NOBODY SAID I SHOULDN’T

PAGE 150 & 151-ETHICSCHAPTER FIVE

MGS3040-Section 3Group B

Shavone ParrisIdalia Fabregas

Annette ImmellaSergio MartinsHuascar Teran

Shavone Parris

WHERE DID KELLY GO WRONG?

Kelly’s first error was copying then taking home the database.

The second was obtaining personal information on the accounts and doing his own investigation on each account.

The last error was actually discussing the accounts in public with Jason and probing him about the discounts he gave the vendor.

Idalia Fabregas

DO YOU THINK IT WAS ILLEGAL, UNETHICAL OR NEITHER FOR KELLY TO TAKE THE DATABASE HOME AND QUERY THE DATA?

It was both illegal and unethical for Kelly to take the database home because it is the property of the company and as such it should not be removed from the workplace without proper approval - of which Kelly did not obtain.

Furthermore, he was using the database for his own amusement purpose and it had nothing to do with his normal job responsibility

Lastly, his superiors were unaware of his actions.

DOES THE COMPANY SHARE CULPABILITY WITH KELLY?  The company would share culpability with

Kelly if they did not express in writing the rules and regulations regarding company property.

However if the company had a written policy which was made public to all employees then Kelly would have the sole responsibility.

Also, it does not appear that the company

had any security measures in place to prohibit their employees from copying files; it is the companies responsibility to take protective measures as well.

Annette Immella

WHAT DO YOU THINK KELLY SHOULD HAVE DONE UPON DISCOVERING THE ODD PATTERN IN JASON'S ORDERS?

Kelly should have immediately reported the odd pattern to his supervisor. Who in turn could have looked further into the matter.

Kelly should have also admitted to his superiors that he copied the database for his own personal use in learning more about databases. This would at the very least given him a chance to explain his position as to why he took the information without permission.

WHAT SHOULD THE COMPANY HAVE DONE BEFORE FIRING KELLY?

The company should have changed the administrative passwords to all of Kelly’s accounts.

The company should have met face to face with Kelly to obtain a reason as to why he had looked at the database.

The company should have escorted Kelly to his home in order to actually view the copied CD of the database and destroy its content immediately.

Sergio Martins

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE OTHER THAN JASON IS INVOLVED IN THE ARRANGEMENTS WITH VALLEY APPLICATIONS?

Given the situation between Jason and Valley Appliances we can certainly conclude that someone else could be involved.

Given the fact that Jason gave Valley Appliances such hefty discounts and no other Sales Representative did, someone may be covering up for him, especially since Kelly was immediately terminated after joking with Jason about his sales pattern.

Or chances are that he could be receiving some sort of an incentive from Valley Appliances.

    

WHAT SHOULD KELLY HAVE DONE IN LIGHT OF THAT POSSIBILITY?

Kelly should have looked through data of the Sales personnel at work rather than at home and immediately have reported the suspicious sales activity of Jason to a Manager.

However, it was wrong that Kelly was looking through this data especially given the fact that he took the records home.

WHAT SHOULD KELLY DO NOW?

Kelly should have never mentioned anything to Jason not knowing what the outcome would be.  Most importantly he should haven taken such a matter directly to a manager. It is evident that Jason’s odd sales behavior with Valley Appliances was unethical and as well not fair to other clients.

Given the outcome of Kelly’s decision to tell Jason about what he had done, he should learn to not make that mistake again and that work data is vital to the company and its employees – therefore, it should stay at work and not be brought home.

Huascar Teran

METADATA MAKE DATABASES EASY TO USE – FOR BOTH AUTHORIZED AND UNAUTHORIZED PURPOSES – EXPLAIN WHAT ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD DO IN LIGHT OF THIS FACT.

Metadata- is basically data about data.  In this case its data that describes the content of the database.

Kelly was able to access the database because of the knowledge she had with SQL.  An IT person would normally have easier access to decode the content of the database. 

First, if a business is afraid of the information it contains, they should contract the database management to a third party. 

METADATA MAKE DATABASES EASY TO USE – FOR BOTH AUTHORIZED AND UNAUTHORIZED PURPOSES – EXPLAIN WHAT ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD DO IN LIGHT OF THIS FACT.

Second, they could have everyone with access to the "information" to sign a contract prohibiting anyone to disclose any information about it. 

Third, would be to password protect it by the manager. Only the individuals working with the document would have the password.

Finally, they could monitor illegal downloading of confidential files and have a flagged email directed to the Managers of the individual trying to copy the file.