Engineering Ethics
Lecturer : Hafiza Sana Munir
IB&M UET, Lahore
Engineers in
Organizations

 Responsibility has to do with accountability, both for what one does in the
 present and future and for what one has done in the past.
 The responsibilities of engineers require not only adhering to regulatory
norms
 and standard practices of engineering but also satisfying the standard of
reasonable
 care.
 Engineers can expect to be held accountable, if not legally liable, for
intentionally,
 negligently, and recklessly caused harms.
 Responsible engineering practice requires good judgment, not simply
following
 algorithms.
 A good test of engineering responsibility is the question: What does an
engineer
 do when no one is looking? This makes evident the importance of trust in
 the work of engineers.
 Responsible engineering requires taking into account various challenges to
Main Ideas in This Chapter

Engineers in Organizations
Engineers are not their own bosses, and
they are expected to defer to
recognized authority in their
organizations.

ENGINEERS AND MANAGERS
 There is a natural conflict between management and
professionals because of their differences in educational
background, socialization, values, vocational interests, work
habits, and outlook.
 Engineers often experience a conflict between loyalty to
their employer and loyalty to their profession.
As per Engineering codes of ethics prior to the 1970s,
 Most engineers want to be loyal employees (faithful agents)
 Engineers have a more fundamental obligation, namely that
they must hold paramount the health, safety, and welfare of
the public

BOX 4.1 Engineers and
Management
 Engineers have a dominant obligation to
protect the health, safety, and welfare of the
public.
 Some engineers may aspire to become
managers. This does not change their
supreme obligation as engineers.

ENGINEERS AND MANAGERS
 Managers do not really understand the
engineering issues (Communication barrier)
 Dual roles of engineer and Manager (Create
Conflict)

BOX 4.2 Primary Trade-offs
 Some managers prefer to think in terms of trade-
offs between moral principles, on the one hand,
and expediency, on the other hand.
 Most managers have concerns for the well being
of the organization. Organizational well-being is
measured primarily in financial terms, but it also
includes a good public image and relatively
conflict free operation.
 Organizational culture is generally set at the
top levels of management.

BEING MORALLY RESPONSIBLE IN AN
ORGANIZATION
 The Importance of Organizational Culture
 Engineers must first have some understanding of
the organization in which they are employed.
 This knowledge helps them to understand
(1) how they and their managers tend to frame
issues under the influence of the organization and
(2) how one can act in the organization effectively,
safely, and, one hopes, in a morally responsible
way.

BEING MORALLY RESPONSIBLE IN AN
ORGANIZATION
 Organizational culture
Shared Values, Norms
 It is generally agreed that organizational culture is
set at the top of an organization by high-level
managers, by the president or CEO of the
organization, by directors, and sometimes by
owners.
 A mindset, a filter through which participants view their
world.
 If this filter is strongly rooted in an organizational
culture of which one is a part, it has an even more

BEING MORALLY RESPONSIBLE IN AN
ORGANIZATION
 Some use the term organizational scripts or
schemas to refer to the way an organization
conditions its members to view the world in a
certain way, seeing some things and not seeing
others

Some Recommendations
 First, engineers and other employees should be
encouraged to report bad news.
 Second, companies and their employees should
adopt a position of critical loyalty rather than
uncritical or blind loyalty.
 Third, when making criticisms and suggestions,
employees should focus on issues rather than
personalities.
 Fourth, written records should be kept of
suggestions and especially of complaints.

Some Recommendations
 Fifth, complaints should be kept as confidential as
possible for the protection of both the individuals
involved and the firm
 Sixth, provisions should be made for neutral
participants from outside the organization when the
dispute requires it.
 Seventh, made provision for protection from
retaliation should be made, with mechanisms for
complaint if an employee believes he or she has
experienced retaliation.
 Eighth, the process for handling organizational

PROPER ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT
DECISIONS
Functions of Engineers and Managers
 The primary function of engineers within an organization is to
use their technical knowledge and training to create
structures, products, and processes that are of value to the
organization and its customers.
 Engineers are also professionals and their profession has
decided should guide the use of their technical knowledge
 Thus, engineers have a dual loyalty to the organization and
to their profession
 Their professional loyalties go beyond their immediate
employer

PROPER ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT
DECISIONS
 The engineers obligations include meeting the standards
usually associated with good design, accepted engineering
practice, quality, safety and efficiency.
Managers Functions
 Manager’s function is to direct the activities of the
organization, including many of the activities of engineers.
 Managers view themselves as custodians of the
organization and are primarily concerned with its current
and future well-being.
 Managers feel strong pressure to keep costs down and may
believe engineers sometimes go too far in pursuing safety

Proper Engineering and Proper
Management Decisions

Proper Engineering Decision (PED):
It is a decision that should be made by
engineers
or at least governed by professional engineering
standards because it either involves technical
matters that require engineering expertise or falls
within the ethical standards embodied in engineering
codes, especially those that require engineers to
protect the health and safety of the public

Proper Management Decision
(PMD):
It is a decision that should be made by
managers or at least governed by management
considerations because it involves factors relating
to the well-being of the organization, such as cost,
scheduling, and marketing, and employee morale
or welfare; and the decision does not force
engineers (or other professionals) to make
unacceptable compromises with their own technical
or ethical standards.

Preliminary remarks about these
characterizations of engineering and
management decisions
 Decisions is made in terms of the standards and practices
 Management standards should not override engineering
standards
 A legitimate management decision not only must not force
engineers to violate their professional practices and standards
but also must not force other professionals to do so either.
 Engineers should be expected to give advice, even in
decisions properly made by managers.
 Even if there are no fundamental problems with safety,
engineers may have important contributions with respect to
such issues as improvements in design, alternative designs,
and ways to make a product more attractive.

BOX 4.5
Engineers Advising Managers
 As best they can, engineers need to forewarn
managers of the problems that may lie ahead and
advise them of available alternatives.
 This requires the exercise of engineering
imagination and the employment of good
communication skills with those who may not
have their engineering expertise

Paradigmatic and Nonparadigmatic
Examples