Discuss about the Project Management and Professional Conservation.
There has been a swift technological development over the years particularly in the field of automation and communication. The advancement in the field of technology has always worked in favor of the recipients and therefore has wide usage. The commercial value of these technological advancements is although obvious, the ethics behind some of these technologies is not always clear. This report focuses on the ethical dilemma of a real life technology which is a drone delivery that is made in US. The report discusses the stakeholder ethics and international codes of conduct or code of ethics based on the situation. The ethical situation is evaluated on basis of seven ethical principles, which are deontology, consequentialism, relativism, universalism, virtue ethics, justice ethics and ethical pluralism (Forster 2012). Automatic drones are nowadays put to use for the various purposes. For example in US, a Flirtey Drone carries medicine from a local airport to a rural clinic. In Switzerland, the drones are used for postal services. Drones are put to use for searching missing people as well. However, drones are also used in war which may not be ethical (Quinn 2014). The report evaluates the ethical concerns associated with the commercial drone use on basis of the seven ethical theories. For example, it a drone is used to deliver a pizza, it might result in mass unemployment. The customers will also be skeptical about the efficiency of the drone as it can possible deliver the same pizza the customer’s neighbor instead (Crossan, Mazutis and Seijts 2013). Certain similar ethical dilemma about the use of automatic vehicles is discussed in the following paragraphs.
Considering the case of US where and automated drone was successful in carrying medicine from a local airport to a rural clinic, its ethical issue is to be identified. The Flirtey drone was the first government approved drone which was successful in transporting 4.5 kg of medical supplies to the rural health clinic without fail. It took only three minutes to do that work, establishing the fact that the unnamed aircrafts are able to deliver the life saving medicines much faster (Theguardian.com. 2018).
However, there is a major concern associated with the use of drones is its range. This means that the opportunities are limited. According to the ethical principle of deontology, that states that right and wrong is dependent on meeting a duty and in independent of the consequences, the use of drones in medical delivery is ethical. However, it would have been an ethical issue if the drone fails to deliver the life saving and the emergency medicines on time or delivers in a wrong place, it can risk the lime of the patients (Susini 2015). This is therefore one of the significant ethical issues associated with the use of drones. Along with this, the use of this time of drones can cause severe near missies with the commercial aircraft. This can further risk the life of many people and therefore, it is very important to evaluate whether the use of the drones as a delivery channel is ethical or not. Therefore the second ethical issue associated with the use of drones is safety. Majority of the drones are flown in a low altitude and therefore, the fly of drones in populated areas can definitely risk the life of people.
The drones are further used in war for defense killing. The use of drones in such situation is risky since a fault in the machine may kill own army. Therefore, another ethical dilemma arises with the use of drones in the war and defense killing (Sandbrook 2015). The US military hopes that the drones will be capable of changing their own mission. Now the ethical issue that arises because of this is that what if the drone while changing their own mission instead of killing the defense army arms its own soldiers? (Custers 2016) Therefore, it is definitely needed to be evaluated whether the decision of killing the enemy can be handed over to the drones.
These are the three major ethical issues associated with the use of drones. These are major ethical concerns associated with the use of drones as different issues have been raised against this. For example, privacy issues are major ethical concern since the general public will definitely raise this issue of their privacy being hampered. The second ethical issue is the safety or the appropriate usage of the drone (Finn and Wright 2016). The third one is the use of drone in defense killing. All these are the major ethical issue since it risks human lives. Therefore it becomes very essential to evaluate whether these are legitimate ethical concerns.
The stakeholders are people who are impacted by a decision maker’s decision. It is essential to evaluate the key stakeholders of the three ethical issues that are identified. An ethical dilemma can occur when there is a moral obligation of abiding by the two different courses of action but the current situation only allows only one of the two courses to be chosen. Identification of the potential stakeholders is important for understanding their ethical behavior (Boucher 2015). Failure of proper identification of the stakeholders can result in several unethical decisions. The key stakeholders for the ethical dilemma that are discussed in the previous section are identified. This is an essential step in order to evaluate how their decision would affect or had affected in this situation.
For the first ethical issue that is the privacy concern with the use of private drones, the stakeholders involved are the owner of the drone, the company manufacturing the drone and the people whose privacy is in question (Mohammed et al., 2014). The owner of the drone is using the drone for his benefit and therefore is not much concerned with the ethical dilemma arising from the use of such drone. From a business perspective the company manufacturing the drone will not take the charge of the ethical dilemma arising from the use of such drones (Luppicini and So 2016). However, the masses whose privacy is at stake will definitely find the use of such drones unethical and has every right to escalate the issues as well.
The second ethical issues that is being identified in the previous section, is the safety issue regarding the use of drones as a delivery vehicle and also regarding the accidents that can cause due to the flight of drones in the lower altitude. The Key stakeholders associated with this ethical issue includes the organization that is using the drones as a delivery vehicle and the people who might be affected by any error in the process of delivery (Elias 2012). The organization that is using the vehicle is concerned about their business and therefore they will not find it ethically wrong. However, in the point of view of the people who are affected by the same, it is a huge ethical dilemma against the use of automated vehicles as a delivery system (Boyle 2015).
The third ethical issue arises from the use of drone as defense vehicles. The key stakeholder associated with this process is definitely the government. Use of drones in wars may not be ethically correct, however it properly programmed it can prevent a lot of human loss.
The perspective of each stakeholder will be evaluated on basis of seven ethical principles, which are deontology, consequentialism, relativism, universalism, virtue ethics, justice ethics and ethical pluralism.
Deontology theory states that the right and wrong is dependent on meeting a duty, which is independent of the consequences. The Consequentialism theory states that the right or wrong associated with an ethical dilemma is mainly determined by the comparative assessment of the consequences of each act. The relativism principle states that there is no single ethical truth and everything is based on contingency. According to Universalism, there is a single truth that is it always has a single perspective to what is right and wrong. The virtue ethics theory mainly focuses on the person who acts. The Justice ethics states that it is an ethical duty to treat all the parties fairly in distribution of risk and benefits, while the ethical pluralism states that society comprises of diverse pressure groups with a divergent social interest.
The key stakeholders associated with the first ethical dilemma are the owner of the drone, the manufacturer and the people. It is clear that the manufacturer has a deontology view that states that right and wrong is dependent on meeting a duty. The drone that they have manufactured is meeting its duty and therefore according to their view, the use of that drone is ethical. Somewhat similar is the view of the owner as the drone is serving its purpose. However, the people whose privacy is in question has an ethical view of consequentialism that states that right or wrong is mainly determined by a comparative assessment. This group of stakeholders might not have any problems if their privacy was not at stake. Since the use of those drones is questioning their privacy, it becomes unethical in their perspective.
The key stakeholders of second ethical dilemma that is identified include organization that is using the drone for delivery and the people who are affected by the use of those drones. The organization has a view of deontology that indicates that the right and wrong is mainly dependent on meeting a duty. These drones are developed in order to improve the delivery process and therefore it is not an ethical issue in their point of view. The people who are affected by those drones have a relativism view that states there is no single ethical truth and that everything is contingency-based. As long as the drones are providing proper service in times of emergency there is not ethical issues associated with it.
The key stakeholder of the third ethical issue that is identified is government or the head of the military army who would be responsible for the use of the defense drones in wars. This stakeholder has a universalism view that states that there is a single truth and has a single perspective for what is right or wrong.
For the stakeholders associated with the first ethical issue I think the perspective of both the owner and the manufacturer supports deontology since both the parties are mainly evaluating the issue on basis of fact whether the drone is meeting its duty or the purpose. The people whose privacy is compromised mainly following the consequesntialism.
I believe that the people are right with their view point on consequentialism as it is necessary to do a comparative assessment on what is right or wrong. The compromise in the privacy of the people is definitely wrong and therefore it is unethical.
For the second ethical dilemma, it believe the organization is a follower of virtue ethics since using a drone to supply medicine can only be for a noble cause. However, the people who are affected by this scenario is has a consequentialism view point. I believe that people are right since safety comes first.
For the third ethical dilemma I believe that government has a view point of ethical pluralism. However, I believe that in this case the view point of consequentialism is essential in to determine which one is right or wrong by doing a comparative assessment of the situation.
Therefore, in the first case, the person whose privacy is in question is ethically right. In the second case, the people whose safety is in question are ethically right while in the third case, the stakeholders at first need to bring out a clear distinction between right and wrong. Use of drones for business and emergency will be ethically right only if it does not interfere with the privacy and safety of common people.
According to ACS code of ethics the interest of the public is more important in comparison to that of business interest. Along with this, it strives to enhance the quality of life of an individual as well. Therefore as long as the automated vehicles are making the life of the individual easier, The Australian Computer Society is expected to give a positive opinion regarding the use of automated vehicles and the control system who are governing them.
According to the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM), any new invention should contribute to the society and the human well being and it should avoid harm to others. However, it also mentions that the property rights should be honored (alZahir and Kombo 2014). There are certain speculations about the use of automated vehicles, one of which being the concern of safety and privacy. There is no guarantee of the fact that the automated vehicles will not harm any private property or will not question the privacy of general public (Kovac 2015). Therefore it is quite possible that the Association of the Computer Machinery will not give a positive opinion about the use of automated vehicles.
According to the PMI Code of ethics, honesty, responsibility, respect and fairness in any task drives the ethical conduct for the project management profession (Bredillet 2014). It is therefore clear that PMI will support the use of automated vehicles only if it guarantees responsible use.
The Similarities among the ACS code of conduct and code of ethics, ACM code of conduct and code of ethics and PMI code of conduct and ethics are as follows (JOSEPH. PHILLIPS, CBAP and PMP 2018)-
The major differences among ACS, ACM and PMI are as follows-
These are the major differences between the three code of conduct and code of ethics.
Conclusion
The report discusses the ethical concerns that arise with the increasing use of automated vehicles like drones. The report gives an overview of the different ethical issues associated with the use of such vehicles in emergency or for business purpose. The report identifies the key stakeholders of the project and ethical concerns. The report further gives an overview of the different project codes of ethics and codes and identifies the similarities and the differences among them. The Australian Computer Society, Association of Computer machinery and Project Management Institute is compared in the report.
References
alZahir, S. and Kombo, L., 2014, May. Towards a global code of ethics for engineers. In Proceedings of the IEEE 2014 International Symposium on Ethics in Engineering, Science, and Technology (p. 40). IEEE Press.
Boucher, P., 2015. Domesticating the drone: the demilitarisation of unmanned aircraft for civil markets. Science and engineering ethics, 21(6), pp.1393-1412.
Boyle, M.J., 2015. The legal and ethical implications of drone warfare.
Bredillet, C., 2014. Ethics in project management: some Aristotelian insights. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 7(4), pp.548-565.
Crossan, M., Mazutis, D. and Seijts, G., 2013. In search of virtue: The role of virtues, values and character strengths in ethical decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(4), pp.567-581.
Custers, B., 2016. Future of Drone Use. TMC Asser Press.
Elias, B., 2012. Pilotless drones: Background and considerations for congress regarding unmanned aircraft operations in the national airspace system.
Finn, R.L. and Wright, D., 2016. Privacy, data protection and ethics for civil drone practice: A survey of industry, regulators and civil society organisations. Computer Law & Security Review, 32(4), pp.577-586.
Forster, D.J., 2012. Codes of Ethics in Australian Education: Towards a National Perspective. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(9), p.n9.
JOSEPH. PHILLIPS, P.M.P., CBAP, I. and PMP, C., 2018. PMP PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL STUDY GUIDE. McGraw-Hill Education.
Kovac, J., 2015. Ethics in science: The unique consequences of chemistry. Accountability in research, 22(6), pp.312-329.
Luppicini, R. and So, A., 2016. A technoethical review of commercial drone use in the context of governance, ethics, and privacy. Technology in Society, 46, pp.109-119.
McDermid, D., 2015. Ethics in ICT: an Australian perspective. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Mohammed, F., Idries, A., Mohamed, N., Al-Jaroodi, J. and Jawhar, I., 2014, May. UAVs for smart cities: Opportunities and challenges. In Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2014 International Conference on (pp. 267-273). IEEE.
Quinn, M.J., 2014. Ethics for the information age. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Sandbrook, C., 2015. The social implications of using drones for biodiversity conservation. Ambio, 44(4), pp.636-647.
Susini, A., 2015. A Technocritical Review of Drones Crash Risk Probabilistic Consequences and its Societal Acceptance. Lnis, 7, pp.27-38.
The guardian.com. 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/02/drone-strikes-thorny-legal-questions?INTCMP=SRCH [Accessed 27 Apr. 2018].
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