PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN ENGINEERING: AN INDUSTRY

PERSPECTIVE

AJESH FAIZAL
Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Musaliar College of
Engineering,
Pathanamthitta, India

ASWATHY S U
Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jyothi Engineering College,
Thrissur, India

ROY V I
Professor, Department of Basic Science, Jyothi Engineering College, Thrissur, India
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The endless thanks go to The Lord Almighty for all the blessings he has showered onto us, in
the process of putting this book together.
We sincerely offer deepest gratitude and thanks to Rev. Fr. Roy Joseph Vadakkan, Secretary &
Campus Head, Jyothi Engineering College and Rev. DR. Jose Kannampuzha, Director of
Academics, Jyothi Engineering College, Mr. P I Sherief Muhammedh, Chairman, Musaliar Group
of Institutions, Prof. Jaya Prasad, Dean, Musalair College of Engineering, Pathanmthitta for
their constant guidance and encouragement to accomplish this book.
Also, we would like to thank our colleagues for their support and encouragement that they have
given us. It provides us with a great opportunity to look back, and thank to all those who have
been directly or indirectly instrumental in successful completion of this book

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 CONTENTS
UNIT No. TITLE PAGE No.

1 ENGINEERING ETHICS 1
1.1 Senses of Engineering Ethics 1
1.2 Variety of moral issues 2
1.3 Types of inquiry 3
1.4 Moral dilemmas 4
1.5 Moral Autonomy 7
1.6 Kohlberg’s theory 8
1.7 Gilligan’s theory 9
1.8 Consensus and Controversy 14
1.9 Professions and Professionalism 17
1.10 Professional Ideals and Virtues 19
1.11 Uses of Ethical Theories 21
2 ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION 27

2.1 Engineering as Experimentation 27

2.2 Engineers as responsible Experimenters 31
2.3 Research Ethics 33
2.4 Codes of Ethics 34
2.5 Industrial Standards 37
2.6 A Balanced Outlook on Law 38
2.7 The Challenger Case Study 39
2.8 Engineering Experiments with Standard Experiments 41
3 ENGINEER’S RESPONSIBILITY FOR SAFET 43
3.1 Safety and Risk 43
3.2 Assessment of Safety and Risk 44
3.3 Risk Benefit Analysis 45
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 3.4 Reducing Risk 46
3.5 Chernobyl Case Studies and Bhopal 46
3.6 Difficulties in Establishing Safeguards 50
4 RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS 51
4.1 Collegiality and Loyalty 51
4.2 Respect for Authority 52
4.3 Collective Bargaining 53
4.4 Confidentiality 55
4.5 Conflicts of Interest 56
4.6 Occupational Crime 58
4.7 Professional Rights 59
4.8 Employee Rights 63
4.9 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) 64
4.10 Discrimination 65
5 GLOBAL ISSUES 66
5.1 Multinational Corporations 66
5.2 Environmental Ethics 67
5.3 Computer Ethics 72
5.4 Role in Technological Development 73
5.5 Weapons Development 78
5.6 Engineers as Managers 81
5.7 Consulting Engineers 82
5.8 Engineers as Expert Witnesses and Advisors 83
5.9 Honesty 85
5.10 Moral Leadership 87
5.11 Sample Code of Conduct 88
6 QUESTION BANK 89
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 UNIT -1
ENGINEERING ETHICS

OVERVIEW
Engineering Ethics is the activity and discipline aimed at
(a) understanding the moral values that ought to guide engineering profession or practice,
(b) resolving moral issues in engineering, and
(c) justifying the moral judgments in engineering. It deals with set of moral problems and issues
connected with engineering.
Engineering ethics is defined by the codes and standards of conduct endorsed by
engineering(professional)societies with respect to the particular set of beliefs, attitudes and habits
displayed by the individual or group. Another important goal of engineering ethics is the discovery
of the set of justified moral principles of obligation, rights and ideals that ought to be endorsed by
the engineers and apply them to concrete situations. Engineering is the largest profession and the
decisions and actions of engineers affect all of us in almost all areas of our lives, namely public
safety, health, and welfare.
SCOPE

The scopes of engineering ethics are twofold:

1. Ethics of the workplace which involves the co-workers and employees in an organization.
2. Ethics related to the product or work which involves the transportation, warehousing, and use,
besides the safety of the end product and the environment outside the factory.

APPROACH
There are conventionally two approaches in the study of ethics:
1. Micro-ethics which deals with decisions and problems of individuals, professionals, and
companies.
2. Macro-ethics which deals with the societal problems on a regional/national level. For example,
global issues, collective responsibilities of groups such as professional societies and consumer
groups.

1.1 SENSES OF ENGINEERING ETHICS

There are two different senses (meanings) of engineering ethics, namely the Normative and the
Descriptive senses. The normative sense includes:
(a) Knowing moral values, finding accurate solutions to moral problems and justifying moral
judgments in engineering practices,
(b) Study of decisions, policies, and values that are morally desirable in the engineering practice and
research, and
Using codes of ethics and standards and applying them in their transactions by engineers. The
descriptive sense refers to what specific individual or group of engineers believe an act, without
justifying their beliefs or actions.

1.2 MORALITY AND MORAL ISSUES

What is morality?
✓ The word morality is concerned with:
• What morally ought or ought not to be given in a given situation;
• What is morally right or wrong an out the handling of the situation; and/or
• What is morally good or bad about the people, policies, and ideals involved in it?
✓ According to the Oxford dictionary, morality means principles concerning right and
wrong or good and bad behavior.
✓ Moral reasons are required to support an act (or an ideal) to be called as morally right act
(or an ideal is moral)

VARIETY OF MORAL ISSUES

Approaches to engineering ethics. There are two different approaches of engineering ethics.
1. Micro-ethics: this approach addresses typical, everyday problems that the engineers face
in their professional life. In other words, micro-ethics describes ethical issues that may
affect an engineer ‘s professional and personal life.
2. Macro-ethics: this approach deals with all societal problems that engineers encounter
during their career. In other words, macro-ethics discusses ethical issues concerning all
societal problems that engineers might encounter.
Where and how do moral problems arise in engineering? (contexts of professional disagreements
faced by engineers). Engineers carry out various activities and decision-making exercises involving
technical, financial, managerial, environmental, and ethical issues. There are many situations and
moral issues that cause professional disagreements among engineers. The varieties of moral issues
are:
1. Organization oriented issues
✓ Being an employee to firm, the engineer has to work towards the achievement of
the objectives of his/her organization.
✓ Engineers have to give higher priority to the benefits of the organization than one
‘s own benefits.
✓ Engineers should be able to work collectively with colleagues and other members
in order to achieve firm’s goals.

2. Clients or customers-oriented issues

✓ As we know, the purpose of any business is to reach and satisfy the end users.
Therefore, the customers ‘requirements should be met.
 ✓ In this regard, engineers have a major role to play in identifying the ‗customer
voice ‘, and incorporating the voice of the customer into the product design and
manufacture.
✓ Apart from engineering technicality issues, engineers also should face other moral
and ethical issues with clients/customers.

3. Competitors oriented issues

✓ In order to withstand in a market, engineers should produce things better than
their competitors by all means.
✓ But engineers should not practice cut-throat competition. They should follow
certain professional behavior while facing their competitors.
✓ Thus, engineers should hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the
customers in the performance of their professional duties.

4. Law, government and public agencies-oriented issues

✓ The engineers should obey and voluntarily comply with all the governmental rules
and regulations related to them.
✓ They should also respect and honestly practice all other similar laws, policies, and
regulations.

5. Professional societies-oriented issues

✓ The engineers should follow strictly the various codes of ethics by various
professional societies such as National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE),
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and American
Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), in order to perform standard
professional behavior.
✓ Professional codes of ethics reflect basic norms ‘of conduct that exist within a
particular professional and provide general guidance relating to a variety of
issues.

6. Social and environmental oriented issues

✓ Since the works of engineers have a direct and vital impact on the quality of life
for all people, the engineers should be dedicating to the protection of the public
health, safety and welfare.
✓ Also, engineers need to be aware the releasements of experimenters. They should
have a united commitment in protecting the environment. They should not involve
in any unethical environmental issues such as misusing scarce resources, and
fouling environment.

7. Family oriented issues

✓ As a human being and the member of a family, the engineers do have family
obligations to take care the needs of their family members. But they should not
 take any decisions for their own benefits at the cost of public, clients, or
employers.
Thus, the above discussion explains how the ethical problems often arise in the engineering
profession

1.2 TYPES OF INQUIRIES

1. NORMATIVE INQUIRY

These are about ‘what ought to be’ and ‘what is good’. These questions identify and also justify
the morally desirable norms or standards. Some of the questions are:

a. How far engineers are obligated to protect public safety in given situations?
b. When should engineers start whistle blowing on dangerous practices of their employers?
c. Whose values are primary in taking a moral decision, employee, public or govt?
d. Why are engineers obligated to protect public safety?
e. When is govt justified in interfering on such issues and why?

2. CONCEPTUAL INQUIRY

These questions should lead to clarifications on concepts, principles and issues in ethics. Examples
are:

a. What is ‘SAFETY’ and how is it related to’ RISK’

b. ‘Protect the safety, health and welfare of public’-What does this statement mean?
c. What is a bribe?
d. What is a ‘profession’ and who are’ professionals’?

3. FACTUAL (DESCRIPTIVE) INQUIRIES

These are inquiries used to uncover information using scientific techniques. These inquiries get to
information about business realities, history of engineering profession, procedures used in
assessment of risks and engineer’s psychology.

Why study ENGINEERING ETHICS

ENGINEERING ETHICS is a means to increase the ability of concerned engineers, managers,

citizens and others to responsibly confront moral issues raised by technological activities.

1.3 MORAL DILEMMAS

There are three types of complexities.

 a. VAGUENESS: This complexity arises due to the fact that it is not clear to individuals as
to which moral considerations or principles apply to their situation.

b. CONFLICTING REASONS: Even when it is perfectly clear as to which moral principle

is applicable to one’s situation, there could develop a situation where in two or more clearly
applicable moral principles come into conflict.

c. DISAGREEMENT: Individuals and groups may disagree how to interpret, apply and
balance moral reasons in particular situations.

Steps in confronting moral dilemmas

In order to face/overcome the above said moral dilemmas, one can follow one or more of the
following steps.
Step 1: Identifying the pertinent moral factors and reasons. It involves addressing solutions for
conflicting responsibilities, opposing rights, and incompatible ideals involved.
Step 2: Collecting all the available moral considerations, which are relevant to the moral factors
involved
Step 3: Ranking the above collected moral considerations on the basis of importance as applicable
to the particular situation.
Step 4: Making factual inquires. In other words, finding alternative courses of actions to resolve
the moral dilemmas and following the complete implications of each.
Step 5: Inviting discussions, suggestions from colleagues, friends, and other involved persons to
critically examine the moral dilemmas.
Step 6: Taking the final decision. That, is selecting the more reasonable solution by weighing all
the relevant moral factors and reasons.

In practice, exercising the above skill to face moral dilemmas is very difficult. The study of
engineering ethics helps the engineers to develop and strengthen the skills in resolving various
moral dilemmas.

What are moral dilemmas?

✓ Moral dilemmas are situations in which two or more moral obligations, duties, rights,
goods, or ideals come into conflict with each other.
✓ The crucial feature of a moral dilemma is that all the moral principles cannot be fully
respected in a given situation.
✓ Also solving one moral principle can create two or more conflicting applications for a
particular situation.

Causes of Moral Dilemmas

Moral dilemmas are situations, mostly, due to the following three problems.
1. Problem of vagueness;
2. Problem of conflicting reasons; and
 3. Problem of disagreement.

1. Problem of vagueness

✓ Vague means not clearly expressed or perceived; not specific or exact.

✓ For a given situation, sometimes it is unclear to the engineers to apply the most
appropriate moral considerations or principles. They may not know how and which moral
principles to be used in resolving a moral problem. This situation creates a typical moral
dilemma.
✓ Example: consider an engineer, starting a new assignment as quality inspector checking
the incoming raw materials/spare parts from the suppliers. Supplier offers (on behalf of
some festival, say, Deepavali) him an expensive DVD player as a gift.

Now this situation is a moral dilemma. Because the engineer is unclear about: what to do? whether
to accept the gift or not? whether the thing offered is a gift or a bribe? will it create a conflict of
interest? Thus, the problem of vagueness i.e., unclarity causes a moral dilemma.

2. Problem of conflicting reasons

a. This is a situation where two or more moral problems conflicting each other, each of which
seems to be correct.
b. In other words, this is a situation where two or more moral obligations, duties, rights or
ideals come into conflict with each other; independently each one is good and correct. But
when they come together it is very difficult choice to choose the good one. This situation
is another moral dilemma.
c. Example: let us examine the space shuttle challenger explosion, focusing on the dilemma
faced by the engineering manager, bob Lund. He had the following conflicts:

a. Launching the challenger space shuttle despite there was an unknown

probability that the shuttle would explode; which will kill all the persons on the
board.
b. Postponing the launch, which may lead to loss of future contracts from NASA,
the loss of job to many workers, etc.
Now, the job of Bob Lund is to make the best choice out of the set conflicts. At last, he chose
to risk the launching of shuttle. This situation is one of the good illustrations for the moral
dilemma due to the problem of conflicting reasons.
 3. Problem of disagreement

a. It is quite obvious that individuals and groups may have different views, suggestions,
interpretations, and solutions on a moral problem in particular situations. This
disagreement among individuals and groups on interpreting moral issues will create a
situation of another moral dilemma.
b. Example: In most corporations, there are disagreements among managers regarding
whether customer can be allowed to inspect their plants and procedures, as a confidence
building measure.

1.4 MORAL AUTONOMY

 • This is viewed as the skill and habit of thinking rationally about ethical issues
on the basis of moral concerns independently or by self-determination.
• Autonomous individuals think for themselves and do not assume that customs
are always right.
• They seek to reason and live by general principles.
• Their motivation is to do what is morally reasonable for its own sake,
maintaining integrity, self-respect, and respect for others.

“One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the
penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and
willingly accepts the penalty…is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.” Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr. in Letter from a Birmingham Jail,1963.
What is meant by moral autonomy?
✓ As already discussed, the practical aim in studying and teaching this engineering ethics
course is to foster the moral autonomy of future engineers.
✓ Autonomy means self-determining ‘or independent ‘.
✓ Moral autonomy is the ability to think critically and independently about moral issues
and apply this normal thinking to situations that arise during the professional engineering
practice.
✓ In other words, moral autonomy means the skill and habit of thinking rationally on ethical
issues based on moral concern.
✓ That is, it is concerned with the independent attitude of an individual related to ethical
issues.
✓ It is the ability to arrive at reasoned moral views based on the responsiveness to human
values.
A person becomes morally autonomous by improving various practical skills listed below:
a. Proficiency is recognizing moral problems and issues in engineering.
b. Skill in comprehending, clarifying and critically assessing arguments on
opposing sides of moral issues.
c. The ability to form consistent and comprehensive viewpoints based upon
consideration of relevant facts.
d. Awareness of alternate responses to issues and creative solutions for
practical difficulties.
e. Sensitivity to genuine difficulties and subtleties
f. Increased precision in the use of a common ethical language necessary to
express and also defend one’s views adequately.
g. Appreciation of possibilities of using rational dialogue in resolving moral
conflicts and the need for tolerance of differences in perspective among
orally reasonable people.
h. A sense of importance of integrating one’s professional life and personal
convictions i.e. maintaining one’s moral integrity.
1.6 KHOLBERG VIEWS

Kohlberg Theory: These theories are based on the sorts of reasoning and motivation adopted by
individuals with regard to moral questions.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory
✓ According to Kohlberg, the people progressed in their moral reasoning through a series
of stages. His theory is based on the foundation that morality is a form of reasoning that
develops I structural stages.
✓ The three levels of moral development, suggested by Kohlberg, are:
1. Pre-conventional level;
2. Conventional level; and
3. Post –conventional level.

1. Pre- conventional level

✓ The pre-conventional level of moral development is based to derive benefits for
oneself.
✓ In the first level, individual behave according to socially acceptable norms, which
are taught mainly by parents and teachers.
✓ At this level, individuals are motivated mainly by their interest to avoid punishment,
or by their desire to satisfy their own needs, or by the external power exerted on
them.
✓ This is the level of development of all young children and some adults, who are
unable to reach beyond a certain limit.
2. Conventional level
✓ In the second level, the moral thinking and behavior of the individual are determined
by the standards of their family, community, and society. That is, the norms or
customs of one ‘s family/community/society are accepted and adopted as the
ultimate standard of morality.
✓ At this level, individuals are motivated by the desire to please others and to meet
the social units ‘expectations, without bothering much about their self-interest.
✓ Thus, asper these Cond level, individuals give more importance to loyalty and close
identification with others, than their own self-interest.
✓ Many studies of Kohlberg reveal that most adults are living at this level only.
✓ The second level of moral thinking is found in society generally. That’s why it is
named as ‗conventional ‘level of moral development
3. Post –Conventional level
✓ In the post-conventional level, the individuals are guided by strong principles and
convictions, not by selfish needs or pressures from society.
✓ According to Kohlberg, these individuals are called as autonomous ‘, because they
think for/by themselves and also they do not believe that customs are always right.
✓ The people at this level want to live by general principles that are universally
applied to all people. They always desire to maintain their moral integrity, self-
Kohlberg felt that the majority of adults do not reach the post-conventional level.
1.7 GILLIGAN VIEWS

Gilligan Theory
✓ Carol Gilligan, a former student and colleague of Kohlberg, has criticized Kohlberg ‘s
theory as male lased.
✓ She also charged Kohlberg that Kohlberg ‘s studies were concluded with male samples
only and also his approach is dominated by a typical preoccupation with general rules
and rights.
✓ According to Gilligan, males have tendency to over-ride the importance of moral rules
and convictions while resolving moral dilemmas; whereas females have tendency to try
hard to preserve personal relationships with all people involved in a situation.
✓ Also, Gilligan felt that men mostly focus their attention on content of the problem,
whereas women focus their attention on the context i.e., situation of the problem.
✓ Gilligan refresher context-oriented emphasis on maintaining personal relationships as the
ethics of care, and contrasts it with Kohlberg ‘s ethics of rules and right.

Gilligan’s Levels of Moral Development

1. Pre-conventional level
✓ This is almost the same as Kohlberg ‘s first level.
✓ That is, in this level an individual is concerned with self-centered reasoning.
2. Conventional level
✓ According to Gilligan, women will not hurt others and have a willingness to
sacrifice their own interests in order to help others.
✓ This level differs from Kohlberg ‘s second level.
3. Post-conventional level
✓ This level also differs from Kohlberg ‘s third level.
✓ In this level, the individual is able to maintain balance between his own needs
with the needs of others. The balancing can be achieved through of importance.
Differences between the TWO THEORIES

KOHLBERG GILLIGAN
Ethics of rules and rights Ethics of care
Studies based on well educated, white male’s only, Studies included females and colored peoples
tending male bias.
Application of abstract rules ranked in the order of Application of context-oriented reasoning.
importance
Studies were hypothesized for both the genders Study was conducted on both genders and it was
even though the study was conducted mostly on found, men based their reasoning on ‘justice’ and
males women based
theirs on ‘care’

HEINZ’S DILEMMA

The famous example used by Kohlberg was called “Heinz’s dilemma”. A woman living in Europe
would die of cancer unless she was given an expensive drug. Her husband, Heinz, could not afford
it. But the local pharmacist, who had invented the drug at only one tenth of the sale price refused
to sell it to Heinz who could only raise half the required money from borrowings. Desperation
drives Heinz to break into the pharmacy and steal the drug to save his wife. When respondents
were asked whether and why Heinz should or should not steal a drug to save his wife from a life-
threatening illness. The responses of the individuals were compared with a prototypical response
of individuals at particular stages of moral reasoning. Kohlberg noted that irrespective of the level
of the individual the response could be same, but the reasoning could be different. For example, if
a child reasoning at a ‘preconvention’ level might say that it is not right to steal because it is against
law and someone might see you. At a ‘conventional’ level, an individual might argue that it is not
right to steal because it is against law and laws are necessary for society to function. At a ‘post
conventional’ level, one may argue that stealing is wrong because is against law and it is immoral.

ACT AND RULES UTILITARIAN

Theory of human rights ethics

 ✓ The rights ethicists emphasize that any action that violates any moral right is considered
as ethically unacceptable.
✓ This theory holds that those actions are good that respect the rights of the individual.
✓ In other words, rights ethics holds that people have fundamental rights that other people
have a duty to respect.
✓ Two versions of right ethics are:
1. Locke ‘s version of rights ethics, and
2. Meldon ‘s version of right ethics

Locke’s version of rights ethics

✓ John locke (163-1704) a famous rights ethicist, argued that humans have human rights
to life, liberty, and the property generated by one’s labor.
✓ His views human rights either were considered as highly individualistic.
✓ In Locke’s view, rights are claims that prevent other people from interfering in one ‘s
life. These rights are referred as ‗liberty rights ‘or ‗negative rights ‘that place duties on
other people not to interfere with one’s life.

Malden’s version of rights ethics

✓ Melden (1910-1991) considered human rights as intimately related to communities of
people.
✓ According to Melden, moral rights require the capacity to show concern for other and
to be accountable within a moral community.
✓ Melden also defined welfare rights as rights to community benefits needed living a
minimum decent human life.

Similarities between duty ethics and rights ethics

✓ In fact, duty ethics and right ethics are like two different sides of the same coin.
✓ Both the theories focus and achieve the same end result. The end result is that individual
persons must be respected, and actions are ethical that maintain this respect for the
individual.
✓ As per duty ethics, people have duties, a primary one of which is to protect the rights
of others
✓ But according to right ethics, people have fundamental rights that others have duties to
protect

Difficulties in implementing duty and rights ethics theories

The two principal difficulties with the duty and rights ethics theories are:
✓ It is sometimes very difficult to prioritize the rights of individuals or groups. Because
the basic rights of an individual or groups of individuals may conflict with the basic
rights of another group.
✓ Since both the theories concern more about the good of an individual, therefore
sometimes the overall good of society is not given much importance.
Tests for evaluating ethical theories
✓ Theory must be clear and logical. The concepts of theory should be formulated to
enhance applicability.
✓ The theory should be consistent with its principles. The principles of the same theory
should not contradict each other.
✓ The theory and its defense should rely only upon facts, truths, and correct information.
✓ The theory should be adequately complete so that to provide guidance for our required
specific situations.
✓ The theory should be well- matched with moral convictions such as judgments, and
intuitions about concrete situations.

What is meant by utility?

Utility can be defined as an overall balance between good and bad consequences of an action,
taking into account the consequences for everyone affected.

Rule utilitarianism
✓ Rule utilitarianism differs from act utilitarianism in owning that moral rules are more
important than an individual ‘section.
✓ Richard Brandt proposed this version of utilitarianism.
✓ According to Brandt, though sticking to general moral rules such as don ‘t lies, don ‘t
steal, be honest, don ‘t harm others, etc might not always maximize good in a particular
situation, overall, sticking to moral rules will ultimately guide to the best.

Act utilitarianism
✓ The act utilitarianism concept was developed by John Stuart Mill (180-1873).
✓ The act utilitarianism focuses on individual actions rather than on general rules.
✓ It is understood that most of the common rules of morality such s don‘t lie, don‘t steal,
be honest, don‘t harm others, keep promises etc are good guidelines to judge a human
begin. But according to Mill, a person‘s actions should be judged based on whether the
greatest good was achieved in a given situation. He also emphasized that even the
general rules should be broken, if necessary, to achieve the greatest good for the greatest
number of people.
✓ Mill’s view about “goodness”
✓ As we know, the standard of right action is maximizing goodness, according to Mill,
the term goodness represents two things.
✓ Intrinsic good: intrinsic good is something good in and of itself, or desirable for its own
sake. He felt that happiness is the only intrinsic good.
✓ Instrumental goods: instrumental goods are other good things that provide means for
happiness.
✓ In Mill‘s view, the pleasures derived through intellectual inquiry, creative
accomplishment, appreciation of beauty, friendship, and love are inherently better than
the bodily pleasures derived from eating, sex, and exercise
1.8 CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY

CONTROVERSY:
• All individuals will not arrive at same verdict during their exercising their moral
autonomy.
• Aristotle noted long ago that morality is not as precise and clear-cut as arithmetic.
• Aim of teaching engineering ethics is not to get unanimous conformity of outlook by
indoctrination, authoritarian and dogmatic teaching, hypnotism or any other technique
but to improve promotion of tolerance in the exercise of moral autonomy.

CONSENSUS: The conductor of a music orchestra has authority over the musicians and his
authority is respected by them by consensus as otherwise the music performance will suffer. Hence
the authority and autonomy are compatible.

On the other hand, tension arises between the needs for autonomy and the need for concerns about
authority. The difference between the two should be discussed openly to resolve the issue to the
common good

Models of professional roles (Professional roles to be played by an engineer)

It is understood that an engineer has to play many roles while exercising his professional
obligations. Some of the professional roles or models are given below:
1. Engineers as Saviors
✓ It is believed that engineers hold the key for any improvements in society
through technological developments.
✓ Thus, some people consider engineer as a savior because they redeem society
from poverty, inefficiency, waste and the hardships drudgery of manual labor.
2. Engineers as Guardians
✓ Engineersknowthedirectioninwhichtechnologyshoulddevelopandthespeedat
which it should move. Thus, many people agree the role of engineers as
guardians, as engineers guard the best interests of society.
3. Engineers as Bureaucratic Servants
✓ The engineers ‘role in the management is to be the servant who receives and
translates the directives of management into solid accomplishments.
✓ Thus, the engineers act as a bureaucratic servant i.e., loyal organizations set by
the management.
4. Engineers as Social Servants
a. As we know, engineers have to play the role of social servants to receive society
‘s directives and to satisfy society ‘s desires
5. Engineers as Social Enablers and Catalysts
a. Besides merely practicing the management ‘s directives, the engineers have to
play a role of creating a better society. Also they should act as catalysts for
making social changes.
 b. Sometimes engineers have to help the management and the society to
understand their needs and to make decisions about desirable technological
development.
6. Engineers as Game Players
a. In actual practice, engineers are neither servant nor master so for anyone. In
fact, they play the economic game rules, which may be effective at a given time.
b. Like managers, the engineers ‘aim is also to play successfully within the
organization and moving ahead in a competitive world

Consensus and Controversy

✓ Literally, consensus means agreement ‘, and controversy means disagreement ‘.
 ✓ When an individual exercise moral autonomy, he may not be able to attain the same
results as other people obtain in practicing their moral autonomy. Here there might be
some differences in the practical application of moral autonomy. This kind of
controversies i.e., disagreements are inevitable.
✓ Since exercising moral autonomy is not as precise and clear-cut as arithmetic, therefore
the moral disagreements are natural and common. So in order to allow scope for
disagreement, the tolerance is required among individuals with autonomous, reasonable
and responsible thinking.
✓ According to the principle of tolerance, the objective of teaching and studying
engineering ethics is to discover ways of promoting tolerance in the exercise of moral
autonomy by engineers.
✓ Thus, the goal of teaching engineering ethics is not merely producing always a unanimous
moral conformity; it is about finding the proper ways and means for promoting tolerance
in the practical applications of moral autonomy by engineers.
✓ In a way, the goal of courses on engineering ethics and goals of responsible engineering
have some similarities. Both situations require the need for some consensus regarding the
role of authority.
✓ Relationship between autonomy and authority
1. Moral autonomy and respect for authority are compatible with each other.
Exercising moral autonomy is based on the moral concern for other people
and recognition of good moral reasons. Also, moral autonomy emphasizes
the capabilities and responsibilities of people. Authority provides the
framework through which learning attitudes are encouraged.
2. Sometimes, conflicts will arise between individuals ‘need for autonomy and
the need for consensus about authority. This situation can be rescued by
having open and frank discussion regarding a moral issue with the help of
authority.
✓ Illustration: Consider the relationship between autonomy and authority, with reference to
a classroom. In the classroom, the teachers have authority over students. Authority of the
teachers helps in maintaining the dignity and decorum of academic climate in a
institution; also in restoring the confidence and respect between teachers and students.

As per the first point, there should be the acceptance of authority of authority by both the teachers
and students, in order to conduct the classes in orderly ways. When the authority is misused,
conflicts may arise between autonomy and authority. As per the second point, allowing open
discussions between teachers and students can reduce the unhealthy academic atmosphere.

1.9 PROFESSION AND PROFESSIONALISM

Engineers normally imagine that they are servants to organizations rather than a public guardian.
Responsibility to the public is essential for a professional.

Who is a professional? Obviously, a member of a profession.

What is a profession? ‘JOB’ or ‘OCCUPATION’ that meets the following criteria from which a
person earns his living.
• Knowledge – Exercise of skills, knowledge, judgment and discretion requiring extensive
formal criteria.
• Organization - special bodies by members of the profession to set standard codes of
ethics,
• Public good-The occupation serves some important public good indicated by a code of
ethics.

Who is a professional engineer?

• Has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from an accredited school

• Performs engineering work
• Is a registered and licensed Professional Engineer
• Acts in a morally responsible way while practicing engineering Differing views on
Professionals

“Only consulting engineers who are basically independent and have freedom from coercion can
be called as professionals.” -Robert L Whitelaw

“Professionals have to meet the expectations of clients and employers. Professional restraints are
to be imposed by only laws and government regulations and not by personal conscience.”
-Samuel Florman

“Engineers are professionals when they 1) attain standards of achievement in education, job
performance or creativity in engineering and 2) accept the most basic moral responsibilities to the
public as well as employers, clients, colleagues and subordinates.” -Mike Martin & Rol and
Schinzinger

MOTIVES FOR PROFESSIONALISM

• A desire for interesting and challenging work and the pleasure in the act of changing the
world.
• The joy of creative efforts. Where a scientist’s interest is in discovering new technology,
engineers’ interest is derived from creatively solving practical problems.
• The engineer shares the scientist’s job in understanding the laws and riddles of the
universe.
• The sheer magnitude of the nature–oceans, rivers, mountains and prairies–leads
engineers to build engineering marvels like ships, bridges, tunnels, etc., which appeal to
human passion.
• The pleasure of being in the presence of machines generating a comforting and absorbing
sense of a manageable, controlled and ordered world.
 • Strong sense of helping, of directing efforts towards easing the lot of one’s fellows.

The main pleasure of the engineer will always be to contribute to the well-being of his fellow-
men.

MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ROLES

Promotion of public good is the primary concern of the professional engineers. There are several
role models to whom the engineers are attracted. These models provoke their thinking, attitudes
and actions.

1. Savior: The engineer as a savior, save the society from poverty, illiteracy, wastage,
inefficiency, ill health, human (labor) dignity and lead it to prosperity, through technological
development and social planning. For example, R.L. Stevenson.
2. Guardian: He guards the interests of the poor and general public. As one who is conversant
with technology development, is given the authority befitting his expertise to determine what
is best suited to the society. For example, Lawrence of Arabia (an engineer).
3. Bureaucratic Servant: He serves the organization and the employers. The management of an
enterprise fixes its goals and assigns the job of problem solving to the engineer, who accepts
the challenge and shapes the min to concrete achievements. For example, Jamshedji Tata.
4. Social Servant: It is one who exhibits social responsibility. The engineer translates the interest
and aspirations of the society into a reality, remembering that his true master is the society at
large. For example, Sir M. Viswesvarayya.
5. Social Enabler and Catalyst: One who changes the society through technology. The engineer
must assist the management and the society to understand their needs and make informed
decisions on the desirable technological development and minimize the negative effects of
technology on people and their living environment. Thus, he shines as a social enabler and a
catalyst for further growth. For example, Sri Sundarlal Bahuguna.
6. Game Player: He is neither a servant nor master. An engineer is an assertive player, not a
passive player who may carry out his master ‘s voice. He plays a unique role successfully
within the organization, enjoying the excitement of the profession and having the satisfaction
of surging ahead in a competitive world. For example, Narayanamurthy, Infosys and Dr.
Kasthurirangan, ISRO.

1.10 VIRTUE ETHICS

• “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

(Socrates, 470-399 B.C.)
• “The happy life is thought to be virtuous; now a virtuous life requires exertion and does
not consist in amusement.” (Aristotle, 384-322B.C.)

The Four Main Virtues

• Prudence (mind): to think about a moral problem clearly and completely
 • Temperance (emotions): control attraction to positive emotions
• Fortitude (emotions): control aversion for negative emotions
• Justice (will): choose according to truth and fairness.

Virtue Ethics
• Focuses on the type of person we should strive to be
• Actions which reflect good character traits (virtues) are inherently right
• Actions which reflect bad character traits (vices) are inherently wrong
• Virtue ethics are tied more to individual behavior than to that of an organization (e.g.,
business, government)

ARISTOTLE; says that moral virtues are tendencies, acquired through habit formation, to reach a
proper balance between extremes in conduct, emotion, desire and attitude i.e., virtues are
tendencies to find the Golden Mean between the extremes of too much and too little.

Some of the virtues are defined using examples here:

Virtue Too much Too less

(Golden mean between extremes)
Courage Foolhardiness Cowardice

Truthfulness Revealing all in violation of Being secretive or

tact and confidentiality lacking in candor
Generosity Wasting one’s resources Being miserly
Friendliness Being annoyingly effusive Sulky or surly

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

• Being morally responsible as a professional.

• Most basic and comprehensive professional virtue.
• Creation of useful and safe technological products while respecting the autonomy of
clients and public, especially in matters of risk taking.

This encompasses a wide variety of the more specific virtues grouped as follows:

a. SELF DIRECTIONVIRTUES: Fundamental virtues in exercising our moral autonomy and

responsibility. e.g., self-understanding, humility, good moral judgment, courage, self-
discipline, perseverance, commitments, self-respect and dignity
b. PUBLIC SPIRITED VIRTUES: Focusing on the good of the clients and public affected by
the engineers’ work by not directly and intentionally harming others i.e. ‘nonmaleficence’.
Beneficence, sense of community, generosity are other virtues falling in this category.
 c. TEAMWORKVIRTUES: Enables professionals to work successfully with others. E.g.,
collegiality, cooperativeness, the ability to communicate, respect for authority, loyalty to
employers and leadership qualities.
d. PROFICIENCYVIRTUES: Mastery of one’s craft that characterize good engineering
practice e.g., competence, diligence, creativity, self-renewal through continuous education.

MORAL INTEGRITY

Moral integrity is the unity of character on the basis of moral concern, and especially on the basis
of honesty. The unity is consistency among our attitudes, emotions and conduct in relation to
justified moral values.

SELF-RESPECT

• Valuing oneself in morally appropriate ways.

• Integral to finding meaning in one’s life and work
• A pre-requisite for pursuing other moral ideals and virtues.
• Self-respect is a moral concept of properly valuing oneself but self-esteem is a
psychological concept of positive attitude towards one self.

Self-respect takes two forms.

1. Recognition self-respect is properly valuing oneself because of one’s inherent moral worth,
the same worth that every other human being has.
2. Appraisal self-respect is properly valuing ourselves according to how well we meet

1.11 ETHICAL THEORIES

Independently propounded ethical theories are many and are very diverse in nature.
Philosophical point of view of ethical theories
Deontology: Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek δέον, deon, "obligation, duty"; and
- λογία, -logia) is an approach to ethics that determines goodness or rightness from examining acts,
or the rules and duties that the person doing the act strove to fulfill. This is in contrast to
consequentialism, in which rightness is based on the consequences of an act, and not the act by
itself. In deontology, an act may be considered right even if the act produces a bad consequence,
if it follows the rule that “one should do unto others as they would have done unto them", and even
if the person who does the act lacks virtue and had a bad intention in doing the act. According to
deontology, we have a duty to act in a way that does those things that are inherently good as acts
("truth-telling" for example), or follow an objectively obligatory rule (as in rule utilitarianism).
For deontologists, the ends or consequences of our actions are not important in and of themselves,
and our intentions are not important in and of themselves. Immanuel Kant's theory of ethics is
considered deontological for several different reasons. First, Kantar guest hat to act in the morally
right way, people must act from duty(deon). Second, Kant argued that it was not the consequences
of actions that make them right or wrong but the motives (maxime) of the person who carries out
the action. Kant's argument that to act in the morally right way, one must act from duty, begins
with an argument that the highest good must be both good in itself, and good without qualification.
Something is 'good in itself' when it is intrinsically good, and 'good without qualification' when
the addition of that thing never makes a situation ethically worse. Kant then argues that those
things that are usually thought to be good, such as intelligence, perseverance and pleasure, fail to
be either intrinsically good or good without qualification. Pleasure, for example, appears to not be
good without qualification, because when people take pleasure in watching someone suffering,
this seems to make the situation ethically worse. He concludes that there is only one thing that is
truly good: Nothing in the world—indeed nothing even beyond the world—can possibly be
conceived which could be called good without qualification except a good will.

Kantian ethics: Kantian ethics are deontological, revolving entirely around duty rather than
emotions or end goals. All actions are performed in accordance with some underlying maxim or
principle, which are deeply different from each other; it is according to this that the moral worth
of any action is judged. Kant's ethics are founded on his view of rationality as the ultimate good
and his belief. that all people are fundamentally rational beings. This led to the most important part
of Kant's ethics, the formulation of the categorical imperative, which is the criterion for whether a
maxim is good or bad. Simply, put, this criterion amount to a thought experiment: to attempt to
universalize the maxim (by imagining a world where all people necessarily acted in this way in
the relevant circumstances) and then see if the maxim and its associated action would still be
conceivable in such a world. For instance, holding the maxim kill anyone who annoys you and
applying it universally would result in a world which would soon bed avoid of people and without
anyone left to kill. Thus, holding this maxim is irrational as it ends up being impossible to hold it.
Universalizing a maxim (statement) leads to it being valid, or to one of two contradictions — a
contradiction in conception (where the maxim, when universalized, is no longer viable means to
the end) or a contradiction in will (where the will of a person contradicts what the universalization
of the maxim implies).

The first type leads to a "perfect duty”, and these Cond leads to an "imperfect duty. "Kant's ethics
focus then only on the maxim that underlies actions and judges these to be good or bad solely on
how they conform to reason. Kant showed that many of our common-sense views of what is good
or bad conform to his system but denied that any action performed for reasons other than rational
actions can be good (saving some on who is drowning simply out of a great pity for them is not a
morally good act). Kant also denied that the consequences of an act in any way contribute to the
moral worth of that act, his reasoning being (highly simplified for brevity) that the physical world
is outside our full control and thus we cannot be held accountable for the events that occur in it.

Virtue ethics: Virtue ethics describes the character of a moral agent as a driving force for ethical
behavior, and is used to describe the ethics of Socrates, Aristotle, and other early Greek
philosophers. Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC) was one of the first Greek philosophers to encourage
both scholars and the common citizen to turn their attention from the outside world to the condition
of humankind. In this view, knowledge having a bearing on human life was placed highest, all
other knowledge being secondary. Self-knowledge was considered necessary for success and
inherently an essential good. A self-aware person will act completely within his capabilities to his
pinnacle, while an ignorant person will flounder and encounter difficulty. To Socrates, a person
must become aware of every fact (and its context) relevant to his existence, if he wishes to attain
self-knowledge. He posited that people will naturally do what is good, if they know what is right.
Evil or bad actions are the result of ignorance. If a criminal was truly aware of the mental and
spiritual consequences of his actions, he would neither commit nor even consider committing those
actions. Any person who knows what is truly right will automatically do it, according to Socrates.
While he correlated knowledge with virtue, he similarly equated virtue with happiness. The truly
wise man will know what is right, do what is good, and therefore be happy.
Philosophers have found ethical theories useful because they help us decide why various actions
are right and wrong. If it is generally wrong to punch someone then it is wrong to kick them for
the same reason. We can then generalize that it is wrong to ―h arm ‖people to help understand
why punching and kicking tend to both be wrong, which helps us decide whether or not various
other actions and institutions are wrong, such as capital punishment, abortion, homosexuality,
atheism, and so forth. All of the ethical theories have various strengths and it is possible that more
than one of them is true (or at least accurate). Not all moral theories are necessarily incompatible.
Imagine that utilitarianism, the categorical imperative, and Stoic virtue ethics are all true. In that
case true evaluative beliefs (e.g. human life is preferable) would tell us which values to promote
(e.g. human life), and we would be more likely to have an emotional response that would motivate
us to actually promote the value. We would feel more satisfied about human life being promoted
(e.g. through a cure to cancer) and dissatisfied about human life being destroyed (e.g. through
war). Finally, what is right for one person would be right for everyone else in a sufficiently similar
situation because the same reasons will justify the same actions.

TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORIES

S.NO TYPES BASED ON

1 Virtue ethics Virtues and vices
2 Utilitarianism best for most people
 3 Duty ethics Duties to respect persons
4 Rights ethics Human Rights

CIVIC VIRTUE

Civic virtue is the moral under pinning of how a citizen behaves and is involved in society. It is a
standard of righteous behavior in relation to a citizens’ involvement in society. A individual may
exhibit civic virtue by voting, volunteering and organizing other community activities. Without an
understanding of civic virtue, citizens are less likely to look beyond their families, friends and
economic interests. They are less likely to help others in the community, to volunteer their time,
to give to nonprofit organizations or to participate in group activity that benefits society. Related
ideas for civic virtue are citizenship, philanthropy, public good, voluntarism and social capital

HUMAN VALUES

The Story of a Carpenter

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the
house- building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.

He would miss his paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry
to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.

The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted
to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor
handed over the house key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “it is my parting gift to
you.”

What a shock! What a Shame! If only he had known he was building his own house, he would have
done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he built none too well.

(Modified from LIVING WITH HONOUR by SHIV KHERA) Do we find ourselves in similar
situations as the carpenter?
Moving through our work hours fast paced, driven to “get the job done”, without much thought to
moral values.
How do we regain our focus as individuals and organizations? This is the challenge for the
employee and the employer. Ethics are fundamental standards of conduct by which we work as a
professional

VALUES
 ➢ Values are individual in nature.
➢ Values are comprised of personal concepts of responsibility, entitlement and respect.
➢ Values are shaped by personal experience, may change over the span of a lifetime and may
be influenced by lessons learned.
➢ Values may vary according to an individual’s cultural, ethnic and/or faith- based
background.
“Never change your core values.”
In spite of all the change around you, decide upon what you will never change: your core values.
Take your time to decide what they are but once you do, do not compromise on them for any
reason. Integrity is one such value.

MORALS
➢ Morals are guiding principles that every citizen should hold.
➢ Morals are foundational concepts defined on both an individual and societal level.
➢ At the most basic level, morals are the knowledge of the difference between right and
wrong.

PERSONAL ETHICS
a. Simply put, all individuals are morally autonomous beings with the power and right to
choose their values, but it does not follow that all choices and all value systems have an
equal claim to be called ethical.
b. Actions and beliefs inconsistent with the Six Pillars of Character - trustworthiness, respect,
responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship - are simply not ethical.

PERSONAL ETHICS - everyday examples

a. Software piracy
b. Expense account padding
c. Copying of homework or tests
d. Income taxes
e. “Borrowing” nuts and bolts, office supplies from employer
f. Copying of Videos or CD’s
g. Plagiarism
h. Using the copy machine at work

RELIGION AND ETHICS

a. The “Golden Rule” is a basic tenet in almost all religions: Christian, Hindu, Jewish,
Confucian, Buddhist, Muslim.
b. “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
c. “Treat others as you would like them to treat you” (Christian). “Hurt not others with that
which pains you” (Buddhist)
d. “What is hateful to yourself do not do to your fellow men” (Judaism)
 e. “No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for
himself” (Islam)

MORALITY AND ETHICS

a. Concerns the goodness of voluntary human conduct that affects the self or other living
things
b. Morality (Latin mores) usually refers to any aspect of human action
c. Ethics (Greek ethos) commonly refers only to professional behavior
d. Ethics consist of the application of fundamental moral principles and reflect our dedication
to fair treatment of each other, and of society as a whole.
e. An individual’s own values can result in acceptance or rejection of society’s ethical
standards because even thoughtfully developed ethical rules can conflict with individual
values.

ASPECTS OF ETHICS

There are two aspects to ethics:

a. The first involves the ability to discern right from wrong, good from evil and propriety
from impropriety.
b. The second involves the commitment to do what is right, good and proper. Ethics entails
action.
An ALGEBRA course will teach you ALGEBRA. A HISTORY course will teach you HISTORY.
A MANAGEMENT course will teach you principles of MANAGEMENT.

But, Will an ETHICS course teach you to be ETHICAL? Think

 UNIT-2
ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION

To undertake a great work and especially a work of novel type means, carrying out an
experiment. It means taking up a struggle with the forces of nature without the assurance of
emerging as a victor after the first attack- Louis Marie Henri Navier (1785 - 1836) - Founder
of Structural Analysis.

2.1 ENGINEERING AS EXPERIMENTATION

• Experimentation (Preliminary tests or Simulations) plays a vital role in the design

of a product or process.
• In all stages of converting a new engineering concept into a design like,
a. first rough-cut design,
b. usage of different types of materials and processes,
c. detailed design,
d. further stages of work design and
e. the finished product,

Experiments and tests are conducted to evaluate the product. Modifications are made based on the
outcome of these experiments. The normal design process is thus iterative (modifications being
made on the basis of feedback information acquired from the tests).

Even though various tests and experiments are conducted at various stages, the engineering project
as a whole in its totality can be viewed as an experiment.

SIMILARITIES TO STANDARD EXPERIMENTS

1. Any project is carried out in partial ignorance due to

• The uncertainties in the abstract model used for the design calculations,
• The uncertainties in the precise characteristics of the materials purchased,
• The uncertainties caused by variations in processing and fabrication of materials
and
• The uncertainties about the nature of stresses the finished product will encounter.
2. Indeed, Engineer’s success lies in the ability to accomplish tasks with only a partial
knowledge of scientific laws about nature and society.
3. The final outcome of engineering projects, like those of experiments, is generally
uncertain. Very often, possible outcomes are not even known and great risks may be
presented which could never be thought of.
4. Effective Engineering relies upon knowledge gained about products both before and
after they leave the factory- knowledge needed for improving current products and
creating better ones. That is, ongoing success in engineering depends upon gaining new
knowledge.
LEARNING FROM THE PAST

Engineers should learn not only from their own earlier design and operating results, but also from
other engineers.

Engineers repeat the past mistakes of others due to the following reasons.

• Lack of established channels of communication.

• Misplaced pride in not asking for information
• Embarrassment at failure or fear of litigation (legal problems).
• Negligence.

Examples:

a. The Titanic lacked sufficient number of life boats resulting in the death of 1522 out of
2227(life boat capacity available was only 825), a few decades later Arctic per is due to the
same problem.
b. In June 1966, a section of the Milford Haven Bridge in Wales collapsed during
construction. A bridge of similar design, erected by the same bridge- builder in Melbourne,
Australia, also partially collapsed in the month of October, same year. During this incident
33 people were killed and many were injured.
c. Malfunctions occurred at nuclear reactors at various locations and the information reports
were with Babcock and Wilcox, there actor manufacturer. In spite of these, no attention
was paid leading to a pressure relief valve giving rise to the Three Mile Island nuclear
accident on March 28,1979.

CONTRASTS WITH STANDARD EXPERIMENTS

1. EXPERIMENTAL CONTROL: In standard experiments, members are in two different

groups. Members of one group receive special experimental treatment. The other group
members, called ‘control group’ do not receive special treatment, though they are from the
same environment in all other respects. But this is not true in engineering, since most of
the experiments are not conducted in laboratories. The subjects of experiments are human
beings who are outside the experimenter’s control. Thus, it is not possible to study the
effects of changes in variable on different groups. Hence only historical and retrospective
data available about various target groups has to be used for evaluation. Hence engineering
as a social experimentation seems to be an extended usage of the concept of
experimentation.
2. INFORMED CONSENT: has two elements, knowledge and voluntariness. The subjects
(human beings) should be given all the information needed to make a reasonable decision.
Next, they must get into the experiment without being subjected to force, fraud or
deception. Supplying complete information is neither necessary nor in most cases possible.
 But all relevant information needed for making are as on able decision on whether to
participate should be conveyed. Generally, we all prefer to be the subject of our own
experiments rather than those of somebody else.

Conditions defining Informed or Valid Consent

a. The consent is given voluntarily
b. The consent is based on information a rational person would want, together with
any other information requested and presented to them in understandable form.
c. The consenter was competent to process the information and make rational
decisions.
d. Information has been widely disseminated.
e. The subject’s consent is offered by proxy by a group that collectively represents
many subjects like interests, concerns and exposure to risk.

‘Engineering experiments are not conducted to gain new knowledge unlike scientific
experiments. Is this distinction necessary? This distinction is not vital because we are concerned
about the manner in which the experiment is conducted, such as valid consent of human subjects
being sought, safety measures taken and means exist for terminating the experiment at any time
and providing all participants a safe exit.

Features of morally responsible engineers in social experimentation

a. Conscientiousness: A primary obligation to protect the safety of human subjects and

respect their right of consent.
b. Relevant information: A constant awareness of the experimental nature of any project,
imaginative forecasting of its possible side effects and a reasonable effort to monitor them.
c. Moral autonomy: Autonomous, personal involvement in all steps of the project.
d. Accountability: Accepting accountability for the results of the project.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS:

❖ Conscientious moral commitment means sensitivity to the full range of relevant

moral values.
❖ Sensitivity to responsibilities that is relevant.
❖ Willingness to develop the skill and expend the effort needed to reach the best
balance possible among these considerations.
❖ Conscientiousness means consciousness because mere intent is not sufficient.

Conceiving engineering as social experimentation restores the vision of engineers as guardians of

the public interest in that they are duty bound to guard the welfare and safety of those affected by
engg., projects.

RELEVANT INFORMATION:
Conscientiousness is blind without relevant factual information. Moral concern involves a
commitment to obtain and assess all available pertinent information. Another dimension to factual
information is the consequences of what one does. While regarding engg as social experimentation
points out the importance of context, it also urges the engineer to view his or her specialized
activities in a project as part of a larger whole having a social impact that may involve a variety of
unintended effects. It may be better to practice ‘defensive engg’ (Chauncy Starr) or ‘preventive
engg’ (Ruth Davis).

MORAL AUTONOMY

❖ People are morally autonomous when their moral conduct and principles of action
are their own.
❖ Moral beliefs and attitudes must be a critical reflection and not a passive adoption
of the particular conventions of one’s society, religion or profession.
❖ Moral beliefs and attitudes cannot be agreed to formally and adhered to merely
verbally.
❖ They must be integrated into the core of one’s personality and should lead to
committed action.
❖ It is wrong to think that as an employee when one performs ‘acts’ serving company’s
interests, one is no longer morally and personally identified with one’s actions.
❖ Viewing engg as a social experimentation helps to overcome this flawed thought
and restores a sense of autonomous participation in one’s work.
a. As an experimenter, an engineer is exercising the specialized training
that forms the core of one’s identity as a professional
b. A social experiment that can result in unknown consequences should
help inspire a critical and questioning attitude about the adequacy of
current and safety standards
c. In turn, this leads to better personal involvement work

ACCOUNTABILITY

❖ Responsible people accept moral responsibility for their actions.

❖ Accountability is the willingness to submit one’s actions to moral scrutiny and be
open and responsive to the assessment of others.
❖ It should be understood as being culpable and blameworthy form is deeds.

Submission to an employer’s authority creates in many people a narrow sense of accountability

for the consequences of their action. This is because of

i) Only a small contribution is made by one individual, when large scale engineering work
is fragmented. The final product which is far away from one’s immediate work place,
does not give a proper understanding of the consequences of one’s action.
 ii) Due to the fragmentation of work, a vast diffusion of accountability takes place. The
area of personal accountability is delimited to the portion of work being carried out by
one.
iii) The pressure to move on to another new project does not allow one to complete the
observations long enough. This makes people accountable only for meeting schedules
and not for the consequences of action.
iv) To avoid getting into legal issues, engineers tend to concentrate more on legal liabilities
than the containment of the potential risks involved in their area of work.

Viewing engineering as a social experimentation makes one overcome these difficulties and see
the problem in whole rather than as part.

2.2 ENGINEERS AS RESPONSIBLE EXPERIMENTS

General responsibility of engineering as society:

• Engineers are primarily considered as technical enablers or facilitators, rather than
being the sole experimenters.
• Engineers ‘responsibility is shared with management, the public and others.
• The other unique responsibility of engineers includes monitoring projects,
identifying risks, providing customers and clients the required information to make
reasonable decisions.
• While exercising engineering duties, the engineers should display the virtue of being
morally responsible person.

General features of moral responsible engineers:

1. Conscientiousness
2. Relevant information
3. Moral Autonomy
4. Accountability

Conscientiousness
• Conscientiousness means commitment to live according to certain values. It implies
conscientiousness.
• Engineers have to be sensitive to a range of moral values and responsibilities, which
are relevant in a given situation.
• Also, engineers should have the willing to develop the skill and apply the effort
needed to reach the best balance possible among various considerations.
• ‗Open eyes, open s and an open mind ‘are required to evaluate a given situation, its
implication and to determine who are involved or affected.
• The primary duty of morally responsible engineers is to protect the safety of human
beings and respect their rights of consent.

Relevant information:
 • Conscientiousness is impossible without relevant factual information.
• Engineers have to show the commitment to obtain and properly gauge all the
information related to meeting one ‘s moral obligations.
• The two general ways of losing perspective on the context of one‘s work are given
below.
1. To grasp the context of one‘s work, one should be aware of implication
of that work.
2. To shifts the responsibility and blames the others in the organization.
Thus, conceiving engineering as social experimentation, it is important that engineers act as
responsible agents. The responsible agents require
• Imaginative forecasting of possible bad side effects
• The development of an attitude of ‗defensive engineering ‘and ‗preventive
technology ‘
• Careful monitoring of projects and
• Respect for people rights to give informed consent Moral autonomy;
✓ The moral autonomy is the ability to think critically and independently about moral
issues and apply this moral thinking to situations that arise during the professional
engineering practice.
✓ It is understood that an individual personality depends on the integration of his moral
benefits and attitude.
✓ When one‘s labor and skills are sold, then it is an illusion to think that the person is
not morally autonomous.
✓ As an experimenter, an engineer has to undergo an extensive and updated training to
form his identity as a professional.
✓ There will be a personal involvement in one‘s work.
✓ The magnitude of moral autonomy to be experienced by engineering is highly
influenced by the attitude of company ‘s managements.
✓ Where there is a treat for engineers ‘moral autonomy, then engineers can look for
moral support from their professional societies and outside organization.

Accountability:
✓ The term accountability ‘means being responsible, liable, answerable or obligated.
✓ In proper terms, the accountability refers to the general tendency of being willing to
submit ones action to any type of moral scrutiny and be responsive to others
assessment.
✓ It involves a willingness to present morally convincing reason for ones action and
conduct.
✓ Morally responsible people are expected to accept morally responsibility for their
action.
✓ According to Stanely Milgram, people are not willing to accept personal
accountability when placed under authority.
✓ There exist a lot of difference and separation between casual influence and moral
accountability in all professions including engineering.
 ✓ Because of modern engineering practices, the complication in accepting one‘s moral
accountability further worsened. Some of these situations are explained below:
3. Modern engineering projects involve teamwork, in which each member
contributes a small of personal accountability.
4. The modern organization are based on the principle of ‗division of work‘.
Due to this division of work, the personal accountability also stretched
within hierarchies of authority.
A preoccupation with legalities in a time of proliferating malpractice lawsuits. Even both the
groups are subjected to same environment; the group that was not given the special treatment is
called ‗control group‟.
✓ In engineering experiments, usually there is no control group. Sometimes the
control group is used only when the project is limited to laboratory experiments.
Because the engineering experiments involve human beings are experimental
subjects. In fact, clients and customers have more.

2.2 RESEARCH ETHICS

Andrew Oldenquist and Edward Slowter pointed out how the existence of separate codes for
different professional societies can give members the feeling that ethical conduct is more relative
than it is and that it can convey to the public the view that none is ‘really right’. The current codes
are by no means perfect but are definitely steps in the right direction.

The problems of law in engineering

1. The greatest problem of law in engg is of ‘minimal compliance’. Engineers and employers
can search for loopholes in the law to barely keep to its letter while violating its spirit.
Engineers will tend to refer to standard readymade specifications rather than come up with
innovative ideas. Minimal compliance led to the tragedy of the ‘Titanic’.
2. Continually updating laws and regulations may be counter-productive and will make law
always lag behind technology. This also overburdens the rules and regulators.
3. Many laws are ‘non-laws’ i.e. laws without enforce able sanctions. These merely serve as
window dressing, frequently gives a false sense of security to the public.
4. The opponents of the law may burden it intentionally with many unreasonable provisions
that are peal will not be far off.
5. Highly powerful organizations, like the government can violate the laws when they think
they can get away with it by inviting would be challengers, to face the min lengthy and
costly court proceedings. This also creates frustration with the law.

Role of law in engineering

1. It is wrong to write off rule-making and rule following as futile. Good laws, effectively
enforced, clearly produce benefits.
2. Reasonable minimum standards are ensured of professional conduct.
3. It also provides a self-interested motive for most people and corporations to comply.
 4. They also serve as powerful support and defense for those who wish to act ethically in
situations where ethical conduct might not bewelcome.
5. Viewing engineering as social experimentation provides engineers with a better
perspective on laws and regulations.
6. Precise rules and enforceable sanctions are appropriate in cases of ethical misconduct that
involve violations of well-established and regularly re-examined procedures that have as
their purpose the safety of public.

In areas of experimentation, rules must not attempt to cover all possible outcomes of an
experiment, nor must they force the engineer to adopt a rigidly specified course of action. Here the
regulations should be broad based guidelines but should hold the engineer accountable for his or
her decisions.

2.3 CODE OF ETHICS

Introduction:
One of the trademarks of contemporary professions is code of ethics. Codes of ethics are
propagated by various professional society. These codes of ethics are guidelines for specific group
of professionalism to help them perform their roles; to know how to conduct themselves; and to
know how to resolve around various ethical issues. These codes convey the rights, duties, and
obligation of the members of the profession.
What is code of ethics?
✓ The primary aspects of codes of ethics are to provide the basic framework for ethical
judgment for a professional.
✓ The codes of ethics are also referred to as the codes of conduct, express the commitment to
ethical conduct shared by members of a profession.
✓ It expresses the ethical principles and standards in a coherent, comprehensive and accessible
manner
✓ It also defines the role and responsibility of profession.
✓ It helps the professionals to apply moral and ethical principles to the specific situations
encountered in professional practice.
✓ These codes are based on five canons i.e., principle of ethics-integrity, competence,
individual responsibility, professional responsibility, and human concerns.
✓ It also be noted that ethical codes do not establish new ethical principles. They use only
those principles that are already well established and widely accepted in society.
✓ Thus, the code of ethics creates an environment within a profession where ethical behavior
is norm.

Positive Roles of Code of Ethics

The code of ethics propagated by professional societies play a vital role. They are,
1. Inspiration
2. Guidance
3. Support for responsible conduct
 4. Deterring and disciplining unethical professional conduct
5. Educational and promotion of mutual understanding
6. Contributing to positive public image of profession
7. Protecting the status quo suppressing dissent within the profession and
8. Promoting business interest through restraint of trade.

Limitation of codes:
The four major limitations of codes of ethics are as follows:
1. Codes of ethics are broad guidelines, restricted to general and vague wordings/phrases. The
codes cannot be applied directly to all situations. Also, it is impossible to predict all aspects
of moral problems that can arise in a complex, dynamic engineering profession.
2. Engineering codes often have internal conflicts, which may result in moral dilemmas. That
is, several entries in codes overlap with each other, so there are internal conflicts. But the
code doesn’t ‘t provides a method for resolving these conflicts.
3. The codes cannot serve as the final moral authority for professional conduct.
4. The proliferation of codes of ethics for different of engineering gives a feeling that ethical
code is relative.

Code of Ethics for Engineers

Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) The Fundamental Principles
Engineers shall uphold and advance the integrity, honor, and dignity of the engineering profession
by:
• using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of the human race;
• being honest and impartial and serving with fidelity the public, their employers, and clients;
• striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering profession.
• supporting the professional and technical societies of their discipline.

The Fundamental Cannons

Engineers shall
• hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public in the performance of their
professional duties;
• perform service only in areas of their competence;
• issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner;
• actin professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees, and
shall avoid conflicts of interest;
• build their professional reputations on the merits of their services and shall not compete
unfairly with others
• act in such manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity and dignity of the
profession;
• continue their professional development throughout their careers, and shall provide
opportunities for the professional development of those engineers under their supervision.
CODES OF ETHICS - ROLES OR FUNCTIONS

1. Inspiration and Guidance:

❖ Codes provide positive stimulus for ethical conduct and helpful guidance by using
positive language.
❖ Codes should be brief to be effective and hence such codes offer only general
guidance.
❖ Supplementary statements or guidelines to give specific directions are added by a
number of societies or professional bodies.
2. Support:
❖ Codes give positive support to those seeking to act ethically.
❖ An engineer under pressure to act unethically can use one of the publicly proclaimed
codes to get support for his stand on specific moral issues.
❖ Codes also serve as legal support for engineers.
3. Deterrence and discipline:
❖ Codes can be used as a basis for conducting investigations on unethical conduct.
❖ They also provide a deterrent for engineers to act immorally.
❖ Engineers who are punished by professional societies for proven unethical behavior
by revoking the rights to practice as engineers are also subjected to public ridicule
and loss of respect from colleagues and local community.
❖ This helps to produce ethical conduct even though this can be viewed as a negative
way of motivation.
4. Education and mutual understanding:
a. The codes can be used for discussion and reflection on moral issues and thereby
improve the understanding of moral responsibilities among all engineers, clients,
public and good organizations.
5. Contributing to the profession’s public image:
a. Codes present the engineering profession as an ethically committed society in
the eyes of the public thus enhancing their image.
6. Protecting status quo:
a. Codes establish ethical conventions, which can help promote an agreed upon
minimum level of ethical conduct.
7. Promoting business interests:
a. Codes can place unwarranted restraints of commerce on business dealings.

Relative importance of the various functions of codes of ethics

a. The perspective of engg as social experimentation clearly emphasizes the primary role
‘supportive function’ of the codes of ethics. This is so because, only this support enables
engineers, speak out clearly and openly their views, to those affected by engg projects.
b. The, ‘inspiration and guidance’ and ‘educative’ functions are also important in promoting
mutual understanding and in motivating engineers to act with higher moral standards.
 c. The ‘disciplinary’ function in engg codes is of secondary importance. Those with unethical
conduct when exposed are subject to law. Developing elaborate paralegal procedures
within professional societies duplicates a function which can be done better by legal
system. At best, codes should try to discipline engineers in areas which are not covered by
law.
d. The worst abuse of codes has been to restrict honest moral effort in the name of ‘preserving
profession’s public image’ and ‘protecting status quo’. The best way to increase trust is by
encouraging and aiding engineers to speak freely and responsibly about public safety.

2.4 INDUSTRIAL STANDARDS

Industrial standards are important for any industry. Specification helps in achieving
interchangeability. Standardization reduces the production costs and at the same time, the quality
is achieved easily. It helps the manufacturer, customers and the public, in keeping competitiveness
and ensuring quality simultaneously. Industrial standards are established by the Bureau of Indian
Standards, in our country in consultation with leading industries and services. International
standards have become relevant with the development of the world trade. The International
Standards Organization has now detailed specifications for generic products/services with
procedures that the manufacturers or service providers should follow to assure the quality of their
products or service. ISO 9000-2000 series are typical examples in this direction.

Table 2.5 gives a list of some types of standards with a few examples.
Table 2.5 Industrial standards
Aspects Purpose Examples

1. Quality Value appropriate to price Surface finish of a plate, life

of a motor
2. Quality of service Assurance of product to ISO Quality of degrees according

Procedures Institutions by
educational institutions
3. Safety To safeguard against injury or Methods of waste disposal
damage to
Property
4. Uniformity of Interchangeability, Standard bolts and
physical properties ease of assembly nuts, standard

and functions Time

2.5 A BALANCED OUTLOOK ON LAW

The ‘balanced outlook on law’ in engineering practice stresses the necessity of laws and
regulations and also their limitations in directing and controlling the engineering practice. Laws
are necessary because, people are not fully responsible by themselves and because of the
competitive nature of the free enterprise, which does not encourage moral initiatives. Laws are
needed to provide a minimum level of compliance.
The following codes are typical examples of how they were enforced in the past:

a. Code for Builders by Hammurabi

Hummurabi the king of Babylon in 1758 framed the following code for the builders: “If a builder
has built a house for a man and has not made his work sound and the house which he has built has
fallen down and caused the death of the householder, that builder shall be put to death. If it causes
the death of the householder’s son, they shall put that builder’s son to death. If it causes the death
of the householder’s slave, he shall give slave for slave to the householder. If it destroys property,
he shall replace anything it has destroyed; and because he has not made the house sound which he
has built and it has fallen down, he shall rebuild the house which has fallen down from his own
property. If a builder has built a house for a man and does not make his work perfect and the wall
bulges, that builder shall put that wall in sound condition at his own cost” This code was expected
to put in self-regulation seriously in those years.

b. Steam Boat Code in USA

Whenever there is crisis, we claim that there ought to be law to control this. Whenever there is a
fire accident in a factory or fire cracker’s store house or boat cap size we make this claim, and
soon forget. Laws are meant to be interpreted for minimal compliance. On the other hand, laws
when amended or updated continuously, would be counterproductive. Laws will always lag behind
the technological development. The regulatory or inspection agencies such as Environmental
authority of India can play a major role by framing rules and enforcing compliance. In the early
19th century, a law was passed in USA to provide for inspection of the safety of boilers and engines
in ships. It was amended many times and now the standards formulated by the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers are followed.

c. Proper Role of Laws

Good laws when enforced effectively produce benefits. They establish minimal standards of
professional conduct and provide a motivation to people. Further they serve as moral support and
defense for the people who are willing to act ethically.
Thus, it is concluded that:
1. The rules which govern engineering practice should be construed as of responsible
experimentation rather than rules of a game. This makes the engineer responsible for
the safe conduct of the experiment.
2. Precise rules and sanctions are suitable in case of ethical misconduct that involves the
violation of established engineering procedures, which are aimed at the safety and the
welfare of the public.
 3. In situations where the experimentation is large and time consuming, the rules must not
try to cover all possible outcomes, and they should not compel the engineers to follow
rigid courses of action.
4. The regulation n should be broad, but make engineers accountable for their decisions,
and
Through their professional societies, the engineers can facilitate framing the rules, amend
wherever necessary, and enforce them, but without giving-in for conflicts of interest.

2.6 CASE STUDY: THE CHALLENGER

What happened?
The orbiter of the Challenger had three main engines fuelled by liquid hydrogen. The fuel was
carried in an external fuel tank which was jettisoned when empty. During lift-off, the main engines
fire for about nine minutes, although initially the thrust was provided by the two booster rockets.
These booster rockets are of the solid fuel type, each burning a million-pound load of aluminum,
potassium chloride, and iron oxide.

The casing of each booster rocket is about 150 feet long and 12 feet in diameter. This consists of
cylindrical segments that are assembled at the launch site. There are four-field joints and they use
seals consisting of pairs of O’s- rings made of vulcanized rubber. The O-rings work with a putty
barrier made of zinc chromate.
The engineers were employed with Rockwell International (manufacturers for the orbiter and main
rocket), Morton-Thiokol (maker of booster rockets), and they worked for NASA. After many
postponements, the launch of Challenger was set for morning of Jan 28, 1986. Allan J. McDonald
was an engineer from Morton-Thiokol and the director of the Solid Rocket Booster Project. He
was skeptic about the freezing temperature conditions forecast for that morning, which was lower
than the previous launch conditions. A teleconference between NASA engineers and MT engineers
was arranged by Allan.
Arnold Thompson and Roger Boisjoly, the seal experts at MT explained to the other engineers
how the booster rocket walls would bulge upon launch and combustion gases can blow past the O-
rings of the field joints.

On many of the previous flights the rings have been found to have charred and eroded. In freezing
temperature, the rings and the putty packing are less pliable. From the past data gathered, at
temperature less than 65 °F the O- rings failure was certain. But these data were not deliberated at
that conference as the launch time was fast approaching.
The engineering managers Bob Lund and Joe Kilminster agreed that there was a safety
problem. Boisjoly testified and recommended that no launch should be attempted with temperature
less than 53 °F. These managers were annoyed to postpone the launch yet again. The top
management of MT was planning for the renewal of contract with NASA, for making booster
rocket. The managers told Bob Lund “to take-off the engineering hat and put on your management
hat”. The judgment of the engineers was not given weightage. The inability of these engineers to
substantiate that the launch would be unsafe was taken by NASA as an approval by Rockwell to
launch.
At 11.38 a.m. the rockets along with Challenger rose up the sky. The cameras recorded
smoke coming out of one of the filed joints on the right booster rocket. Soon there was a flame
that hit the external fuel tank. At 76 seconds into the flight, the Challenger at a height of 10 miles
was totally engulfed in a fireball. The crew cabin fell into the ocean killing all the seven aboard.
Some of the factual issues, conceptual issues and moral/normative issues in the space
shuttle challenger incident, are highlighted hereunder for further study.

Moral/Normative Issues
1. The crew had no escape mechanism. Douglas, the engineer, designed an abort module
to allow the separation of the orbiter, triggered by a field-joint leak. Butsucha‘s safe
exit’ was rejected as too expensive, and because of an accompanying reduction in
payload.
 2. The crew were not informed of the problems existing in the field joints. The principle
of informed consent was not followed.
3. Engineers gave warning signals on safety. But the management group prevailed over
and ignored the warning.
Conceptual Issues
1. NASA counted that the probability of failure of the craft was one in one lakh launches.
But it was expected that only the 100000th launch will fail.
2. There were 700 criticality-1 items, which included the field joints. A failure in any one
of them would have caused the tragedy. No back-up or stand-bye had been provided for
these criticality-1components.
Factual/Descriptive Issues
1. Field joints gave way in earlier flights. But the authorities felt the risk is not high.
2. NASA has disregarded warnings about the bad weather, at the time of launch, because
they wanted to complete the project, prove their supremacy, get the funding from
Government continued and get an applaud from the President of USA.

The inability of the Rockwell Engineers (manufacturer) to prove that the lift-off was unsafe. This
was interpreted by the NASA, as an approval by Rockwell to launch

2.7 ENGINEERING EXPERIMENTS WITH STANDARD EXPERIMENTS

There are many similarities and differences between engineering experiments and other standard
experiments.

Similarity to Standard Experiments:

1. There are many aspects of engineering that make it appropriate to view engineering projects
as experiments. The three important aspects are as follows:
2. Engineering projects, like the standard experiments, are carried out in partial uncertainties.
The uncertainties may include in the,
✓ Design calculation
✓ Exact properties of raw materials used
✓ Constancies of material processing and fabrication
✓ Nature of working of final products
3. The final outcomes of engineering projects are also generally uncertain like those of other
experiments. For, example, a nuclear reactor may reveal unexpected problems that
endangered the surrounding people.
4. Similar to standard experiments, engineering experiments also requires thorough knowledge
about the products at the pre-production and post-production stages. Thus engineering, like
any other experimentation, requires constant monitoring, alertness, and vigil on the part of
the engineers at every stage of the project.

Contrast with standard experiments:

The study of knowing differences between engineering and other standard experiments is helpful
to the engineers to realize their special and moral responsibility. Some aspects of these differences
are given bellow:
1. Experimental control:
✓ Experimental control is the most important difference between engineering and
other standard experiments.
✓ In standard experiments, experimental control involves selecting members for
two different groups randomly. The first group members are given the special,
experimental treatment, whereas the members of other group are not given that
special treatment control, as they own the authority of that project. So here the
experimental subjects say clients or end-users are out of experimenter ‘s control.
In this type, it is not possible to select the member from various group randomly.
Instead the engineers should work with the available historical and fair data about
various groups randomly. Instead, the engineering should work the available
historical and fair data about various groups that uses the end product.

The above discussion also justifies the view of engineering as a social experimentation.

2. Informed consent:
✓ It is known that there is always a strong human interface in the use of the
engineering experiments ‘result; and also the beneficiaries are invariably
humans. Therefore, engineering experiments are also viewed at par the medical
experiments.
✓ When a medicine or an engineering product is to be tested on a person, then the
moral and legal rights is to get ‗informed consent ‘for him. Informed consent
consists of two main elements:
1. Knowledge: The human subjects should be given all the information to
make a reasonable decision.
2. Voluntariness: The human subjects should show their willingness to be
a human model voluntarily. The person should not be forced, deceived,
fraud, etc.
✓ The manufacturer of the should give all the information about the potential risks
and benefits of their products to their customers and users.
✓ The characteristics of a valid consent ‘

The informed consent is called as ‗valid consent ‘when the following three conditions are met:
1. The consent should be given voluntarily and not by force.
2. The consent should be based on all information needed for the
rational person to make reasonable decision.
3. The consentient should be physically and mentally fit; then he
should be major i.e., above 18years.
 UNIT- 3
ENGINEERS RESPONSIBILITY FOR SAFETY

3.1 SAFETY AND RISK

Imagine you are a fresh graduate.

• You get a job as an engineer in a large atomic power plant.
• Would you take it or not?
• Under what conditions would you take it?
• Under what conditions would you not?
• Why?
People as Consumers:
• Active Consumers: directly involve themselves e.g., mowing the lawn, washing
clothes or toasting bread.
• Passive Consumers: have less choice and less control e.g., Water, Electricity, Petrol,
• Bystanders: e.g., exposed to Pollution from unknown sources
What is safe to Entrepreneurs, may not be so to Engineers. e.g., Pilots: "Indian Airports are not
safe; Low Vision in Fog―. What is safe to Engineers, may not be so to Public. e.g., Top loading
WashingMachineTypicallyseveralgroupsofpeopleareinvolvedinsafetymattersbuthavetheir own
interests at stake. Each group may differ in what is safe and what is not.

Concept of Safety
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for‖– John A. Shed 2. A thing is safe if
its risks are judged to be acceptable‟-William W. Lawrence
• We buy an ill-designed Iron box in a sale-> Underestimating risk
• We judge fluoride in water can kill lots of people -> Overestimating risk
• We hire a taxi, without thinking about its safety -> Not estimating risk
• How does a judge pass a judgement on safety in these 3cases?

So, this definition won't do in real life. Then, what is acceptable also depends upon the individual
or group‘s value judgment. Hence a better, working definition of concept of safety could be,―A
thing is safe (to a certain degree)with respect to a given person or group at a given time if, were
they fully aware of its risks and expressing their most settled values, they would judge those risks
to be acceptable (to that certain degree).‖-

Mike Martin and Roland Schinzinger

A thing is NOTSAFE if it exposes us to unacceptable danger or hazard. RISK is the potential that
something unwanted and harmful may occur. We take a risk when we under take something or use
a product that is not safe. Risk in technology could include dangers of bodily harm, economic loss,
or environmental degradation. Some may assume that ―safety is a concrete concept, while ―risk‖
is a vague, hypothetical concept
• In fact, it’s the other way around
 • Risks always exist. But true safety never exists, except in hypothetical situations
• So, risk is reality, safety is fantasy.

What degree of risk is acceptable?

Safety is a matter of how people would find risks acceptable or unacceptable, if they knew the
risks, and are basing their judgments on their most settled value perspective.
So, to this extent, it is objective. Perspectives differ. To this extent, it is subjective. So, Safety is
'acceptable risk'.

Acceptable Risk
A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer (or not) apprehensive about it.
Apprehension (i.e. anxiety) depends largely on factors such as
• whether the risk is assumed voluntarily.
• how the probabilities of harm (or benefit) are perceived.
• job-related or other pressures that causes people to be aware of or to overlook risks.
• whether the defects of a risky activity or situation are immediately noticeable or close
at hand.
• whether the potential victims are identifiable beforehand.

3.2 ASSESMENT OF SAFETY AND RISK

The manner in which information necessary for decision making is presented can greatly influence
how risks are perceived. Consider this example: In a particular case of disaster management, the
only options available are provided in 2 different ways to the public for one to be chosen (where
lives of 600 people are at stake).
Alternate 1
If program A is followed, 200 people will be saved. If Program B is followed, 1/3 probability is
600 people will be saved and 2/3 probability that nobody will be saved.

Response
72% of the target group chose option A and 28% option B

Alternate 2
If program A is followed, 400 people will die. If Program B is followed, 1/3 probability is that
nobody will die and 2/3 probability that 600 people will die.

Response
This time only 22% of the target group chose option A and 78% option B

Conclusion:
1. The option perceived as yielding firm gain will tend to be preferred over those from which
gains are perceived as risky or only probable.
 2. Option emphasizing firm losses will tend to be avoided in favor of those whose chances of
success are perceived as probable.

Secondary Costs of Products

• Cost of products is High, if designed unsafely
• Returns and Warranty Expenses
• Loss of Customer Goodwill
• Cost of litigation
• Loss of Customers due to injuries in using it
• Cost of rework, lost time in attending to design problems Manufacturer’s understanding of
the risk in a product is necessary
• To help reduce secondary costs
• To know the possible risk for purposes of pricing, disclaimers, legal terms and conditions,
etc.
• To know the cost of reducing the risks
• To take a decision before finalizing the design.

Buyer’s understanding of the risk in a product is necessary:

• To judge whether he/she wants to take the risks
• To judge whether the „risk vs. costs‟ justifies taking the risk

3.3.RISK BENEFIT ANALYSIS

Ethical Implications
• When is someone entitled to impose a risk on another in view of a supposed benefit
to others?
• Consider the worst-case scenarios of persons exposed to maximum risks while they
are reaping only minimum benefits. Are their rights violated? Are they provided safer
alternatives?
• Engineers should keep in mind that risks to known persons are perceived differently
from statistical risks
• Engineers may have no control over grievance redressal.

Conceptual difficulties in Risk-Benefit Analysis.

Both risks and benefits lie in future
• Heavy discounting of future because the very low present values of cost/benefits do
not give a true picture of future sufferings.
• Both have related uncertainties but difficult to arrive at expected values
• What if benefits accrue to one party and risks to another?
• Can we express risks & benefits in a common set of units?
• Risks can be expressed in one set of units (deaths on the highway) and benefits in
another (speed of travel)?
Many projects, which are highly beneficial to the public, have to be safe also. Hence these projects
can be justified using RISK-BENEFIT analysis. In these studies, one should find out.
a. What are the risks involved?
b. What are the benefits that would accrue?
c. When would benefits be derived and when risks have to be faced?
d. Who are the ones to be benefited and who are the ones subjected to risk-are they the same
set of people or different? The issue here is not, say, cost-effective design but it is only
cost of risk-taking Vs benefit analysis. Engineers should first recommend the project
feasibility based on risk- benefit analysis and once it is justified, then they may get into
cost-effectiveness without increasing the risk visualized. In all this, engineers should ask
themselves this ethical question: Under what conditions, is someone in society entitled to
impose a risk on someone else on behalf of a supposed benefit to others.

3.4 REDUCING RISK

1. Application of inherent safety concept in design eg, LPG cylinder is provided with frame
to protect the valve while handling and facilitates cryogenic storage. A magnetic door
catch provides an easy escape for children caught inside the fridge accidently.
2. Case of redundancy principle in the instrument protection/ design. For example, use of
use of standby device and back up for computer storage.
3. Periodical monitoring (inspection) and testing of safety system to ensure reliability, eg,
fire extinguishers, ‘earth’ system in electric circuits are checked periodically.
4. Issue of operation manuals, training of the operating personnel and regular audits are
adopted to ensure that the procedures are understood, followed and the systems are kept
in working condition.
5. Development of well-designed emergency evacuation plan and regular rehearsal/drills
to ensure preparedness, in case of emergency.

3.5 CHERNOBYL CASE STUDIES AND BHOPAL

3.5.1 CHERNOBYL CASESTUDY

What Happened?

At 1:24 AM on April 26, 1986, there was an explosion at the Soviet nuclear power plant at
Chernobyl. One of their actors overheated, igniting a pocket of hydrogen gas. The explosion blew
the top off the containment building, and exposed the molten reactor to the air. Thirty-one power
plant workers were killed in the initial explosion, and radioactive dust and debris spewed into the
air.
It took several days to put out the fire. Helicopters dropped sand and chemicals on the reactor
rubble, finally extinguishing the blaze. Then the Soviets hastily buried their actor in a sarcophagus
of concrete. Estimates of deaths among the clean-up workers vary widely. Four thousand clean-up
workers may have died in the following weeks from the radiation.
The countries now known as Belarus and Ukraine were hit the hardest by the radioactive fallout.
Winds quickly blew the toxic cloud from Eastern Europe into Sweden and Norway. Within a week,
radioactive levels had jumped over all of Europe, Asia, and Canada. It is estimated that seventy-
thousand Ukrainians have been disabled, and five million people were exposed to radiation.
Estimates of total deaths due to radioactive contamination range from 15,000 to 45,000 or more.
To give you an idea of the amount of radioactive material that escaped, the atomic bomb dropped
on Hiroshima had a radioactive mass of four and a half tons. The exposed radioactive mass at
Chernobyl was fifty tons.
In the months and years following, birth defects were common for animals and humans. Even the
leaves on the trees became deformed.
Today, in Belarus and Ukraine, thyroid cancer and leukemia are still higher than normal. The
towns of Pripyat and Chernobyl in the Ukraine are ghost towns. They will be uninhabitable due to
radioactive contamination for several hundred years. The worst of the contaminated area is called
“The Zone,” and it is fenced off. Plants, meat, milk, and water in the area are still unsafe. Despite
the contamination, millions of people live in and near The Zone, too poor to move to safer
surroundings.

Further, human genetic mutations created by the radiation exposure have been found in children
who have only recently been born. This suggests that there may be another whole generation of
Chernobyl victim. Recent reports say that there are some indications that the concrete sarcophagus
at Chernobyl is breaking down.

How a Nuclear Power Plant Works

The countries now known as Belarus and Ukraine were hit the hardest by the radioactive fallout.
Winds quickly blew the toxic cloud from Eastern Europe into Sweden and Norway. Within a week,
radioactive levels had jumped over all of Europe, Asia, and Canada. It is estimated that seventy-
thousand Ukrainians have been disabled, and five million people were exposed to radiation.
Estimates of total deaths due to radioactive contamination range from 15,000 to 45,000 or more.
To give you an idea of the amount of radioactive material that escaped, the atomic bomb dropped
on Hiroshima had a radioactive mass of four and a half tons. The exposed radioactive mass at
Chernobyl was fifty tons.
The reactor at Chernobyl was composed of almost 200 tons of uranium. This giant block of
uranium generated heat and radiation. Water ran through the hot reactor, turning to steam. The
steam ran the turbines, thereby generating electricity. The hotter the reactor, the more electricity
would be generated.
Left to itself, the reactor would become too reactive—it would become hotter and hotter and more
and more radioactive. If there actor had nothing to cool it down, it would quickly meltdown—a
process where the
reactor gets so hot that it melts— melting through the floor. So, engineers needed a way to control
the temperature of the reactor, to keep it from the catastrophic meltdown. Further, the engineers
needed to be able to regulate the temperature of the reactor—so that it ran hotter when more
electricity was needed, and could run colder when less electricity was desired.
The method they used to regulate the temperature of the reactor was to insert heat- absorbing rods,
called control rods. These control rods absorb heat and radiation. The rods hang above the reactor,
and can be lowered into the reactor, which will cool the reactor. When more electricity is needed,
the rods can be re moved from the reactor, which will allow the reactor to heat up. The reactor has
hollow tubes, and the control rods are lowered into these reactor tubes, or raised up out of the
reactor tubes. At the Chernobyl-type reactors, there are 211 control rods. The more control rods
that are inserted, the colder the reactor runs. The more control rods that are removed, the hotter the
reactor becomes.
Soviet safety procedures demanded that at least 28 rods were inserted into the Chernobyl reactor
at all times. This was a way to make sure that the reactor wouldn’t overheat.
Water was another method to moderate the temperature of the reactor. When more water ran
through the reactor, the reactor cooled faster. When less water ran through the reactor, the reactor
stayed hot.

CHERNOBYL NEAR KIEY. RUSSIA (APRIL 1986)

The RBMK (Acronym for water cooled and graphite moderated) reactors were graphite moderated
and they use water tubes. A test on the turbine generator was planned to be conducted during a
scheduled plant shut-down maintenance.
To conduct the test, the power plant output was reduced to 700 MW. But due to a sudden and
unexpected demand, the power output has to be raised.
1. To go ahead with the test, the reactor operators had already disconnected the emergency
core-cooling system, ignoring the raise in demand situation.
2. Further, a control device was not properly reprogrammed to maintain power at 700-100
MW level
3. The test was conducted at 200 MW power out-put which is very low for the test. They
should have shut down the reactor.
4. The operators blocked all emergency signals and automatic shut-down controls, thus all
safety systems were disconnected.
5. The operators raised control rods to increase power output and tried to continue the test.
This made the reactor unsafe. The temperature of RBMK reactor increased and the
fission rate increased.
6. The test should have been postponed but continued. The reactor core melted and due to
the Hydrogen accumulation, the reactor caught fire and the radioactive waste began to
spread out in USSR and also Europe.

The people living around were informed after a few hours and were evacuated 12 hours after the
explosion. More than 30 workers in the complex lost their lives, while 200 workers sustained
burns. About 8000 people lost their lives. The agricultural products were affected due to
contaminated radioactive water, for several years.

SAFETY LESSONS FROM TMI AND CHERNOBYL

1. The thickness of the containment should be more, to withstand the possible explosion
and further damage due to radiation and leakage over the surroundings (Chernobyl).
2. When the test began at low loads, the demand for increased outpower should have been
declined.
3. Or the tests should have been abandoned and all control switched on. Then the output
should have been increased (Chernobyl)
4. The decision making on the test and increase the load should have been with one person
or the decision makers should have coordinated with each other. (Chernobyl 1)
5. Values are the least-reliable components in the hydraulic system. Such a malfunction of
the pressure relief valve and lack of information about its opening (or closing) were
reported else wherein the past. But there was no ‘learning from the past (TMI)
6. Continuous monitoring of the components such as demineralizer and pressure operated
relief valve must have been made (TMI).
7. A comprehensive precursor program (emergency procedure) should have been
implemented to record a few incidents sequence and map these events to risk models.
 The mapping based on technical and human factors give us accounts, how people react
and interact under conditions of stress (TMI).
8. Periodical mock drills of emergency for the operators (Safe exit) should have been
arranged (TMI and Chernobyl 1)
9. In-stack radioactivity monitoring instrument indicated a rise earlier. The operators at
TMI 2 should have been informed the superior at once. People residing in the
neighborhood ought to have been informed and steps initiated to evacuated the public
immediately (TMI especially and also Chernobyl)

3.5.2 BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY

On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide's pesticide-manufacturing plant in Bhopal, India leaked 40

tons of the deadly gas, methyl is ocyanate into a sleeping, impoverished community -killing2,500
within a few days, 10000 permanently disabled and injuring 100,000 people. Ten years later, it
increased to 4000 to 7000 deaths and injuries to600,000.

Risks taken:
• Storage tank of Methyl Isocyanate gas was filled to more than 75% capacity as
against Union Carbide‘s spec. that it should never be more than 60%full.
• The company‘s West Virginia plant was controlling the safety systems and detected
leakagesthro‟computersbuttheBhopalplantonlyusedmanuallabourforcontrolandleak
detection.
• The Methyl Isocyanate gas, being highly concentrated, burns parts of body with
which it comes into contact, even blinding eyes and destroying lungs.
Causal Factors:
• Three protective systems out of service
• Plant was understaffed due to costs.
• Very high inventory of MIC, an extremely toxic material.
• The accident occurred in the early morning.
• Most of the people killed lived in a shanty (poorly built) town located very close to the plant
fence.
Workers made the following attempts to save the plant:
• They tried to turn on the plant refrigeration system to cool down the environment and slow
the reaction. (The refrigeration system had been drained of coolant weeks before and never
refilled- it cost too much.)
• They tried to route expanding gases to a neighboring tank. (The tank's pressure gauge was
broken and indicated the tank was full when it was really empty.)
• They tried to purge the gases through a scrubber. (The scrubber was designed for flow rates,
temperatures and pressures that were a fraction of what was by this time escaping from the
tank.
The scrubber was as a result ineffective.
• They tried to route the gases through a flare tower -- to burn them away. (The supply line to
the flare tower was broken and hadn't been replaced.)
 • They tried to spray water on the gases and have them settle to the ground, by this time the
chemical reaction was nearly completed. (The gases were escaping at a point 120 feet above
ground; the hoses were designed to shoot water up to 100 feet into the air.) In just 2 hours
the chemicals escaped to form a deadly cloud over hundreds of thousands of people incl.
poor migrant laborer’s who stayed close to the plant.

3.6 DIFFICULTIES IN ESTABLISHING SAFE GUARDS

Difficulties in establishing Safeguards:

• Incomplete knowledge of the engineering subject
• Refusal to face hard questions caused by lack of knowledge
• False sense of security
• e.g. Nuclear waste disposal problem
• Caution in stating probabilities of rare events
• Varying understanding of risk based on presentation of facts
• Risk assessments based on incorrect/unacceptable assumptions/data
• Only a few persons/groups participate in the exercise
• Some of the ways by which engineers may try to reduce risks.
• In all the areas of works, engineers should give top priority for product safety.
• They should believe that accidents are caused by dangerous conditions that can be
corrected. Negligence and operator errors are not the principal causes of accidents.
• If a product is made safe, the initial costs need not be high if safety is built into a
product from the beginning. It is the design changes done at a later date that are
costly. Even then life cycle costs can be made lower for the redesigned or retrofitted
product (for safety).
• If safety is not built into the original design, people can be hurt during testing stage
itself.
• They should get out of the thinking that warnings about hazards are adequate and
that insurance coverage is cheaper than planning for safety.
• All it takes to make a product safe is to have different perspective on the design
problem with emphasis on safety.
• Examples of Improved Safety
• Magnetic door catch introduced on refrigerators
• Prevent death by asphyxiation of children accidentally trapped inside
• The catch now permits the door to opened from inside easily
• Cheaper than older types of latches
• Dead-man Handle for Drivers in trains
• Semaphore signaling
• Volkswagen's car safety belt
• Attachment on the door so that belt automatically goes in place on Entry
 UNIT-4
RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS

4.1 COLLEGIALITY AND LOYALTY

Collegiality is a kind of connectedness grounded in respect for professional expertise and in a

commitment to the goals and values of the profession and as such, collegiality includes a
disposition to support and co-operate with one‘s colleagues‟.- Craig Ihara. The central elements
of collegiality are respect, commitment, connectedness and cooperation.
Respect: Acknowledge the worth of other engineers engaged in producing socially useful and safe
products.
Commitment: Share a devotion to the moral ideals inherent in the practice of engineering.
Connectedness: Aware of being part of a co-operative undertaking created by shared commitments
and expertise. Collegiality, like most virtues, can be misused and distorted. It should not be reduced
to„ group interest ‟but should be a shared devotion for public good. It is not defaming colleagues,
but it does not close the eyes to unethical practices of the co- professionals, either.
Classifications of Loyalty
• Agency-Loyalty
• Fulfill one’s contractual duties to an employer.
• Duties are particular tasks for which one is paid
• Co-operating with colleagues
• Following legitimate authority within the organization.
• Identification-Loyalty:
• It has to do with attitudes, emotions and a sense of personal identity.
• Seeks to meet one’s moral duties with personal attachment and affirmation.
• It is against detesting their employers and companies, and do work reluctantly and
horribly (this is construed as disloyalty)
This means
• Avoid conflicts of interest,
• Inform employers of any possible conflicts of interest,
• Protect confidential information,
• Be honest in making estimates,
• Admit one’s errors, etc.
Loyalty - Obligation of Engineers
• Agency-Loyalty
• Engineers are hired to do their duties.
• Hence obligated to employers within proper limits
• Identification-Loyalty
• Obligatory on two conditions;
1. When some important goals are met by and through a group in which the engineers
participate
2. When employees are treated fairly, receiving the share of benefits and burdens.
 3. But clearly, identification-loyalty is a virtue and not strictly an obligation.

4.2 RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY

a. Allowing everyone to exercise uncontrolled individual discretion creates chaos

(confusion)
b. Clear lines of authority identify areas of personal responsibility and accountability.

Need for Authority

Authority is needed since
a) Allowing everyone to exercise uncontrolled individual discretion creates chaos
(confusion).
b) Clear lines of authority identify areas of personal responsibility and accountability.

Institutional Authority and Expert Authority

Institutional authority
‘The institutional right given to a person to exercise power based on the resources of the
institution’.
o It is acquired, exercised and defined within in situations.
o It is given to individuals to perform their institutional duties assigned within the
organization. There is not always a perfect match between the authority granted and
the qualifications needed to exercise it.

Expert authority
‘The possession of special knowledge, skill or competence to perform some task or to give sound
advice’.

Engineers may have expert authority but their institutional authority, may only be, to provide
management with analysis of possible ways to perform a technical task, after which they are
restricted to following management’s directive about which option to pursue. In large companies,
engineers, advisors and consultants in staff function carry expert authority, while institutional
authority is vested only with line managers.

Authority Vs Power

Ineffective persons, even if vested with authority by their institution, may not be able to summon
the power their position allows them to exercise. On the other hand, people who are effective may
be able to wield greater power that goes beyond the authority attached to the positions they hold.
Highly respected engineers of proven integrity belong to this class.

Authority - Morally justified

Observations on authority.
 o An employer who has institutional authority may direct engineers to do something
that is not morally justified.
o Engineers may feel that they have an institutional duty too bey directive that is
morally unjustified, but their moral duty, all things considered, is not too bey.

o To decide whether a specific act of exercising institutional authority is morally

justified, we need to know whether the institutional goals are themselves morally
permissible or desirable and whether that act violates basic moral duties.

‘Zone Of Acceptance’ of Authority

‘A subordinate is said to accept authority whenever he permits his behavior to be guided by the
decision of a superior, without independently examining the merits of that decision’-Herbert
Simon
o Simon notes that all employees tend to have a ‘zone of acceptance’ in which they
are willing to accept their employer’s authority.
o Within that zone, an individual, relaxing his own critical faculties, permits the
decision of the employer to guide him.
o Employees generally do not make an issue of questionable incidents on morality,
out of a sense of responsibility to give their employer leeway within which to operate
and often not to risk their jobs.
o The problem increases when employees slowly expand the boundaries of tolerance
and rationalize it.
This only shows that engineers should never stop critically reviewing the employer’s directives
especially on moral issues.

4.3 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND OCCUPATIONAL

Collective bargaining is inconsistent with loyalty to employers because it

• is against the desires of the employer
• uses force or coercion against the employer and
• involves collective and organized opposition.

But every instance of such conduct need not be unethical. An example: Three engineers sincerely
feel that they are underpaid. After their representations to their bosses are in vain, they threaten
their employer, politely, that they would seek employment elsewhere. Here, even though, they act
against the desires of their employer and have acted collectively, they have not acted unethically
or violated their duty.

• Public Service Argument‟- Collective bargaining.

• Public Service Argument‟ is an argument against collective bargaining.
• The paramount duty of engineers is to serve the public.
• Unions, by definition, promote the interests of their members and whenever there is a
clash of interests, the interest of the general public is ignored by them. Though the
 argument is a valid one, It looks at the worst possible scenarios with unions and decides
that engineering unions act only irresponsibly.
• A body of engineers can promote engineers‟ interest within limits set by professional
concern for the public good.

Benefits of Collective Bargaining.

a) Unions have created healthy salaries and high standard of living of employees.
b) They give a sense of participation in company decision making.
c) They are a good balance to the power of employers to fire employees at will.
d) They provide an effective grievance redressal procedure for employee complaints.

Harms Caused by Collective Bargaining.

a) Unions are devastating the economy of a country, being a main source of inflation
b) With unions, there is no congenial (friendly), cooperative decision making.
c) Unions do not promote quality performance by making job promotion and retention based on
seniority.
d) They encourage unrest and strained relations between employees and employers.

4.4 CONFIDENTIALITY

Confidentiality is an ethical principle associated with several professions (e.g., medicine, law,
religion, professional psychology, and journalism). In ethics, and (in some places) in law and
alternative forms of legal dispute resolution such as mediation, some types of communication
between a person and one of these professionals are "privileged" and may not be discussed or
divulged to third parties. In those jurisdictions in which the law makes provision for such
confidentiality, there are usually penalties for its violation

Confidentiality or confidential information:

• Information considered desirable to be kept secret.
• Any information that the employer or client would like to have kept secret in order to
compete effectively against business rivals.
• This information includes how business is run, its products, and suppliers, which directly
affects the ability of the company to compete in the marketplace
• Helps the competitor to gain advantage or catchup Privileged information, Proprietary
information and Patents:
Privileged information:
• Informationavailableonlyonthebasisofspecialprivilege‟suchasgrantedtoanemployee
working on a special assignment.
Proprietary information:
• Information that a company owns or is the proprietor of.
• This is primarily used in legal sense.
 • Also called Trade Secret. A trade secret can be virtually any type of information that has
not become public and which an employer has taken steps to keep secret.
Patents:.
• Legally protect specific products from being manufactured and sold by competitors
without the express permission of the patentholder.
• Theyhavethedrawbackofbeingpublicandcompetitorsmayeasilyworkaroundthemby
creating alternate designs.
• Differ from trade secrets

Obligation of Confidentiality:
1. Based on ordinary moral considerations:
a. Respect for autonomy:
• Recognizing the legitimate control over private information (individuals or corporations).
• This control is required to maintain their privacy and protect their self-interest.
b. Respect for Promise:
• Respecting promises in terms of employment contracts not to divulge certain information
considered sensitive by the employer
c. Regard for public wellbeing:
• Only when there is a confidence that the physician will not reveal information, the patient
will have the trust to confide in him.
• Similarly, only when companies maintain some degree of confidentiality concerning their
products, the benefits of competitiveness within a free market are promoted.
2. Based on Major Ethical Theories:
• All theories profess that employers have moral and institutional rights to decide what
information about their organization should be released publicly.
• They acquire these rights as part of their responsibility to protect the interest of the
organization.
• All the theories, rights ethics, duty ethics and utilitarianism justify this confidentiality but
in different ways.
3. Effect of Change of Job on Confidentiality:
• Employees are obliged to protect confidential information regarding former employment,
after a change of job.
• The confidentiality trust between employer and employee continues beyond the period of
employment.
• But the employee cannot be forced not to seek a change of job.
• The employer ‘s right to keep the trade secrets confidential by a former employee should
be accepted at the same time, the employee‘s right to seek career advancement cannot
also be denied.

4.5 CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Conflict of Interest arises when two conditions are met:

 1. The professional is in a relationship or a role that requires exercising good judgment on
behalf of the interests of an employer or client and
2. The professional has some additional or side interest that could threaten good judgment in
serving the interests of the employee or client. E.g., When an engineer is paid based on a
percentage of the cost of the design and there is no incentive for him to cut costs- The
distrust caused by this situation compromises the engineers’ ability to cut costs and calls
into question his judgement

‘An act of gift’ and ‘An act of bribe’

‘A gift is a bribe if you can’t eat, drink or smoke it in a day’.

‘If you think that your offer of acceptance of a particular gift would have grave or merely
embarrassing consequences for your company if made public, then the gift should be considered
a bribe’.

‘Bribe can be said to be a substantial amount of money or goods offered beyond a stated business
contract with the aim of winning an advantage in gaining or keeping the contract’.

Here ‘substantial’ means that which is sufficient to distort the judgment of a typical person.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST CREATED BY INTEREST IN OTHER COMPANIES

• When one works actually for the competitor or subcontractor as an employee or

consultant
• Having partial ownership or substantial stock holdings in the competitor’s
business.
• It may not arise by merely having a spouse working for sub-contractor to one’s
company, but it will arise if one’s job also includes granting contracts to that
subcontractor
• Tempting customers away from their current employer, while still working for
them to form their own competing business
• Moonlighting usually creates conflicts when working for competitors, suppliers
or customers but does not conflict when working for others without affecting
the present employer’s business
• ‘Moonlighting’ means working in one’s spare time for another employer

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST CREATED BY INSIDER INFORMATION

o Using inside information to set-up a business opportunity for oneself or family or

friends.
 o Buying stock in the company for which one works is not objectionable but it should
be based on the same information available to the public.
o The use of any company secrets by employee to secure a personal gain
threatens the interest of the company.

AVOIDING CONFLICTS OF INTERESTS

o Taking guidance from Company Policy

o In the absence of such a policy taking a second opinion from a coworker or manager.
This gives an impression that there no intension on the part of the engineer to hide
anything.
o In the absence of either of these options, to examine ones own motives and use the
ethical problem solving techniques.
o One can look carefully into the professional codes of ethics which uniformly forbid
conflicts of interest. Some of these codes have very explicit statements that can help
determine whether or not the situation constitutes conflict of interest.

4.6 OCCUPATIONAL CRIME

TYPE OF CRIME

➢ Domestic crime: Non-accidental crime committed by members of the family

➢ Professional Crime: When crime is pursued as a profession or day to day
occupation
➢ Blue collar crime (or) Street crime: Crime against person, property (theft, assault
on a person, rape)
➢ Victimless crime: Person who commits the crime is the victim of the crime. E.g. Drug
addiction
➢ Hate crime: Crime done on the banner of religion, community, linguistics

OCCUPATIONAL CRIME

a. Occupational crimes are illegal acts made possible through one’s lawful
employment.
b. It is the secretive violation of laws regulating work activities.
c. When committed by office workers or professionals, occupational crime is
called ‘white collar crime’.

People Committing Occupational Crimes

➢ Usually have high standard of education

➢ From a non-criminal family background
➢ Middle class male around 27 years of age (70% of the time) with no previous history
 ➢ No involvement in drug or alcohol abuse
➢ Those who had troublesome life experience in the childhood (Blum)
➢ People without firm principles (Spencer)
➢ Firms with declining profitability (Coleman,1994)
➢ Firms in highly regulated areas and volatilemarket
pharmaceutical, petroleum industry (Albanese,1995)

PRICE FIXING

An act was passed, which forbade (prevented) companies from jointly setting prices in ways that
restrain free competition and trade. Unfortunately, many senior people, well respected and
positioned were of the opinion that ‘price fixing’ was good for their organizations and the public.

Employees Endangering Lives of Employees

Employers indulge in exposing their employees to safety hazards. They escape criminal action
against them, by paying nominal compensations even if their crimes are proved in court. And even
this happens only when the victim sues company for damages under civil law.

OCCUPATIONAL CRIME:

• Occupational crimes are illegal acts made possible through one‟s lawful
employment.
• It is the secretive violation of laws regulating work activities.
• When committed by office workers or professionals, occupational crime is called
„white collar crime‟.
• People Committing Occupational Crimes
• Usually have high standard of education
• From a non-criminal family background
• Middle class male around 27 years of age (70% of the time) with no previous
• History
• No involvement in drug or alcohol abuse
• Those who had troublesome life experience in the childhood (Blum)
• People without firm principles (Spencer)
• Firms with declining profitability (Coleman,1994)
• Firms in highly regulated areas and volatile market-pharmaceutical, petroleum
industry. (Albanese, 1995)

4.7 PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS

Professional Rights & Ethical Theories

Professional rights:
• The right to form and express one’s professional judgment freely
• The right to refuse to carry out illegal and unethical activity
• The right to talk publicly about one’s work within bounds set by confidentiality
obligation
• The right to engage in the activities of professional societies
• The right to protect the clients and the public from the dangers that might arise from
one’s work
• The right to professional recognition of one’s services.

Right of Professional Conscience

• There is one basic and generic professional right of engineers, the moral right to exercise
responsible professional judgment in pursuing professional responsibilities.
• Pursuing these responsibilities involves exercising both technical judgment
▪ and reasoned moral convictions.
• This basic right can be referred to as the right of professional conscience.

Right of Conscientious Refusal

The right of Conscientious refusal is the right to refuse to engage in unethical behavior and to
refuse to do so solely because one views it as unethical

Two situations to be considered.

1. Where there is widely shared agreement in profession as to whether an act is unethical

Here, professionals have a moral right to refuse to participate in such activities.

2. Where there is room for disagreement among reasonable people over whether an act is
unethical.

Here, it is possible that there could be different ethical view points from the professional and the
employer. In such cases the engineers can have a limited right to turn down assignments that
violates their personal conscience only in matters of great importance such as threats to human
life. This right also depends on the ability of the employer to reassign the engineer to alternate
projects without serious economic hardships to the organization. The right of professional
conscience does not extend to the right to be paid for not working.

Right to Recognition

Right to Recognition involves two parts.

The right to reasonable remuneration gives the moral right for fighting against corporations
making good profits while engineers are being paid poorly. Also is the case where patents are not
being rewarded properly by the corporations benefiting from such patents. The other right to
recognition is non-monetary part of recognition to the work of engineers. But what is reasonable
remuneration or reasonable recognition is a difficult question and should be resolved by
discussions between employees and employers only.

1. Rights Ethics:
o The most basic human right, which needs no justification, as per A.I. Meldon, is to
pursue one’s legitimate (those that do not violate others’ rights) interests.
o The right to pursue legitimate interests gives a person right to pursue professional moral
obligations.
o This may be viewed as a human right of conscience directly derived from the basic
human right
2. Duty Ethics:
o I have a right to something only because others have duties or obligations to allow me
(and not interfere) to do so.
o If we derive the meaning of ‘others’ as employers, then the basic professional right is
justified by reference to others’ duties to support or not interfere with the work-related
exercise of conscience by professionals.
3. Utilitarianism:
o Public good can be served by allowing professionals to meet their obligations to the
public.
o These obligations arise due to the professional’s role in promoting public good.
o The basic goal of producing the most good for the greatest number of people is enough
to justify the right of professional conscience.

Engineers’ Moral Rights

Engineers’ moral rights fall into categories of human, employee, contractual and professional
rights.

WHISTLE-BLOWING AND ITS FEATURES

Whistle blowing is an act of conveying information about a significant moral problem by a present
or former employee, outside approved channels (or against strong pressure) to someone, in a
position to take action on the problem.

The features of Whistle blowing are:

• Act of Disclosure: Intentionally conveying information outside approved
organizational channels when the person is under pressure not to do so from higher-
ups.
• Topic: The information is believed to concern a significant moral problem for the
organization.
 • Agent: The person disclosing the information is an employee or former employee.
• Recipient: The information is conveyed to a person or organization who can act
onit.

TYPES OF WHISTLE BLOWING

External Whistle blowing: The act of passing on information outside the organization. Internal
Whistle blowing: The act of passing on information to someone within the organization but outside
the approved channels.
Either type is likely to be considered as disloyalty, but the second one is often seen as less serious
than the latter. From corporations’ point of view both are serious because it leads to distrust,
disharmony, and inability of the employees to work together.
Open Whistle blowing: Individuals openly revealing their identity as they convey the information.
Anonymous Whistle blowing: Individual conveying the information conceals his/her identity

PROCEDURES TO BE FOLLOWED BEFORE WHISTLE BLOWING

• Except for extreme emergencies, always try working through normal
organizational channels.
• Be prompt in expressing objections.
• Proceed in a tactful manner with due consideration to the feelings of others involved.
• As much as possible, keep supervisors informed of your actions, both informally
and formally.
• Be accurate in observations and claims and keep all formal records
documenting relevant events.
• Consult colleagues for advice and also to avoid isolation.
• Consult the ethics committee of your professional society before going outside the
organization.
• Consult a lawyer regarding potential legal liabilities.

A great deal of introspection and reflection are required before WB. Motive should neither befor
revenge upon fellow employee, supervisor or company nor in the hope of future gains like book
contracts or speaking tours etc.

CONDITIONS TO BE SATISFIED BEFORE WHISTLE BLOWING

Richard T. De George suggests the following:

1. The harm that will be done by the product to the public is serious and considerable.
2. The individual makes his/her concern known to his/her superiors
3. If one does not get any proper response from immediate superiors, then one should
exhaust the channels that are available within the organization including the board
of directors.
 4. One must have documented evidence that would convince a reasonable and impartial
observer that one’s view of the situation is correct and the company policy is wrong.
5. There must be strong evidence that making the information public will in fact
prevent the threatened serious harm.

PREVENTION OF WHISTLE BLOWING

The following actions will prevent/reduce whistle blowing:

1. Giving direct access to higher levels of management by announcing ‘open door’

policies with guarantee that there won’t be retaliation. Instead such employees
should be rewarded for fostering ethical behavior in the company.
2. This gives greater freedom and promotes open communication within the
organization.
3. Creation of an Ethics Review Committee with freedom to investigate complaints
and make independent recommendations to top management.
4. Top priority should be given to promote ethical conduct in the organization by top
management.
5. Engineers should be allowed to discuss in confidence, their moral concerns with the
ethics committee of their professional societies.
6. When there are differences on ethical issues between engineers and management,
ethics committee members of the professional societies should be allowed to enter
into these discussions.
7. Changes and updating in law must be explored by engineers, organizations,
professional societies and government organizations on a continuous basis.

4.8 EMPLOYEES RIGHT

• Employee rights are any rights, moral or legal, that involve the status of being an
employee.

Employee rights are:

• There should be no discrimination against an employee for criticizing ethical, moral or
legal policies and practices of the organization.
• Theorganizationwillnotalsodiscriminateagainstanemployeeforengaginginoutside
activities or for objecting to an organization directive that violates common norms of
morality.
• The employee will not be deprived of any enjoyment of reasonable privacy in his/her
workplace.
• No personal information about employees will be collected or kept other than what is
necessary to manage the organization efficiently and to meet the legal requirements.
No employee who alleges that her/his rights have been violated will be discharged or penalized
without a fair hearing by the employer organization. Some clear examples: falsifying data,
avoidance on the safety of a product

Employee rights are any rights, moral or legal, that involve the status of being an employee.
Employee rights are:

a. There should be no discrimination against an employee for criticizing ethical, moral

or legal policies and practices of the organization.
b. The organization will not also discriminate against an employee for engaging in
outside activities or for objecting to an organization directive that violates common
norms of morality.
c. The employee will not be deprived of any enjoyment of reasonable privacy in his/her
workplace.
d. No personal information about employees will be collected or kept other than what
is necessary to manage the organization efficiently and to meet the legal
requirements.
e. No employee who alleges that her/his rights have been violated will be discharged
or penalized without a fair hearing by the employer organization. Some clear
examples; falsifying data, avoidance on the safety of a product

4.9 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Intellectual Property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for
which property rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual
property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as
musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and
designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial
design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.
• Intellectual Property is a product of the human intellect that has commercial value
• Many of the rights of the ownership common to real and personal property are also
common to Intellectual Property
• Intellectual Property can be bought, sold, and licensed
• Similarly it can be protected against theft and infringement by others Patent, Design
& Trademark together with Copyright form TOTAL INTELLECTUALPROPERTY:
Patent
1. Derived from the Latin word„ LITTERAE PATENTES‟ which means„ Open Letters ‟ or
Open Documents‟ to confer rights and privileges.
2. A contract between an Inventor and the Government
3. An exclusive privilege monopoly right granted by the Government to the Inventor
4. Invention may be of an Industrial product or process of manufacture
5. Invention should be new, non-obvious, useful and patentable as per Patents Act
 6. The right to the inventor is for limited period of time and valid only within the territorial
limits of a country of grant.

Examples: a drug compound, a tool, maybe software effects

Design
• Meant for beautifying an industrial product to attract the consumer public
• Shaping, Configuration or Ornamentation of a vendible Industrial product
• Exclusive Design Rights to the originator for a limited term
• Patents & design embrace the production stage of an industrial activity

Trade Mark
• Trade Mark is a name or symbol adopted for identifying goods
• Public can identify from the Trade Mark from whom the product is emanating
• Trade Marks protection is given for an industrial product by the Government
• Examples: Channel No.5‟s smell, Jacque Villeneuve’s face!

COPY RIGHTS
• The right to original literary and artistic works
• Literary, written material
• Dramatic, musical or artistic works
• Films and audio-visual materials
• Sound recordings
• Computer Programmes/software
• SOME databases
• Example: Picasso‟s Guernica, Microsoft code, Lord of the Rings
Need For A Patent System
a. Encourages an inventor to disclose his invention
b. Encourages R & D activities as the industries can make use of the technology, &
avoids redundant research
c. Provides reasonable assurance for commercialization.
d. Provides an inducement to invest capital in the new lines of production and thus ,
help for technical development and upgradation.
 e. One may get a very good return of income through Patent Right on the investment
made in R &D.
Effect of Patent
a. A patentee gets the exclusive monopoly right against the public at large to use, sell or
manufacture his patented device.
b. A patentee can enforce his monopoly right against any infringement in the court of law for
suitable damages or profit of account.
c. The Government ensures full disclosure of the invention to the public for exchange of exclusive
monopoly patent right to the inventor.

4.10 DISCRIMIANION

Discrimination

o Discrimination generally means preference on the grounds of sex, race, skin colour,
age or religious outlook.
o In everyday speech, it has come to mean morally unjustified treatment of people on
arbitrary or irrelevant grounds.
o Therefore, to call something ‘Discrimination” is to condemn it.
o But when the question of justification arises, we will call it ‘Preferential Treatment’.\

Discrimination is a sociological term referring to the prejudicial treatment of an individual based

solely on their membership (whether voluntary or involuntary) in a certain group or category.
Discrimination is the actual behavior towards members of another group. It involves excluding or
restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to other groups. The United
Nations explains: "Discriminatory behaviors take many forms, but they all involve some form of
exclusion or rejection." Discriminatory laws such as redlining have existed in many countries. In
some countries, controversial attempts such as racial quotas have been used to redress negative
effects of discrimination.
 UNIT-5
GLOBAL ISSUES

5.1 MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS WITH NEAT EXAMPLE

Multinational corporations conduct extensive business in more than one country. In some cases,
their operations are spread so thinly around the world that their official headquarters in any one
home country, as distinct from the additional host countries in which they do business, is largely
incidental and essentially a matter of historical circumstance or of selection based on tax
advantages.
The benefits to U.S. companies of doing business in less economically developed countries are
clear: inexpensive labor, availability of natural resources, favorable tax arrangements, and fresh
markets for products. The benefits to the participants in developing countries are equally clear:
new jobs, jobs with higher pay and greater challenge, transfer of advanced technology, and an
array of social benefits from sharing wealth. Yet moral challenges arise, accompanying business
and social complications. Who loses jobs at home when manufacturing is taken―off shore‖? What
does the host country lose in resources, control over its own trade, and political independence?
And what are the moral responsibilities of corporations and individuals operating in less
economically developed countries? Here we focus on the last question. Before doing so it will be
helpful to introduce the concepts of technology transfer and appropriate technology.

Technology Transfer and Appropriate Technology:

Technology transfer is the process of moving technology to a novel setting and implementing it
there. Technology includes both hardware (machines and installations) and technique (technical,
organizational, and managerial skills and procedures). A novel setting is any situation containing
at least one new variable relevant to the success or failure of a given technology.
The setting may be within a country where the technology is already used elsewhere, or a foreign
country, which is our present interest. A variety of agents may conduct the transfer of
technology: governments, universities, private volunteer organizations (such as Engineers
Without Borders), consulting firms, and multinational corporations. In most instances, the
transfer of technology from a familiar to a new environment is a complex process. The
technology being transferred may be one that originally evolved over a period of time and is now
being introduced as a ready-made, completely new entity into a different setting. Discerning how
the new setting differs from familiar contexts requires the imaginative and cautious vision of
―cross-cultural social experimenters. ‖ The expression appropriate technology is widely used, but
with a variety of meanings.
We use it in a generic sense to refer to identification, transfer, and implementation of the most
suitable technology for a new set of conditions. Typically the conditions include social factors that
go beyond routine economic and technical engineering constraints. Identifying them requires
attention to an array of human values and needs that may influence how a technology affects the
novel situation. Thus, in the words of Peter Heller, ―appropriateness may be scrutinized in terms
of scale, technical and managerial skills, materials/energy (assured availability of supply at
reasonable cost), physical environment (temperature, humidity, atmosphere, salinity, water
availability, etc.), capital opportunity costs (to be commensurate with benefits), but especially
human values (acceptability of the end-product by the intended users in light of their institutions,
traditions, beliefs, taboos, and what they consider the good life).‖5 Examples include the
introduction of agricultural machines and long-distance telephones.
A country with many poor farmers can make better immediate use of small, single- or two-
wheeled tractors that can serve as motorized ploughs, to pull wagons or to drive pumps, than it can
of huge diesel tractors that require collectivized or agribusiness-style farming. Conversely, the
same country can benefit more from the latest in wireless communication technology to spread its
telephone service to more people and over long distances than it can from old- fashioned
transmission by wire. Appropriate technology also implies that the technology should contribute
to and not detract from sustainable development of the host country by providing for careful
stewardship of its natural resources and not degrading the environment beyond its carrying
capacity. Nor should technology be used to replace large numbers of individually tended small
fields by large plantations to grow crops for export, leaving most of the erstwhile farmers jobless
and without a source of home-grown food.
The word appropriate is vague until we answer the questions, appropriate to what, and in what
way? Answering those questions immediately invokes values about human needs and
environmental protection, as well as facts about situations, making it obvious that appropriate is a
value-laden term. In this broader sense, the appropriate technology might sometimes be small-,
intermediate-, or large-scale technology. Appropriate technology is a generic concept that applies
to all attempts to emphasize wider social factors when transferring technologies. As such, it
reinforces and amplifies our view of engineering as social experimentation. With these distinctions
in mind, let us turn to a classic case study illustrating the complexities of engineering within
multinational settings.

5.2 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

Environmental ethics is the study of (a) moral issues concerning the environment, and (b) moral
perspectives, beliefs, or attitudes concerning those issues. Engineers in the past are known for
their negligence of environment, in their activities. It has become important now that engineers
design eco-friendly tools, machines, sustainable products, processes, and projects. These are
essential now to (a) ensure protection (safety) of environment (b) prevent the degradation of
environment, and (c) slowdown the exploitation of the natural resources, so that the future
generation can survive.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) code of ethics, has specifically requires that
“engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public and shall strive to
comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of professional duties”
The term sustainable development emphasizes on the investment, orientation of technology,
development and functioning of organizations to meet the present needs of people and at the same
time ensuring the future generations to meet their needs.
Compaq Computer Corporation (now merged with HP) was the leader, who exhibited their
commitment to environmental health, through implementation of the concept of ‘Design for
environment’ on their products, unified standards all over the world units, and giving priority to
vendors with a record of environmental concern.
Engineers as experimenters have certain duties towards environmental ethics, namely:
1. Environmental impact assessment: One major but sure and unintended effect of
technology is wastage and the resulting pollution of land, water, air and even space.
Study how the industry and technology affects the environment.
2. Establish standards: Study and to fix the tolerable and actual pollution levels.
3. Counter measures: Study what the protective or eliminating measures are available for
immediate implementation
4. Environmental awareness: Study on how to educate the people on environmental
practices, issues, and possible remedies.

DISASTERS
1. Plastic Waste Disposal
In our country, several crores of plastic bottles are used as containers for water and oil, and
plastic bags are used to pack different materials ranging from vegetables to gold ornaments.
Hardly any of these are recycled. They end up in gutters, roadsides, and agricultural fields. In all
these destinations, they created havoc. The worse still is the burning of plastic materials in streets
and camphor along with plastic cover in temples, since they release toxic fumes and threaten
seriously the air quality. Cities and local administration have to act on this, collect and arrange
for recycling through industries.
2. e-Waste Disposal
The parts of computers and electronic devices which have served its useful life present a major
environmental issue for all the developing countries including India. This scrap contains highly
toxic elements such as lead, cadmium, and mercury.
Even the radioactive waste will lose 89% of its toxicity after 200 years, by which time it will be no
more toxic than some natural minerals in the ground. It will lose 99% of its remaining toxicity
over the next 30,000 years. The toxic chemical agents such as mercury, arsenic, and cadmium
retain toxicity undiminished forever.
But these scraps are illegally imported by unscrupulous agencies to salvage some commercially
valuable inputs. Instead of spending and managing on the scrap, unethical organizations sell
them to countries such as India. This is strictly in violation of the Basel Convention of the United
Nations Environment Program, which has banned the movement of hazardous waste. A recent
report of the British Environment Agency,13 has revealed that the discarded computers,
television sets, refrigerators, mobile phones, and electrical equipment’s have been dispatched to
India and Pakistan in large quantity, for ultimate disposal in environmentally-unacceptable ways
and at great risk to the health of the labor. Even in the West, the electronic junk has been posing
problems. Strong regulation including (a) pressure on industries to set up disassembling
facilities, (b) ban on disposal in landfill sites, (c) legislation for recycling requirements for these
junks and (d) policy incentives for eco-friendly design are essential for our country. The
European Union through the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive has
curbed thee-waste dumping by member countries and require manufacturers to implement
methods to recover and recycle the components.
Indian Government expressed its concern through a technical guide on environmental
management for IT Industry in December, 2004. It is yet to ratify the ban on movement of
hazardous waste according to the Basel Convention. A foreign news agency exposed a few years
back, the existence of a thriving e-waste disposal hub in a suburb of New Delhi, operating in
appallingly dangerous conditions. Our country needs regulations to define waste, measures to stop
illegal imports, and institutional structures to handle safe disposal of domestic industrial scrap.
3. Industrial Waste Disposal
There has been a lot of complaints through the media, on (a) against the Sterlite Copper Smelting
Plantin Thuthukkudi (1997) against its pollution, and (b) when Indian companies imported the
discarded French Warship Clemenceau for disposal, the poisonous asbestos compounds were
expected to pollute the atmosphere besides exposing the labor to a great risk, during the disposal.
The government did not act immediately. Fortunately for Indians, the French Government
intervened and withdrew the ship, and the serious threat was averted!
4. Depletion of Ozone Layer
The ozone layer protects the entire planet from the ill-effects of ultraviolet radiation and is vital
for all living organisms in this world. But it is eaten away by the Chloro-fluro-carbons (CFC) such
as freon emanating from the refrigerators, air conditioners, and aerosol can spray. This has
caused also skin cancer to sun-bathers in the Western countries. Further NO and NO2 gases were
also found to react with the ozone. Apart from engineers, the organizations, laws of the country
and local administration and market mechanisms are required to take up concerted efforts to
protect the environment.
5. Global Warming
Over the past 30 years, the Earth has warmed by 0.6 °C. Over the last 100 years, it has warmed
by 0.8 °C. It is likely to push up temperature by 3oC by 2100, according to NASA’s studies. The
U.S. administration has accepted the reality of global climate change, which has been associated
with stronger hurricanes, severed roughts, intense heat waves and the melting of polar ice.
Greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide emitted by motor vehicles and coal-fired power plants,
trap heat like the glass walls of a greenhouse, cause the Earth to warm up. Delegates from the six
countries — Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and US metin California in April 2006
for the first working session of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.
These six countries account for about half of the world’s emissions of climate-heating greenhouse
gases. Only one of the six, Japan, is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least
5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012 under the Kyoto Agreement.
About 190 nations met in Germany in the middle of May 2006 and tried to bridge vast policy gaps
between the United States and its main allies over how to combat climate change amid growing
evidence that the world is warming that could wreak havoc by stoking more droughts, heatwaves,
floods, more powerful storms and raise global sea levels by almost a meter by 2100.
6. Acid Rain
Large emissions of Sulphur oxides and nitrous oxides are being released in to the air from the
thermal power stations using the fossil fuels, and several processing industries. These gases form
compounds with water in the air and precipitates as rain or snow on to the earth. The acid rain in
some parts of the world has caused sufficient damage to the fertility of the land and to the human
beings.
In addition to global warming, environmental challenges confront us at every turn, including
myriad forms of pollution, human-population growth, extinction of species, destruction of
ecosystems, depletion of natural resources, and nuclear waste. Today there is a wide consensus
that we need concerted environmental responses that combine economic realism with ecological
awareness. For their part, many engineers are now showing leadership in advancing ecological
awareness. In this chapter, we discuss some ways in which this responsibility for the environment
is shared by engineers, industry, government, and the public. Weal so introduce some perspectives
developed in the new field of environmental ethics that enter into engineers‘personal commitments
and ideals.

Engineering ecology and economics:

 Two powerful metaphors have dominated thinking about the environment: the invisible hand and
the tragedy of the commons. Both metaphors are used to highlight unintentional impacts of the
marketplace on the environment, but one is optimistic and the other is cautionary about those
impacts. Each contains a large part of the truth, and they need to be reconciled and balanced. The
first metaphor was set forth by Adam Smith in 1776 in The Wealth of Nations, the founding text
of modern economics. Smith conceived of an invisible (and divine) hand governing the Market
place in a seemingly paradoxical manner. According to Smith, businesspersons think only of their
own self-interest; It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we
expect our dinner, but from the irregard to their own interest. Yet, although― he intends only his
own gain, ‖he is―led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.
By pursuing his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than
when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected
to trade for the public good.

In fact, professionals and many business persons do profess to―trade for the public good, ‖
claiming a commitment to hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public. Although
they are predominantly motivated by self-interest, they also have genuine moral concern for
others.3 Nevertheless, Smith‘s metaphor of the invisible hand contains a large element of truth.
By pursuing self-interest, the business person, as entrepreneur, creates new companies that provide
goods and services for consumers. Moreover, competition pressures corporations to continually
improve the quality of their products and to lower prices, again benefiting consumers. In addition,
new jobs are created for employees and suppliers, and the wealth generated benefits the wider
community through consumerism, taxes, and philanthropy.
Despite its large element of truth, the invisible hand metaphor does not adequately take account of
damage to the environment. Writing in the eighteenth century, with its seemingly infinite natural
resources, Adam Smith could not have foreseen the cumulative impact of expanding populations,
unregulated capitalism, and market ―externalities‖—that is, economic impacts not included in the
cost of products. Regarding the environment, most of these are negative externalities—pollution,
destruction of natural habitats, depletion of shared resources, and other unintended and often
unappreciated damage to ―common ‖resources. This damage is the topic of the second metaphor,
which is rooted in Aristotle‘s observation that we tend to be thoughtless about things we do no
town individually and which seem to be in unlimited supply. William Foster Lloyd was also an
astute observer of this phenomenon.

In1833hedescribedwhat the ecologist Garrett Hardin would later call ―the tragedy of the
commons. Lloyd observed that cattle in the common pasture of a village were more stunted than
those kept on private land. The common fields were themselves more worn than private pastures.
His explanation began with the premise that individual farmers are understandably motivated by
self-interest to enlarge their common-pasture herd by one or two cows, especially given that each
act taken by itself does negligible damage. Yet, when all the farmers behave this way, in the
absence of laws constraining them, the result is the tragedy of overgrazing that harms everyone.

5.3 HUMAN-CENTERED ETHICS

Human-centered, or anthropocentric, environmental ethics focuses exclusively on the benefits of
the natural environment to humans and the threats to human beings presented by the destruction
of nature. In their classic formulations, all of them assume that, among the creatures on earth, only
human beings have inherent moral worth and hence deserve to be taken into account in making
moral decisions concerning the environment (or anything else). Other creatures and eco systems
have at most ―instrumental value‖—as means to promoting human interests.
Utilitarian’s enjoin us to maximize good consequences for human beings. In developing an
environmental ethic, the relevant goods consist of human interests and goods linked to nature.
Many of those pleasures and interests concern engineered products made from natural resources.
In addition, we have aesthetic interests, as in the beauty of plants, waterfalls, and mountain ranges,
and recreational interests, as in hiking and backpacking in wilderness areas. We have scientific
interests, especially in the study of― natural labs of ecological preserves, such as the rain forests.
And most basic, we have survival interests, which are linked directly to conserving resources and
preserving the natural environment.
The typical argument of rights ethics is that the basic rights to life and to liberty entail a right to a
livable environment. The right to a livable environment did not generally enter into people‘s
thinking until the end of the twentieth century, at the time when pollution and resource depletion
reached alarming proportions. Nevertheless, it is directly implied by the rights to life and liberty,
given that these basic rights cannot be exercised without a supportive natural environment. A right
to a livable environment is implied by rights to life and to liberty, and it ―imposes upon everyone
a correlative moral obligation to respect.
In duty ethics, which makes duties rather than rights fundamental, respect for human life implies
far greater concern for nature than has been traditionally recognized. Kant believed that we owe
duties only to rational beings, which in his view excluded all non-human animals, although of
course he did not have access to recent scientific studies showing striking parallels between
humans and other primates. Nevertheless, he condemned callousness and cruelty toward conscious
animals because he saw the danger that such attitudes would foster in human treatment of persons.
In any case, a duty-centered ethics would emphasize the need for conserving the environment
because doing so is implied by respect for human beings who depend on it for their very existence.
Finally, virtue ethics draws attention to such virtues as prudence, humility, appreciation of beauty,
and gratitude toward the natural world that makes life possible, and also the virtue of stewardship
over resources that are needed for further generations. Thomas E. Hill, Jr., offers an anecdote: ―A
wealthy eccentric bought a house in a neighborhood I know. The house was surrounded by a
beautiful display of grass, plants, and flowers, and it was shaded by a huge old avocado tree. But
the grass required cutting, the flowers needed tending, and the man wanted more sun. So he cut
the whole lot down and covered the yard with asphalt. The man‘s attitudes, suggests Hill, are
comparable to the callousness shown in strip mining, the cutting of redwood forests, and other
destruction of ecosystems with blinkered visions of usefulness. All these human-centered ethics
permit and indeed require a long-term view of conserving the environment, especially because the
human beings who have inherent worth will include future generations. Not everything of
importance within a human-centered ethics fits neatly into cost-benefit analyses with limited time
horizons; much must be accounted for by means of constraints or limits that cannot necessarily be
assigned dollar signs.
Yet, some have argued that all versions of human-centered ethics are flawed and that we should
widen the circle of things that have inherent worth, that is, value in themselves, independent of
human desires and appraisals. Especially since 1979, when the journal Environmental Ethics was
founded, philosophers have explored a wide range of nature- centered ethics that, for example,
affirm the inherent worth of all conscious animals, of all living organisms, or of ecosystems. Let
us consider each of these approaches.

5.4 COMPUTER ETHICS IS THE TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF THE

SOCIETY

Computers have become the technological backbone of society. Their degree of complexity,
range of applications, and sheer numbers continue to increase. Through telecommunication
networks they span the globe. Yet electronic computers are still only a Few decades old, and it is
difficult to fore see all the moral issues that will eventually surround them. The present state of
computers is sometimes compared to that of the automobile in the early part of this century. At
that time the impact of cars on work and leisure patterns, pollution, energy consumption, and
sexual mores was largely unimagined. If anything, it is more difficult to envisage the eventual
impact of computers because they are not limited to any one primary area of use as is a car‘s
function in transportation.
It is already clear, however, that computers raise a host of difficult moral issues, many of them
connected with basic moral concerns such as free speech, privacy, respect for property, informed
consent, and harm. To evaluate and deal with these issues, a new area of applied ethics called
computer ethics has sprung up. Computer ethics has special importance for the new groups of
professionals emerging with computer technology, for example, designers of computers,
programmers, systems analysts, and operators. To the extent that engineers design, manufacture,
and apply computers, computer ethics is a branch of engineering ethics. But the many professionals
who use and control computers share the responsibility for their applications.
Some of the issues in computer ethics concern shifts in power relationships resulting from the new
capacities of computers. Other issues concern property, and still others are about invasions of
privacy. All these issues may involve ―computer abuse‖: unethical or illegal conduct in which
computers play a central role (whether as instruments or objects).

The Internet and Free Speech:

The Internet has magnified all issues in computer ethics. The most powerful communication
technology ever developed, and a technology used daily by hundreds of millions of people, the
Internet gained widespread use only during the 1990s. Its modest beginning, or forerunner, came
from a simple idea of J. C. R. Licklider.2 Lick lider was a psychologist who had wide interests in
the newly emerging computer technology. In 1960he conceived of a human- computer symbiosis
in which the powers of humans and computers were mutually enhancing.3 The breadth of his
vision, together with his administrative skills, led to his appointment a few years later as the
director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense.
He quickly saw that the variety of computer-involved military projects was becoming a Tower of
Babel, and he wrote a revolutionary memo calling for a move toward a unified communication
system. In 1969, ARPA funded projects in universities and corporations that created an ARPA
network, or ARPANET.
In the 1980s, some universities developed their own communications networks, and their eventual
merging with ARPANET became the Internet, which is now a global network of networks, initially
using the infrastructure of the telephone system and now carried by many telecommunication
systems by wire, fibre, or wireless systems. The World Wide Web (Web), which is a service run
on the Internet, emerged from the Hypertext Mark-up Language and transfer protocol developed
at the European particle physics lab and is used in a multimedia format of text, pictures, sound,
and video. During the early 1990s, the Web was opened to business, e-mail, and other uses that
continue to expand. It is now clear to all that the Internet provides a wellspring of new ways to be
in contact with other people and with sources of information. It has also created greater
convenience in ordering consumer items, paying bills, and trading stocks and bonds. Like other
major ―social experiments, it also has raised a host of new issues. One set of issues centres on
free speech including control of obscene forms of pornography, hate speech, spam (unwanted
commercial speech), and libel. In a wide sense, pornography is sexually explicit material intended
primarily for sexual purposes (as distinct, say, from medical education).

Obscene pornography is pornography that is immoral or illegal in many countries, and is not
protected in the United States by the First Amendment rights to free speech. U.S. laws define
obscenity as sexually explicit materials that appeal to sexual interests, lack serious literary, artistic,
scientific, or other value, and are offensive to reasonable persons as judged by a community ‘s
standards. Needless to say, there is considerable disagreement about what this means, and the
definition is relative to communities that might have differing standards.
At the same time, there is wide agreement that child pornography and extremely violent and
degrading portrayals of women are obscene, and most local communities have attempted to control
them. The Internet has made such control extremely difficult, as images and texts can be
transmitted easily from international sources to a child‘s home computer. There are now hundreds
of thousands of pornographic Websites, with hundreds more created each day, many of which
contain obscene material. Hate speech, unlike obscenity, is not forbidden constitutionally. Not
surprisingly, then, the Internet has become a powerful resource for racist and anti-Semitic groups
to spread their messages. Those messages were heard, for example, by Eric Harris and Dylan
Klebold, who massacred their fellow students at Columbine High School in 1999. And there is no
question that this most powerful medium makes it much easier for hate groups to organize and
expand.

1 TYPES OF ISSUES
Different types of problems are found in computer ethics.
1. Computer as the Instrument of Unethical Acts
(a) The usage of computer replaces the job positions. This has been overcome to a large
extent by readjusting work assignments, and training everyone on computer
applications such as word processing, editing, and graphics.
(b) Breaking privacy. Information or data of the individuals accessed or erased or the
ownership changed.
 (c) Defraud a bank or a client, by accessing and withdrawing money from other’s bank
account.
2. Computer as the Object of Unethical Act
The data are accessed and deleted or changed.
(a) Hacking: The software is stolen or information is accessed from other computers. This
may cause financial loss to the business or violation of privacy rights of the individuals
or business. In case of defense information being hacked, this may endanger the security
of the nation.
(b) Spreading virus: Through mail or otherwise, other computers are accessed and the files
are erased or contents changed altogether. ‘Trojan horses’ are implanted to distort the
messages and files beyond recovery. This again causes financial loss or mental torture
to the individuals. Some hackers feel that they have justified their right of free
information or they do it for fun. However, these acts are certainly unethical.
(c) Health hazard: The computers pose threat during their use as well as during disposal.
These are discussed in # 5.3.2 and # 5.2.1, respectively, in detail.
3. Problems Related to the Autonomous Nature of Computer
(a) Security risk: Recently the Tokyo Stock Exchange faced a major embarrassment. A
seemingly casual mistake by a junior trader of a large security house led to huge losses
including that of reputation. The order through the exchange’s trading system was to
sell one share for 600,000 Yen. Instead, the trader keyed in a sale order for 600,000
shares at the rate of one Yen each. Naturally the shares on offer at the ridiculously low
price were lapped up. And only a few buyers agreed to reverse the deal! The loss to
the securities firm was said to be
Huge, running into several hundred thousands. More important to note, such an obvious mistake
could not be corrected by some of the advanced technology available. For advanced countries like
Japan who have imbibed the latest technology, this would be a new kind of learningexperience.12
(b) Loss of human lives: Risk and loss of human lives lost by computer, in the operational
control of military weapons. There is a dangerous instability in automated defense
system. An unexpected error in the software or hardware or a conflict during interfacing
between the two, may trigger a serious attack and cause irreparable human loss before
the error is traced. The Chinese embassy was bombed by U.S. military in Iraq a few
years back, but enquiries revealed that the building was shown in a previous map as the
building where in surgent stayed.
(c) In flexible manufacturing systems, the autonomous computer is beneficial in obtaining
continuous monitoring and automatic control.

Various issues related to computer ethics are discussed as follows:

COMPUTERS IN WORKPLACE
The ethical problems initiated by computers in the workplace are:
1. Elimination of routine and manual jobs. This leads to unemployment, but the creation
of skilled and IT- enabled service jobs are more advantageous for the people. Initially
this may require some upgradation of their skills and knowledge, but a formal training
 will set this problem right. For example, in place of a typist, we have a programmer or
an accountant.
2. Health and safety: The ill-effects due to electromagnetic radiation, especially on women
and pregnant employees, mental stress, wrist problem known as Carpel Tunnel
Syndrome, and backpain due to poor ergonomic seating designs, and eye strain due to
poor lighting and flickers in the display and long exposure, have been reported
worldwide. Over a period of long exposure, these are expected to affect the health and
safety of the people. The computer designers should take care of these aspects and
management should monitor the health and safety of the computer personnel.
3. Computer failure: Failure in computers may be due to errors in the hardware or software.
Hardware errors are rare and they can be solved easily and quickly. But software errors
are very serious as they can stop the entire network. Testing and quality systems for
software have gained relevance and importance in the recent past, to avoid or minimize
these errors.

PROPERTY ISSUES
The property issues concerned with the computers are:
1. Computers have been used to extort money through anonymous telephone calls.
2. Computers are used to cheat and steal by current as well as previous employees.
3. Cheating of and stealing from the customers and clients.
4. Violation of contracts on computer sales and services.
5. Conspiracy as a group, especially with the internet, to defraud the gullible, stealing the
identity and to forge documents.
6. Violation of property rights: Is the software a property? The software could be either a
Program (an algorithm, indicating the steps in solving a problem) or a Source code
(the algorithm in a general computer language such as FORTAN, C and COBOL oran
Object code (to translate the source code into the machine language). How do we
apply the concept of property here? This demands a framework for ethical judgments.
7. Property is what the laws permits and defines as can be owned, exchanged, and used.
The computer hardware (product) is protected by patents. The software (idea,
expression) is protected by copyrights and trade secrets. But algorithms cannot be
copyrighted, because the mathematical formulas can be discovered but not owned. The
object codes which are not intelligible to human beings cannot be copyrighted.
8. Thus, we see that reproducing multiple copies from one copy of (licensed) software and
distribution or sales are crimes. The open-source concepts have, to a great extent,
liberalized and promoted the use of computer programs for the betterment of society.

COMPUTER CRIME

The ethical features involved in computer crime are:

1. Physical Security: The computers are to be protected against theft, fire, and physical
damage. This can be achieved by proper insurance on the assets.
 2. Logical security: The aspects related are (a) the privacy of the individuals or organizations,
(b) confidentiality, (c) integrity, to ensure that the modification of data or program are done
only by the authorized persons, (d) uninterrupted service. This is achieved by installing
appropriate uninterrupted power supply or back-up provisions, and (e) protection against
hacking that causes dislocation or distortion. Licensed anti-virus packages and firewalls
are used by all computer users to ensure this protection. Passwords and data encryption
have been incorporated in the computer software as security measures. But these have also
been attacked and bye-passed. But this problem is not been solved completely.
Major weaknesses in this direction are: (a) the difficulty in tracing the evidence involved
and (b) absence of stringent punishment against the crime. The origin of a threat to the
Central Government posted from an obscure browsing center, remained unsolved for quite
a long time. Many times, such crimes have been traced, but there are no clear cyber laws
to punish and deter the criminals.

PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY

The data transmission and accessibility have improved tremendously by using the computers, but
the right to privacy has been threatened to a great extent. Some issues concerned with the privacy
are listed hereunder:
1. Records of Evidence: Service records or criminal records and the details of people can be
stored and accessed to prove the innocence or guilty. Records on psychiatric treatment by
medical practitioners or hospital, or records of membership of organizations may sometime
embarrass the persons in later years.
2. Hacking: There are computer enthusiasts who willfully or for fun, plant virus or “Trojan
horses” that may fill the disc space, falsify information, erase files, and even harm the
hardware. They breakdown the functioning of computers and can be treated as violation
of property rights. Some hackers opine that the information should be freely available for
everybody. It is prudent that the right to individual privacy in limiting the access to the
information on one self, should not be violated. Further any unauthorized use of personal
information (which is a property), is to be considered as theft. Besides the individual
privacy, the national security, and freedom within the economy are to be respected. The
proprietary information and data of the organizations are to be protected so that they can
pursue the goals without hindrance.
3. Legal Response: In the Indian scene, the Right to Information Act 2005 14 provides the
right to the citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities,
including the departments of the central government, state governments, government
bodies, public sector companies and public sector banks, to promote transparency and
accountability of public authorities.
4. Right to information: Under the Act, section 2 (j), the right to information includes the
right to (1) Inspect works, documents, records, (2) take notes, extracts or certified copies
of documents or records, (3) take certified samples of material, and (4) obtain information
in the form of printouts, diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic
mode.
 5.5 INVOLMENT IN WEAPONS WORK

Historically, a quick death in battle by sword was considered acceptable, whereas the use of remote
weapons (from bow and arrow to firearms) was frequently decried as cowardly, devoid of valour,
and tantamount to plain murder.16 As modern weapons of war progressed through catapults,
cannons, machineguns, and bombs released from air planes and missiles to reach further and
further, the soldiers firing them were less likely to see the individual human beings—soldiers as
well as civilians—they had as their general target. The continuing automation of the battle scene
tends to conceal the horrors of war and thus makes military activity seem less threatening and
high- tech wars more appealing. How might the men and women who design weapons,
manufacture them, and use them feel about their work? For some engineers, involvement in
weapons development conflicts with personal conscience; for others, it is an expression of
conscientious participation in national defense. The following cases illustrate the kinds of moral
issues involved in deciding whether to engage in military work.
1. Bob‘s employer manufactures antipersonnel bombs. By clustering 665 guava-size bomb lets
and letting them explode above ground, an area covering the equivalent of 10 football fields
is subjected to a shower of sharp fragments. Alternatively, the bombs can be timed to explode
hours apart after delivery. Originally the fragments were made of steel, and thus they were
often removable with magnets; now plastic materials are sometimes used, making the
treatment of wounds, including the location and removal of the fragments, more time-
consuming for the surgeon. Recently another innovation was introduced: By coating the
bomb lets with phosphorus, the fragments could inflict internal burns as well. Thus, the
antipersonnel bomb does its job quite well without necessarily killing in that it ties up much
of the enemy‘s resources just in treating the wounded who have survived. Bob himself does
not handle the bombs in any way, but as an industrial engineer he enables the factory to run
efficiently. He does not like to be involved in making weapons, but then he tells himself that
someone has to produce them. If he does not do his job, someone else will, so nothing would
change. Furthermore, with the cost of living being what it is, he owes his family a steady
income.
2. Mary is a chemical engineer. A promotion has gotten her into napalm manufacturing. She
knows it is nasty stuff, having heard that the Nobel laureate, Professor Wald of Harvard
University, was said to have be rated the chemical industry for producing this― most brutal
and destructive weapon that has ever been created. She saw a scary old photograph from the
Vietnam War period, depicting a badly burned peasant girl running from a village inflames.
But the locals were said to take forever in leaving a fighting zone and then there were
complaints about them being hurt or killed. She abhors war like most human beings, but she
feels that the government knows more than she does about international dangers and that the
present use of napalm by U.S. forces in Iraq may be unavoidable. Regarding her own future,
Mary knows that if she continues to do well on her job she will be promoted, and one of
these days she may well be in the position to steer the company into the production of
peaceful products. Will Mary use a higher position in the way she hopes to do, or will she
instead wait until she becomes the CEO? Ron is a specialist in missile control and guidance.
He is proud to be able to help his country through his efforts in the defense industry,
 especially as part of the ―war on terrorism. The missiles he works on will carry single or
multiple warheads with the kind of dreadful firepower which, in his estimation, has kept any
potential enemy in check since 1945. At least there has not been another world war—the
result of mutual deterrence, he believes.
3. Marco‘s foremost love is physical electronics. He works in one of the finest laser
laboratories. Some of his colleagues do exciting research in particle beams. That the
laboratory is interested in developing something a into the― death ray‖ described by science
fiction writers of his you this of secondary importance. More bothersome is the secrecy that
prevents him from freely exchanging ideas with experts across the world. But why change
jobs if he will never find facilities like those he has now?
4. Joanne is electronics engineer whose work assignment includes avionics for fighter planes
that are mostly sold abroad. She has no qualms about such planes going to what she considers
friendly countries, but she draws the line at their sale to potentially hostile nations. Joanne
realizes that she has no leverage within the company, so she occasionally alerts journalist
friends with news she feels all citizens should have. ―Let the voters direct the country at
election time‖— that is her motto.
5. Ted‘s background and advanced degrees in engineering physics gave him a ready entry into
nuclear bomb development. As a well-informed citizen he is seriously concerned with the
dangers of the ever-growing nuclear arsenal. He is also aware of the possibilities of an
accidental nuclear exchange. In the mean-time he is working hard to reduce the risk of
accidents such as the 32―broken arrows ‖ (incidents when missile launchings may have
occurred erroneously) that had been reported by the Pentagon during the height of the Cold
War, or the many others than the knows have occurred worldwide. Ted continues in his work
because he believes that only specialists, with firsthand experience of what modern weapons
can do, can eventually turn around the suicidal trend represented by their development. Who
else can engage in meaningful arms control negotiations?

WEAPONSDEVELOPMENT
Military activities including the world wars have stimulated the growth of technology. The growth
of Internet amply illustrates this fact. The development of warfare and the involvement of
engineers bring out many ethical issues concerned with engineers, such as the issue of integrity in
experiments as well as expenditure in defense research and development, issue of personal
commitment and conscience, and the issues of social justice and social health.

Engineers involve in weapons development because of the following reasons:

1. It gives one job with high salary.
2. One takes pride and honor in participating in the activities towards the defense of the
nation (patriotic fervor).
3. One believes the he fights a war on terrorism and thereby contribute to peace and
stability of the country. Ironically, the wars have never won peace, only peace can win
peace!
4. By research and development, the engineer is reducing or eliminating the risk from
enemy weapons, and saving one’s country from disaster.
 5. By building-up arsenals and show of force, a country can force the rogue country,
towards regulation. Engineers can participate effectively in arms control negotiations
for surrender or peace, e.g., bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima led to surrender by the
Japanese in 1945.
Many engineers had to fight and convince their personal conscience. The scene such as that of a
Vietnamese village girl running wild with burns on the body and horror in the face and curse in
her mind has moved some engineers away from their jobs.

5.6 ENGINEERS AS MANAGERS

CHARACTERISTICS
The characteristics of engineers as managers are:
1. Promote an ethical climate, through framing organization policies, responsibilities and
by personal attitudes and obligations.
2. Resolving conflicts, by evolving priority, developing mutual understanding, generating
various alternative solutions to problems.
3. Social responsibility to stakeholders, customers and employers. They act to develop
wealth as well as the welfare of the society. Ethicists project the view that the manager’s
responsibility is only to increase the profit of the organization, and only the engineers
have the responsibility to protect the safety, health, and welfare of the public. But
managers have the ethical responsibility to produce safe and good products (or useful
service), while showing respect for the human beings who include the employees,
customers and the public. Hence, the objective for the managers and engineers is to
produce valuable products that are also profitable.

MANAGING CONFLICTS
In solving conflicts, force should not be resorted. In fact, the conflict situations should be tolerated,
understood, and resolved by participation by all the concerned. The conflicts in case of project
managers arise in the following manners:
(a) Conflicts based on schedules: This happens because of various levels of execution,
priority and limitations of each level.
(b) Conflicts arising out of fixing the priority to different projects or departments. This is
to be arrived at from the end requirements and it may change from time to time.
(c) Conflict based on the availability of personnel.
(d) Conflict over technical, economic, and time factors such as cost, time, and performance
level.
(e) Conflict arising in administration such as authority, responsibility, accountability, and
logistics required.
(f) Conflicts of personality, human psychology and ego problems.
(g) Conflict over expenditure and its deviations.
Most of the conflicts can be resolved by following the principles listed here:
1. People
Separate people from the problem. It implies that the views of all concerned should be obtained.
The questions such as what, why, and when the error was committed is more important than to
know who committed it. This impersonal approach will lead to not only early solution but also
others will be prevented from committing errors.
2. Interests
Focus must be only on interest i.e., the ethical attitudes or motives and not on the positions (i.e.,
stated views). A supplier may require commission larger than usual prevailing rate for an
agricultural product.
But the past analysis may tell us that the material is not cultivated regularly and the monsoon poses
some additional risk towards the supply. Mutual interests must be respected to a maximum level.
What is right is more important than who is right!
3. Options
Generate various options as solutions to the problem. This helps a manager to try the next best
solution should the first one fails. Decision on alternate solutions can be taken more easily and
without loss of time.
4. Evaluation
The evaluation of the results should be based on some specified objectives such as efficiency,
quality, and customer satisfaction. More important is that the means, not only the goals, should be
ethical.

5.7 CONSULTING ENGINEERS

The consulting engineers work in private. There is no salary from the employers. But they charge
fees from the sponsor and they have more freedom to decide on their projects. Still they have no
absolute freedom, because they need to earn for their living. The consulting engineers have ethical
responsibilities different from the salaried engineers, as follows:
1. Advertising
The consulting engineers are directly responsible for advertising their services, even if they employ
other consultants to assist them. But in many organizations, this responsibility is with the
advertising executives and the personnel department.
They are allowed to advertise but to avoid deceptive ones. Deceptive advertising such as the
following are prohibited:
(a) By white lies.
(b) Half-truth, e.g., a product has actually been tested as prototype, but it was claimed to
have been already introduced in the market. An architect shows the photograph of the
completed building with flowering trees around but actually the foundation of the
building has been completed and there is no real garden.
(c) Exaggerated claims. The consultant might have played a small role in a well-known
project. But they could claim to have played a major role.
(d) Making false suggestions. The reduction in cost might have been achieved along with
the reduction in strength, but the strength details are hidden.
(e) Through vague wordings or slogans.
2. Competitive Bidding
It means offering a price, and get something in return for the service offered. The organizations
have a pool of engineers. The expertise can be shared and the bidding is made more realistic. But
the individual consultants have to develop creative designs and build their reputation steadily and
carefully, over a period of time. The clients will have to choose between the reputed
organizations and proven qualifications of the company and the expertise of the consultants.
Although competent, the younger consultants are thus slightly at a disadvantage.
3. Contingency Fee
This is the fee or commission paid to the consultant, when one is successful in saving the expenses
for the client. A sense of honesty and fairness is required in fixing this fee. The NSPE Code III 6
(a) says that the engineers shall not propose or accept a commission on a contingent basis where
their judgment may be compromised. The fee may be either as an agreed amount or a fixed
percentage of the savings realized. But in the contingency fee-agreements, the judgment of the
consultant may be biased. The consultant may be tempted to specify inferior materials or design
methods to cut the construction cost. This fee may motivate the consultants to effect saving in the
costs to the clients, through reasonably moral and technological means.
4. Safety and Client’s Needs
The greater freedom for the consulting engineers in decision making on safety aspects, and
difficulties concerning truthfulness are the matters to be given attention. For example, in design-
only projects, the consulting engineers may design something and have no role in the construction.
Sometimes, difficulties may crop-up during construction due to non-availability of suitable
materials, some shortcuts in construction, and lack of necessary and adequate supervision and
inspection. Properly-trained supervision is needed, but may not happen, unless it is provided.
Further, the contractor may not understand and/or be willing to modify the original design to serve
the clients best.
A few on-site inspections by the consulting engineers will expose the deficiency in execution and
save the workers, the public, and the environment that may be exposed to risk upon completion of
the project.
The NSPE codes on the advertisement by consultants provide some specific regulations. The
following are the activities prohibited in advertisement by consultant:
1. The use of statement containing misrepresentation or omission of a necessary fact.
2. Statement intended or likely to create an unjustified expectation.
3. Statement containing prediction of future (probable)success.
4. Statement intended or likely to attract clients, by the use of slogans or sensational
language format.

5.8 ENGINEERS AS EXPERT WITNESS AND ADVISORS

Frequently engineers are required to act as consultants and provide expert opinion and views in
many legal cases of the past events. They are required to explain the causes of accidents,
malfunctions and other technological behavior of structures, machines, and instruments, e.g.,
personal injury while using an instrument, defective product, traffic accident, structure or building
collapse, and damage to the property, are some of the cases where testimonies are needed. The
focus is on the past.
 Eye-witness Expert-witness

1. Eye witness gives evidence on only 1. Gives expert view on the facts in their area
of
what has been seen or heard their expertise
actually (perceived facts) 2. Interprets the facts, in term of the cause
and
effect relationship
3. Comments on the view of the opposite
side
Reports on the professional standards,
4.
especially on the precautions when the
product is made or the service is provided

The engineers, who act as expert-witnesses, are likely to abuse their positions in the following
manners:

1. Hired Guns
Mostly lawyers hire engineers to serve the interest of their clients. Lawyers are permitted and
required to project the case in a way favorable to their clients. But the engineers have obligations
to thoroughly examine the events and demonstrate their professional integrity to testify only the
truth in the court. They do not serve the clients of the lawyers directly. The hired guns forward
white lies and distortions, as demanded by the lawyers. They even withhold the information or
shade the fact, to favor their clients.
2. Money Bias
Consultants may be influenced or prejudiced for monitory considerations, gain reputation and
make a fortune.
3. Ego Bias
The assumption that the own- side is innocent and the other side is guilty, is responsible for this
behavior. An inordinate desire to serve one’s client and get name and fame is another reason for
this bias.
4. Sympathy Bias
Sympathy for the victim on the opposite side may upset the testimony. The integrity of the
consultants will keep these biases away from the justice. The court also must obtain the balanced
view of both sides, by examining the expert witnesses of lawyers on both sides, to remove a
probable bias.

Duties
1. The expert- witness is required to exhibit the responsibility of confidentiality just as they
do in the consulting roles. They cannot divulge the findings of the investigation to the
opposite side, unless it is required by the court of law.
 2. More important is that as witness they are not required to volunteer evidence favorable
to the opponent. They must answer questions truthfully, need note labor ate, and remain
neutral until the details are asked for further.
3. They should be objective to discover the truth and communicate them honestly.
4. The stand of the experts depends on the shared understanding created within the society.
The legal system should be respected and at the same time, they should act in
conformance with the professional standards as obtained from the code of ethics.
5. The experts should earnestly be impartial in identifying and interpreting the observed
data, recorded data, and the industrial standards. They should not distort the truth, even
under pressure. Although they are hired by the lawyers, they do not serve the lawyers
or their clients. They serve the justice. Many a time, their objective judgments will help
the lawyer to put up the best defense for their clients.

ENGINEERS AS ADVISORS IN PLANNING AND POLICY MAKING

Advisors
The engineers are required to give their view on the future such as in planning, policy-making,
which involves the technology. For example, should India expand nuclear power options or
support traditional energy sources such as fossil fuels or alternative forms like solar and wind
energy? In the recent past, this topic has created lot of fireworks, in the national media.
Various issues and requirements for engineers who act as advisors are:
1. Objectivity
The engineers should study the cost and benefits of all possible alternative means in objective
manner, within the specified conditions and assumptions.
2. Study All Aspects
They have to study the economic viability (effectiveness), technical feasibility (efficiency),
operational feasibility (skills) and social acceptability, which include environmental and ethical
aspects, before formulating the policy.
3. Values
Engineers have to posses the qualities, such as (a) honesty, (b) competence (skills and expertise),
(c) diligence (careful and alert) (d) loyalty in serving the interests of the clients and maintaining
confidentiality, and (e) public trust, and respect for the common good, rather than serving only the
interests of the clients or the political interests.
4. Technical Complexity
The arbitrary, unrealistic, and controversial assumptions made during the future planning that are
overlooked or not verified, will lead to moral complexity. The study on future is full of
uncertainties than the investigations on the past events. On the study of energy options, for
example, assumptions on population increase, life style, urbanization, availability of local fossil
resources, projected costs of generating alternative forms of energy, world political scenario, world
military tensions and pressures from world organizations such as World Trade Organization
(W.T.O.) and European Union (EU) may increase the complexity in judgment on future.
5. National Security
The proposed options should be aimed to strengthen the economy and security of the nation,
besides safe guarding the natural resources and the environment from exploitation and degradation.
For the advisors on policy making or planning, a shared understanding on balancing the conflicting
responsibilities, both to the clients and to the public, can be affected by the following roles or
models:
1. Hired Gun
The prime obligation is shown to the clients. The data and facts favorable to the clients are
highlighted, and unfavorable aspects are hidden or treated as insignificant. The minimal level of
interest is shown for public welfare.
2. Value-neutral Analysts
This assumes an impartial engineer. They exhibit conscientious decisions, impartiality i.e., without
bias, fear or favor, and absence of advocacy.
3. Value-guided Advocates
The consulting engineers remain honest (frank in stating all there levant facts and truthful in
interpretation of the facts) and autonomous (independent) in judgement and show paramount
importance to the public (as different from the hired guns).

5.9 HONESTY

Honesty means expressing your true feelings. To be able to be emotionally honest we must first
be emotionally aware. This emotional awareness is related to our emotional intelligence. Itis our
emotional intelligence, which gives us the ability to accurately identify our feelings.
Emotional intelligence may also give us the ability to decide when it is in our best interest to be
emotionally honest by sharing our real feelings. We would be better off individually and as a
society if we would be more honest. If we are more honest with ourselves, we will get to know
our ―true selves‖ on a deeper level. This could help us become more self-accepting. It could also
help us make better choices about how to spend out time and who to spend it with.
If we are honest with other, it may encourage them to be more emotionally honest. When we are
emotionally honest, we are more likely not to be asked or pressured to do things which we do not
want to do. We will also find out sooner who respects our feelings.

How society discourages honesty?

It takes awareness, self-confidence, even courage to be emotionally honest. This is because, in
many ways, society teaches us to ignore, repress, deny and lie about our feelings. For example,
when asked how we feel, most of us will reply―fine or―good, even if that is not true. Often,
people will also say that they are not angry or not defensive, when it is obvious that they are.
Children start out emotionally honest. They express their true feelings freely and spontaneously.
But the training to be emotionally dishonest begins at an early age. Parents and teachers frequently
encourage or even demand that children speak or act in ways which are inconsistent with the child
‘s true feelings. The child is told to smile when actually she is sad. She is told to apologize when
she feels no regret. She is told to say―thank you, when she feels no appreciation. She is told
to―stop complaining ‖ when she feels mistreated. She may be told to kiss people goodnight when
she would never do so voluntarily. She may be told it is ―rude ‖and―selfish‖ to protest being
forced to act in ways which go against her feelings. As children become adolescents, they begin
to think more for themselves. They begin to speak out more, ―talk back more and challenge the
adults around them. If these adults feel threatened, they are likely to defend themselves by
invalidating the adolescent ‘s feelings and perceptions. There is also peer pressure to conform to
the group norms. Through all of this the child and adolescent learn they can ‘t be honest with their
feelings. They gradually stop being emotionally honest with their parents, their teachers, them
friends and even themselves. They learn it just doesn’t ‘t pay to be express one‘s true feelings.

A Few More Thoughts On Emotional Honesty

✓ Dishonesty requires more energy than emotional honesty.
✓ When we are emotionally dis-honest we lose out on the value of our natural feelings.
✓ When we are emotionally dishonest, we are going against the forces of evolution
rather than in harmony with them.
✓ It takes energy to oppose reality, nature and evolution.
✓ Emotional dishonesty, in authenticity and falseness create distrust and tension in
society.
Comment: Honesty is one of the prized values of mankind. Honesty is an insurance against failure
and defame. An honest man is a big asset to the family, to the organization and to the society in
general. The honest person may not earn riches bu the will certainly earn name and satisfaction of
living a good life.

5.10 MORAL LEADERSHIP

Engineers provide many types of leadership in the development and implementation of technology,
as managers, entrepreneurs, consultants, academics and officials of the government. Moral
leadership is not merely the dominance by a group. It means adopting reasonable means to
motivate the groups to achieve morally desirable goals. This leadership presents the engineers with
many challenges to their moral principles.
Moral leadership is essentially required for the engineers, for the reasons listed as follows:
1. It is leading a group of people towards the achievement of global and objectives. The
goals as well as the means are to be moral. For example, Hitler and Stalin were leaders,
but only in an instrumental sense and certainly not on moral sense.
2. The leadership shall direct and motivate the group to move through morally desirable
ways.
3. They lead by thinking ahead in time, and morally creative towards new applications,
extension and putting values into practice. ‘Morally creative’ means the identification
of the most important values as applicable to the situation, bringing clarity within the
groups through proper communication, and putting those values into practice.
4. They sustain professional interest, among social diversity and cross-disciplinary
complexity. They contribute to the professional societies, their professions, and to their
communities. The moral leadership in engineering is manifested in leadership within
the professional societies. The professional societies provide a forum for
communication, and canvassing for change within and by groups.
5. Voluntarism: Another important avenue for providing moral leadership within
communities, by the engineers is to promote services without fee or at reduced fees (pro
 bono) to the needy groups. The professional societies can also promote such activities
among the engineers. This type of voluntarism (or philanthropy) has been in practice in
the fields of medicine, law and education. But many of the engineers are not self-
employed as in the case of physicians and lawyers. The business institutions are
encouraged to contribute a percentage of their services as free or at concessional rates
for charitable purposes.
6. Community service: This is another platform for the engineers to exhibit their moral
leadership. The engineers can help in guiding, organizing, and stimulating the
community towards morally- and environmentally- desirable goals. The corporate
organizations have come forward to adopt villages and execute many social welfare
schemes, towards this objective.
The Codes of Ethics promote and sustain the ethical environment and assist in achieving the ethical
goals in the following manner:
1. It creates an environment in a profession, where ethical behavior is the basic criterion.
2. It guides and reminds the person as to how to act, in any given situation.
3. It provides support to the individual, who is being pressurized or tortured by a superior
or employer, to behave unethically.
4. Apart from professional societies, companies and universities have framed their own
codes of ethics, based on the individual circumstances and specific mission of the
organizations. These codes of conduct help in employees’ awareness of ethical issues,
establish, and nurture a strong corporate ethical culture.

5.11 CODE OF CONDUCT

a. Conduct means the standard of behavior based on moral principles.

b. It is similar to code of ethics.
c. Is a management tool in setting out organization values, responsibilities and ethical
obligations.
d. It provides guidance for handling difficult ethical situations.
e. Code of conduct varies from organization to organization 357

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

f. Corporate social responsibility is the continuing commitment of corporate businesses to

behave ethically and to contribute towards the welfare of the society.
g. CSR requires the companies to acknowledge that they should be publicly accountable not
only for their financial performance but also their social and environmentalrecord.358
h. Corporate social responsibility.
i. It is the responsibility of corporations to go above and beyond what law requires them to
do.
j. It is the responsibility to contribute to a better society and cleaner environment.
k. It is a part of corporate governance ensuring socially responsible business 359
Benefits of CSR:

l. Increased employee loyalty and retention

m. Increased quality of products and services
n. Increased customer loyalty
o. Increased reputation and brand image360
 QUESTION BANK
UNIT-1 (ENGINEERING ETHICS)

1. Define Ethics? (May-08,09,Dec-10)

• Study of right or wrong.
• Good and evil.
• Obligations &rights.
• Justice.
• Social & Political deals.
2. Define Engineering Ethics? (Dec-10)
• Study of the moral issues and decisions confronting individuals and organizations
engaged in engineering / profession.
• Study of related questions about the moral ideals, character, policies and
relationships of people and corporations involved in technological activity.
• Moral standards / values and system of morals.
3. Differentiate Moral and Ethics? (May-08,Dec-08) MORAL:
• Refers only to personal behavior.
• Refers to any aspect of human action.
• Social conventions about right or wrong conduct.
ETHICS:
• Involves defining, analyzing, evaluating and resolving moral problems and
developing moral criteria to guide human behaviour.
• Critical reflection on what one does and why one does it.
• Refers only to professional behavior.
4. What is the method used to solve an Ethical problem?
• Recognizing a problem or its need.
• Gathering information and defining the problem to be solved or goal to be achieved.
• Generating alternative solutions or methods to achieve the goal.
• Evaluate benefits and costs of alternate solutions.
• Decision making &optimization.
• Implementing the best solution.
5. What are the Senses of Engineering Ethics? (Dec-09)
• An activity and area of inquiry.
• Ethical problems, issues and controversies.
• Particular set of beliefs, attitudes and habits.
• Morally correct.
6. Differentiate Micro-ethics and Macro-ethics?
Micro-ethics: Deals about some typical and everyday problems which play an important role in
the field of engineering and in the profession of an engineer.
Macro-ethics: Deals with all the societal problems which are unknown and suddenly burst out on
a regional or national level.
7. Define Moral Autonomy? (Dec-10)
• Self-determining
 • Independent
• Personal Involvement
• Exercised based on the moral concern for other people and recognition of good
moral reasons
8. Give the importance of Lawrence Kohlberg‟s and Carol Gilligan‟s theory? (Dec-08)
Kohlberg gives greater emphasis to recognizing rights and abstract universal rules.
Gilligan stresses the importance of maintaining personal relationships based on mutual
caring.
9. Differentiate Self-respect and Self-esteem?
Self-respect: It is a moral concept; refers to the virtue properly valuing oneself.
Self-esteem: It is a psychological concept; means having a positive attitude toward oneself, even
if the attitude is excessive or otherwise unwarranted.
10. What are the senses of Responsibility? (May-11)
• A virtue
• Obligations
• General moral capacities of people
• Liabilities and accountability for actions
• Blameworthiness or praise worthiness
11. What are the types of Theories about Morality?
• Virtue ethics – Virtues and vices
• Utilitarianism – Most good for the most people
• Duty ethics – Duties to respect people
• Rights ethics – Human rights
12. Differentiate Hypothetical imperatives and Moral imperatives?
Hypothetical imperatives are based on some conditions whereas Moral imperatives wont based on
some condition.
13. State Rawl‟s principles?(Dec-12)
• Each person is entitled to the most extensive amount of liberty compatible with an equal
amount for others.
• Differences in social power and economic benefits are justified only when they are likely to
benefit everyone, including members of the most disadvantaged groups.
14. Give the drawbacks of Utilitarianism?
• Sometimes what is best for the community as a whole is bad for certain individuals in the
community.
• It is often impossible to know in advance which decision will lead to the most good.
15. Give the drawback of Duty Ethics?
Duty ethics does not always lead to a solution which maximizes the public good.
16. Differentiate Ethical Relativism and Ethical Egoism?(Dec-11)
Ethical egoism – the view that right action consist in producing one‘s own good.
Ethical relativism – the view that right action is merely what the law and customs of one‘s society
require.
17. Define Ethical Pluralism?
Ethical pluralism is the view that there may be alternative moral perspectives that are reasonable,
but no one of which must be accepted completely by all rational and morally concerned persons.
18. What do you mean by normative ethics?
Normative ethics deals with the professional codes of ethics that specify role norms or obligations
that professions attempt to enforce. It is the recommendations of standards and guidelines for
morally right or good behavior.
19. What do you mean by ethical subjectivism?
Ethical subjectivism argues that what is ethically right or wrong for the individual depends on the
ethical principles he/she has chosen. In other words, for people who subscribe to ethical
subjectivism what is ethically right or wrong is entirely a personnel matter.
20. What is tacit-ethic and Meta -ethics?
• Tacit ethic deals with the unsaid or unspoken rule of practice.
• Meta-ethics deals with theories about ethics.

PART-B
1. Explain three levels of moral development with respect to Kohlberg and Gilligan views.
(Understanding) (Dec-2010, 2011) (May/June 2012) (May/June 2009) (May/June2013)
2. Discuss briefly on Ethical Theory of Right Action. Differentiate Act and Rule Utilitarian.
(Creating) (Dec-2010)
3. What is Moral Dilemma? Explain the various causes of moral dilemma. (Remembering)
(Nov/Dec2013)
4. Define Morality. Explain the various moral issues (Remembering)
5. Define moral Autonomy. Explain the steps that confronting moral dilemma with its causes.
(Remembering)
6. Discuss different models of professional roles and explain about the consensus and
controversy (Creating)
7. Define spirituality and discuss the role of spirituality in commercial organizations.
(Remembering) (Nov/Dec2011)
8. Discuss the models of professional roles. (Creating)(May/June 2009) (Dec2014)
9. Explain the scopes of engineering ethics. (Understanding) (May/June2013)
10. Discuss the importance of duty ethics and virtues in engineering
profession. (Creating)(May/June2013)
11. Detail about the senses or dimension of engineering ethics.
12. Summarize the types of inquiries. (Understanding) (Dec2014)
13. What is consensus and controversy? Brief the importance of consensus while considering
moral autonomy in engineering ethics. Bring out the relationship between moral autonomy
and respect for autonomy. (Remembering)
14. Explain in detail about profession and professionalism. (Understanding)
15. Explain the various types of specific virtues. Write notes on professional ideals.
(Understanding)
16. How did Gilligan view the three levels of moral development initiated by Kohlberg?
(Remembering) (Dec2014)
17. What are the uses of ethical theories? (Remembering)
 18. Explain the skills needed to handle problems about moral issues in engineering ethics.
(Understanding) (Dec2014)
PART-A
UNIT-2 (ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION)
1. What are the conditions required to define a valid consent?
• The consent was given voluntarily.
• The consent was based on the information that rational person would want, together with
any other information requested, presented to them in understandable form.
• The consenter was competent to process the information and make rational decisions.
2. What are the two main elements which are included to understand informed
consent? (May-08)
Informed Consent is understood as including two main elements:
• Knowledge [Subjects should be given not only the information they request, but all the
information needed to make a reasonable decision].
• Voluntariness [Subjects must enter into the experiment without being subjected to force,
fraud, or deception].
3. What are the general features of morally responsible engineers? (May-10,11)
• Conscientiousness.
• Comprehensive perspective.
• Autonomy.
• Accountability.
4. What is the purpose of various types of standards?
• Accuracy in measurement, inter changeability, ease of handling.
• Prevention of injury, death and loss of income or property.
• Fair value of price.
• Competence in carrying out tasks.
• Sound design, ease of communications.
• Freedom from interference.
5. Define Code?
Code is a set of standards and laws.
 6. Enumerate the roles of codes? (Dec-12)
• Inspiration and Guidance
• Support
• Deterrence and Discipline
• Education and Mutual Understanding
• Contributing to the Profession ‘s Public Image
• Protecting the Status Quo
• Promoting Business Interests
7. Give the limitations of codes?
• Á Codes are restricted to general and vague wording.
• Á Codes can‘t give a solution or method for solving the internal conflicts.
• Á Codes cannot serve as the final moral authority for professional conduct.
8. What are the problems with the law in engineering?
• Minimal compliance
• Many laws are without enforce able sanctions.
9. What is the need to view engineering projects as experiments?
• Any project is carried out in partial ignorance.
• The final outcomes of engineering projects, like those of experiments, are generally
uncertain.
• Effective engineering relies upon knowledge gained about products before and after they
leave the factory – knowledge needed for improving current products and creating better
ones.
10. Differentiate scientific experiments and engineering projects?
Scientific experiments are conducted to gain new knowledge, while ―engineering projects are
experiments that are not necessarily designed to produce very much knowledge‖.
11. What are the uncertainties occur in the model designs?
• Model used for the design calculations.
• Exact characteristics of the materials purchased.
• Constancies of materials used for processing and fabrication.
 • Nature of the pressure, the finished product will encounter.
12. Comment on the importance of learning from the past, using Titanic
disaster, as an example?
The Titanic lacked a sufficient number of lifeboats.
13. Comment on the importance of learning from the past, using the nuclear
reactor accident at Three Mile Island, as an example?
Values are notorious for being among the least reliable components of hydraulic systems. It was
a pressure relief valve, and lack of definitive information regarding its open or shut state. Similar
Malfunctions had occurred with the identical values on nuclear reactors because of the same
reasons at other locations, but no attention had been given to them
14. Give any two prominent features of contemporary engineering practice that
differentiate casual influence and moral accountability in engineering? (Dec-11)
• Large-scale engineering projects involve fragmentation of work.
• Due to the fragmentation of the work, the accountability will spread widely within an
organization.
• There is frequently pressure to move on to a new project before the current one has been
operating long enough to be observed carefully.
• The contagion of malpractice suits currently afflicting the medical profession is carrying
over into engineering.
15. Are SRBs inherently too dangerous to use on manned spacecraft? If so, why
are they part of the design?
Yes, since they have the disadvantage that once the fuel is lit, there is no way to turn the booster
of for even to control the amount of thrust produced. SRBs were used instead of safer liquid fueled
boosters because they required a much smaller research-and-development effort. Numerous other
design changes were made to reduce the level of research and development required.
16. Under what conditions would you say it is safe to launch a shuttle without an
escape mechanism for the crew?
• Have given valid consent
• Instead of rubber, steel billets for O-rings
• Liquid fueled boosters instead of Solid rocket boosters
• Design specifications 310F
17. In your opinion, was the Right for informed consent‟ of the astronauts of
Space Shuttle Challenger respected?
 18. Define Ethical Conventionalism?
Ethical conventionalism is the view that a particular set of conventions, customs, or laws is self-
certifying and not to be questioned as long as it is the set-in force at a given time or for a given
place.
19. State Babylon‟s Building Code?
If a builder has built a house for a man and has not made his work sound, and the house which he
has built has fallen down and so caused the death of the householder, that builder shall be put to
death. If it causes the death of the householder ‘s son, they shall put the builder‘s son to death. If
it causes the death of the householder ‘s slave, he shall give slave for slave to the house holder. If
it destroys property he shall replace anything it has destroyed; and because he has not made
sound the house which he has built and it has fallen down, he shall rebuild the house which has
fallen down from his own property. If a builder has built a house for a man and does not make
this work perfect and the wall bulges, that builder shall put that wall into sound condition at his
own cost.
20. Mention some universally accepted ethical principles (May-09, Dec-10)
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Fulfilling commitments
• Abiding by agreements in both letter and spirit
• Willing to admit mistakes
• Being caring and compassionate
• Having respect for human dignity
PART-B
1. What are the moral and ethical lessons learnt from the space shuttle challenger study?
(May/June 2012), (Nov/Dec 2013) (Remembering)
2. Explain the role of engineering projects as the experiments. (Understanding)
3. What is code of ethics? What are the positive roles of code of ethics and specify its
limitation? (Dec-2010) (Remembering)
4. Compare and contrast engineering experiments with standard
experiments. (Dec 2014) (Evaluating)
5. Discuss engineers as responsible experimenters. (Dec-2010) (May/June2013) (Creating)
6. Explain how moral leadership and ethical work culture influence the ethical behavior of
commercial organizations (Nov/Dec 2011) (Understanding)
7. Explain as to how far there is congruence between the professional and environmental
ethics. (Nov/Dec 2011) (Understanding)
8. Describe the internal and external responsibility of engineers.
(May/June 2012) (Understanding)
9. Discuss the limitations of codes from engineering experimentation point of view.
(Nov/Dec 2013) (Creating)
10. Compare and contrast moral values. What are the three types of values? State and explain
the various attempts to reduce morality to those types of values with examples. (May/June
2009) (Analyzing)
11. What are the greater details applied to engineer project as conceived as social experiment?
Given the codes play all the roles which function are the most valuable and which should
be emphasized and encouraged. Why? (May/June2009)
12. Given an account of the challenger disaster and examine how the principal actors in this
tragedy behaved as responsible experimenters within the framework of the engineering as
experimentation model. (May/June 2009) (Dec 2014) (Remembering)
13. Write on industrial standards. (May/June 2013) (Remembering)
14. The moral responsibility of engineers should go beyond merely following the laws‖.
Discuss (Analyzing)
15. Discuss on the roles played by the codes of ethics set by professional societies. (Dec 2014)
(Creating)
 PART-A
UNIT-3 (ENGINEER‟S RESPONSIBILITY FOR SAFETY)
1. Define Risk? (May-09)
a. A risk is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur.
Risk = Probability X Consequences.
2. What are the factors for safety and risk? Dec-08,10,11
• Voluntary and Involuntary risk
• Short-term and Long-term risk
• Expected probability
• Reversible effects
• Threshold levels to risk
• Delayed or Immediate risk etc.,
3. What are the drawbacks in the definition of Lawrence? (May-09)
• Underestimation of risks
• Overestimation of risks
• No estimation of risks
4. Give the categories of Risk?
• Low consequence, Low probability (which can be ignored)
• Low consequence, High probability
• High consequence, Low probability
• High consequence, High probability
5. What are the factors that affect Risk Acceptability? (May-12)
• Voluntarism and control
• Effect of information on risk assessment
• Job related pressures
• Magnitude and proximity of the people facing risk
6. What is the knowledge required to assess the risk?
• Data in design
• Uncertainties in design
• Testing for safety
• Analytical testing
• Risk-benefit analysis
7. What are the analytical methods? May (08)
• Scenario analysis
• Failure modes & effect analysis
• Fault tree analysis
• Event tree analysis etc.
8. What are the three conditions referred as safe exit?
• Assure when a product fails it will fail safely.
• Assure that the product can be abandoned safely.
• Assure that the user can safely escape the product.
9. How will an engineer assess the safety?
• The risks connected to a project or product must be identified.
• The purposes of the project or product must be identified and ranked in importance.
• Costs of reducing risks must be estimated.
• The costs must be weighed against both organizational goals and degrees of acceptability
of risks to clients and the public.
• The project or product must be tested and then either carried out or manufactured.
10. What are the reasons for Risk-Benefit Analysis?
a. Risk-benefit analysis is concerned with the advisability of undertaking a
project.
b. It helps in deciding which design has greater advantages.
c. It assists the engineers to identify a particular design score higher with that of
the another one.
11. Are the engineers responsible to educate the public for safe operation of the
equipment? How?
a. Yes, as per the engineers are concerned with they should have their duty as to
protect for the safety and wellbeing of the general public. Analyzing the risk
and safety aspects of their designs can do this.
12. Define Safety? (Dec-10)
a. In the definition stated by William W. Lawrence safety is defined, as a thing
is safe if its risks are acceptable. A thing is safe with respect to a given
person or group, at a given time, if its risk is fully known, if those risks
would be judged acceptable, in light of settled value principles. In the view of
objective, safety is a matter of how people would find risks acceptable or
unacceptable.
13. What is the definition of risks?(May-11)
a. A risk is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur. Risk
is the possibility of suffering harm or loss. It is also defined as the probability
of a specified level of hazardous consequences, being realized. Hence
Risk(R)is the product of Probability (P) and consequence (C) (i.e) R = P *C
14. Define Acceptability of risks?
a. A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer apprehensive
about it. Doubtfulness depends mainly on how the people take the risk or
how people perceive it.
15. What are the positive uncertainties in determining risks?
a. There are three positive uncertainties. They are:
b. Purpose of designing
c. Application of the product
d. Materials and the skill used for producing the product.
16. Define Risk-Benefit Analysis? (Dec-08)
a. Risk benefit analysis is a method that helps the engineers to analyze the risk
in a project and to determine whether a project should be implemented or not.
In risk benefit analysis, the risks and benefits of a product are allotted to
money amounts, and the most benefitable ratio between risks and benefits is
calculated.
17. What does Strict Liability mean?
a. Strict liability means if the sold product is defective; the manufacturer
concerned is liable for any harm that results to users. Negligible is not at all
an issue based.
18. What is the main barrier to educational attempts?
a. An important barrier to educational attempt is that people belief changes slow
and are extra ordinarily resistant to new information.
 11. What happens to the products that are not safe?
Products that are not safe incur secondary costs to the manufacturer beyond the primary costs
that must also be taken into account costs associated with warranty expenses, loss of customer
will and even loss of customers and so.
12. What was the problem in the Chernobyl reactor?
The problem was that,
i. The output was maintained to satisfy an unexpected demand.
ii. The control device was not properly reprogrammed to maintain power at the required
level.
iii. Instead of leaving fifteen control rods as required, the operators raised almost all
control rods because at the low power level, the fuel had become poisoned.
PART-B
1. Explain Risk Benefit analysis and Risk Management. (Dec-2010) (Dec 2014)
(Understanding)
2. What are the factors that caused Chernobyl accident and discuss the concept of safety
exist in the Chernobyl case studies (May/June 2013) (Dec 2014) (Remembering)?
3. Give a detailed discussion on safety and risk, cost and price (Remembering)
4. What are the factors that cause the nuclear accident of Three Mile Island?
(Remembering)
5. Explain the role of corporate culture in ethical decision making (Nov/Dec 2011)
(Understanding)
6. Explain the role of ethics and values in developing software (Nov/Dec
2011)(Understanding)
7. When no judgments about Risks are made? Explain the assessment of Risk and Safety
method. (May/June 2012) (May/June 2013)(Analyzing)
8. Explain the personal risk and public risk with examples. Suggest suitable safety
precautions based on the three miles case study. (May/June 2009) (Understanding)
9. How shall be the government regulator‘s approach to risk? (May/June 2013)
(Remembering)
10. Explain in detail the effect of information on risk assessment with an example.
(Dec 2014) (Understanding)
11. Discuss in detail about the Bhopal disaster case study (Analyzing)
 PART-A
UNIT-4 (RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS)
1. Define Collegiality (Dec-10,11)
Collegiality is a kind of connectedness grounded in respect for professional expertise and in a
commitment to the goals and values of the profession and collegiality includes a disposition to
support and cooperate with one ‘s colleagues.
2. What are the central elements of collegiality?
a. Respect
b. Commitment
c. Connectedness
d.Cooperation
3. What are the two senses of Loyalty? (Dec-09)
i. Agency Loyalty – Acting to fulfill one‘s contractual duties to an employer. It‘s a matter of
actions, whatever its motives.
ii. Identification Loyalty – Has as much as to do with attitudes, emotions, and a sense of
personal identity as it does with actions.
4. When may an Identification Loyalty be said as obligatory?
i. Employees must see some of their own important goals as met by and through a group in
which they participate.
ii. Employees must be treated fairly, each receiving his or her share of benefits and burdens.
5. What is the relationship between the Loyalty to the company and Professional
responsibility to the public?
i. Acting on professional commitments to the public can be a more effective way to serve a
company than a mere willingness to follow company orders.
ii. Loyalty to companies or their current owners should not be equated with merely obey in
gone‘s immediate supervisor.
iii. An engineer might have professional obligations to both an employer and to the public that
reinforce rather than contradict each other.
6. Define Institutional Authority? (May-08)
Institutional Authority is acquired, exercised and defined within organizations. It may be defined
as the institutional right given to a person to exercise power based on the resources of the
institution.
 7. Define Expert Authority?
Expert authority is the possession of special knowledge, skill or competence to perform task or
give sound advice.
8. What is the basic moral task of salaried engineers?
The basic moral task of salaried engineers is to be aware of their obligations to obey employers
on one hand and to protect and serve the public and clients of the other.
9. What are the guidelines to reach an agreement?
a. Attack problem and not people.
b. Build trust.
c. Start with a discussion and analysis of interests, concerns, needs. It begin with interests,
not positions or solutions.
d. Listen.
e. Brainstorm; suggesting an idea does not mean one aggress with it. Develop multiple
options.
f. Use objective criteria whenever possible. Agree on how something will be measured.
10. What are the essential elements of IPR?
a. Patents
b. Copyrights
c. Trademarks
d. Trade secrets
11. What are the criteria for identifying that information is “labelled”
confidential at the workplace?
a. Engineers shall treat information coming to them in the course of their as confidential.
b. Identify any information which if it became known would cause harm to the corporation
or client.
c. Confidential information is any information that the employer or client would like to
have kept secret in order to compete effectively against business rivals.
12. What are the terms associated with Confidentiality? (Dec-12)
a. Privileged Information
b. Proprietary Information
c. Patents
 d. Trade secrets
13. How will you justify the obligation of confidentiality?
a. The obligation of confidentiality can be justified at two levels. FIRST Level : Moral
Considerations
b. Respect for autonomy Respect for promises
c. Regard for public well-being SECOND Level : Major Ethical Theories
d. Rights Ethicists Duty Ethicists Rule-utilitarians Act-utilitarians
14. Define Conflicts of Interest? (May-10)
Conflict of interests is a situation in which two or more interests are not simultaneously realizable.
It is the disagreement between public obligation and self-interest of an official.
15. Why does a conflict of interests arise?
a. Financial Investments
b. Insider Trading
c. Bribe
d. Gifts
e. Kickbacks
16. What is a Bribe?
A Bribe is a substantial amount of money or goods offered beyond a stated business contract with
the aim of winning an advantage in gaining or keeping the contract.
17. What is called „White-collar crime‟?
Occupational crimes are illegal acts made possible through one‘s lawful employment. It is the
secret violation of laws regulating work activities. When committed by office workers of
professionals, occupational crime is called ‗white-collar crime‘.
18. What is called Kickbacks?
Prearranged payments made by contractors to companies or their representatives in exchange for
contracts actually granted are called kickbacks.
19. What are the types of Conflicts of interest?
a. Actual conflict of interest
b. Potential conflict of interest
c. Apparent conflict of interest
20. How will you solve the Conflict problems?
a. Finding the creative middle way.
b. Employing Lower-level considerations.
c. Making the hard choice.
PART-B
1. Discuss on collegiality and loyalty. (Dec2014)(Understanding)
2. What is meant by loyalty? What are the two senses of loyalty? Is loyalty obligatory?
Explain the relationship between professional responsibility and loyalty to
employers(May/June2012) (Remembering)
3. Discuss human rights and professional rights in an engineering field.
(Dec2014)(Analyzing)
4. Explain with case studies the four widely applicable principles of conflict
resolution.(Nov/Dec 2013)
5. How far the respect for authority be recognized by salaried professionals as being morally
justified? Discuss. (Nov/Dec 2013)(Remembering)
6. Explain the collective bargaining with its roles and occupational crime. (Dec-2010)
(May/June 2013) (Dec2014)(Understanding)
7. How will you apply confidentiality for avoiding harmful conflicts of interests in work
place? (May/June 2013)(Remembering)
8. Summarize on IPR. (May/June 2013)(Understanding)
9. What is a conflict of interest? Explain the different types of conflicts of interest with
suitable examples. (Remembering)(Remembering)
10. What is meant by respect for authority? Describe in detail how institutional authority
differs from expert authority.(Remembering)
11. What is meant by discrimination? Discuss your experience of some situation where you
are discriminated.(Remembering)
12. Discuss in detail the various basic rights of an engineer.(Remembering)
13. Write in detail about the employee rights.(Remembering)
14. What is Intellectual Property Rights? Explain various elements of IPR in detail. (Dec
2014) (Remembering)
 PART-A
UNIT-5 (GLOBAL ISSUES)
1. What are global issues?(May-08,09)

The social and environment aspects of engineer's profession and also the international context of
engineering is called global issues. The global issues involve engineers as social experimenters.
2. What are the three versions of Relativism?

a. Ethical Relativism
b. Descriptive Relativism
c. Moral Relativism

3. Differentiate between technology transfer and appropriate technology.

The process by which technology is shifted to a novel setting and its subsequent implementation
is called technology transfer. Whereas the process by which the suitable technology is properly
identified, transferred and implemented in a new set of an environment is called appropriate
technology.
4. Give any ten International rights suggested by Donaldson?(Dec-10)

a. The right to freedom of physical movement.

b. The right to ownership of property.
c. The right to freedom from torture.
d. The right to a fair trial.
e. The right to non-discriminatory treatment.
f. The right to physical security.
g. The right to freedom of speech and association.
h. The right to minimal education.
i. The right to political participation.
5. What are the reasons for the disaster at Bhopal? (Dec-10)

a. The tanks used to store Methyl Iso-cyanate were overloaded to a tune of75%.
b. The emergency plant was also filled with a large amount of chemicals.
c. The entire refrigeration unit had been shut-down as a measure to reduce the cost and
this led to increase of temperatures to a higher level.
d. One of the disappointed workers unscrewed a pressure gauge on a tank and inserted
a hosepipe into it, knowing that it would cause damage, but not to this extent.
 e. Scrubber has also been shutdown.
f. Flare tower was also not in an operating condition.
g. Unfortunately, there were no emergency drills or evacuation plants available.
6. What is the important concept of environmental ethics?

The new branch of applied ethics which is associated with the restoration of natural environment
in a balanced state by not harming the human society through vast industrialization is called
environmental ethics.
7. What are the characteristic features of human-centered environmental ethics?

The conservation of natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations and the
strong emphasis on the human awareness on the destruction of nature are the characteristic features
of human-centered environmental ethics.
8. What is embezzlement? (Dec-10)

The process of committing computer crimes such as stealing or cheating clients and consumers
and conspiracy in the fraudulent uses of computer networks is called embezzlement.
9. How engineers justify their involvements in weapons works?

A steady and constant source of income for the livelihood of their families, better job promotional
avenues with an enhanced salary and compulsive reservations in mental attitude are the primary
factors with which engineers justify and compromise themselves to work defense industries.
10. What are the problems of Defense industry?
a) Problem of waste and huge cost in implementing and maintaining a weapons system.
b) Problem of Technology creep.
c) Problems in maintaining secrecy.
d) Every country allocates large amount of its resources to defense sector [India spent ¼
of its resource for defense]
11. What is an ethical climate?(May-11)
The favorable and workable atmosphere that is essential for the responsible conduct of an engineer
is called ethical climate. This ethical climate enables engineers to contribute their maximum best
to their corporate companies.
12. What are the special features of an ethical corporate climate?
a. Ethical values are widely appreciated by managers and employees.
b. A corporate code of ethics is emphasized for using ethical language.
 c. Moral tone is set up in policies by management by providing suitable guidelines for
professional codes of ethics.
d. Proper methods and procedures for conflict resolution are suitably evolved.
PART-B
1. Explain the code of ethics specified by IEEE and ASCE. (May/June2013)(Understanding)
2. Discuss on computer, business and environmental ethics? (Dec-2010) (Dec
2014)(Creating)
3. Discuss an engineer‘s involvement in weapons work. (May/June 2013) (Dec
2014)(Creating)
4. Explain the code of ethics specified by ASME and IETE.(Understanding)
5. Explain the process of creating an ethical organization.(Nov/Dec 2011)(Understanding)
6. Discuss the role of media in promoting ethical practices among business. (Nov/Dec 2011)
(Creating)
7. Define Technology transfer. Why engineers to study computer ethics? Explain the
customer relation to computer ethics and the importance of computer ethics. (May/June
2012) (Understanding)
8. Define the following concepts. i) Biocentric ethics ii) eucentric ethics iii) sentient center
ethics. (May/June 2012)(Remembering)
9. State an illustrative case study that touches upon some fundamental issues in
environmental ethics. (Nov/Dec 2013)(Remembering)
10. Do engineers have a moral right to carry out what they consider to be unethical
activity? Explain in detail with a case study. (Nov/Dec 2013)(Analyzing)
11. What do environmental ethics deal with? Discuss the holistic approach of
environmental ethics. Write a note on acid rain. (May/June 2009)(Remembering)
12. What are the reasons for selecting engineers as managers? How to maintain the
ethical climate in organization? List the principles for conflict resolution and how to solve
the conflicts through the managerial approach.(May/June2009)(Dec
2014)(Remembering)
13. Discuss the ethical issues related to computer and internet. (May/June 2013) (Dec
2014)(Creating)
14. Differentiate honesty and moral leadership. (May/June2013)
15. Discuss the different forms of relativism with respect to MNCs (Creating)
16. Explain the role of engineers as consultant (Understanding)
 17. Discuss the role of engineers as expert witness and advisors. (Dec 2014)(Creating)

UNIT V AND UNIT VI

1. Give an account of Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
OnDecember3,1984, Union Carbide's pesticide-manufacturing plant in Bhopal, India leaked 40
tons of the deadly gas, methyl isocyanate into a sleeping, impoverished community -killing 2,500
within a few days, 10000 permanently disabled and injuring 100,000 people. Ten years later, it
increased to 4000 to 7000 deaths and injuries to600,000.
Risks taken:
a. Storage tank of Methyl Isocyanate gas was filled to more than 75% capacity as
against Union Carbide’s spec. that it should never be more than 60% full.
b. The company’s West Virginia plant was controlling the safety systems and detected
leakages thro’ computers but the Bhopal plant only used manual labor for control
and leak detection.
c. The Methyl Isocyanate gas, being highly concentrated, burns parts of body with
which it comes into contact, even blinding eyes and destroying lungs.
Causal Factors:
• Three protective systems out of service
• Plant was understaffed due to costs.
• Very high inventory of MIC, an extremely toxic material.
• The accident occurred in the early morning.
• Most of the people killed lived in a shanty (poorly built) town located very close to
the plant fence.
Workers made the following attempts to save the plant:
• They tried to turn on the plant refrigeration system to cool down the environment
and slow the reaction. (The refrigeration system had been drained of coolant weeks
before and never refilled -- it cost too much.)
• They tried to route expanding gases to a neighboring tank. (The tank's pressure
gauge was broken and indicated the tank was full when it was really empty.)
• They tried to purge the gases through a scrubber. (The scrubber was designed for
flow rates, temperatures and pressures that were a fraction of what was by this time
escaping from the tank. The scrubber was as a result in effective.)
• They tried to route the gases through a flare tower -- to burn them away. (The supply
line to the flare tower was broken and hadn't been replaced.)
 • They tried to spray water on the gases and have them settle to the ground—by this
time the chemical reaction was nearly completed. (The gases were escaping at a
point 120 feet above ground; the hoses were designed to shoot water up to 100 feet
into the air.)
In just 2 hours the chemicals escaped to form a deadly cloud over hundreds of thousands of people
incl. poor migrant laborer’s who stayed close to the plant.
2. What are the benefits of Multi-National corporations doing business in less developed
countries for both the MNCs and the host country?
Benefits to MNCs:
a. Inexpensive labour
b. Availability of natural resources
c. Favorable tax conditions
d. Fresh markets for products
Benefits to developing host countries:
a. New jobs
b. Greater pay and greater challenge
c. Transfer of advanced technology
d. Social benefits from sharing wealth
3. What are the three senses of relative values?
3.1. Ethical Relativism
• Actions are morally right in a particular society if they are approved by law, custom, or
other conventions of the society.
3.2. Descriptive Relativism
• Value beliefs and attitudes differ from culture to culture and this is a fact.
3.3. Moral Rationalism or Contextualism (Ethical pluralism)
• Moral judgements should be made in relation to factors that vary between issues. Hence it
is not possible to formulate rules that are simple and applicably to all situations.
4. Which standards should guide engineers’ conduct when working in foreign countries?
a. Alternate 1: ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’
b. Alternate 2. Follow the identical practices which were followed in the home country.
c. Both are unacceptable. A via media should be found based on the context.
5. What are the International Rights as enumerated by Thomas Donaldson?
• The right to freedom of physical movement
 • The right to ownership of property
• The right to freedom from torture
• The right to a fair deal
• The right to non-discriminatory treatment
• The right to physical security
• The right to freedom of speech and association
• The right to minimal education
• The right to political participation
• The right to subsistence
6. What can MNCs do to promote morally just measures? Or what are Richard T. De
George’s guidelines for moral promotion by MNCs?
• MNCs business should do more overall good than bad towards the economy of the host
country than doing good to a few corrupt leaders in oppressive regimes.
• They must respect laws and regulations of the local country as long as they do not violate
basic moral rights.
• They must pay a living wage, even when local companies fail to pay such a wage, but
otherwise pay only enough to attract competent workers.
• It is permissible for the US to transfer dangerous technology like asbestos production to
another country and then simply adopt that country’s safety laws only under the following
conditions.
– Workers may be so desperate for income to feed their families that they will
work under almost any conditions
– Pay workers for the extra risk

Good judgements exercised in good faith, than abstract principles, is the only way to address
practical problems.
7. Write in brief about Technology Transfer and Appropriate Technology?
7.1. Technology Transfer:
‘The process of moving technology to a novel setting and implementing there.’
• Novel setting is any situation containing at least one new variable relevant to success or
failure of given technology
• Transfer of technology from a familiar to a new environment is a complex process
 7.2. Appropriate Technology:
‘Identification, transfer, and implementation of the most suitable technology for a new set of
conditions’
• Conditions include social factors that go beyond routine economic and technical
engineering constraints
• Identifying them requires attention to an array of human values and needs that may
influence how a technology affects the novel situation
• Intermediate technology
8. How is environment degraded?
1. By causing injuries to nature
a. Usually, this damage is caused slowly
b. Sometimes this also happens in sudden strikes
2. Misuse of our resources, fouling our environment
3. Practicing growths in consumptions and population leading to non-
availability of resources
4. Industrial activity denudes land(to destroy all plant and animal life), pollutes
atmosphere and water, reduces the yield from sea and land
9. What are the questions to be answered by Engineers in their role as experimenters?
• How does an industry affect the environment?
• How far it can be controlled?
• Whether protective measures are available and implemented?
• Whether engineers can ensure safe & clean environment?
10. What is acid rain? What are its effects?
Acid rain:
a. pH of normal rain is 5.6
b. pH of rainfall in north eastern areas of North America is 3.9 to 4.3. It is 10
to 100 times more acidic than normal. This is ‘acid rain’.
c. Snowmelt into water releases huge amount of acid which got frozen during
winter.
Effects:
 a. Acid shock’ from snowmelt causes mass destruction of fish. On long term it also harms fish
eggs and sources of food.
b. Thousands of lakes were killed by acid rain in Scandinavia and North America.
c. The causes are burning of fossil fuels leading to release of SO2 in particular and Nitrogen
oxides.
d. Problems of Sweden caused by Industrial plants in England and North Europe.
e. Problems of North America caused by utilities in Ohio valley, the largest polluter of SO2
in USA.
Some of the potential changes are still unknown
▪ Micro-organisms in soil are being affected
▪ Groundwater is polluted but its ultimate effects are not known
▪ The effects may be known only after another 100years Effect on food sources are also
unclear
11. What are the other problems caused to the environment?
a. Build-up of CO2 from the use of fossil fuels by Industrial nations could result in
Greenhouse effect.
b. Damage to protective OZONE layer due to the release of Freon is related to technological
products used by the people of these nations.
12. What is Greenhouse effect?
‘Greenhouse Effect’ is defined as ‘The progressive warming up of earth’s surface due to
blanketing effect of man made CO2 in the atmosphere.’
A green house is that body which allows the short wavelength incoming solar radiation to come
in, but does not allow the long wave outgoing infra red radiation to escape. The earth’s atmosphere
bottles up the energy of the sun and it acts like a greenhouse, where CO2 acts like a glass windows.
13. What are the effects of Greenhouse?
a. The temperature effect of the CO2 and water vapor combined together has a long range
impact on the global climate.
b. Because of increased concentration of CO2 and due to much warmer tropical oceans, there
may occur cyclones and hurricanes and early snow melt in mountains will cause more
floods during monsoon.
c. Increase in global temperature can adversely effect the world food production.
d. At higher altitudes in the atmosphere, CO2 undergoes photochemical reactions producing
CO, which is drastically dangerous.
e. CFCs are responsible for 20% increase in warming. This may increase the chances of
diseases in humans and animals.
 14. Describe the case study of environmental degradation caused by PCB &
Kanemi’s Oil?
In Southern Japan, in 1968 a large number of people suffered by disfigurement of skin,
discolouration, fatigue, numbness, respiratory distress, vomiting and loss of hair.
– 10,000 people got affected & some died
– Two groups of 121 people each were tested and results were as follows:
• It was found that fried food using rice oil produced by Kanemi company was
eaten which caused the problem
• After 7 months of investigation….
– It was found that the presence of Polychlorinated biphenyl-PCB was the
cause for the effects and it was present in the rice oil.
– RiceOilwasheatedatlowpressuretoremovetheodourthro’aheatexchanger
and a liquid known as KANECHLOR which contained PCB was used for
heat transfer
– Pipes of the heat exchanger was corroded and led to leakage thro’ those
pinholes.
– In fact, Kanemi had been replenishing 27 kgs of lost PCB per month for
sometime without realizing the seriousness.
Indirect path – this rice was used as chicken-feed and half of one million chickens that were fed
died.
Other Similar Effects:
❖ Plastic bakery wrappers containing PCB mixed with ground stale bread was
used as chicken-feed and 140000 chickens had to be slaughtered in NewYork.
❖ PCB leaked into fish meal from a heating system in North Carolin a plant and
12000 tons of fishmeal were contaminated and 88000 chicken, fed with fish meal
had to be destroyed.
❖ High pressure injection of water near Baldwin Dam in Los Angeles caused the
reservoir crack open along a fault line. The water released killed 5 and damaged
property worth $14million.
15. How can we internalize Costs of Environmental Degradation?
❖ Time cost of a product – includes numerous factors like effect of pollution, the
depletion of energy and raw materials, social costs, etc.
❖ If these costs are internalized (added to the price), then the cost can be charged
directly to the beneficiary of the degradation of environment.
 ❖ It is better to make the user to pay for all its costs than to levy higher taxes.
❖ An acceptable mechanism for price fixing must be found by the engineer with the
help of the economist, scientist, lawyer and politician which could protect the
environment through self-correcting procedures.
❖ Good design practices may give better environmental protection without added cost.
16. Give a brief account of Technology Assessment?
• Engineers are said to be finding the right answers for the wrong questions
• Finding the right questions is much more difficult than finding the right answers to
these questions
• Engineers should
▪ Try to access the technology and its environmental impacts and form
containing the major adverse effects
▪ During assessment even if engineers were strongly believing that
projects have no adverse effect, they should continue to monitor the
outcomes even after its implementation which only would give the
complete picture of the consequences of the project
17. Write short notes on Sentient – Centered Ethics, Bio – Centric Ethics, Eco centric
Ethics and Human – Centered Environmental Ethics.
Sentient – Centered Ethics
Sentient animals are those which feel pain and pleasure. This version of Nature-centered ethics is
advanced by some utilitarians, notably Peter Singer, who says that right action maximizing good
for all should include sentient animals as well as humans. Failure to do so leads discrimination
like racism, which is known as ‘Speciesism’. There is always a dispute as to whether the inherent
worth of animals can be equated to human beings or not.
Bio – Centric Ethics
This regards all living organisms as having inherent worth. We should live with the virtue of
‘reverence to life’, as set forth by Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965). This will enable us to take
decisions about when life can be sacrificed.
Ecocentric Ethics
This locates inherent worth in Ecological systems and this approach is different from the other
two, as it is not individualistic. This is voiced by Aldo Leopold (1887-1948). There is another view
that ecocentric ethic does not replace socially generated human-oriented duties to family,
neighbours and humanity
Human – Centered Environmental Ethics
This is an extension of ethical theories to combat threats to human beings presented by the
destruction of nature.
18. Define computer ethics?
Computer Ethics deals with ‘the evaluation of and decision making in a variety of moral problems
caused by computers’.
19. What shifts are caused in power relationships by Computers?
Power relationship caused by Computers:
1. Job Elimination:
❖ Computers still continue to lead to elimination of jobs.
❖ While employees cannot be paid when there is no work, all attempts are to be made
by employers to readjust work assignments and retain employees.
❖ Theabsenceofthispracticecreatesanemployeeorpubicbacklashagainstintroduction
of Computers.
2. Customer Relations:
❖ It is very easy for a customer to notice an error in a computer printout, of the price
difference between what is shown at the shelf and what is shown in cash receipt
register.
❖ Here moral sense and long term business requirement requires that the policies
should be made favorable to consumers.
3. Biased Software:
A group of people with known convictions, may tend to produce software which favours their views
rather than views from all angles to let the user decide finally.
4. Stock Trading:
Automatic, hands-off trading of stocks and currency can be performed, benefiting the trading
community but it will harm the intended purposes.
5. Unrealistic Expectations:
Sales personnel have a tendency to oversell systems that are too large for customers’
requirements; sometimes even those which are not ready for delivery.
6. Political Power:
By obtaining information about different groups of people regarding their attitudes and values,
the computers can be made to help politicians to make speeches, send mails, etc. which would be
appealing selectively to these groups.
7. Military Weapons:
Computerized military weapons, even if perfected, will only make opposing countries to develop
their striking or responding capability which is not healthy for the world.
20. What problems are encountered in the use of computers with properties?
The two major problems encountered in the use of computers with properties are:
1. Embezzlement and
2. Theft of software and information
21. How the problem of embezzlement takes place through computers and why?
❖ The speed and geographic coverage of the computer system and the difficulty of
tracing the transactions through computers makes catching the thieves troublesome.
❖ Computers are abused in i) stealing by employees at work, ii) stealing by non-
employees or former employees ,iii) stealing from or cheating clients and
consumers, iv) violating contracts for computer sales or service and v) conspiring
to use computer networks to engage in widespread fraud.
❖ Penalties for computer crime are mild compared to conventional crimes.
❖ Passwords and more recently, data encryptions are used for security with limited
effectiveness.
22. Explain briefly about Data and Software with respect to property problems.
❖ ‘Data’ is information stored in a computer.
❖ ‘Software’ or ‘program’ consists of i) an algorithm, ii) a source code and iii) an
object code.
❖ Software can be protected by Copyrights and Trade secret laws. Patenting on
software is limited to detailed coding sequences but not final products. Algorithms
and object codes cannot be copyrighted. But source code can be copyrighted. Eg.
Buying one copy and reproducing dozens of copies
23. Describe how and in what ways ‘violation of privacy’ occurs in and through
Computers.
Computers make more information available to more people. This makes protection of computer
privacy difficult.
 1. Inappropriate Access:
a. Documents recorded for a crime which one did not commit but was arrested. As a child
you were arrested for drinking alcohol
b. Medical data about visits to a psychiatrist. A loan default to a National Bank.
c. Any of the above information can be accessed by, let us say, a prospective employer during
a security check.
2. Data Bank Errors:
a. Even erroneous information when generated by computers is taken to be authenticated.
b. Immediate reaction to such wrong information may mostly prove to be incorrect.
3. Hackers:
‘a. Hackers’ are people who compulsively challenge any computer security system, choke
networks, give out false information, etc.
c. This can be extremely harmful.
d. It is a violation of property rights.
e. At the least, it reduces productivity by shutting down systems.
26. Give one argument each for and against Weapons Development?
Weapons Development is a defensive measure against greater destruction by political
adversaries, terrorists and enemy states.
They are devices to kill human beings, innocent civilians or equally unwilling soldiers on the other
side.
27. What should engineers do in taking part in Weapons development?
Engineers need to examine one’s conscience to take part in any form of weapon development.
o They have to consider the circumstances leading to the specific conflict and decide
whether it is justified to take part in associated weapons development.
o If necessary, they should refuse to be a part of it and be prepared to face consequences.
o Individual privacy, national security, freedom to protect proprietary information are
three values requiring limits on access to information.
24. How has law responded to computer abuses?
a. A series of laws enacted to prevent abuse of information.
b. Information can be accessed only by consumer consent or court order.
c. Consumers have the right to examine and challenge information contained in computers.
25. What Professional Issues arise in Computer ethics?
Owing to the high degree of job complexity and technical proficiency required, a lot of issues arise
in engineering ethics.
1. Computer failures:
a. Failures can occur due to either hardware or software Hardware errors do not occur
frequently.
b. Software errors are the major failures of the computers. Hardware errors are easily
detected.
c. Software errors are difficult to detect.
d. Trial runs are absolutely essential to check the program.
2. Computer Implementation:
a. New computer system should be attempted successfully before the old one becomes
inoperative. Many failure cases have been reported while switching over to a new system.
3. Health Conditions:
a. Ergonomic conditions should be implemented to reduce back problems, provide wrist
support, to become good looking.
28. How much is being spent in Defence expenditure and how Arms Trade gets promoted by
private manufacturers of arms?
o Hundreds of billions of dollars, annually, throughout the world, are being spent for
military operations.
o 25% of this is spent on just procurement of weapons.
o 17% of these are spent in transactions across countries.
Promotion of Arms Deals:
1. Krupp, a family of successful arms merchants and manufacturers
2. Armies and navies invested in Krupp’s nickel steel armour
3. Then Krupp made chrome steel shells that can pierce nickel leading to further investment
by military.
4. Then they made a high-carbon armour plate that can resist the new shells resulting in
more orders
5. Then Krupp again produces, ‘capped shot’with explosive noses which apiece through
the high-carbon armored plate also
6. Arms deals continued to flourish
7. Vickers and Schneider-another arms manufacturer
 8. Supplying arms to Chinese, Japanese and Russians Pointing out the growth of the
Japanese navy to Chinese
9. Pointing out the growth of the Chinese to their rivals, Russians
10. Russia–Japanese war in 1905 was useful for the cause of arms manufacturers.
Russians lost the war, hence ordered fresh arms for rehabilitation
11. Japanese won the war, but were upset since terrible bloodbath was caused by
Russians machine guns on land.
29. Describe the destructive nature and power of weapons and their development?
a. Towards the end of World War II, night raids sometimes on civilian areas were very
common
b. The deaths caused by Atom bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki were not more than the deaths
caused by single air raids in World War II
c. But they were horrible because of their power in rapid delivery of destructive power in
immense concentration
d. Hiroshima Bomb – equivalent to 20000T of TNT powder carried on 267 bogies of railroad
(2 miles long) for one bomb – again equivalent to 740-B52 bombers to carry this load.
e. USSR exploded Hydrogen bombs in 1960 – 50 & 60 mega ton range for tests with
capabilities such as:
a. 2000 to 3000 times powerful than Hiroshima bomb
b. 4000 to 6000 miles long train required to carry an equivalent amount of TNT
powder which will take 100 hours to pass any point
c. Will require one and a half million planes +(bombers)to carry the powder
d. Towards the end of cold war
e. USSRhad5800megatons(9500warheadson2700launchers)and USA had 3300
megatons (10800 warheads on 2000 launchers)
30. Illustrate the involvement of engineers in Weapons Development with examples.
1. Bob is employed by a firm manufacturing anti-personnel bombs. These bombs tie up much
of the enemy’s resources in treating the wounded who survive its explosion (by showering
its fragments on to the victims). Though he does not like to be involved in bomb , he justifies
himself that someone would have to mfr them. If he does not, then someone else will. Of
course, his family also needs a steady income.
2. A chemical engineer, Mary, got in to napal mmfg when she was promoted. She does not like
wars, but she feels that govt. knows better about international dangers. She also knows that
if she continues doing well in her job, she will again be promoted to work on a commercial
product.
3. Ron is a specialist in missile control and guidance. He knows that he was one of the
engineers instrumental in keeping any potential enemy in check through his work. At least,
there is enough mutual deterrence for a third world war.
 4. Joanne is an electronics engineer working also on avionics for fighter planes that are sold
abroad. She does not want these planes to be sold to hostile countries. Since she does not
have any say on who should be their customers, she even alerts occasionally her journalist
friends with information about her work which she feels all public should have.
Anyone who is involved in weapons development should be very clear as to his/her motives for
being in the industry.
31. What are the Problems of Defense Industry in brief?
1. Large military build-ups, massive projects all lead to unethical business practices and
the urgency of completion of the weapons projects does not allow proper controlling
and monitoring.
2. ‘Technology creep’ – development of cruise missiles alters diplomatic arrangements
3. The impact of secrecy surrounding any defense activity
4. Overall effect of defense spending on economy
32. Explain the problems of defense industry with examples.
1. Large military build-ups: $2 billion cost overrun on the development of C5-A cargo
plane reported to the public by Ernest Fitzgerald due to poor operating efficiencies in
defense industry. He pointed out how large suppliers felt secure in not complying to
cost-cutting plans but small contractors were willing.
a. 25% firms hold 50%of all defense contracts and 8 firms conduct 45% of defense
research.
2. Technology creep: The arms are not only growing in size, it is also becoming better.
The development of a new missile or one that can target more accurately, by one
country, can upset or destabilize a diplomatic negotiation. Sometimes this fad for
modernization leads to undesirably consequences. The F15 fighter planes were
supposed to be fastest and most maneuverable of its kind but most were not available
for service due to repairs, defects and lack of spares. Engineers should be beware of
such pitfalls.
3. Impact of secrecy: Secrecy poses problems to engineers. Engineers should be aware of
the answers to the following questions:
Should discoveries of significance to military be informed to govt.?Can they be shared
with other researchers, in other countries? Should they be withheld from the scientific
and public community? Will the secrecy in weapons development will also serve to hide
corruption or their mistakes in defense establishments? Can secrecy help the promotion
of weapons systems without criticism or interference from outsiders?
4. Effect on economy: Every dollar spent on defense produces less jobs than what could
be provided for by using the resource on other neglected sectors such as education and
road development. May be a changeover by training defense engineers to use their
 designs, processes and techniques to bring about better, competitive civilian products
is what would be the most appropriate thing to do now.

33. What are the difficulties in Decommissioning Weapons?

1. Even now, shells (duds or live) which landed about 90 years back during World War I
are found by farmers during ploughing. Special bomb disposal squads are being kept
busy with hundreds of calls.
2. There are, still more, unexploded and hidden bombs all over the world that fell during
World War II
3. Severed limbs and dead bodies are being discovered inlands filled with mines in
Cambodia and Vietnam in 1960sand70s.
4. Anti-personnel weapons are found in Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Mozambique,
Nicaragua and Somalia.
5. These weapons are easily spread by air but are very difficult and dangerous to detect
and remove.
6. About 100 million landmines remain still scattered in the above countries as per
estimates by U.S.State dept.
7. Land mines present a serious ethical dilemma to leaders who want to be ethical in wars
also
8. Design, mfr, deployment and eventually their disposal is a huge experiment.
9. Widespread ignorance on radiation amongst the public
10. Gas warfare experiments, Anthrax carriers, nuclear weapons all cause both known and
unknown problems
11. Engineers dealing with dangerous material should consider both the intended use and
also the unintended consequences and also their disposal
. 34. Which studies are more useful to ‘engineer managers’ than even engineering?
Richard L.Meehan, a civil engg graduate from MIT, was retained by General Electric as a
consultant to testify before Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the capability of GE’s nuclear
plant in California, U.S.A. to withstand earthquakes.
He found, while trying to understand the effect of earthquakes on nuclear plants, that
1. His basic study of physics is more useful in studying this area compared to the more
advanced studies in engg.
2. His understanding of risk analysis was based not only on probability theory but also on
value judgement about safety.
3. But more interesting was that understanding people was more important than anything
else.
4. Person oriented skills are as important to engineers as technical skills.

34. Why managements prefer to make engineers as managers than non- engineers? /
Why engineers find management positions attractive?
 a. Engineers undergo the most intensive technical training amongst professionals. But still,
many of them move to managerial positions early in their career for which they received
no training.
b. Organisations find it easier to teach the business side to engineers than teaching
engineering to non-engineers.
c. They also value the quantitative analysis, strong work- ethics, and confidence in problem
solving exhibited by engineers.
d. Engineers also prefer the management attractive, since career in management offers better
recognition than technical track.
34. Managers’ responsibility is to conduct business to increase profits’. Discuss.
• Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said ‘The social responsibility of business is to
increase its profits……. The responsibility of managers is to conduct business in
accordance with their stockholders’ desires, which generally will be to make as
much money as possible while conforming to he basic rules of society, both those
embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom’
• The ethical custom refered by Friedman means only ‘refraining from fraud,
deception and corruption.
• But Martin and Schinzinger say that Friedman is not correct in saying that
managers’ ethics reduce to only responsibility to maximize profits for stockholders.
• The primary responsibility of managers is to produce product or service while
maintaining respect for persons, including customers, employees and public.
• Ethically, personnel and safety comes first before profits.
• By definition, compared to charitable institutions, religions, organizations, etc
organizations and corporates operate only for profits.
• But the ultimate goal of managers should be to make valuable products that are also
profitable since profit making is one of the conditions to be in business.
• Good business and sound ethics go together. Hence the moral roles of managers
and engineers are complementary and not opposed.
• Engineermanagershavetwomajorresponsibilities–promotingandethicalclimateand
resolving conflicts.
35. Explain how Ethical Climate is promoted in organizations through examples.
There are highly ethical organizations, examples of some of which are given below:
1. Marilyn Hamilton, founded Quickie Designs in 1980, who was a teacher and athlete who
was paralyzed in hang-gliding accident. A highly mobile and versatile wheel chair was
 designed weighing 26 pounds, half the weight of chairs that were currently produced. The
company grew up within a decade to $65 millions in sales. It had a policy of customer
sponsored sports events for young people in wheel chairs. It is relatively small (500 strong)
and exceptionally committed.
2. Martin Mariette Corpn began an ethics program in 1985 emphasizing basic value like
honesty and fairness and responsibility for environment and high product quality. They
drafted a code of conduct, conducted and ethics workshop for managers and created
effective procedures for employees to express their ethical concerns.
3. Texas Instruments (TI) is an example of an ethical large corporation emphasizing on trust,
respect for other persons, etc. TI appointed a full time Ethics Director, Carl Skooglund. He
surveyed to know the ethical concerns of employees and their awareness. He conducted
workshops on ethics, wrote brochures and was directly to all employees through a
confidential phoneline. Even though they made it clear that unprofessional conduct would
not be tolerated, the focus was on supporting ethical conduct than punishing wrongdoers.
4. A large defense contractor started an ethics program that was not successful. Higher
management viewed the program as a success but the professional employees considered it
as a sham/farce for public relations and window dressing. The primary difficulty was the
gap between the intentions of top management and the unchanged behavior of the Senior
managers.
38. What steps can be taken to improve the ethical climate by managers?
1. Ethical values and their full complexity are widely acknowledged and appreciated
by managers and engineers. Neither profits nor promoting the interests of the
organization is neglected but the moral limits on profit-seeking go beyond simply
obeying the law and avoiding fraud.
2. The sincere use of ethical language is recognized as a legitimate part of corporate
dialogue. This is done either by formulating corporate code of ethics or by including
ethical responsibilities in job descriptions at all levels.
3. Top management must set a moral tone, in words, in policies and by personal
example. Everyone should be confident that management is serious about ethics.
4. There must be procedures for conflict resolution. Managers should be trained to r
esolve conflicts and on the other hand, a person should be exclusively made to have
confidential discussions about moral concerns.
39. What are the most common conflicts?
o Conflicts over schedules, depending mostly on support depts. but where managers
do not have any control.
o Conflicts over which is the most important dept or function at a given time
o Conflicts over personnel resources
 o Conflicts over technical issues
o Conflicts over administrative procedures
o Personality conflicts
o Conflicts over costs
40. Can conflicts be managed by force or authority? How are different conflicts resolved?
o ‘I am in-charge - see it my way or I will fire you’. This is generally perceived as
self- defeating.
o Conflict arrangement sometimes means tolerating and even inviting some forms of
conflict
o Manager’s task is to create climate in which conflicts are addressed constructively
o Personality conflicts are ranked relatively low in intensity but they are most difficult
to resolve.
o They are generally woven with technical/communication problems
o Properly managed technical and ethical conflicts are usually fruitful and not
harmful. Differing views provide opportunity for improved creativity.
41. What are the 4 ways to resolve conflicts among persons suggested by Harvard
Negotiation Project?
1) People: Separate people from the problem. Even though both the people and the
problem are important, the personal aspect of the conflict should be separated from
the problem to deal with it better. On personality clashes, the focus should be on
behaviour and not on people.
2) Interests: Focus on interests and not position\s This principle applies most clearly
to personnel matters and ethical views, rather than technical disputes. Positions are
stated views but these may not really express their best interests.
3) Options: Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do. Create a
wide range of options especially in technical and ethical issues and facilitate
discussions.
4) Criteria: Insist that the result be based on some objective standard. Beyond the
goals of efficiency, quality and customer satisfaction, it is important to develop a
sense of fair process in how the goals are met.
42. What is the nature of work for Engineers as Consulting Engineers?
Consulting engineers work in private practice. They earn by getting their fee for services rendered.
They have greater freedom in decision making compared to salaried employees. But they also have
a need to earn a living.
 43. What are the major areas of work for engineer consultants?
a. Advertising
b. Competitive bidding
c. Contingency fees
d. Safety and client needs

44. Advertising, once thought to be unprofessional has now been accepted by law’ –
Explain.
a. Before 1976, advertising was thought to be ‘unprofessional’, in U.S.A. The state felt that
work should be won through reputation as engineer and not through advertisement.
b. But in 1976, Supreme Court ruled that
c. Ban on professional advertising is an improper restraint
d. It reduces public awareness of available professional services
e. They keep prices higher than they might otherwise.
Now the focus has been shifted to restrain deceptive advertising which is done through:
a. Outright lies
b. Half-truths
c. Exaggeration
d. Making false suggestions or implications
e. Obfuscation (confusion or not being clear) created by ambiguity, vagueness
f. Manipulation of the unconscious

45. When is advertising considered to be deceptive?

Example 1: A consulting firm played actually a very minor role in a well-known project
Situation 1: Its brochure claims that it played a major role
Situation 2: It makes no claim but only shows the picture of the project
Situation 3: It shows the picture along with a footnote in fine print the true details about its role
in the project
Situation 4: If the same statement is printed in larger type and not as footnote.
Example 2: An ad shows an electronics device to convey that the item is routinely produced and
available for sale. But actually the ad shows only the prototype or mock- up and the item is just
being developed.
46. What are the norms to be followed by ethical consultants in advertising?
a. Generally consumer products can be advertised suppressing the negative aspects and even
some exaggeration is allowed.
b. But advertisement of professional services like engineering services is governed by strict
norms.
NSPE forbids the following:
“the use of statements containing a material misrepresentation of fact or omitting a material fact
necessary to keep the statement from being misleading; statements intended or likely to create an
unjustified expectation; statements containing prediction of future success; statements containing
an opinion as to the quality of the showmanship including the use of slogans, jingles or sensational
language format.”
a. Some degree of solicitation may be useful in encouraging healthy competition
b. Or will it open the door to people who are not honest, who criticize unfairly or who
exaggerate the merits of their services?
c. In any case, restrictions on misleading advertisement are a must.
47. Why was Competitive Bidding prohibited earlier and then why was it approved by
courts?
❖ Competitive bidding was prohibited for quite sometime due to the following reasons:
❖ Consulting jobs, unlike industrial and construction work, are not suitable for precise
cost estimates and hence precise bids.
❖ Here competitive bidding, would encourage cutting safety and quality, in case of
lower bids and padding/over designing in the case of higher bids.
❖ Later, Competitive bidding was approved by Courts of law on the reasoning that
free trade is restrained in an unfair manner.
48. When consulting engineers reject competitive bidding, what can be the basis of their
selection?
Consulting engineers, in the absence of competitive bidding can be selected only based on their
reputation and proven qualification. But younger, competent engineers may be disadvantaged by
this method.
49. What is your understanding of Contingency Fees?
Contingency fee is dependent on some specific conditions beyond normal, satisfactory
performance in work.
a. A client may hire a consultant engineer to find methods of cost saving on an ongoing
project to save a minimum of 10%. If consultant saves 10%, he will get his fee; otherwise
no fee will be paid. The fee can be either an agreed amount or a %age of savings.
b. When the fee is a% age of saving, it becomes ‘contingency fee’. In many cases, consultants
tend to be biased and in order to gain the fee, they may specify inferior design or process
to cut costs.
50. How does NSPE address the issue of ‘Contingency Fee’?
NSPE has addressed this issue as follows:
“An engineer shall not request, propose, or accept a professional commission on a contingent
basis under circumstances in which his professional judgement may be compromised, or when a
contingency provision is used as a device for promoting or securing a professional commission.”
51. When does the ‘contingency fee’ become permissible?
To decide whether ‘contingency fee’practice may be allowed or not,the potential gains should be
weighed against the potential losses. Hence, this again calls for contextual reasoning based on
ethical theories, which provide a framework for assessing morally relevant issues of the problem.
52. How ‘Safety and client needs’ should be addressed by consulting engineers?
❖ Consulting engineers have greater freedom with wider areas of responsible decision
making compared to salaried engineers.
❖ This creates special difficulties for consulting engineers.
❖ In ‘design-only’ projects, consultants do not have any role in the construction or
implementation as per the design specs.
❖ Ideally, only the designer would really know the areas of difficulty in execution.
❖ Even when changes in design are required during execution, the consultant may not
be around to effect the changes
❖ Client may not have capable people for inspection of the work based on the
consultant’s design.
❖ Does the consultant have a moral responsibility to follow through the design
inexecution
❖ In any case, job safety is one prime responsibility of the consultant engineer
53. What are the reasons that cause ‘Disputes’? Who is the major loser in any dispute?
a. Large projects involve owners, consultants and contractors and many participants at
various levels in these three organizations.
b. Overlapping responsibilities, fragmented control, delays and inability to resolve disputes
are some of the problems encountered during these projects.
c. Resolving disputes becomes especially difficult when projects last for several years and
connected personnel also change during this period.
d. Owners have the most to lose in such situations. Hence they try to shift the risks to others.
e. Consulting engineers are generally tied to the contract provisions and they do not try any
innovative ideas (do not want to add risks)
f. All this have led to considerable litigation and any litigation is time consuming and costly.
54. What are the steps to be taken resolve disputes?
1. Define how risks are to be apportioned and payment of fees to be made
 2. Make contractual provisions for dispute solving vehicles to avoid legal battles in
lines of mediation –arbitration
3. Mediator attempts to resolve first and if it fails, the arbitrators’ decision should be
final.
4. National Joint Board for settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes will be called to
provide a leaking board and appeals board.
5. The Consulting Engineer, from the “social experimentation” nature of engineering,
has the obligation to include such clauses in contracts and should make sure that
these clauses are adhered to by all.
55. What is the work done by Engineers as Experts?
Engineers, in their position as experts, explain the happenings of the past in terms of Causes of
accidents, malfunctions of equipment and other technological events. They also help in events of
the future like, public planning, potential of patents and policy making (in technology)
56. How should Expert Engineers function?
They should function as impartial seekers of facts & Communicators of truth but not as hired guns
i.e. advocates for lawyers, officials, etc
57. What are the types of cases, expert witnesses are called upon to testify in court & what
are the stakes?
57.1. Types Of Cases
I. Airplane crash
II. Defective products
III. Personal injury
IV. Property damage
V. Traffic accident
57.2. Stakes
I. Legal liabilities
II. Economic interests
III. Reputations of corporations and professionals
58. What are the Expert engineers’ responsibilities towards their hirers?
They should
▪ Present their qualifications to the client
 ▪ Investigate thoroughly the cases entrusted to them.
▪ Testify in court
59. How should the expert witness exhibit one’s ‘confidentiality responsibility’?
The expert witnesses must
✓ Not divulge their investigations unless called upon to do so by the court
✓ Not volunteer evidence favorable to the opponent
✓ Answer questions truthfully when opposing attorney puts forth pertinent questions But he
should not just be the client’s mouthpiece.
60. What are the aims of a legal system?
Aims Of A Legal System is
To administer a complex system of legal rights that define legal justice achieved through
adversarial relationships, with rules about admissible forms of evidence and permissible forms of
testimony
61. What is the role of an expert in a court system consistent with Professional standards
(codes of ethics)?
Role of an Expert in a Court System
✓ Experts must earnestly try to be impartial in identifying and interpreting
complicated data thrown up by the complexity of modern science and technology to
help the courts
✓ Ideally, if courts pay the expert witness, the expert will become totally unbiased.
✓ But it is a very costly issue
✓ So parties to the dispute are called upon to pay and hire them on both sides and
also allow them to be cross examined by both sides
62. What is the difference between Eye witness and Expert witness?
▪ Eye Witness Is permitted to testify on observed and to some extent perceived facts.
▪ Expert Witness Is permitted to testify on facts, perceptions and interpretations off
acts in the area of their expertise comment on opponent’s expert witness’ view report
on applicable professional standards
63. What are the types of abuses of Engineers as Expert witnesses?
Expert witnesses are abused in the following ways:
✓ Hired Guns
 ✓ Financial Bias
✓ Ego Bias
✓ Sympathy Bias
64. Write short notes on: a) Hired Guns, b) Financial Bias, c) Ego Bias and d) Sympathy
Bias
a) Hired Gun An unscrupulous (unprincipled, crooked, immoral) engineer

• Makes his living by helping lawyers to portray facts in favour of their clients
• Never tries to be objective
• Violates standards of honesty and care in conducting investigations
• Overall a shame on engineering community) Financial Bias
✓ The expert witness is biased to the party which pays more money
✓ The bias increases substantially when payments are agreed as Contingency Fee to
be paid only in case the hirer wins the case
✓ Full time forensic engineers, being dependent on lawyers for their living, try to
create a reputation of a winning engineer.
c) Ego Bias
✓ Competitive attitudes, being on one side of the disputing parties makes an expert, egoistic
and makes him influence judgments
✓ They start identifying themselves with their side of the dispute d) Sympathy Bias
✓ The plight of the victims and their sufferings can invoke sympathy from the expert witness
✓ This upsets impartial investigation of facts
65. What is needed of the Expert Engineers?
✓ Engineer Experts should maintain their integrity in the face of all the above biases
✓ Courts also must rely on balance provided by expert witnesses on both sides of the
case and provide opportunities to lawyers to remove the bias by cross-examination
66. What is the work of Engineers as Advisers?
Engineers act as Advisers in Planning and Policy-Making like Economists, sociologists, urban
planners, etc.
In Policy-Making they advise about the Cost benefit analysis of alternate solutions for transport,
housing, energy, defense, etc.
In Planning they check the feasibility, risks and benefits of the specific technological projects
which affect public in local communities
67. What are the Stakes for the engineer advisers?
Their stakes are:
1. Opposing political views
2. Social perspectives
3. Economic interests
4. And their individual values like,
5. Honesty
6. Public trust
7. Respect for common good
68. How should Engineer advisers act?
Advisers are to:
✓ Chart all realistic options
✓ Carefully assess each under different assumptions about future contingencies
✓ Act favourable to the client by basing their studies on particular assumptions about
future contingencies
69. What are the factors that influence Advisers?
Advisers are influenced by:
✓ Large amounts of money involved
✓ Direct and overt (obvious and unconcealed) pressure applied by pro or anti- people
involved in that project
✓ Hope of additional work in future
✓ Their wish to get the respect of clients
70. What are the normative models of Advisers? Briefly explain each of them.
Normative Models of Advisers
Three types:
▪ Hired Guns
▪ Value Neutral Analysts
 ▪ Value Guided Analysts
Hired Guns – This is the most undesirable role that can be played by the adviser.
✓ Here the obligation to clients only is paramount and other values are not bothered
about.
✓ Studies are made just conforming to the client’s wish.
✓ Adviser highlights only the favourable facts to the customer.
✓ All the unfavourable facts are very much downplayed.
Value Neutral Analysts
✓ Completely impartial engineers.
✓ They identify all options and analyze factual issues of each option.
✓ Cost-benefit analysis are made based on value criteria specified and made public
Value Guided Analysts
✓ Responsibility to public paramount
✓ Maintain honesty about technical facts and values
✓ They can adopt partisan views for the good based on their professional judgment
71. What are the virtues of independent expert advisers?
Virtues of Independent Experts
✓ Honesty- avoiding deception, being candid in stating relevant facts and
truthful in interpreting facts
✓ Competence- being well trained, adequately experienced in the relevant field and
having relevant skills
✓ Diligence- carrying out tasks carefully and promptly
✓ Loyalty- avoiding conflicts of interest, maintaining confidentiality and concern for
the interests of the client
72. List the roles of engineers as ‘leaders’.
Engineers perform as Leaders in the roles of
1. Managers
2. Business Entrepreneurs
3. Consultants
4. Academics and
 5. Govt officials.
73. What is leadership and who are moral leaders?
Leadership is ‘Successfully moving a group towards its common goal’.
But Moral leaders are those who move the group successfully towards goals which do public good
and not evils i.e. the goals must be ‘morally valuable’. Hence Moral Leaders can be defined as,
‘The individuals, who direct, motivate, organize, creatively manage and move groups toward
morally valuable goals’
74. ‘Technologists were best qualified to govern because of their technical expertise’.
Discuss in detail.
Mussolini and Hitler were great leaders, but not ‘Moral Leaders’, since their goals were not
morally valuable.
‘An Utopian society shall be governed by a philosopher-king whose moral wisdom best qualifies
him to rule’ – Plato
‘Technologists were best qualified to govern because of their technical expertise, as well as their
logical, practical and unprejudiced minds’– Frederick Taylor
a. But no single profession has the only right to moral governance of society.
b. Leadership is also moving away from any narrow professional interests.
c. Moral leadership is not‘ dominance by elite’, but stimulating groups toward morally
desirable ends.
75. Explain Moral Creativity.
Moral creativity is
a. Identifying most important values in particular situations
b. Focusing on them through effective communication within the group. Deep commitments
grounded in integrity to implement them.
c. Creativity consists in identifying new possibilities for applying, extending and putting into
practice, rather than inventing values.
76. How participation in Professional Societies will improve moral leadership?
Professional Societies
o Promote continuing education for their members
o Unify the profession, speak and act on behalf of them
o Are a forum for communicating, organizing and mobilizing change within, a change
which has a moral dimension.
 o Cannot take any pro-employee or pro-management stand since they have members
in management, supervision and non-management.
o But they can play a role in resolving moral issues
o A moral responsibility as well as moral creativity is shared.
77. How can individuals make a difference in leadership of Professional Societies?
o Stephen H. Unger, as an individual was mainly responsible for persuading IEEE to
focus on supporting responsible engineers than punishing wrong doers. He was
instrumental in IEEE presenting awards to the three BART engineers.
o In 1988, NSPE created National Institute of Engineering Ethics with a mission to
promote ethics within engineering. The focus was on education rather than
propaganda.
o But effective professional activity, requires a substantial trust from clients and the
public.
o Building and sustaining that trust is an important responsibility shared by all
engineers.
o In this area also Moral Leadership within professional societies is important.
78. Write short note on ‘Leadership in Communities’.
Leadership responsibilities of engineers as citizens go beyond those of non- engineers. They should
provide greater leadership in social debates about Industrial Pollution Automobile Safety
Disposal of Nuclear Waste, etc.
79. What are the different views on ‘leadership in communities’?
a. One view is that no one is strictly obligated to participate in public decision making. It may
be a moral ideal for citizens.
b. An opposite view is that all are obligated to devote sometime and energy in public policy
making
c. Non-engineers should at least stay informed about public issues and
professionals have obligations as experts in their areas.
d. Hence the need for identifying and expanding areas of possible good.

80. What are the arguments for and against Voluntary Service by engineering
professionals?
a. Should engineering professionals offer engineering services to the needy, without
charging fee or at reduced fee?
b. Voluntarism of this kind is already encouraged in Medicine, Law and Education.
c. But ABET code states “Engineers shall not undertake or agree to perform any
engineering service on a free basis” and other codes also insist that engineers are
obligated to adequate compensations (which means full fee)
 d. Engineers find it difficult to donate their services individually compared to doctors and
lawyers since their output is on a shared basis
e. But, as suggested by Robert Baum, engineers can volunteer their services in the following
areas, in groups, either free or at cheaper than normal fee.
f. Environmental impact studies that is harmful to a community Health issues of polluted
water and soil
g. Minimal needs of elderly and minorities like running water, sewage systems, electric
power and inexpensive transportation.

81. What can engineers and engineering society do to public in terms of ‘voluntary
service’?
Engineers can
a. Urge Govt. to expand services of the Army Corps of Engineers
b. Encourage students to focus their projects on service for disadvantaged groups
c. Encouraging corporations to cut their fee by 5 to 10% for charitable purposes.
Morally concerned Engineering Profession-
a. Should recognize the rights of corporations and engineers to voluntarily engage in
philanthropic engineering services.
b. Professional societies should endorse voluntary exercise as a desirable ideal.
Many engineers and some societies already are engaged in
a. Tutoring disadvantaged students
b. Advice local governments on their engineering problem.
References
1. Mike W Martin and Roland Schinzinger, Ethics in Engineering,4th edition, Tata
McGraw Hill Publishing Company Pvt Ltd, New Delhi,2014.
2. Charles D Fleddermann, Engineering Ethics, Pearson Education/ Prentice Hall of
India, New Jersey,2004.
3. Charles E Harris, Michael S Protchard and Michael J Rabins, Engineering Ethics-
Concepts and cases, Wadsworth Thompson Learning, United states,2005.
4. http://www.slideword.org/slidestag.aspx/human-values-and-Professional-ethics.
5. M Govindarajan, S Natarajan and V S Senthil Kumar, Engineering Ethics, PHI
Learning Private Ltd, New Delhi,2012.
6.R S Naagarazan, A text book on professional ethics and human values, New age
international (P) limited ,New Delhi,2006.