Responsibilities Of An Engineer

Question 1

What are the main responsibilities of engineers?

Answer 1

Loyalty
Confidentiality
Respect for authority
Good behaviour (avoid conflicts of interest, avoid crimes, environmental, public safety)

Question 2

What are the 2 types of loyalty?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is collegiality?

Answer 3

Four elements:
1. Respect for colleagues
2. Commitment to overall good
3. Connectedness - awareness of shared commitments
4. Cooperation

Question 4

Is attitude loyalty an obligation?

Answer 4

No but can be a virtue. Can also be counterproductive if taken too far.

Question 5

How can loyalty be misplaced?

Answer 5

A company man, sometimes ethical issues set aside to protect organization (hiding illegal actions, sabotage competitors, falsify records)

Question 6

Why is loyalty important to the engineer and company?

Answer 6

Productivity
Maintain confidentiality
Promote teamwork
Exploiting investment
Workforce stability

Question 7

When is there a moral obligation to limit loyalty?

Answer 7

When professional duties should have a higher priority

Question 8

What are the 2 types of information?

Answer 8

Public (available to anyone)
Private (confidential, privileged, proprietary, trade secrets)

Question 9

What information should be kept private?

Answer 9

Test results/data
New product data
Product designs
Business information (people working on jobs, supplier id, marketing strategy, production costs)

Question 10

What is confidential information?

Answer 10

Any information it is desirable to keep secret, has some exploitable value for business purposes

Question 11

What is privileged information?

Answer 11

Available on the basis of special privilege, engineers often need it to do their job

Question 12

What is proprietary information?

Answer 12

Info the company owns and can be legally protected, usually an asset

Question 13

What are trade secrets?

Answer 13

Proprietary and other info the company wants to keep secret, not patented, protected by common law, little recourse if secret gets out

Question 14

What are patents?

Answer 14

Makes idea public but provides legal protection for a period (typically 20-year limit)

Question 15

Why might a company not file a patent?

Answer 15

Expensive to maintain and defend
Having patent doesn’t mean it doesn’t infringe on other patents

Question 16

When is confidentiality not to be maintained?

Answer 16

Public safety/interest overrides secrets
There are reasonable limits however

Question 17

What is authority and power?

Answer 17

Potential and resources to accomplish tasks, power is the capability to do so

Question 18

What are the 2 types of authority?

Answer 18

Institutional Authority - association with admin position
Expert Authority - accrues from specialized knowledge

Question 19

What are problems with institutional authority?

Answer 19

Some in these positions do not have expert authority, consultation with experts is important

Question 20

What is morally justified authority?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

When does respecting authority come second?

Answer 21

Lives are threatened
Financial corruption involved
Grave economic loss

Question 22

What is a conflict of interest?

Answer 22

Situations where professionals have an interest which may prevent them from meeting obligations to employers or clients

Question 23

What are the types of conflicts of interests?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

How can conflicts of interest be avoided?

Answer 24

Consult all parties
Consult company policies
Consult APEGS
Be completely open
Recuse yourself when required

Question 25

How should you check if something is a bribe or a gift?

Answer 25

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?

Question 26

What are occupational crimes?

Answer 26

Illegal but could be easy to do because of your job (espionage, price fixing, safety violations)