NSA Leak
Ethics and Integrity- Loyalty
For Edward Snowden, ethics and integrity meant belief what was right while disregarding all the consequences. He belied that it was unethical and wrong for the government to put the public’s rightful decisions in its hands. Snowden could not have done things differently because of his ethical responsibility to the citizens of America, which made him expose various programs of mass surveillance to the citizens who were unaware of the power and capacity of the intelligence companies in the country. From his actions, it reveals him as a responsible and courageous character because he risked through his actions. However, under professionalism it reveals him as an individual who lacks loyalty because he jeopardized the structure of the NSA, which is also built on secrecy.
Insufficient ethical and integrity values in an organization can occur because of negligence of the required individual values in that institution. Collectivism is one of the factors involved in handling such issues. Collectivism is an individual value that encompasses respect and regard for all people within the affected organization or setting. This individual value defines the extent to which an individual goes to assist people in the organization or stand for their rights regardless of the expected outcomes and consequences.
Influential individuals are responsible for paying attention to the issue. For instance, in the situation of the NSA leak, Edward Snowden believed in what was ethically right by standing for the rights of the American citizens. Handling the problem can involve different methods, one of which is through influence and persuasion. The essence of influence and persuasion is to identify the roles of dialog and planning, establish credibility, frame goals for the common good, reinforce positions vividly and connect individuals emotionally.
One of the individual tactics under influence and persuasion is the principle of reciprocity. It is a tactic that entails giving back to people for what they do. In the case of the NSA leak, people developed tendencies to be persuaded because they believed that they could gain personal benefits by supporting the behavior of Snowden. That is; people thought that the guidance of the public opinions may somewhat restrain the leaking of personal information without the consent of an individual.
The current attempt to handle the problem is through the ‘two-man rule’. Its strength is that it limits the capacity of each of its system administrators to have unfettered access to the whole system. However, it is not guaranteed that those with full access will not leak the information. In order to resolve the issue effectively, there should be counterfactual thinking. This recommendation will work because it provides for alternatives and calls for a culture of safety and trust. From the course, the article by Kathleen Eisenhardt, Jean Kahwajy and Bourgeois on how management teams can have a good fight evidences these evidences. That is; the article suggests there has to be multiplication of alternatives in reducing conflicts.
Implementation of Recommendations
Implementing an action plan would involve using of rational decision-making models such as defining the problem, identifying decision criteria, allocating of weights to the criteria, developing alternatives, evaluating the alternatives and selecting the best alternatives. Limitations of these recommendations will be that not all individuals will follow the model. Lastly, unintended consequences might be that the identified alternatives might be avenues for other unethical behavior.
