behave at work and in communication with each other and customers),
-Equality and discrimination (being understanding and providing fair access to all employees).
Online Safety
Definition: Often companies will provide an induction (training) to new employees about the organisation’s code of practice for using the internet whilst at work.
If an individual does not behave safely online or breaks the organisation’s codes of practice (by gambling at work for example) then they may be punished (e.g. fined or fired).
Bias
Definition:
This is technically correct, but slanted, information that presents a one-sided view. For example, end-of year financial data that focuses on profits and ignores significant losses.
Poor quality information may lead to an organisation being misinformed and not sufficiently responding to their customers’ needs - for example if a survey was only completed by a small number of people it could generate biased results.
