Analysing People Oriented Methodology And Its Ethics Philosophy Essay

People oriented methodology is mainly focused on obtaining the ethical position of every individual. It emphasizes more on ethics which is a participative approach of human or people who might be the stakeholders or users. It also highlight’s that users are deeply involved in the development process and take control over the stages, it means that the users are also involved in the decision making process and fully committed to the IS development. People oriented methodology can be applied to a system which really involves various types of people. It is normally a difficult task of making the users getting involved in to the development stages, but still the involvement of users from the top level management to the staff level is required in order to avoid some thoughts of the user like, feeling that the job should be more demanding and less secure. On the other hand user involvement may also be used to improvise the human-computer interface. Using this sort of an approach also includes visibility, simplicity, consistency and flexibility.

It is also one to the suitable methodology in the life cycle where its aim is to involve users in the development system; its focus is on ethics, socio technical view and human implementation; in the feasibility phase it identifies current problem, opportunity, system boundaries, existing system, key objectives and task. In the analysis phase diagnosis of efficiency, job satisfaction need and analysis, specifying and weighting efficiency is done. People-oriented methodology focuses on organizational design of new system, technical options and preparation of a detailed work design. In the implementation phase, the implementing process is planned in detail it also checks for whatever it is required to make a smooth changeover and finally in the maintenance phase the system is checked in order to make sure the objective is attained, If not the correction action is taken once again

ETHICS

As it is told already people-oriented methodology mainly focuses on ethics. Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality that is concepts such as good and bad, wrong and right, justice and virtue. On the hand it can also be defined as a moral philosophy involving systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior which is required for an organization. According to Enid Mumford (see Mumford, 1995), ethics is a methodology based on the participative approach to information systems development. Ethics is different from most of the system development methodologies. In ethics the process of change is viewed with the perspective of organizational issue and not as a technical issue.

Ethical Theories

Ethical theories play an important role in optimizing ordinary moral functions and to establish or defend basic moral principles.

Why Ethical Theories?

The need for this is that the emergence of new practices in the business and the basic principles may not be enough for the arising problems and may not cover the new areas that are still uncovered. Therefore it is necessary for a rational and consistent theory to evaluate the morality of actions. There are two possible approaches in order to overcome these problems, firstly there are some general rules and approaches but they may not be enough for some sort of issues. There might be some situation where the generally accepted practice or rules may be challenged. In such cases if there is some ways to decide and proceed on which, rule to follow it would be grateful. The ethical theories help an individual or an organization in choosing the right rule.

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Secondly the decision maker may be able to elaborate and decide his moral decisions to others. It’s not a better thought to engage moral reasoning alone with the ethical theory should also be able to interpret it with the moral argumentation. This may help the decision maker to take part in a persuasive and intelligent way.

And search of a completely satisfying ethical theory will never end up. There is no theory designed that satisfy all the people and philosophers, but still there are two theories that seems to be good while considering the other theories. They are the teleological and deontological theories, other than this there are theories like utilitarian and Kantian approach which can help in carrying out decisions in a better way. Ethics can be apportioned into three categories Meta-ethics, normative ethics, Applied Ethics.

Philosophical Ethics

Philosophical ethics carries a different approach to ethics by seeking morality through rational, secular outlook that prioritizes human happiness and well-being. The advantage with this sort of an approach is that it does not subject to religious, cultural or legal perspectives. Modern philosophical ethics can be split in to two categories they are Teleological and Deontological theories.

a. Teleological Theories

This theory has a special mark because pragmatic, common sensed, and knowledge approach to ethics. The claim here in this theory is that moral character of actions depending on how it can help or harm in a simple and realistic way. It also suggests that the actions that produce more benefits are right and that they don’t are wrong.

Jeremy Bentham planned to develop a moral science that is more teleological than other ways to separate right and wrong, and he in his Introduction to principles and moral legislation tells that

“Under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne.”

Aiming to make ethics practical, Bentham even proposed a system for measuring the amount of pleasure and pain that an action produces. Called the hedonistic calculus, Bentham’s system identifies seven aspects of an action’s consequence that can be used to compare the results of different deeds: the intrinsic strength of the pleasurable or painful feelings produced (intensity), how long they last (duration), how likely it is that these sensations will be produced by a given action (certainty or uncertainty), how soon they will be felt (propinquity or remoteness), whether these feelings will lead to future pleasures (fecundity) or pains (purity), and the number of people affected (extent).

Robbery example to be used for weighing happiness and unhappiness in scrum.

Types of pleasure

LEADERSHIP

Leadership can be defined as “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”[1]. It can also be said in other words as “Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen” [2]. A good leader sustains him-self with a never ending process of education, self-study and so on. Leadership is a process where an individual makes his team accomplish a particular task and directs the organization in a logically connected and cohesive ways, for this few attributes like beliefs, character, ethics, values, knowledge and skills is required. Before getting in to concept of leadership in software development lets have an overview on the leadership theories and the concepts of leadership

LEADERSHIP THEORIES

Leadership seemed to take a view from the society only from the twentieth century. Theories in the early period concentrated only on the qualities distinguished between the Leader and the follower. There are lots of theories emerging and most of them can be classified as one among the eight major types.

i. “Great Man” Theories

This theory assumes that leaders are not born but made and a great leader will arise when there is need. Previously the research was on the people who were already leaders and on those days leaders mostly were from aristocracy and only a few were from the lower level, and this indicated that leadership has something to do with family or breeding. This great man theory says that leaders are men with heroism, mythic and should be capable of admitting these attributes whenever it is required.

ii. Trait Theories

This theory assumes that people are born with inherited traits where, some of those traits are particularly suited for to be an effective leader. Early research was on psychological focus of the day but analyzing inherent characteristics of people. A study was often made on great leaders and check whether other people have those traits of those successful leasers. McCall and Lombardo (1983) did a research on both success and failure; they identified four primary traits by which a leader can succeed [2].

Emotional stability and composure

Admitting error

Good interpersonal skills

Intellectual breath

But there arises a question “who possess those qualities but are not leaders?” if we consider traits as key features for leadership. This question is one which makes a difficulty to explain leadership using trait theory.

iii. Behavioral Theory

The perspective of this theory is that Leaders can be made or rather than are born and also assumes that leadership in order to be successful it should be based on definable and learnable behavior. This theory does not focus on the inbuilt traits or capabilities and tries to intensify from what the leaders actually do. According to this theory people can become leaders by teaching and learning

iv. Participative Leadership

This theory assumes that people are more committed towards action and involve themselves in to the game when they are put in to some sort of relevant decision making and it also tells that when people make decisions together the social commitment one another plays a vital role and thus there comes a pure involvement in work. Several persons making decisions together brings about a good result is what the theory tells about. A participative leader rather than taking a decision himself will involve other people in to the process including stakeholders, subordinates and superiors, and involves him-self as well. In this theory the leaders allow others to share their ideas and also try to implement them.

v. Situational Leadership

This theory assumes that best action of a leader is based on the range of situational factors. When a decision is made an effective leader does not fall in to a unique style rather they take different styles based on the situation they work on. Factors that influence situational behavior are the motivation and the capability that the follower carries. A leader’s focus of himself, his follower or the factors such as mood, stress and so on might also determine the behavior of a leader.

Yukl (1989) seeks to combine other approaches and identifies six variables [3]:

Subordinate effort: the motivation and actual effort expended.

Subordinate ability and role clarity: followers knowing what to do and how to do it.

Organization of the work: the structure of the work and utilization of resources.

Cooperation and cohesiveness: of the group in working together.

Resources and support: the availability of tools, materials, people, etc.

External coordination: the need to collaborate with other groups.

From these approaches this theory come to a conclusion that a leaders styles is often variable and it purely demands relationships, resource utilization and managing capabilities.

vi. Contingency Theories:

This states that leadership focus on the particular variables related to the environment that determine which particular style may best suit for a leadership behavior. This it states that leadership doesn’t have a unique style that would be best in all situations. It is a class of behavioral theory where leadership style might be suitable for some theory but may not be successful in some other situation. The main difference between the situational and the contingent theories is that in situational the view is more on the behavior that the leader should adopt in a given situation wherein contingency theory takes an elaborate focus on the capabilities and variables that in a situation.

VI. Management theories

Management theories are also called transactional theories, and the assumptions made by this theory are that Reward and punishment may motivate people in a better way. And this is a system which works best with the clear chain of command. The subordinates are supposed to do the work given by their superiors or managers. In early days transactional leadership is the one where a subordinate is employed he is paid and given with some task, so that the company gets authority towards the subordinate. And when a transactional leader allocates a work for the subordinate he is the only person responsible for completing the task, whether they have the resource or not. If anything goes wrong the subordinate is been punished as like he is rewarded for succeeding. Managerial theories are often uses in the business domains

VII. Relational theories

Relational theories are also called as transformational theories, here the assumptions are “People will follow a person who inspires them” and on the other hand it also states that a person with vision and goal can go to great heights. Working with a transactional leader is an uplifting experience and moreover they care a lot for you and they try their level best to help you succeed, these leaders often follow simple procedures to accomplish their tasks

Developing the vision

Selling the vision

Finding the way forwards

And leading the charge

These leaders often follow a high level of moral values and ethics in the organization with their followers. This type of leaders get frustrates when the organization or the people expect no changes and are happy the way they are living.

Leadership Factors and Keys to Effective Leadership

If a person decides to accept one to be a leader he shouldn’t see the attributes in his leader rather he should focus on how a leader work and should take him to be an inspiration or role model. This may involve various factors

a. Follower and a Leader

These are two main factors where, it’s not a good idea to expect the entire follower may require the same kind of leader for example, a person in the analysis phase might require more assistance in the gathering requirements and a person working in the implementation phase may require a leader who might totally have different traits. So a leader must know his people! Leader is another factor must know answers for three questions in a concrete way, who he is, what he knows, what he can do. He must have the talents of convincing his followers because only because of them a person is leader.

SITUATION

Communication

FOLLOWER

LEADER

Fig 1: Factors of leadership

b. Communication and Situation

A leader should always focus on Two-way communication. It’s always better that the leader informs his follower do’s and don’ts much of it in a non-verbal form. The way you communicate and what you communicate may play a major role in the leader, follower relationship. It also depends on the situation which is another important factor, situations are not always same, and the work done in one situation will not be suitable for other situation. A best judgment should be made in order to select the leadership style.

There are two most important keys for effective leadership

Trust and confidence which brings about employee satisfaction

Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas as follows

Helping employees to understand the company’s business strategies.

Helping employees understand what is their contribution.

Sharing information with employees.

LEADERSHIP IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPEMENT

^ Chemers, M. M. (2002). Meta-cognitive, social, and emotional intelligence of transformational leadership: Efficacy and Effectiveness. In R. E. Riggio, S. E. Murphy, F. J. Pirozzolo (Eds.), Multiple Intelligences and Leadership.

McCall, M.W. Jr. and Lombardo, M.M. (1983). Off the track: Why and how successful executives get derailed. Greenboro, NC: Centre for Creative Leadership

Yukl, G. A. (1989). Leadership in Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall