Responsibilities Of An Engineer Flashcards
What are the main responsibilities of engineers?
Loyalty
Confidentiality
Respect for authority
Good behaviour (avoid conflicts of interest, avoid crimes, environmental, public safety)
What are the 2 types of loyalty?
Agency: what is owed to employer wrt your job, contractual duties for which you are paid
Identification (Attitude): do your job to best of your abilities, id with goals of organization
What is collegiality?
Four elements:
1. Respect for colleagues
2. Commitment to overall good
3. Connectedness - awareness of shared commitments
4. Cooperation
Is attitude loyalty an obligation?
No but can be a virtue. Can also be counterproductive if taken too far.
How can loyalty be misplaced?
A company man, sometimes ethical issues set aside to protect organization (hiding illegal actions, sabotage competitors, falsify records)
Why is loyalty important to the engineer and company?
Productivity
Maintain confidentiality
Promote teamwork
Exploiting investment
Workforce stability
When is there a moral obligation to limit loyalty?
When professional duties should have a higher priority
What are the 2 types of information?
Public (available to anyone)
Private (confidential, privileged, proprietary, trade secrets)
What information should be kept private?
Test results/data
New product data
Product designs
Business information (people working on jobs, supplier id, marketing strategy, production costs)
What is confidential information?
Any information it is desirable to keep secret, has some exploitable value for business purposes
What is privileged information?
Available on the basis of special privilege, engineers often need it to do their job
What is proprietary information?
Info the company owns and can be legally protected, usually an asset
What are trade secrets?
Proprietary and other info the company wants to keep secret, not patented, protected by common law, little recourse if secret gets out
What are patents?
Makes idea public but provides legal protection for a period (typically 20-year limit)
Why might a company not file a patent?
Expensive to maintain and defend
Having patent doesn’t mean it doesn’t infringe on other patents
When is confidentiality not to be maintained?
Public safety/interest overrides secrets
There are reasonable limits however
What is authority and power?
Potential and resources to accomplish tasks, power is the capability to do so
What are the 2 types of authority?
Institutional Authority - association with admin position
Expert Authority - accrues from specialized knowledge
What are problems with institutional authority?
Some in these positions do not have expert authority, consultation with experts is important
What is morally justified authority?
Institutions can direct engineers to do not morally justified actions, engineers have an institutional o ligation but a moral and professional obligation to not do so
When does respecting authority come second?
Lives are threatened
Financial corruption involved
Grave economic loss
What is a conflict of interest?
Situations where professionals have an interest which may prevent them from meeting obligations to employers or clients
What are the types of conflicts of interests?
Actual - situation where conflict exists rn
Potential - conflict has potential of occurring in the future
Apparent - may not be a conflict but appears to be from another perspective
How can conflicts of interest be avoided?
Consult all parties
Consult company policies
Consult APEGS
Be completely open
Recuse yourself when required
How should you check if something is a bribe or a gift?
Check company policy
Declare that a gift is to be received
Say no if in doubt
Will acceptance be a bribe?
Will acceptance cause harm to the company or your reputation?
What are occupational crimes?
Illegal but could be easy to do because of your job (espionage, price fixing, safety violations)
