Code Of Ethics Paper

Several IT professional organizations developed codes of ethics in the past few years. 4 of these organizations are listed below [Payne & Landry 2006, PP.82-83]:
1. Data Processing Management Association (DPMA)
DPMA started in 1949 by the name of National Machine Accountants Association (NMAA) and renamed in 1997 to Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) (Huffman et al, 2009).
2. Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals (ICCP)
Is a certified granting organization that provides the following 4 certifications: Associate Computer Professional (ACP), Certified Computer Programmer (CCP), Certified Systems Professional (CSP) and Certified in Data Processing (CDP)(Oz 1993, P.712).
3. The Information Technology Association

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
ACM is a computer society for scientific and educational established in 1947(OZ 1993, PP.714-715). In 1993, Oz did a comparison between the codes of ethics of the mentioned four organizations. As the analysis framework of this comparison, Deborah Johnson’s (1985) suggestion is used to divide the examination of codes of ethics into 4 parts (OZ 1993, P.717):
“1. Obligations of society
2. Obligations to employer
3. Obligations to client
4. Obligations to colleagues and professional organizations”
The summary of the results for each part in Oz studies in provided below.
Obligation of society:
According to OZ (1993), ICCP Codes contains more detail than DPMA. In addition, ICCP has an obligation to society. It is mentioned that ACM is also committed to society. However, ethical codes of ITAA are more concerned with the performance with the client and do not include the society (OZ 1993, PP.720-721).
Obligation to employer:
All DPMA, ICCP and ACM have statements in their codes of ethics that provide obligation to employer (OZ 1993, P.721).
Obligation to

According to ICCP’s obligation, disparage of a competitor or a colleague should not be done with the purpose of taking advantage (OZ,1993 PP.722-723) .
Obligation to professional Organization:
In DPMA, no obligation is defined for a member towards other members in organization. ICCP’s obligation requires the report of any disobedience towards the ethics codes. ITAA’s obligation is not defined for the organization. However, it considers the field and business, mentioned as “The Industry” (Oz, E1993 P.723).
In 2006, Payne & Landry used the comparison of ethics codes done by Oz in 1993 to generate “a potential uniform code of ethics for IT professionals” (Payne & Landry 2006, P. 82). This paper concluded that underlying ethics of Business and IT professionals are similar. The codes of ethics divided into seven values for the purpose of comparison. The mentioned values are: “consistency, respect for individuals, autonomy for all, integrity, justice, utility and competence ” (Payne & Landry 2006, P. 84). For studying more about these comparison and mentioned values, refer to “A Uniform Code of Ethics: Business and IT Professional Ethics” listed in the Reference