How Views on Ethical Issues by Engineers Vary with Job Titles

Engineering is a profession

A profession is a learned practice demanding systematic education and preparatory study on top of a resolution to a common good. Engineering is the inventive field of applying science for the welfare of all mankind and therefore is a profession.

The application of science knowledge has to consider the sense of obligation to provide good products and services. This responsibility also needs to judge producing a positive impact on society and the high-value of life. Because engineering is a profession, engineers must bear in mind the impact of their activities.

Need for ethical standards

Ethic may be expressed as "pertaining to virtue" and ethical as "in accordance with the system or principles for good conduct or practice, especially the values of a profession." As moral values may be swayed by the cultural values of the society, each profession therefore has to nurture its own set of standard rules so that there is a mutual perception of what practices are suitable and what are not. In this way, not only the members of the profession know which actions are good, others outside the profession will be able to know what to anticipate from the profession as well.

Ethical standards have limits

However, it is not probable to provide guidelines to cater to all situations. Therefore, there are times when they are shades of gray with no one right or wrong answer. In such predicaments, engineers must draw their best personal solutions. Many preferences will have equally important results. Diversed interest groups are influenced differently and to different extents.

Solutions to ethical conditions are seldom black or white issues. In making decisions when ethical predicaments arise, engineers need to be sensitive to how their decisions will hit different groups. What may make the selection making extra critical is that the options that are more ethical may put the engineers themselves, or their employer, at a unfavorable position.

An ethical dilemama situation

We shall demonstrate the predicaments often faced by engineers by refering to the well-known Challenger shuttle disaster case.

In order for the space shuttle to have enough power to escape from the gravitational force to reach the orbit, the shuttle's own rockets are enhanced by two booster rockets that use solid fuel. These solid-fuel boosters were made by Morton Thiokol. Due to the low temperature expected during the launch of the space shuttle, a teleconference was held the night before the launch between NASA officials and Thiokol managers and engineers. We can infer that all the representatives were either engineers or familiar with rocket science.

The original recommendation by Thiokol was not to launch the space vehicle until the temperature had risen to a high enough level so that the O-rings would be able to perform the sealing function. However, as a result of the displeasure by NASA representatives over the recommendation, it was changed to launch recommendation. Unfortunately, the space vehicle exploded soon after launch.

Let us review the quandary encountered by each of these three groups in this case:

Group 1 - NASA Representatives
Group 2 - Thiokol Officials
Group 3 - Thiokol Engineers

Dilemma of NASA managers

The NASA officials were under the stress to launch the space vehicle due to a couple of reasons. Further delay in the launch would strike the launches of next missions. Delay in the launch would result in more cost and made the shuttle project less economically profitable. The lauch date was critical as President Reagan would be making the State of the Union talk as the space shuttle was in orbit. Also, he was going to highlight the issues that centered about education, and what better time for the president to talk about education than when a teacher was in orbit?

On the other hand, NASA officials were not supplied with sufficient proof to conclude that the launch would be risky because of cold environment. Furthermore, they did specify the perfromance of the solid-fuel rocket boosters even at a cold condition, although not as low as what was expected during the launch.

Dilemma of Thiokol managers

Insisting on the no-launch recommendation would antangonize the company's connection with NASA officials and affects their prospect for further contracts. Furthermore, their engineers could only provide circumstantial evidence of the danger of cold condition on the perfromance of the O-rings but it was not very unambiguous.

Dilemma faced by thiokol engineers

Even they were aware of the unsatisfactory operation of the O-rings at cold environment, they did not have adequate time to prepare a very convincing case. Although they expressed strong protest to the change in the recommendation from no-launch to launch, they were over-ruled.

Conclusions

The perspectives of a situation depend substantially on the position a professional is in. Specifically, a young professional is commonly very apprehensive with the techical problems while as he climbs up the organizational ladder, he becomes more and more nervous with the business problems of the organization. When we teach engineering ethics, we have to analyze the worries faced by engineers at different levels of their professional lives.

Article Source: http://www.rightarticle.com

Jacob Gan PhD (Michigan) writes for www.succezz.com, www.JacobGan.com, www.JacobEducation.com, www.DemystifyCancer.com, www.understanding-orchids.com, www.motivate2success.com, www.JacobLearning.com and hosts Jacob.TheeLearningcentre.com, an elearning portal.

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