A Code of Professional Practice

Question :

Select an IT organisation (or IT unit or department within an organisation) that some of your team members work for or are familiar with. (Or propose a fictitious one if no suitable real one exists). Describe the context and business of your selected IT organisation. You will use this description throughout the module in future project work. So, provide a comprehensive consistent description. Your description should include (but not be limited to):

Name of the organisation or enterprise (This can be a fictitious name)

Field of business and business model

IT infrastructure and operations

Human resources and organisational structure

Any other relevant information

Identify at least four potential areas in your organisation's business where a clear code of professional practice is needed.

Answer :

Introduction 

This paper has been developed with an aim to develop a code of professional conduct for an IT organization. For this task, Google has been selected. In order to complete this paper, a brief description of the organization, its field of business and business model, IT infrastructure and operation, human resource and organizational structure along with a code of professional code for four identified areas have been presented. 

Field of business and business model

Google has a wide variety of businesses with the help of that it has become one of the largest IT organizations in the world. The organization has expertise in internet cloud computing services, computer software, computer hardware, advertising, as well as artificial intelligence. The organization conducts its business in the above-listed field of business. The organization provides its services all over the globe. Google follows the polyhedral business model that presents a different face of the organization for everyone (John, 2018). For example, users of the organization see free searches browser, map, email, etc. while organizations see website space in order to put an advertisement to take advantage of segmentation and geolocation. On the other hand, developers find a way to monetize their experience and knowledge.

IT infrastructure and operations 

The IT infrastructure of the organization strongly supports and ensures the security of the system and confidential information of the organization. The infrastructure of the organization provides several storage services such as Spanner as well as Bigtable. Apart from these storage services, it also provides a central key management service. The applications at Google access storage indirectly using the above states storage services (Yang et al., 2017). These services can be configured in order to use keys from the central key management service for encrypting information before it is written to physical storage. Overall, the infrastructure of the organization is among the best to support the smooth operation of the business.

Human resource and organizational structure 

Google follows a cross-functional organizational structure. The organizational structure of Google is technically a matrix organizational structure that includes a significant degree of flatness. In order to manage its human resources, the organization has established an employee-centered culture. The company focuses on innovation in every aspect of the business including HRM.

Potential business areas for a code of professional practice 

1. Customer service: customer service needs a code of professional practice because it is necessary to satisfy the expectations of the customer. If they are not being dealt with effectively and efficiently, they will not use the service of the organization hence the organization cannot achieve its goals and objectives. Thus, a code of professional practice is necessary for customer service to achieve the goals and objectives of the business.

2. Human resource management: it is the responsibility of the organization to keep its human resource motivated and encouraged because the human resource of the organization helps the organization to realize its goals and objectives (Hunt & Nicodemus, 2017). A code of professional practices will help the organization to achieve it. 

3. Information system: a code of professional practice is necessary for the information system as well in order to keep the information system protected and safe. It is necessary to protect the information system from the hackers in order to keep the confidential information of the organization safe.  

4. Marketing: the marketing practices must disseminate the right information about the product and services of the organization to the customer of the organization. It must not mislead the customer (Ferguson, 2019). It can be done with the help of a code of professional practice. 

Code of conduct and professional practices

The organization needs to follow the following code of conduct in order to cover the identified areas; 

1. Serve the customer: this code of conduct will help the organization to serve the customer in the best possible manner to achieve high customer satisfaction. 

2. Integrity: the principle of integrity states to integrate all the systems of the organization along with the strategies and tactics of the organization. 

3. Privacy and security: privacy and security are essential to protect the information system of the organization and its confidential data (Maxwell, 2017). 

4. Responsiveness and accountability: the organization should respond quickly to any unforeseen contingencies. It is also necessary to be accountable for all its actions and activities.

Rules for each area

1. Customer service

i) Identify the needs of the customer

ii) Identify the trends in the market

iii) Analyze the changes in taste and preference of the customer

iv) Satisfy the expectations of the customer

v) Consider the feedback of the customer

2. Human resource management 

i) Provide effective training and development program

ii) Provide necessary resources to work effectively and efficiently 

iii) Provide incentive and rewards to the employees

iv) Focus on motivation and morale

v) Conduct performance appraisal 

3. Information system

i) Ensure latest and advanced information system 

ii) Formulate security policies 

iii) Conduct risk assessment 

iv) Review the security policy regularly 

v) Safeguard the confidential information 

4. Marketing 

i) Use the right set of communication channels to make the potential customer aware

ii) Provide the right set information to the customer

iii) Develop an effective marketing campaign

iv) Do not provide information that misleads the people

v) Focus on convincing the customer 

Further explanation 

The organization should develop a set of rules and regulations that can guide the staff of the organization to follow the identified code of professional practice. There should be a set of policies that can further guide the action and activities of the member of the organization. The organization should focus on the motivation and morale of the organization as well because it will help the organization to achieve its goals and objectives.

References 

Ferguson, E. (2019). The Code of Professional Conduct. The Veterinary Record, 184(22), 682.

Hunt, D. I. J., & Nicodemus, B. (2017). Learning and Internalizing Ethical Practices in Students: Advancing a Student Code of Professional Conduct.

John, R. R. (2018). Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy. By Jonathan Taplin. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2017. 321 pp. Figures, notes, index. Cloth, $19.72. ISBN: 978-0-316-27577-4. Business History Review, 92(1), 191-193.

Maxwell, B. (2017). Codes of Professional Conduct and Ethics Education for Future Teachers. Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 24(4), 323-347.

Yang, D., Zhang, A. N., & Yan, W. (2017, December). Performing a literature review using text mining, Part I: Retrieving technology infrastructure using Google Scholar and APIs. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) (pp. 3290-3296). IEEE.