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L2 Responsibility

Responsibility is linked to the roles one has and the expectations that come with those roles. Some key roles include parent, employee, engineer, expert, and colleague. As an engineer, one has a professional responsibility to carry out work competently within moral limits. Passive responsibility involves being accountable for one's actions and able to justify decisions. To be blameworthy for consequences, one generally must have contributed causally to the consequences, been able to foresee the consequences, and have had freedom of action when making decisions.

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Md. Nuh Islam 210041108
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9 views2 pages

L2 Responsibility

Responsibility is linked to the roles one has and the expectations that come with those roles. Some key roles include parent, employee, engineer, expert, and colleague. As an engineer, one has a professional responsibility to carry out work competently within moral limits. Passive responsibility involves being accountable for one's actions and able to justify decisions. To be blameworthy for consequences, one generally must have contributed causally to the consequences, been able to foresee the consequences, and have had freedom of action when making decisions.

Uploaded by

Md. Nuh Islam 210041108
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Responsibility

Responsibility is often linked to the role that you have in a particular situation. In the Challenger case
Boisjoly fulfilled the role of engineer and not that of, for example, family member. You often have to fulfil
a number of roles simultaneously such as those of friend, parent, citizen, employee, engineer, expert and
colleague. In a role you have a relationship with others, for instance, as an employee you have a
relationship with your employer, as an expert you have a relationship with your customers and as a
colleague you have relationships with other colleagues. Each role brings with it certain responsibilities. A
parent, for example, is expected to care for his child. In the role of employee it is expected that you will
execute your job properly, as laid down in collaboration with your employer; in the role of expert it will
be presumed that you furnish your customer with information that is true and relevant and in the role of
colleague you will be expected to behave in a collegial fashion with others in the same work situation. An
engineer is expected to carry out his work in a competent way.

Professional responsibility is the responsibility that is based on your role as professional engineer in as far
it stays within the limits of what is morally allowed. Professional responsibilities are not just passive but
they also contain an active component (see next reading). We will examine the content of the professional
responsibility of engineers in more detail.

Passive responsibility

Typical for passive responsibility is that the person who is held responsible must be able to provide an
account why he followed a particular course of action and why he made certain decisions. In particular,
the person is held to justify his/her actions towards those who are in a position to demand that the
individual in question accounts for his/her actions. We will call this type of passive responsibility
accountability. Passive responsibility often involves not just accountability but also blameworthiness.
Blameworthiness means that it is proper to blame someone for his/her actions or the consequences of
those actions. You are not always blameworthy for the consequences of your actions or for your actions
themselves. Usually, four conditions need to apply:

1. Wrong-doing. Whenever one blames a person or institution one usually maintains that in carrying out
a certain action the individual or the institution in question has violated a norm or did something wrong.
This can be a legal or moral norm, or that is common in the organization.

2. Causal contribution. The person who is held responsible must have made a causal contribution to the
consequences for which he or she is held responsible.

3. Foreseeability. A person who is held responsible for something must have been able to know the
consequences of his or her actions. The consequences are the harm actually arising from transgressing a
norm.
4. Freedom of Action. The one who is held responsible must have had freedom of action, i.e. he or she
must not have acted under compulsion. Individuals are either not responsible or are responsible to a lesser
degree if they are, for instance, coerced to take certain decisions.

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