Systems Thinking - Business Information Systems

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ACTION PLAN ON GOAL FOR PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Management information systems has given me a far reaching knowledge on the skills related to the business analysis, good understanding of Finance, accounting and marketing, and has made me become an information system professional whom I can develop and can also apply information system to help organizations and companies to achieve their short and long-term goals and objectives. However, I can provide the right information to the right people in the right manner on how to protect the integrity, security and privacy of the data of an organization by developing software that go hand in hand with the technology (Pant, S., Hsu, C.,1995).

However, having looked at several goals that can be pursued by a professional in management information systems, I am going to pursue one goal that is ensuring that there is an Ethical and Professional Responsibility within the organizations and even the society at large. Ethics depends on the ability to apply moral principles into the real life situation. As an MIS professional, I am able to understand the professional, as well as, ethical responsibilities as outlined by the Ethics Codes and Codes of Behavior of appropriate professional organizations such as the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), and Information Systems Security Association (ISSA). This also should be installed to other employs within the existing organizations and even members of the society that they get to be ethical in their code of conduct in their places of work as well as outside places of work. I dedicate my time and resources to pursue it in totality. As stated in the Code of Ethics of the Association of Information Technology Professionals, the MIS professional must not use knowledge of a confidential nature to advance personal interests, Neither he or she should violate the privacy and confidentiality of information entrusted to the MIS professional or that the MIS professional may get access to. The MIS professional should also understand the consequences of unprofessional and unethical behaviors through knowledge of past incidents and resulting results, as well as, he must also demonstrate the ability to understand the global context that information systems were developed and adhere to professional and ethical standards.

Within our societies and even the business world, there are serious cases of unethical business behaviors by unscrupulous people who want to reap where they did not sow. Such issues range from the issues of patent rights, smuggling of goods, selling of counterfeit or substandard goods and even the leaking out of confidential information of the company or an organization by the unscrupulous employees.

My goal as an MIS professional is to eradicate these vices within organizations and the society at large so that I can bring positive change to the society and in my quest to end the unfair dealings by unscrupulous business people. An example of a serious challenge that has compelled me to pursue this goal is the serious problem that emerged not so many years ago which is the cases of computer viruses. The viruses were created by dishonest individuals so that they can give a headache to MIS professionals like me to come up with a way of solving them. Unfortunately, the only remedy as at the moment is the installation of an antivirus that are created and manufactured by the same people who came up with the virus so that they can get business from the computer users. Another pertinent issue that is becoming a rampant problem until that it is almost becoming socially acceptable is the problem of copying of software which in my view is just stealing like the way a thief steal tangible goods. In this regard, the ethics in the society must have the support of all the stakeholders including employees, employers, customers and even the competitors. The above vices have led to a lot of losses in the society ranging from talent lose in the case of innovation and theft of the patent right, losing crucial data because of computer viruses and all sorts of unethical business and information issues.

This goal is very important since once I achieve it, I will have saved the society a lot of money lose due to unethical practices by business people and also organizations in case of loss of crucial information that are confidential to the organization. I will have also achieved professional and personal development because I would have the experience of all sorts of professional and ethical responsibilities.

Moreover, one of the objective in this goal of Ethical and Professional Responsibility in workplaces and the society is to end the bad practice by the unscrupulous business people to exploit the consumers by not providing relevant information to them and hence taking the advantage of their ignorance to exploit them. The exploitation by the dishonest business persons includes among many selling off the counterfeit smuggled goods, substandard goods and even overpricing.

The second objective is the upholding of the ethical conduct by the employees in different organizations to avoid such issues like; leaking out of confidential organization information, the rampant cases of software theft belonging to the organization by its employees who have self -interests, and finally protection of patent rights to protect people's innovation and creativity which have witnessed a rise in the theft of property rights over the years. Although there are laws governing some of these issues, they have not been properly implemented to the interest of the victims of the violation of professional ethical responsibilities by dishonest people. Once I achieve these two objectives, I would have achieved my goal of ensuring ethical and professional responsibility in the workplace and within the society. It will involve much of a campaign to enlighten the members of the public about their rights as consumers and also ensure that the proper legislation is developed to ensure ethical conducts in business dealings and places of work are put in place, so that the perpetrators of the same are brought to book.

REFERENCES

1. Bidgoli, Hossein, (2004). The Internet Encyclopedia, Volume 1, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 707.

2. Laudon, Kenneth C.; Laudon, Jane P. (2009). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm (11 ed.). Prentice Hall/Course Smart. p. 164.

3. Pant, S., Hsu, C., (1995), Strategic Information Systems Planning: A Review, Information Resources Management Association International Conference, May 21–24,