Telstra: Adapting to Digital Disruptions

Discuss about the Report On Digital Disruption in Telstra.

The present report discusses the digital disruption in the 24/7 Telstra app and the crowd support platform and its digital implication. Due to the technological advancement, the telecom companies are facing stiff competition with the mobile operators. Therefore, it is important that the company adopts new technology to increase its core competency in the business environment. The company adapted its engineering culture from the traditional engineering culture to a fast-paced digital platform. With its new technology, the company is sourcing mass of new talent and developed the best digital teams in the country. Telstra established a single platform for the information architecture and become the top leader in the telecom industry. The company adopted several changes such as delivering customer support, developing a crowdsupport community and keeping in constant touch with the customers. However, changes in the IT infrastructure resulted in various ethical implications for the company (Telstra, 2018a.). The present report discusses the ethical implications of the case and the impact of the crowdsupport platform on the organization. Telstra has revolutionized the manner in which the company tries to service its customers. However, the company ambushed a large number of employees without any notice. It is an ethical concern as job loss will result in unemployment.

The doing ethics is an ethical framework, which supports ethical decision making. In the present section, Telstra case study is analyzed with the help of doing ethics technique.

The technological disruption in Telstra has resulted in various digital disruptions. In the recent years, the technological advancements have resulted in the advent of the mobile telecommunication companies, which has reduced the profitability of the telecom organizations. The company has adopted the crowdsourcing model to attract the talented workforce towards the business organization. The company has also created a customized application which can gather user behavior and collect the information when the consumers operate the application. However, there are certain challenges and ethical issues in the development crowdsourcing and application development. These technological developments have resulted in various ethical issues such as privacy, intellectual property, accessibility and the information accuracy.

There are certain facts in the case study of Telstra, which shows the ethical implications of the case:

• With the technological advancements, the profits of the company were declining.
• When the company was adopting 24*7 customer relationship mobile application, it reduced the total number of jobs in the country, which is an ethical concern for the organization
• Sudden job loss has also attracted the attention of the Australian government
• Creating a crowdsourcing platform will reduce the cost of the operations of the organization
• The crowdsourcing will allow the company to get access to diversified talent at low cost
• The crowdsourcing will increase the concern related to the privacy and intellectual property of the organization

There are certain ethical issues in the case study of Telstra as the crowdsourcing will result in breach in the privacy and intellectual property of the employees. Further, in crowdsourcing, the companies will collect the private and the personal information of the users of the mobile application. There is also an issue of the intellectual property rights of the application users. The company pays the contractors according to the amount of work. However, they do not offer a long-term employment to the companies. The application developer is not given any credit to the work and the intellectual property rights are taken by the organization.

Crowdsupport Platform and Ethical Implications

There is ethical issue of data breach and as the data will be accessed by different software developers and they will have access to the customer data. It can increase the probability of the malware attack and the data can be used by the malicious intent. Any individual can become the contractor of the organization and get access to the private user information. The changes in the software will also impact on the privacy of the users.

Another ethical issue is the probability of the foreign attacks in the organization. With crowdsourcing, the company will not be able to implement the quality measures and it will reduce the robustness of the IT infrastructure. If a foreign malware attack the organization, it will negatively impact the credibility of the company. It will negatively impact the brand image and the company might lose the trust on the organization.

The private data of the users can be manipulated by the cybercriminals and they might threaten the users, who have stored their private information in the database of the organization.

Another ethical challenge is the use of crowd support platforms, which is resulting in the automation technology. As a result, a large number of people are losing their jobs, which is also an ethical issue. It is an ethical issue as the company is firing the permanent employees of the organization. It has created a negative brand image of the organization.

There are various stakeholders in the present case, which are discussed in the present section.

Telstra Company: The Company is the major stakeholder of the organization as it is employing an application, which has several ethical implications. Although the technical advancements and the development of a completely automated application has reduced the overall expenditure of the organization; however, it has negatively impacted the privacy and security of the customers. The company has developed an open-source application, which can be accessed easily by various stakeholders. Therefore, the company as well as the data of the users has become vulnerable to the external attacks by the users. Further, it can be stated that the application has been developed to provide excellent customer relationship services to the customers (Birsh, 2013). The customers are obtaining 24*7 Support from the users; however, the company is forcing out its long-term employees as a result of automation. The technology has also reduced the overall implementation cost and reduced the operations cost of the organization; however, it has increased the probability of impact. The data will negatively impact the employee satisfaction as they will perceive that their employment is not safe with the organization. The company stores its data in various data platforms, which can be easily accessed by the business organization. The company will face several issues related to criticism and data privacy. It will also have to face regarding the employment rate and the crowdsourcing platforms (Koslowski,  2013). The current process of the organization will impact the security and the data procedures of the organization. It can create controversy as the company will not be following the laws and policies in the organization.

Stakeholder Analysis

Customers: The customers of the organization are the second biggest stakeholder as they will receive the biggest impact as a result of the change. The company will resolve the personal queries and establish a connection by constantly updating them about the personal threat in the organization. These platforms offer quick resolution of the services and provide a high quality customer engagement. From the above discussion, it can be analyzed that the company is providing high level of customer service with the help of the application; however, it is negatively impacting the data privacy measures of the organization.

Government: The government is another significant stakeholder in the decision of the organization and the government is concerned about the consumer privacy and the data security. The data collected from the database of the organization can be used to breach the national security and steal confidential or sensitive information. Therefore, the government is also a major stakeholder of the organization. The government is responsible to protect the information against any potential threat from the external users. The government is also responsible to maintain the security of the citizens (Grant, Butler, Orr, and Murray, 2014).

Cybercriminals: The cybercriminals are affected by the decisions of the organization regarding crowdsourcing. It can be perceived that the technology will result the company to outsource majority of its operations from other companies and contractors. The company will compromise its security and the private data of the users with this technology. The implementation of technology will assist the company in accessing the large amount of data in an easy manner. These cybercriminals can easily access and collect the information of the users. The digital medium can be used to access the private information of the users.

There are several ethical issues in the case study. In the present section, the ethical issues and its implications on different stakeholders of the organization are discussed with the help of different ethical frameworks and theories.

Deontology: The deontology theory states that an organization or an individual has to abide by the rules at each instance. It means that the ethics of an action should be analyzed by the ethics of an action rather than the consequences of the action. The actions of an individual should follow the social and the ethical laws and only course of action could be used to analyze the morality of an action. Therefore, it can be analyzed that the action of the company is ethical as the company is not using unethical means to collect the funds or reduce the cost of maintaining customer-relationship (Gaita, 2011). As long as the company is following ethical means and course of action, it has to improve the experience of the organization. The company should implement appropriate measures of privacy and even then if any data breach occurs, it is not the responsibility of the organization. Therefore, the action is legitimate as long as the company is following proper course of action (DesJardins, 2011).

Ethical Frameworks and Theories: Deontology and Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism theory: The utilitarianism is the theory which states that ultimate goal of moral theories is the public good and social justice. Therefore, all the actions are justified as long as their result is positive for the larger section of the society. It measures the utility of action by evaluating its impact on the society as a whole. According to this theory, the consequences of action should be used to judge the actions rather than the means of achieving results. However, there is inconsistency in the theory, as the result of a particular action is realized at a later stage. The present technology will examine the security and the privacy of the users. The privacy and security is the biggest challenge for the business organizations as the information and the consumer information has become the biggest asset for the organization. According to this theory, the business organization should not implement the technology as it might impact the privacy of the customers (Foye, 2017).

Virtue Theory: According to this theory, the companies should evaluate the ethics and morality of an action according to the honesty and the character of an individual or the company. The theory states that the business organization or the firm should work as per the policies, laws and ethics. They should try to fulfill the customer’s experience and complete all the requirements of the organization (Gaita, 2011) . The decision of the organization should be analyzed according to the established ethics.

Contract Theory:  The contract theory states that each individual or organization establishes a social contract as it is a part of the society. According to the contract theory, the ethics of an action are evaluated according to the legitimacy of action. The actions of the company are a response of the digital disruption, which reduced the profitability of the organization. As the organization is a part of the society, it is the responsibility of the organization to be ethically responsible to maintain the data of the customers (Lewis, 2015). It is important that the organization should take different steps to develop the IT infrastructure and enhance the security of the organization.

It can be analyzed that there are certain privacy and data security concerns with the development of technology. There are several technological solutions and infrastructure facilities, which can be used to promote the security of the organization. The business organizations should adopt a digital framework, which can provide a robust security solution to the organization. The company can also promote the use of firewalls and use them to design a proper security infrastructure (Driver, 2013). It will also be used to increase the customer loyalty and trust in the organization.

Conclusion

In the present, there are certain options which can be used by the organization to provide better security solutions to the business organization and the consumer data. Accordingly, there are a few options, which can be used by the organization:

Telstra can design its business model, so that it can provide better security to the consumers. It can discard the traditional business model so that it can better control the privacy of the consumers (Danielewicz-Betz, 2012).

As the company deals with the sensitive consumer data, it has to adopt different measures and technology so that it can protect the personal data of the consumers. It is also important to increase the customer awareness and improve the security of the customers. It is important for the company to realize that if it will breach the privacy of the customers, it will negatively impact the organization eventually (Penn, 2016).

It can be analyzed that the best option for the organization is to implement measures an infrastructure technologies, which can enhance the cyber security of the organization. Telstra operates in telecom industry; therefore, it should take additional measures to protect the consumer data as it handles sensitive data of the users. The company realizes that it should handle the brand image of the organization and present itself as an ethically responsible organization. Therefore, different IT security infrastructure measures such as firewall and anomaly detection can be used to prevent any external intrusion to the organization. Moreover, the company should only give access to the private user database to the trusted customers or long-term employees (Telstra, 2018). It will assure that the security of the company is not breached in future.

The IT governance framework is used to handle ethical dilemmas in the information technology field. It is embedded with certain principles, which assure that the companies and IT professionals adopt an ethical stance. It also acknowledges that it is the responsibility of the professionals and business organizations.

The IT governance represents the basic values, which can be used by the business organizations to handle the IT related activities of the organization. It aligns the business goals with the IT activities of the organization. Telstra should handle its database an IT infrastructure so that it can provide better security privacy to the customers. The IT governance principles are inspired by various organizational activities such as market competition, selection and the benefits of the business organization. In the present, the framework can be applied to identify that the business organizations should enhance the privacy and security of the confidential data (Singer, 2013).

The major issues in the IT governance are the privacy and security of the confidential data. Other than that, the job loss is another issue in the IT governance of the organization. The organization is responsible for handling the consumer data in a secure manner. Therefore, there should be periodic check of the security measures and security infrastructure of the organization. In the present, regular evaluation of the security measures is essential as the company has developed crowdsourcing, in which any external talent can be used for the betterment of the organization (Hooker, 2012).

Telstra should adopt a strategy, which gives priority to the privacy and the security of the consumer data. The organization should align the business goals and objectives with the ethics, so that it can run the organization’s operations in a cooperative manner. The company should emphasize the acquisition of IT technology, which can promote security and privacy of the organization (Pink Elephant, 2016). It is necessary that the organization acquire technology, which is well-aligned with the infrastructure of the organization.

Performance: The Company should try to achieve the best performance with the available resources. Further, it should emphasize the acquisition of technology, which can create robust system in the business organizations. Communication is also an important part of the IT infrastructure of the organization. It means that the companies should communicate all the latest development in technology with each stakeholder in a prompt manner (Telstra, 2018b). In the IT system, there are a large number of employees, who support the delivery of the services. It is important to reduce the manual errors with proper training.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that Telstra is facing an ethical dilemma regarding the implementation of 24*7 mobile app and complete automation of the customer relationship department. The companies can adopt more robust technological solutions. The present case is identified and solved using IT governance framework and doing ethics technique.

References

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