17.1 Ethics: Understanding obligations

Question 1

What is ethics as described in everyday life?

Answer 1

Ethics is:

• the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and
• with moral duty and
• a set of moral principles or values
• a theory or system of moral values
• the principles of conduct governing an individual or group

Question 2

What is meant by a moral in everyday life?

Answer 2

Morals can be described as:

• of or relating to principles of right or wrong in behavior
• expressing or teaching a conception of right behavior

Question 3

What about ethics and morality makes our professional lives even more complicated?

Answer 3

Our professional lives are even more complicated because our responsibilities often involve obligations to many stakeholders, some of whom are obvious, some of whom are not.

Obvious stakeholders:

• clients
• users
• the immediately surrounding public

Less obvious stakeholders:

• government agencies
• professional societies

Question 4

What are some ways that morality is complicated in our professional lives?

Answer 4

Morality complications arise in the workplace when a client wants one thing, while a group of people affected by a design want something altogether different.

Further, those affected by a design may not even know how they are being affected until after the design is complete and has been implemented.

Question 5

What aspect of ethics is similar to our concern in conceptual design?

Answer 5

Our concern for mediating conflicting ethical obligations is similar to our concern in conceptual design

Question 6

How is our concern for mediating between conflicting ethical obligations similar to our concern in conceptual design?

Answer 6

The similarity between our concern for mediating between conflicting ethical obligations and conceptual design lies in that we must correctly assess the relative importance of the client’s objectives when they compete.

Question 7

Why does there not exist a formula or algorithm to apply to ethical and moral dilemmas/decisions?

Answer 7

There is no formula or algorithm to apply to ethical complications because the priorities we place on objectives are subjective in nature as is our personal assessment of the relative importance that we attach to our conflicting obligations.

Question 8

What provides a means of reconciling competing obligations?/ How are ethical problems solved?

Answer 8

Professional ethics and their expression in associated codes of ethics provide a means of reconciling such competing obligations.

Question 9

Consider the well-known case in which a group of engineers tried unsuccessfully to delay the launch of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. What was the ethical dilemma?

Answer 9

While severe doubt was expressed by some engineers about the safety of the Challenger’s O-rings because of the cold weather before the flight, the upper management of Morton-Thiokol, the company that made the Challenger’s booster rockets, and NASA approved the launch.

Question 10

How did management of Morton-Thiokol and NASA come to approve the Challenger launch despite engineer protest?

Answer 10

These managers determined that their concerns about Morton-Thiokol’s image and the stature and visibility of NASA’s shuttle program outweighed the judgments of the engineers closest to the booster design.

Question 11

What action did the Morton-Thiokol engineers take after their recommendations to delay the Challenger launch were dismissed?

Answer 11

Morton-Thiokol engineers ultimately publicized the dismissal of their recommendation not to launch by engaging in whistleblowing, wherein someone “blows the whistle” in order to stop a faulty decision made within a company, agency, or some other institution.

Question 12

Name two famous cases of whistleblowing in the field of engineering?

Answer 12

Two famous cases of whistleblowing in engineering include:

• the NASA Challenger incident
• the Air Force’s giant GSA cargo plane

Question 13

Who blew the whistle on the Air Force’s giant GSA cargo plane and Why?

Answer 13

An industrial engineer, Ernest Fitzgerald, blew the whistle on major cost overruns in the procurement of the Air Force’s giant GSA cargo plane.

Question 14

What action did the Air Force take against Ernest Fitzgerald for his whistleblowing?

Answer 14

The Air Force was so displeased with Fitzgerald’s actions that it took bureaucratic actions to keep him from further work on the plane:

1. The Air Force “lost” his Civil Service tenure
2. The Air Force reconstructed the part of the bureaucracy in which Fitzgerald had worked so as to eliminate his position!

Question 15

What was the final result of Ernest Fitzgerald’s whistleblowing in the Air Force GSA cargo plane case?

Answer 15

After an arduous and expensive legal battle, Fitzgerald earned a substantial settlement for wrongful termination and was reinstated in his position.

Question 16

What are some ethical dilemmas with whistleblowing?

Answer 16

“Doing what’s right” can be perceived quite differently within an organization. An engineer may well be faced with just the kind of clash of obligations that lies at the crux of any discussion of engineering ethics.

Question 17

What is the ethical position on whistleblowing or where does the answer lie?

Answer 17

Parts of the answer lies in:

• the roots of the engineer’s personal understanding of ethics
• the support of immediate professional colleagues and peers,

These have been seen to be very effective in both righting the perceived wrong and in sustaining the whistleblower.

Question 18

What are some primary sources of insight and guidance for ethical decisions?

Answer 18

Primary sources of insight and guidance are

• the professional engineering societies
• their codes of ethics.