Information Systems Professional
What it is to be an information systems professional?
In today’s constantly evolving world, the term “information systems professional” is always adapting to the relevant changes in technology and society. The term encompasses many different jobs such as CIO, Systems manager to Network manager, all with varying levels of responsibilities and task revolving around information. To be an information systems professional, one needs to be an informed user, they need to not only be able to use different IT applications and systems, but understand how they work and the reasons they are used, and be able to use these to improve how things are currently within an organization. It requires you to be constantly evolving and updating with the new systems and technologies emerging.
Our Interviewee, Roy Al Hachem, was the Chief Information’s Officer (CIO) of a “small to medium sized company”. A CIO is someone who is regarded as “The highest ranking IS manager; is responsible for all the strategic-planning in the organization” (Gray, et al., 2015, p. 7). However Roy saw his role as an information systems professional as something more than just handling the strategic planning and use of information, taking a distanced role from his employees. He instead, took a more hands on approach with his employees, wanting to know and befriend them and not seem like an autocratic boss, a leader within his organization that employees could approach and resolve issues with. He also handled the security measures of the company ensuring that their information as well as customers information was secured. This all stems to Roy’s ideology on what it is to be an information systems professional; he believes that to be this, you can’t just be focused on the information or the financials, you have to be ethical in your practice.
This could be seen as a bit of a different approach to most CIOs as many “are coming up through the ranks in business units (eg. Marketing & finance)” (Gray, et al., 2015). He believed ethics play a key role in his role as an information systems professional, because of the nature of the information these companies deal with, chances for unethical decisions can occur. While it may be legal to make these unethical decisions, Roy believes to be a professional, you must do what is ethical where applicable and not let the potential gains for themselves, but focus on the ethical decision for all involved. Roy did agree with the principles of being an information systems professional, he was a big believer in self-improvement and staying up to date, he took part in professional development classes every 6 months to a year and pays for his employees to do so as well. He deemed this necessary for all those involved as it allowed them to stay up to date and remain relevant in the evolving industry of IS.
Being an information systems professional is someone who deals with information and utilizes it for the benefit of the company and its customers, however Roy’s experiences told us that ethics plays a key role in being an information systems professional.

Ethical issues they face

When it comes to being an information systems professional, the privacy of yourself, your employees and of your clients must be taken into account to avoid any potential privacy infringements which affects what it means to be ethical. When our team spoke to information systems professional Roy Al Hachem, we found that a business does not need to have extremely stringent privacy policy, which may prohibit acts such as using social media at work or taking your work home, to be able to run and maintain a successful and happy workforce, whilst still being able to get significant levels of work completed. Roy believes strongly in having a very relaxed work environment, which also means that there isn’t a great deal of monitoring of what people are doing, privacy, however, any sort of misuse of the intellectual property belonging to the business or if employees begin to waste time during work, then this is dealt with after woods by the business through either a stern warning from the company or legal action if the infringement is serious enough. Michael J. Quinn, author of the book “Ethics for the Information Age” speaks about information disclosure in reference to information security. This is important to information systems professionals as they must make sure that they do not disclose certain information, which may belong to others such as employees or clients, to other parties as this may be harmful to both the clients and the company. This is why you must consult your client or employee with a privacy policy so that they know exactly what you have permission to share and what must be kept under wraps. A privacy policy may also be used to let the companies employees know if they are being monitored. Although monitoring things like what an employee is looking at on their work computer may been seen as unethical, it is implemented to make sure they are on track with their work and is most of the time completely justifiable.
Information systems organizations are storing more and more data as technology increases, this data is often intellectual property. Intellectual property plays a large role in information systems, it can be extremely valuable to the right people. Intellectual property (IP) “describes the application of the mind to develop something new or original. IP can exist in various forms; a new invention, brand, design or artistic creation. There are various types of IP available.” (IP Australia, n.d.). Whether it be the intellectual property of a customer or an employee, many ethical issues arise around it. According to Quinn (2015), issues rise in regards to the ownership and use of the intellectual property. As an information systems professional, IP is something dealt with day to day as often it is your own IP that allows a project or customers request to be fulfilled or created. Roy confirmed this, informing us that there have been issues with intellectual property in his time as information systems professional. He found that one of his employees had written code for a client, but then also used it in another company, claiming that it was his own, despite signing contract that relinquished his rights to ownership of it to the client. Because intellectual property is often one’s own ideas used to fulfil client’s needs, those who created it still feel it is theirs to distribute as they wish despite it being given to clients or their employers. However these issues are often resolved legally as intellectual property and ownership of it is often defined clearly in the contract of jobs in the information systems profession.
Being an information systems professional can have varying ethical issues, but ultimately all revolve around information. The privacy of employees and customers often causes issues on what crosses the line as sensitive information and beneficial monitoring in the interests of productivity. Intellectual property is a key part of information systems and the ownership and use of this can cause ethical issues, whether those who created it should be able to use it if they want, or the clients or companies they are employed by have the ownership.
How they are helping societies issues

Part of being an ethical, information systems professional, is being actively involved in the community in different ways. Roy Al Hachem, the CIO of a small software development company based in Sydney informed us on how he believes in giving back to the community through various fundraisers, charities and by developing software and donating their time and work to those who need it most. Roy’s company develops this software and helps groups within society such as those who are in aged care and other businesses such as childcare centers, as he believes that these members of society are in need the most, therefore Roy and his co-workers feel obliged to provide them these services for free. Roy and his associates also believe strongly in donating to various charities on behalf of the company. The charities which Roy’s Company donates to usually have a connection to either Roy or his co-workers, as they or someone that they know may have been affected by the problems that these charities are working towards fixing. One of the main charity events Roy’s Company donates to, and actually actively participates in, is the Sydney to Wollongong charity bike ride, which aims to raise funds which will go towards finding a cure for MS. Roy’s Company will provide any member of the company with a bicycle, all the necessary equipment required to participate in the ride, and will pay the wages of the employee during the course of the event. These are just some of the ways that Roy all the other members of the company give back to the community, which they all feel obliged and happy to do.
As an information systems professional, Roy also believes that being environmentally sustainable is a necessity. As well as being much more ethical than the wasteful companies which have previously polluted the earth, Roy’s company environmental policies are implemented to help protect the planet in the long run by not relying on finite resources such as fossil fuels which pollute the planet. One of the ways that Roys Company is environmentally sustainable is through being completely carbon neutral. This means that their company does not produce any sort of carbon emissions. This leads to more environmentally sustainable energy resources being invested in, such as solar power, wind power and hydro power. Roy also states that the added cost of using renewable energy resources is relatively low, and highly recommends that all businesses and companies put this into practice. There are also other ways in which a company can be beneficial towards the environment, such as through recycling and waste management. This ensures that any materials such as paper, cardboard and some metals can be sent off to be used again in the production of other goods, and what can’t be used again is properly disposed of without negatively effecting any 3rd party. These are just a few of the ways in which an information systems professional can work ethically in order to make the world outside their workplace a better place.
What we learned
Due to the nature of the IS industry, new technologies and methods of completing tasks are rapidly evolving. This means the role of any IS professional is diverse by any means and profoundly dynamic, and in the ever evolving world of IT, individuals must learn to adapt to new environments in order to work effectively and competitively. Upon interviewing Roy Al Hachem we learnt to be an IS professional means much more than to be a professional with an IS degree. An IS professional has no “standard day” their roles vary to the extent that they can be working in a different department of an organization from day to day. An IS professional typically can be involved in fields of work varying from basic data entry, to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) who is the head of Information Technology in an organization. Someone performing a data entry role may be required to only entry strings of data into a spread sheet, whereas the CIO may be involved in Strategic Management, budgeting, projections, global planning, and future planning. Typically successful organizations that operate in the field of Information Systems will uphold a certain standard of ethical values. This is crucial to their public image and therefore the survival and success of the business as the public image represents and reflects the values and integrity of the business as a whole to the public. Customers are the most important part of any successful business, as stated by Roy Al Hachem “Customers are our Assets”. Without customers a business will not generate revenue, will be running at a loss, and will ultimately collapse. Business will find more success when they establish ongoing relationships with their clients, organizations that get to know their customer on a personal level will produce a better outcome for both the business and the customer. This is due to having transparency within the industry. Transparency will allow better communication between those who require an IS solution and those who are developing the IS solution. This will lead to the development and implementation of an information system with as few complications or bugs as possible.
In terms of presenting information to an audience, in order to effectively communicate an idea. A well-structured presentation should be delivered in a clear tone while presenting in a formal manner. This presentation should be accompanied by visual stimulus to engage the audience such as relevant images including pictures and graphs, also key dot points that summarize the points that will be delivered throughout the presentation. This is an attempt to keep the audience engaged for the entirety of the presentation to allow effective communication of the message. Through our interview with Roy we learnt that while it is always good to come prepared with set questions, they don’t always go as planned. Often we found ourselves going off of a set question to spontaneous questions as a result of Roy’s answer, this way was much more natural for all of us. It allowed us to find out more things about what it is to be an information systems professional that we didn’t even think of in the first place. Our interview taught us that it shouldn’t be a rigid interview in which you stick to set questions, instead, that a much more open and fluid interview process leads to a better experience where more is learned.
Working together as a group we learnt that communication is essential to achieve a good result and balance of work between all members. As a group we learned to effectively communicate and delegate different tasks of the assignment. Whether this be over social media or in person, we learnt that ensuring everyone is aware of certain things in regards to the assignment This helped spread out the work load and allow us to work efficiently as a group. Through this we learnt that working in a group can be problematic at times in trying to get everyone motivated to work at the same time, however as long as everyone involved achieved what they said they would do, this wasn’t an issue in finishing the assignment. Ultimately we learnt that working in a group can have its pros and cons, a shared work load means those involved have less to do individually, but people work in different ways that may clash with others, but as long as the team communicates and everyone is honest, the job gets done efficiently.

References
Gray, H. et al., 2015. Management Information Systems. In: Management Information Systems. Milton(Queensland): John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, p. 7.
IP Australia, n.d. What is IP?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/understanding-intellectual-property/what-is-ip/
[Accessed 18 5 2015].