Ethics & Values in Engineering Profession Short Notes Part-2

FUNDAMENTAL VALUES

Indians have developed four fundamental values about human life, which they have been practicing throughout the ages:

1. Essential divinity inherent in all life
2. Presence of divine motherhood in all women
3. Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man. The plurality of religion is only on the surface. At the spiritual core, there is an essential unity of all of them.
4. Civilization is the manifestation of divinity in human. That society is the most developed where the highest truths become practical.

As most of the codes of ethics say, the values of safety, health, and welfare of the public are paramount to an engineer. These values are discussed below:

Safety:

One of the main duties of an engineer is to ensure the safety of the people who will be affected by the products that he or she designs. The code of ethics of the professional engineering societies makes it clear that safety is of paramount importance to the engineer.

The Bhopal disaster, the gas leak incident in India, is considered as the world’s worst industrial disaster ever known to mankind. It is proven that the responsibility for safety, risk assessment, and ethical codes was an absent criterion in the UCIL plant.  Important lessons learned from the Bhopal incident would be that in professional ethics, responsibility for safety and risk assessment are the most important aspects that should be practiced in every establishment.

What is a safety?

Safety means freedom from damage, injury, or risk. The risk is the possibility of suffering harm or loss.

Responsibility of Engineers

• Safety should be an integral part of any engineering design
• No duty of the engineer is more important than her duty to protect the safety and well-being of the public 
• The risk is a key element in any engineering design which has to be minimized to the maximum possible extent

How to ensure safety?

• The engineering design must comply with the applicable laws
• The design must meet the standards of accepted engineering practice
• Any design alternatives that are potentially safer must be explored
• The risk-benefit analysis should be done to analyze risk and to determine whether a project should proceed
• The engineer must be aware of potential product misuses by the users and the design should be to avoid these misuses.
• Once the product is designed, both prototypes and devices should be tested.

Different types of accidents or risks are

1. Procedural Accidents:
   • Most common
   • Often caused by bad choice or failure to follow regulations or established procedures.
2. Engineered Accidents:
   • Caused by flaws in the design of a product or system.
3. Systemic Accidents:
   • Harder to understand and control.
   • Characteristic of complex technologies and systems.
4. Voluntary risk
   • Involvement of people in risky actions knowing that these actions are unsafe.

Health:

Public health is affected by many factors such as pollution, toxic elements, flawed design etc. So the engineers should

• Follow the quality standards, for example, the level of radiation from a cell phone device
• Minimize the emissions from industrial process
• Minimize the use of toxic materials for end products
• Adhere to the pollution standards for air, water, noise etc of the country
• Shall be objective and truthful in professional reports, statements, or testimonies
• Report to authority any potential risks

Public Welfare:

If the standards for safety and health are met, it will add to the public welfare. Apart from those public welfare includes

• Identify, define and address ethical, economic, cultural, legal and environmental issues related to work projects
• Be objective in issues permits for engineering projects
• Avoid illegal activities like hacking and cyber attacks etc
• Ensure Quality of services and products
  • Quality control is a system of maintaining standards in manufactured products by testing a sample of the output against the specification.
  • The quality in public services like Indian Engineering Services is expressed through the citizen’s charter

What is a citizen’s charter?

• Citizen’s Charter is a document which represents the commitment of the Organisation towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, Information, and Grievance Redress etc.
• It is a tool for facilitating the delivery of services to citizens with specified standards, quality and time frame etc.
• A good Citizen’s Charter should have the following components:-
  • Vision and Mission Statement of the Organisation
  • Details of Business transacted by the Organisation
  • Details of ‘Citizens’ or ‘Clients’
  • Statement of services including standards, quality, time frame etc. provided to each Citizen/ Client group separately and how/ where to get the services
  • Details of Grievance Redress Mechanism and how to access it
  • Expectations from the ‘Citizens’ or ‘Clients’
  • Additional commitments such as compensation in the event of failure of service delivery.

Universal Values:

There are five systems values or virtues that come from these. They contain all that makes a human being noble, caring and kind.

Right conduct: Right conduct is concerned with the maintenance of the body to serve us in performing the tasks of life.

Peace: Strong willpower is sufficiently strong to discern the differences between real needs and superfluous desires; we cease to be driven by the urge to own more and more things. Inner agitation stops and we remain peaceful.

Non-violence: Non-violence can be described as an act to restrain from violence. It sign of a well-integrated and well-balanced personality.

Truth: Learning to speak the truth is a first and vital step in the formation of a strong character. Telling lies hurts ourselves and others in a subtle but real way.

Love: Love is a spontaneous reaction of the heart. It is the power of love which causes one person to wish happiness for another and take pleasure in his or her well-being.

PERSONAL VALUES:

The codes of ethics also mention the personal values that an engineer should have. They are

• Integrity and honesty
• Impartiality, fairness, and equity
  • Impartiality is a principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons.
  • Fairness is defined as the quality of having an unbiased disposition
  • Equity is the quality of being fair and impartial
• Trustworthiness
• Confidentiality – of certain information belonging to their employer or client
• Privacy – important in cyberspace because of the number of personal records are stored on and transferred among computers, where the engineers have access and control
• Ethics in Research and Experimentation
• Conduct oneself honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully

The professional qualities that the code of ethics mandates are

• Competence – the ability to do something successfully or efficiently
• Provide service in their areas of competence only, being honest and forthright about any limitations of their experience and education
• Strive for high quality, acceptable cost, and a reasonable schedule
• Accept full responsibility for their own work
• Disclose to appropriate persons or authorities any actual or potential danger
• Cooperate in efforts to address matters of grave public concern etc
• Shall strive for professional development 

What is competence?

Is the essential knowledge, skills, and abilities without which an individual is not a qualified practitioner. It is an ability to do something, especially measured against a standard.

The four professional development core competency areas are:

1. Communication Literacy
2. Personal and Professional Management
3. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills
4. Technical Literacy

The personal competence includes Self-Awareness, Emotional competence, accurate self-assessment, Self-confidence and Self-Management.

ETHICAL ISSUES:

The common ethical issues or dilemmas faced by engineers are, 

• Public Safety
  • The engineer has an obligation to the employer but also to protect the society. Sometimes he or she may be forced to neglect the safety checks to meet with the production targets.
  • Ex-Galaxy Note 7 launched to be in direct competition with the iPhone 7 and Pixel. However, batteries started exploding and devices caught fire while charging.
• Corruption, Bribery, and Fraud – Corruption is dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power
  • An engineer may be bribed to give a permit to a potentially harmful project
  • Ex – giving permissions for real estate in environmentally sensitive areas and for constructions not following the design standards
• Environmental Protection 
  • Generally, the engineering goals and environmental goals are conflicting
  • Engineers today are grappling with the ethical dilemmas posed by the conflicts between the economic and environmental requirements of their work
  • Ex-Power generation using fossil fuels
• Fairness „
  • An engineer’s decisions will have an impact on a variety of different groups of people.
  • As a professional an engineers have a duty to treat all of these people fairly.
  • It is sometimes difficult to identify exactly who will be affected by a particular decision, and what their interests are
• Honesty in Research and Testing „
  • Ex- Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal – the company rigged the air pollution tests
• Conflict of Values and Conflict of Interest
  • There exist conflicts between the professional values of engineering and business values (discussed in the next section)
  • Conflict of Interest(CoI) is often a common issue faced by many people in their profession where one’s professional interests come in conflict with personal interests.
  • Conflict of Interest will undermine the concept of fairness
• Whistleblowing
  • Whistleblowing has drawn so much attention in engineering
  • The technical knowledge and organizational positions of engineers enable them to detect serious moral problems that affect the public welfare
  • Sometimes they cannot bring appropriate attention to serious problems they detect unless they can convince others to react
  • Whistleblowing so naturally comes up as an option for engineers
  • But it is recommended as a last resort
  • So the skills of persuading, negotiating, and allying with colleagues that support other options are important

Work Ethics:

An organizational environment should foster ethical decision making by institutionalizing ethics. This means applying ethical concepts in daily action. This can be accomplished in three ways:

• Establish a code of ethics
• Appointing formed ethical committee in an organization to look after ethical issues
• Teaching ethics in academic institutions in training programmes
• “Ethics” or “morals”
  • Means those habits or customs that are standards of good conduct or character.
  • Ethics is a discipline we freely embrace that regulates our baser instincts so as to promote a harmonious community and thereby reduce conflict and disorder.
• Ethics is Not Religion
  • Many people are atheist or agnostic but may adhere to high ethical principles.
• Ethics is not following the law
  • Immanuel Kant distinguished that in law, a man is guilty when he violates the rights of another. In ethics, he is guilty if he thinks of doing so.
• Scope of ethics
  • The scope covers the questions of where duties are owed and in what circumstances they arise.

CONFLICTS OF VALUES:

As a result of the concurrent development of engineering as a profession and technology-driven corporations, there exist conflicts between the professional values of engineering and business values of corporations.

• The professionals' value autonomy, collegial control, and social responsibility, while businesses emphasize loyalty, conformity, and the overarching goal of improving the bottom line.
• This tension is exacerbated when the career paths of engineers lead to management positions.
• In the past conflict between self-interest and public interest was seldom a problem for engineers, since engineering works were almost synonymous with human progress.
• Today environmental issues have created a divergence between self-interest, employer interest, professional interest, and public interest.
• Thus engineers today are grappling with the ethical dilemmas posed by everyday conflicts between the economic and environmental requirements of their work.

Comparison of Ethics with Standard Experiments:

Before delivering any project, the engineer must ensure that their product is subjected to best safety standards. Even when the product is delivered, its continuous monitoring is needed, to ensure that it does not creates risk for the users or consumers.

• Experiential Learning
• Engineering as a Social
• Experiment Engineers as leaders and administrators
• Being Accountable

Role and Responsibilities of Engineers:

Engineering professions demand safe products and services because we do not wish to be threatened by potential harm, but we also realize that we may have to pay for this safety. 

ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL BODIES:

The role of professional engineering societies has been limited largely to developing codes of ethics. Professional societies, however, could potentially serve as a conduit to bring together the entire continuum of ethical frameworks by linking individual and professional ethics and linking professional and social ethics. In the domain of macro-ethics, professional societies can provide a link between the social responsibilities of the profession and societal decisions about technology by issuing position statements on public policy issues, such as sustainable development

For example, the engineering community reacted to Agenda 21 by establishing the World Engineering Partnership for Sustainable Development (WEPSD) in 1992. Recently, some engineering societies have included the social objective in the role of engineering in the realization of sustainable development.

The leaders of professional societies can be agents of change in the engineering culture.

Code of Ethics for Engineers

Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:

1. Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
2. Perform services only in areas of their competence.
3. Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.
4. Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.
5. Avoid deceptive acts.
6. Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession.
7. Rules of Practice
8. Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
9. Engineers shall perform services only in the areas of their competence.
10. Engineers shall issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.
11. Engineers shall act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.
12. Engineers shall avoid deceptive acts.

Professional Obligations

1. Engineers shall be guided in all their relations by the highest standards of honesty and integrity.
2. Engineers shall at all times strive to serve the public interest
3. Engineers shall avoid all conduct or practice that deceives the public.
4. Engineers shall not disclose, without consent, confidential information concerning the business affairs or technical processes of any present or former client or employer, or public body on which they serve. 5. Engineers shall not be influenced in their professional duties by conflicting interests.
5. Engineers shall not attempt to obtain employment or advancement or professional engagements by untruthfully criticizing other engineers, or by other improper or questionable methods.
6. Engineers shall not attempt to injure, maliciously or falsely, directly or indirectly, the professional reputation, prospects, practice, or employment of other engineers. Engineers who believe others are guilty of unethical or illegal practice shall present such information to the proper authority for action.
7. Engineers shall accept personal responsibility for their professional activities, provided, however, that engineers may seek indemnification for services arising out of their practice for other than gross negligence, where the engineer’s interests cannot otherwise be protected.
8. Engineers shall give credit for engineering work to those to whom credit is due and will recognize the proprietary interests of others.

CASE STUDIES:

Case Study 1 – Conflict of Values

A Quality Assurance Engineer at a large electronics company responsible for the final testing of her company’s servers. Because there is such a short amount of time between the release of each next new product, the Quality, and Assurance department cannot perform every possible test on the servers to ensure they are defect free. The engineer decided that she will ship a product that has a likelihood of failure resulting in data loss for the customer because she knows that if she doesn’t, her company’s competitor will.

• Is this an ethical way to conduct business?

Case Study 2 – Privacy and Confidentiality

A commercial network operator collects personal information and sells it to companies for telemarketers without informed consent.

• Are such practices permitted?
• If users have granted permission for redistribution, can he do so?
• How is this situation similar to and/or different from supermarkets that track customer purchases and preferences through various means?

Case Study 3 – Miscommunication

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

While reentering Earth’s atmosphere the shuttle unexpectedly disintegrated, resulting in the death of all seven astronauts on board. The cause was later discovered to be damage to thermal shielding tiles from impact with a falling piece of foam insulation of an external tank during launch. It was the seventh known instance of this particular piece breaking free during launch. NASA’s investigation team found melted aluminum on the thermal tiles and inside edges of the left wing of the spacecraft, supporting the notion that the Columbia’s destruction was due to hot gases that penetrated the damaged spot on the wing. Mission control deemed that foam shedding was a not a safety factor prior to launch, believed damage of the shuttle panels were not a significant issue. It was not until January 24, 2003, that mission control had classified the damage as a problematic issue. These missteps in communication between mission control and the debris assessment team inhibited a proper examination of the damages to the spacecraft.

• Is good communication a part of professional ethics?

Case Study 4 – Responsibility

The Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailed with 14 coaches of the train jumped off the track. The derailment could have been caused by the ongoing repair work on the rail line; station master insists he was not informed about any maintenance.

• Is the officer’s responsibility to ensure safety, is a part of work ethics?

Case Study 5 – Macro ethics

The making of the atom bomb

During II world war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a crash program to develop an atomic bomb. In May 1942 J. Robert Oppenheimer was invited to take over work on fast neutron calculations, a task that Oppenheimer threw himself into with full vigor. This resulted in the first ever atom bomb explosion. After the war, Oppenheimer lobbied for international control of nuclear power to avert nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race.

• Will you justify the work of J. Robert Oppenheimer?

Case Study 6 – Design failure

1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

At the time the world’s third-longest suspension bridge crossed a strait of Puget Sound near Tacoma, Wash. A few months after its opening, high winds caused the bridge to fail in a roar of twisted metal and shattered concrete.

• The accident here is an example of?

Case Study 7 – Risk Assesment

Following a major earthquake, a 15-meter tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident on 11 March 2011. All three cores largely melted in the first three days.

• Is this accident a failure of engineering ethics?

Case Study 8 (UPSC 2013) – Conflict of Values

You are working as an Executive Engineer in the construction cell of a Municipal Corporation and are presently in charge of the construction of a flyover. There are two Junior Engineers under you who have the responsibility of day-to-day inspection of the site and are reporting to you, while you are finally reporting to the Chief Engineer who heads the cell. While the construction is heading towards completion, the Junior Engineers have been regularly reporting that all construction is taking place as per design specifications. However, in one of your surprise inspections, you have noticed some serious deviations and lacunae which, in your opinion, are likely to affect the safety of the flyover. Rectification of these lacunae at this stage would require a substantial amount of demolition and rework which will cause a tangible loss to the contractor and will also delay completion. There is a lot of public pressure on the Corporation to get this construction completed because of heavy traffic congestion in the area. When you brought this matter to the notice of the Chief Engineer, he advised you that in his opinion it is not a very serious lapse and may be ignored. He advised for further expediting the project for completion in time. However, you are convinced that this was a serious matter which might affect public safety and should not be left unaddressed.
What will you do in such a situation? Some of the options are given below. Evaluate the merits and demerits of each of these options and finally suggest what course of action you would like to take, giving reasons. 

1. Follow the advice of the Chief Engineer and go ahead.
2. Make an exhaustive report of the situation bringing out all facts and analysis along with your own viewpoints stated clearly and seek for written orders from the Chief Engineer.
3. Call for an explanation from the Junior Engineers and issue orders to the contractor for necessary correction within targeted time.
4. Highlight the issue so that it reaches superiors above the Chief Engineer.
5. Considering the rigid attitude of the Chief Engineer, seek a transfer from the project or report sick.

Case Study 9 (UPSC 2013) – Conflict of Interest

You are heading a leading technical institute of the country. The institute is planning to convene an interview panel shortly under your chairmanship for selection of the post of professors. A few days before the interview, you get a call from the Personal Secretary (PS) of a senior government functionary seeking your intervention in favor of the selection of a close relative of the functionary for this post. The PS also informs you that he is aware of the long pending and urgent proposals of your institute for grant of funds for modernization, which are awaiting the functionary’s approval. He assures you that he would get these proposals cleared.

1. What are the options available to you?
2. Evaluate each of these options and choose the option which you would adopt, giving reasons

Case Study 10 (UPSC 2016) – Whistle Blowing

A fresh engineering graduate gets a job in the prestigious chemical industry. She likes the work. The salary is also good. However, after a few months accidentally discovers that highly toxic waste is being secretly discharged into a river nearby. This is causing health problems to the villagers downstream who depend on the river for their water needs. She is perturbed and mentions her concern to her colleagues who have been with the company for longer periods. They advise her to keep quite as anyone who mentions the topic is summarily dismissed. She cannot risk losing her job as she is the sole bread-winner for her family and has to support her ailing parents and siblings.
At first, she thinks that if her seniors are keeping quiet, why should she stick out her neck. But her conscience pricks her to do something to save the river and the people who depend upon it. At heart, she feels that the advice of silence given by her friends is not correct though she cannot give reasons for it. She thinks you are a wise person and seeks your advice.

1. What arguments can you advance to show her that keeping quiet is not morally right?
2. What course of action would you advise her to adopt and why?

Case Study 11 – Macro ethics

Elon Musk recently commented on Twitter that artificial intelligence (AI) is more dangerous than North Korea. It’s not the first time that the entrepreneur has warned about the dangers of AI.

• Should we all be afraid as he is?
• Will AI lead to a huge disaster or robot takeover that destroys humanity?