Ethics in the IT Profession: Does a Code of Ethics have an Effect on Professional Behaviour?

In many professions, membership of a professional body is a requirement to practice that profession, and adherence to a code of ethics is an integral part of that membership. Information Technology is a relatively young profession, and does not require its workers to be a part of any association or adhere to any specific code of ethics, despite the fact that the ever-changing nature of technology enables ever greater opportunities for the undesirable consequences of computer misuse. Codes of ethics have been developed to attempt to guide professional behaviour, but there have been very few studies done showing whether or not a code of ethics has an effect on worker behaviour, with no recent studies available, and none from New Zealand. This study interviews IT professionals working in Wellington, half of whom are provided with a copy of the IITP Code of Ethics, to provide indicative findings on whether or not the presence of a code of ethics has an effect on their responses. Participants were asked to discuss three short case studies, and the responses from the two groups were compared with each other, and to a benchmark analysis of the case studies. The results showed remarkable similarities between the responses of the two groups, and both showed similarity to the benchmark, showing that the presence of a code of ethics has no impact on the responses of IT professionals to ethical situations. The results also showed that interviewees generally had a negative view of codes of ethics, seeing them as not necessary, not highly publicised, and less useful as an aid than organisational processes and guidelines, while finding that common sense and an internal moral code were more useful as guides to ethical behaviour. The small sample size means that these results are indicative only, and this research can be used as the basis for a larger study.