Assignment: 1 Topic: Ethics, Professionalism and Governance

Case Study 2 – Conflict of Interest

Michael is the IT manager in a government department withmore than 500 staff members and six

branches across Australia. His department has decided toacquire an enterprise resource planning

(ERP) system. A request for proposal (RFP) for theprocurement of the software has been advertised

in a number of Australian newspapers. Two local companieshave responded to the advertisement

and have sent their offers to the department.

When Michael has examined the offers, he has found thatCompany A’s offer is slightly better than

that of Company B. To his surprise, Company B’s offer hasbeen made by Steven, who is his best

friend, and the general manager of Company B.

Although the initial cost of Company B’s software appearsless than that of Company A, Company B’s

software may require some modifications which couldeventually increase the total cost.

To complicate matters, Michael has received a phone callfrom Steven, urging him to favour his offer

as he needs this work.

Discuss briefly how Michael’s friendship with Steven causesan ethical problem. Follow your brief

discussion with a recommendation on this issue. Be sure tosupport this recommendation with

reasons informed by your research and thinking on theethical issues identified in your discussion.

PE_Assignment1_Set 3 - May 2015

Assignment Task

From what you have learned during Week s 3 and 4 of yourProfessional Environments Course,

discuss ethical, professional and legal issues which youconsider arise from this scenario. Make some

recommendations of actions which could be taken to resolvethe situation and/or to minimise the

chance the scenario may recur. Support your answers with relevantreferences (as well as the Codes

and Laws).

Things to Consider in Your Assignment:

 You should list at least 3 clauses from the ACS Code ofEthics and up to 5 clauses from the

ACS Code of Conduct and Professional Practice, you think arespecifically relevant in

deciding how to resolve the situation. Make sure that yourefer to the most up to date ACS

Codes which are available on the ACS website –www.acs.org.au.

 You should also list any relevant Australian legislationthat you think applies to this scenario.

 Your analysis, discussion and recommendations should usethe framework you selected in

Week 3 – Solving an Ethical Dilemma.

Your assignment should be 400 -500 words in length(excluding your code lists, legislation list and

references).

You may need to undertake a small amount of research,however, most information you will need is

available via the seminars and their references. Also,

• use a cover page – as per the suggested template,

• use in‐text referencing,

• use complete Harvard Notation, submit in “Word” format orequivalent format that can be

readily opened in MS Word, keep your formatting simple:Arial 11pt, 10pt after paragraph,

single line spacing, headings in bold, maximum 2 indentlevels/bullet levels. Do not use page

borders, word art, page backgrounds or similar extraneousdecoration

• Your uploaded file name should identify you as part of itsname – e.g.

PE_Assignment1_William_Smith.