GOV 608 Public Info Systems Student Scenario #1
Scenario #1 (Written by a past student in GOV 608)
James is an expert in the software development field, and he currently works for a
small high security computer lab in Portland Oregon, where software and data systems are
manufactured and tested regularly. He has been working in his department for 15 years.
John works endless nights going through software codes to test the newest and most up to
date technology. He is a true pioneer when it comes to innovative ideas. Few people
recognize and give him credit for his work, especially his supervisor. His work requires him
to work long hours, and his innovations are not rewarded with an increase of pay. The
corporation that James works for is so high profile it requires each employee to have a
common access card, due to the high security clearance needed to operate the software
systems. These cards are handed in at the end of each person’s shift with each worker
being physically checked by security upon entering or leaving the department.
James was one of the few people in the company who was invited to attend a
software convention in Silicon Valley, California where he was to showcase the company’s
latest coding project against competing companies. Due to James’s impressive production
his small company won the competition with James getting little to no credit despite show
casing it and showing spectators how to operate the seamless design. However, James’s
talents caught the eye of many bigger name companies which could use his talents.
James’s company, however, wanted to keep all of James’s coding under wraps.
Having caught the eye of many of the competing firms that were at the convention in
Silicon Valley, James began to be solicited for new opportunities to come and work for the
competition. They offered him higher pay including bonuses, and though James was loyal
to his company he was feeling underappreciated, and he felt that it was time for him to
move on to bigger and better things. James did some reaching out to the other firms,
providing them a portfolio of his course work sending them his own beta samples which
was his work product and originally intended for his company’s future projects. He used
his personal email while his company common access card was in his work computer.
James didn’t want to alert his company of anything definitive until a new job was set in
stone. After several weeks of active communication and negotiations with the other
software companies, James abruptly stopped receiving emails from these companies. For
about a week he sent out emails with no responses and he was getting extremely worried.
Then on a Monday morning he was told that his common access card had been
revoked and wasn’t allowed in by security. He was then escorted to the main building by
security but not to his department, he was taken to a small room with the Secret Service
waiting for him. James was then interrogated for hours in regard to the communication
between him and the other software firms with all of his emails exposed. James was
accused of intellectual property theft and due to the specific security nature of his work
produce, espionage. James was arrested and fired from his job. James’s arrest was
announced in The Oregonian newspaper the next day.
Questions (10 points)
Q#1: From an ethical standpoint do you think that his company was wrong for reporting
him directly to the Secret Service (and thus destroying him professionally) when in reality
he was just looking for a better job?
Q#2: How do you think James should have gone about looking for a new job with other
companies?
Q#3: Do you think James’s penalty was too severe?
Q#4: What mistakes did James’ boss and company make? How can they prevent an
occurrence like this from happening again?
Q#5: Was it a violation of James’ privacy to have his person email exposed to both the
Secret Service and his employer? Why or why not?
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