1. Differences and similarities between professional and ethical behavior.
The differences between ethical and professional behavior lie in the differences in scope of each form of behavior. Usually, professional behavior is based on actions which benefit the company and its employees, whereas ethical behavior is based on action which weighs the positive effects on one party against the negative aspects on another party.
This difference between ethical and professional behavior is often transparent; there are some actions which may be both ethical and professional, or neither. The transparency between what is good for the company/worker and what is good for all parties concerned varies depending on the field of work; for example, ecological restoration companies' professional actions are expected to be beneficial to the wide majority, whereas a tobacco company's professional actions may not be.
Both ethical and professional forms of behavior deal with the promoting of positive conditions, but it is the scope to which the effects are realized, and are beneficial, where differences between these types of behavior are noticeable.
2. Examples of appropriate and inappropriate behavior; ethical and professional.
Classroom.
Ethical and professional: Studying with other classmates.
Unethical but professional: Finding an otherwise unavailable copy of
an upcoming test and focusing your
studying and in-class attention around only what you will be tested on.
Unprofessional but ethical: Skipping class.
Unethical and unprofessional: Cheating.
Academic behavior is generally defined by the rules which an institution imposes on students which are designed to both promote the education of the student as well as ensure fair opportunity for all students to be educated and matriculated equally well. Professional behavior in academics, then, is generally behavior which causes the student to learn well and fare well in the class, whereas behavior which causes an unfair advantage over others is unethical.
Workplace.
Ethical and professional: Merging or working in agreement with a
company in a different field to augment
each other's production.
Unethical but professional: Buying another company and terminating
many of its previous employees.
Unprofessional but ethical: Releasing company secrets which show
potential harm to outside parties.
Unethical and unprofessional: Stealing from the company (or other
workers).
Behavior in the workplace is less defined than academic behavior. Primarily, professional behavior is defined by activity which promotes personal success or advancement, or which elevates the value of the company. Ethical behavior is behavior which evaluates the effects of an action on others, whether it be purely outside parties or others such as co-workers. Of the three areas of behavior, the workplace probably has the clearest examples of where professional and ethical behavior can be in contention.
Personal.
The conditions of personal behavior are such that it is difficult to find actions which are appropriate for one type of behavior and inappropriate for the other. That behavior which we would normally consider personal and professional is usually also ethical, because our professional personal behavior is one which always takes into account the effects on those around us. We rely on other people for various benefits, ranging from simple companionship to emergency support. Anything we do to negatively affect those around us will not serve to really benefit us. That behavior outside of the workplace that might not work this way, such as a landlord throwing out a tenant due to prejudice, is more akin to workplace/employment behavior than personal. Personal behavior assumes a level playing field between oneself and others; in both classroom and workplace behavior, there are usually at least two distinct levels of interactors -- e.g. classmates and teachers, co-workers and supervisors.
The quality of work that an employee produces should be reflective of not just the professional attitude and behavior of the worker, but also of their self-respect and personal dignity. For an employee to be willing to put his name on a substandard product, or contribution to a project, or otherwise be unreliable or preform poorly, it shows that they are not concerned with their professional reputation, and donąt care about their worth to their employer[s].
A computing specialist needs to make clear agreements, whether working independently or as an employee, as to the appropriate reactions to issues of privacy. If a specialist is working with personal or otherwise sensitive data, he should assume that the information is not to be related outside of the work site. Confidential information (i.e. trade or government secrets) have the same conditions as private information.
Trade secrets are trickier to evaluate but should be somehow expressed to the worker or otherwise obvious. Normally, an employee is made aware of certain policies related to such material upon employment; and it should go without saying that an employee should follow these policies, if they are ethical; if they are clearly not ethical, the discerning professional employee should consider their ramifications before committing to the company.
A computer specialist working in a user-based position should always refrain from invading the privacy and confidentiality of users. There should be general rules as far as what the specialist can control over the user's use of any system, such as inappropriate use of company equipment; but in extenuating circumstances, say when entry into a user's account is necessary to diagnose a problem, the understanding should be made between the user and the specialist, if rules on such activity have not already been enacted.
Ethical evaluation of scenario.
The situation is perfectly ethical. The employee took a program of his own creation, which he developed (even if on company time, as is presumed) at his former company, and took it with him to his new place of employment in the same field. I donąt see anything wrong with this. The program he created to help him do his job is an extension of his qualities as a professional in the field. His ability to develop his own tools to help him reach his goals in employment, and make him a better/more proficient worker, should be considered part of his existence, i.e. part of his professional qualities. To prevent him from using this tool at another company would directly affect his ability to be as valuable a worker to his new company as he was to his old company, and I think it would be unethical of the previous company if they were to try to prevent him from using it.
Presumably, the tool in question doesnąt contain any material which is explicitly related to a particular product or patented procedure from his old company. Not enough of this sort of detail is given in the story to weigh these kinds of possibilities; on the surface as given, his ability to develop and use his own tools to do his work is an inherent part of his professional skills. To force him not to use the particular tool would either take away substantially from his skills, or would meaninglessly require him to write a new version of essentially the same tool from scratch. In either way, the employee is inconvenienced, and at no consequential benefit to the former company.
Had other workers at the old company also used and become dependent on the programmer's tool, there would be a viable claim that the tool has become part of the former company's procedures, and its transfer to a new company will cause some sort of loss. But this is not the case; the tool is something that was unique to the programmer, both in development and use, and should be free to move with him as he moves.
Had there also been a company policy that any work created by an employee during the course of work becomes company property, as many companies now have, a question of professionality may arise, but I still believe that the action is perfectly ethical. Normally, such policies are not construed to affect pieces of work which are not incorporated into a final product. Even though it may be felt that the programmer is being dishonest, because he may feel "safer" using his old tool because his old boss didn't really know about it, this is irrelevant to the ethics of the situation.