You are on page 1of 33

MORAL AND ETHICS IN ENGINEERING PROFESSION

Ethics and Professionalism

Lecture #2

BF Goodrich won a contract to design, test , and manufacture aircraft brakes for air force plane. Goodrich guaranteed that its compact brake would contain no more than four small braking disks and stop the air craft within a certain distance. Kermit Vandivier, an engineer with Goodrich was given the task to write up the report of the test run on the brake. He discover and wrote that the brake system is slightly faulty (disintegrated rotor) His superiors suggested for him to falsify the test data

Moral Moral Moral Moral

Judgment Values Issues Dilemma

MORAL JUDGMENTS
The rightness or wrongness of an action
Universally applicable. do unto others as you would have them do unto you Override other consideration - convenience, personal gain, and legal requirements fall before moral obligations. Should be logical - support with reasons and evidence

Is BF Goodrich or anyone in the company guilty of any ethical breaches?

In your judgment, is it morally right or morally wrong for a person in Mr. Vandivier's situation to write up a false report as he did?

MORAL VALUES

Standards of good and evil that govern an individuals behavior and choices. Provide serious consequence to human welfare, that can profoundly injure or benefit people. Moral values derive from within ones own self.

What are some of the moral values involved in BF Goodrichs case?

MORAL VALUES Vandiviers

Obligation to tell the truth Wrong to endanger the lives of others. Wrong to write a false report on the brake Integrity is good and dishonesty is bad Always Keep your promise Disobedience is distasteful

What are some of the moral values involved in BF Goodrichs management?

Moral Standards matters that can seriously injure or benefit human beings. not established by the decisions of particular authoritative bodies should be preferred to other values including self-interest based on impartial considerations (universal standpoint) Associated with special emotions and a special vocabulary- feel guilty, ashamed, or remorseful

MORAL ISSUES

Situation which requires a person or organization to choose between alternatives that must be evaluated as right or wrong. Example: Taking bribes is morally ok if one in difficult financial situations.

Is the obligation to tell the truth greater or lesser than Vandiviers obligation towards is family?

MORAL DILEMMAS

Moral dilemmas, at the very least, involve conflicts

PROFESSIONALISM AND MORALITY

Is it a moral obligation to be as professional as possible in engineer's work? Is it a mark of professionalism to act morally? Or do professionalism and morality have nothing to do with one another?

Engineering is the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind".
- The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)

Is Engineering a Profession? What is a profession? Physician, Accountant, Lawyer, Engineer, others?.


Non Profession- barber, plumber, fish monger, sales clerk, others? What distinguishes professions from other occupations? Professional character trait professional pride social awareness environmental consciousness

Attributes of a profession

Special knowledge and intellectual skills


- the use of judgment, and the exercise of discretion Extensive tertiary training and education Professional authority, judgment, peer review Provide important service to the public Community sanction, accreditation, licensing Professional Associations, In engineering, AIAA, AIChE , ASME etc

Engineering as a Profession

Engineering requires extensive and sophisticated


skills The essence of engineering design is judgment Discretion is required in engineering - confidentiality - make decision autonomously (public safety) Engineering work is not routine and is not capable of being mechanized. Engineering requires extensive formal training Engineering has a Professional society - NSPE, ASME, IEEE,

Code of Ethics for Engineers (excerpt of NSPE) Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall: - Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties. - Perform services only in areas of their competence. - Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner. - Act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees. - Avoid deceptive acts in the solicitation of professional employment

Why do professionals have special ethical responsibility?


Professionals have clients, not customers Clients must trust professionals Profession serves a public goods Codes of Ethics: special responsibilities of professionals

Ethics and the Responsible Engineer

You are an engineer with IPM, which makes computer. You are visiting a manufacturing plant of one of IPMs suppliers, which sells parts to IPM and other companies. You notice that a nonIPM system is not properly grounded, and could cause an electrical shock. What should you do? For what reasons?

Ethics and the Responsible Engineer

The engineer shall hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the public code of ethics (NSPE) when you see unsafe objects or practices, you are professionally responsible to act even when you are not assigned that task.

Ethics and the Responsible Engineer

In the early 2000 Atomic Energy of Canland made the Putri


cancer radiation treatment machine. Between 2004 and 2007, radiation over doses by the Putri caused severe burns, which killed five patients and severely injured five others.

Who was responsible?

Ethics and the Responsible Engineer


The operator who administer the massive
radiation overdose which produce the severe burns?

The software developer who wrote and tested the software control which contains several errors.? The system engineer who neglected to install the back up safety mechanism that have been used in the previous version of the machines.?

The manufacturer , the government agency?

What are different kinds of personal responsibility?

Causal operators keyboard entries caused the overdoses Role software engineers developed and tested the control program, but overlooked errors Legal The manufacturer was liable for damages Moral unlike others, can be shared.

Meanings of Responsibility

Obligations morally mandatory- be honest, fair, and decent role responsibilities (employees, professionals) Accountable capacity to understand an act on moral reasons Acted responsibly (conscientious), integrity diligently try to do the right thing and being responsible is a virtue Blameworthy/Praiseworthy

Moral Responsibilities of Engineers

The engineer shall hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the public

a. The contractor should provide a handrail.. left to the discretion of the contractor b. The contractor shall provide a handrail.. there is no ambiguity. The contractor must provide the handrail, or be default of the contract.

Moral Responsibilities of Engineers

The engineer shall hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the public

The word paramount is unambiguous. The engineer must place .above all other considerations such as cost and aesthetics. There is an implied contract between the profession and the public.

Corporate Responsibilities
Can a corporation be a moral agent ? artificial persons created by the law If it has no moral agency, it cannot held accountable. The law is vague on this issue. Can a company truly be expected to display honesty or loyalty? In the strictest definition of moral agency, a company cannot be a moral agent like a person How, then, do we resolve this problem? Corporation must respect the rights of individuals Should exhibit the same virtues that we expect of individuals

Senses of Corporate Responsibilities


Corporations are communities of individuals, structured within legal frameworks. - internal structures consisting of policy manuals and flowcharts assigning responsibilities to individuals Accountable as they have the capacity for morally responsible agency

Capable to manifest the virtue of responsibility when they routinely meet their obligations.

Case
A farmer lost an eye when a metal chip flew off the hammer he was using. He had used the hammer without problems for eleven months before the accident. It was constructed from metals satisfying all the relevant safety regulations, and no specific defect was found in it. Is the manufacturer morally responsible for the harm done?

Legally responsible based on the doctrine of strict legal liability which does not require proof of defect or negligence in design. Not morally guilty or blameworthy for the harm done. Morally responsible only in so far it has an obligation to help repair, undue, or compensate for the harm caused by the defective hammer.

Case

Professional Ethics in Engineering Practice

Public Safety and Public Welfare Conflicting Interests and Conflict of Interest Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade Research Ethics

Case

Questions on Ethics and Professionalism 1. What are the relevant facts for this case? 2. Are there any unknown relevant facts? 3. Are there any conflicts in this problem? 4. What are the consequences of the possible solutions? 5. Design alternate solutions to present to your engineering manager. 6. What should you do?

A Reasonable Care Model of Professional Responsibility

A person, S, is responsible for the harm he or she causes when his or her conduct fits the following pattern: (1) as a member of a profession, S has a duty to conform to the standard operating procedures of his or her profession, unless those standards are lower than those that a nonprofessional would adopt in a given situation, in which case S has a duty to conform to the higher standard: (2) at time t, action X conforms to the standard of reasonable care defined in (1); (3) S omits to perform X at time t, (ref. Curd and May, pg (4) Harm is caused to some person, P, as a15) result of Ss failure to do X.

Summary

Where you draw the line is your choice Corporate ethics begins with each person You can be held personally and legally responsible for your professional actions It is important to understand your companys attitude toward ethics - it should be a factor in your choice of employer
(ref. Curd and May, pg 15)

You might also like