Why to Study ENGINEERING ETHICS
ENGINEERING ETHICS is a means to increase the ability of concerned engineers, managers, citizens and others to responsibly confront moral issues raised by technological activities.
FACTUAL (DESCRIPTIVE) INQUIRIES
These are inquiries used to uncover information using scientific techniques. These inquiries get to information about business realities, history of engineering profession, procedures used in assessment of risks and engineers psychology.
CONCEPTUAL INQUIRY
These questions should lead to clarifications on concepts, principles and issues in ethics. Examples are: A) What is ‘SAFETY’ and how is it related to ‘RISK’ B) ‘Protect the safety, health and welfare of public’-What does this statement mean? C) What is a bribe? D) What is a ‘profession’ and who are ‘professionals’?
NORMATIVE INQUIRY
These are about ‘what ought to be’ and ‘what is good’. These questions identify and also justify the morally desirable norms or standards. Some of the questions are: A. How far engineers are obligated to protect public safety in given situations? B. When should engineers start whistle blowing on dangerous practices of their employers? C. Whose values are primary in taking a moral decision, employee, public or govt? D. Why are engineers obligated to protect public safety? E. When is govt justified in interfering on such issues and why?
VARIETIES or APPROACHES OF MORAL ISSUES
MICRO-ETHICS emphasizes typically everyday problems that can take on significant proportions in an engineer’s life or entire engineering office. MACRO-ETHICS addresses societal problems that are often shunted aside and are not addressed until they unexpectedly resurface on a regional or national scale. MORAL PROBLEMS IN ENGINEERING (SOME EXAMPLES) 1.1. An inspector discovered faulty construction equipment and applied a violation tag, preventing its use. The supervisor, a construction manager viewed the case as a minor abrasion of the safety regulations and ordered the removal of the tag to speed up the project. When the inspector objected to this, he was threatened with disciplinary action. 1.2. An electric utility company applied for a permit to operate a nuclear power plant. The licensing agency was interested in knowing what emergency measures had been established for humans safety in case of reactor malfunctioning. The utility engineers described the alarm system and arrangements with local hospitals for treatment. They did not emphasize that this measures applied to plant personnel only and that they had no plans for the surrounding population. When enquired about their omission, they said it was not their responsibility. 1.3. A chemical plant dumped wastes in a landfill. Hazardous substances found their way into the underground water table. The plant’s engineers were aware of the situation but did not Change the method of disposal because their competitors did it the same cheap way, and no law explicitly forbade the practice. 1.4. Electronics Company ABC geared up for production of its own version of a popular new item. The product was not yet ready for sale, but even so, pictures and impressive specifications appeared in advertisements. Prospective customers were led to believe that it was available off the shelf and were drawn away from competing lines.
SENSES OF EXPRESSION OF ENGG. ETHICS
Ethics is an activity and area of inquiry. It is the activity of understanding moral values, resolving moral issues and the area of study resulting from that activity. When we speak of ethical problems, issues and controversies, we mean to distinguish them from non moral problems. Ethics is used to refer to the particular set of beliefs, attitudes and habits that a person or group displays concerning moralities. Ethics and its grammatical variants can be used as synonyms for ‘morally correct’.
CLEARLY WRONG ENGINEERING PRACTICES
Lying Deliberate deception Withholding information Failing to adequately promote the dissemination of information Failure to seek out the truth Revealing confidential or proprietary information Allowing one’s judgment to be corrupted.
QUESTIONABLE ENGINEERING PRACTICES
Trimming – “smoothing of irregularities to make data look extremely accurate and precise” Cooking – “retaining only those results that fit the theory and discarding others”. Forging – “inventing some or all of the research data…” Plagiarism – misappropriating intellectual property. Conflicts of interest (such as accepting gifts.) – actual – potential – apparent
IMPEDIMENTS TO RESPONSIBILITY
Self-interest. Fear. Self-deception. Ignorance. Egocentric tendencies. Microscopic vision. Groupthink.
TRAINING IN PREVENTIVE ETHICS
Stimulating the moral imagination Recognizing ethical issues Developing analytical skills Eliciting a sense of responsibility Tolerating disagreement and ambiguity
