Authors: Anvith Potluri, Kevin Li, Kevin Nguyen, & Varad Thorat
From a very young age we have been taught to respect the members of your group and that working well in teams is essential. In the situation given to us, Bob clearly puts Carlos in a tough situation by not respecting Alice’s work. Carlos is in a situation where he must choose between Alice and Bob and no matter what he does, a rift will be created within the group. Alice definitely feels marginalized and disrespected by Bob’s actions as he not only discredited her work, but disrespected her in the process as well. This would have been less likely to occur if Alice was male, as many males are unfortunately inherently biased against the work of females.
The incident would have a significant impact on both the group and the individuals. Group productivity would decline. Also, this would most definitely change Alice and Carlos’s viewpoints as they would be more aware of the discrimination that exists against females in the computer science work environment. Being aware of this discrimination would make them more cautious with how they respond to certain problems and make sure that they are respectful to people of both genders.
The best way to handle this is to set up a meeting and go through the code with Bob and show him how it works. From a utilitarian and a virtue based framework, it would be best as it would both produce results and require virtuous actions. Carlos and Alice should work together and explain Alice’s code to Bob. Once this happens Alice’s code should be submitted. Alice should not respond aggressively as that would escalate the situation unless Bob is reluctant to change despite the explanation.
Ethics in Computer Science 