Engineering Ethics
Fourth Edition
CHARLES B. FLEDDERMANN
University of New Mexico
Prentice Hall
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fleddermann, Charles B. (Charles Byrns), 1956–
Engineering ethics / Charles B. Fleddermann. — 4th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-214521-3 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-13-214521-9 (alk. paper)
1. Engineering ethics. I. Title.
TA157.F525 2012
174'.962—dc23
2011023371
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 10: 0-13-214521-9
ISBN 13: 978-0-13-214521-3
Contents
ABOUT THIS BOOK
vii
1 Introduction
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1
Background Ideas 2
Why Study Engineering Ethics? 2
Engineering Is Managing the Unknown 3
Personal vs. Professional Ethics 4
The Origins of Ethical Thought 4
Ethics and the Law 4
Ethics Problems Are Like Design Problems 5
Case Studies 6
Summary 15
References 15
Problems 16
2 Professionalism and Codes of Ethics
2.1 Introduction 19
2.2 Is Engineering a Profession?
2.3 Codes of Ethics 24
Key Terms 33
References 34
Problems 34
19
3 Understanding Ethical Problems
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
18
37
Introduction 38
A Brief History of Ethical Thought 38
Ethical Theories 39
Non-Western Ethical Thinking 46
Key Terms 53
References 53
Problems 53
iii
iv
Contents
4 Ethical Problem-Solving Techniques
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
Introduction 57
Analysis of Issues in Ethical Problems 57
Line Drawing 59
Flow Charting 62
Conflict Problems 63
An Application of Problem-Solving Methods: Bribery/Acceptance of Gifts
Key Terms 71
References 71
Problems 72
5 Risk, Safety, and Accidents
56
65
74
5.1 Introduction 75
5.2 Safety and Risk 75
5.3 Accidents 79
Key Terms 98
References 98
Problems 99
6 The Rights and Responsibilities of Engineers
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
Introduction 104
Professional Responsibilities
Professional Rights 106
Whistle-Blowing 108
Key Terms 120
References 120
Problems 121
104
7 Ethical Issues in Engineering Practice
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
103
124
Introduction 125
Environmental Ethics 125
Computer Ethics 127
Ethics and Research 135
Key Terms 143
References 143
Problems 144
8 Doing the Right Thing
References 155
Problems 155
150
Contents
APPENDIX A Codes of Ethics of Professional
Engineering Societies
157
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) 158
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 163
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 164
American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE) 168
Japan Society of Civil Engineers 169
APPENDIX B Bibliography
General Books on Engineering Ethics 172
Journals with Articles on Engineering Ethics and Cases
Websites 173
Index
157
172
173
174
v
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About This Book
Engineering Ethics is an introductory textbook that explores many of the ethical
issues that a practicing engineer might encounter in the course of his or her professional engineering practice. The book contains a discussion of ethical theories,
develops several ethical problem-solving methods, and contains case studies based
on real events that illustrate the problems faced by engineers. The case studies also
show the effects that engineering decisions have on society.
WHAT’S NEW IN THIS EDITION
• A new section showing how ethical issues are viewed in non-Western societies
including China, India, and the Middle East.
• Codes of Ethics from a professional engineering society outside the United
States has been added.
• The issues brought up by competitive bidding by engineers are discussed.
• Case studies have been updated.
• Several new case studies including ones on the I-35W bridge collapse in
Minneapolis, issues related to the recall of Toyota passenger cars, and the earthquake damage in Haiti have been added.
• Many new and updated problems have been added.
vii
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CHAPTER
1
Introduction
Objectives
After reading this chapter, you
will be able to
• Know why it is important to
study engineering ethics
• Understand the distinction
between professional and
personal ethics
O
• See how ethical problem
solving and engineering
design are similar.
n August 10, 1978, a Ford Pinto was hit from behind on a highway in Indiana.
The impact of the collision caused the Pinto’s fuel tank to rupture and burst into
flames, leading to the deaths of three teenage girls riding in the car. This was not the
first time that a Pinto had caught on fire as a result of a rear-end collision. In the seven
years following the introduction of the Pinto, there had been some 50 lawsuits related
to rear-end collisions. However, this time Ford was charged in a criminal court for the
deaths of the passengers.
This case was a significant departure from the norm and had important implications for the Ford engineers and managers. A civil lawsuit could only result in Ford
being required to pay damages to the victim’s estates. A criminal proceeding, on the
other hand, would indicate that Ford was grossly negligent in the deaths of the
passengers and could result in jail terms for the Ford engineers or managers who
worked on the Pinto.
The case against Ford hinged on charges that it was known that the gas-tank
design was flawed and was not in line with accepted engineering standards, even
though it did meet applicable federal safety standards at the time. During the trial, it
was determined that Ford engineers were aware of the dangers of this design, but
management, concerned with getting the Pinto to market rapidly at a price competitive with subcompact cars already introduced or planned by other manufacturers, had
constrained the engineers to use this design.
2
1.2 Why Study Engineering Ethics
The dilemma faced by the design engineers who worked on the Pinto was to
balance the safety of the people who would be riding in the car against the need
to produce the Pinto at a price that would be competitive in the market. They had
to attempt to balance their duty to the public against their duty to their employer.
Ultimately, the attempt by Ford to save a few dollars in manufacturing costs led to
the expenditure of millions of dollars in defending lawsuits and payments to victims. Of course, there were also uncountable costs in lost sales due to bad publicity and a public perception that Ford did not engineer its products to be safe.
1.1 BACKGROUND IDEAS
The Pinto case is just one example of the ethical problems faced by engineers in the
course of their professional practice. Ethical cases can go far beyond issues of public safety and may involve bribery, fraud, environmental protection, fairness, honesty in research and testing, and conflicts of interest. During their undergraduate
education, engineers receive training in basic and engineering sciences, problemsolving methodology, and engineering design, but generally receive little training
in business practices, safety, and ethics.
This problem has been partially corrected, as many engineering education
programs now have courses in what is called engineering ethics. Indeed, the
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the body responsible for accrediting undergraduate engineering programs in the United States, has
mandated that ethics topics be incorporated into undergraduate engineering curricula. The purpose of this book is to provide a text and a resource for the study of
engineering ethics and to help future engineers be prepared for confronting and
resolving ethical dilemmas, such as the design of an unsafe product like the Pinto,
that they might encounter during their professional careers.
A good place to start a discussion of ethics in engineering is with definitions of
ethics and engineering ethics. Ethics is the study of the characteristics of morals.
Ethics also deals with the moral choices that are made by each person in his or her
relationship with other persons. As engineers, we are concerned with ethics because
these definitions apply to all of the choices an individual makes in life, including
those made while practicing engineering.
For our purposes, the definition of ethics can be narrowed a little. Engineering
ethics is the rules and standards governing the conduct of engineers in their role as
professionals. Engineering ethics encompasses the more general definition of ethics, but applies it more specifically to situations involving engineers in their professional lives. Thus, engineering ethics is a body of philosophy indicating the ways
that engineers should conduct themselves in their professional capacity.
1.2 WHY STUDY ENGINEERING ETHICS?
Why is it important for engineering students to study engineering ethics? Several
notorious cases that have received a great deal of media attention in the past few
years have led engineers to gain an increased sense of their professional responsibilities. These cases have led to an awareness of the importance of ethics within the engineering profession as engineers realize how their technical work has far-reaching
impacts on society. The work of engineers can affect public health and safety and can
influence business practices and even politics.
One result of this increase in awareness is that nearly every major corporation
now has an ethics office that has the responsibility to ensure that employees have
Chapter 1
Introduction 3
the ability to express their concerns about issues such as safety and corporate business practices in a way that will yield results and won’t result in retaliation against
the employees. Ethics offices also try to foster an ethical culture that will help to
head off ethical problems in a corporation before they start.
The goal of this book and courses in engineering ethics is to sensitize you to
important ethical issues before you have to confront them. You will study important
cases from the past so that you will know what situations other engineers have faced
and will know what to do when similar situations arise in your professional career.
Finally, you will learn techniques for analyzing and resolving ethical problems when
they arise.
Our goal is frequently summed up using the term “moral autonomy.” Moral
autonomy is the ability to think critically and independently about moral issues and
to apply this moral thinking to situations that arise in the course of professional
engineering practice. The goal of this book, then, is to foster the moral autonomy
of future engineers.
The question asked at the beginning of this section can also be asked in a
slightly different way. Why should a future engineer bother studying ethics at all?
After all, at this point in your life, you’re already either a good person or a bad person. Good people already know the right thing to do, and bad people aren’t going
to do the right thing no matter how much ethical training they receive. The answer
to this question lies in the nature of the ethical problems that are often encountered by an engineer. In most situations, the correct response to an ethical problem
is very obvious. For example, it is clear that to knowingly equip the Pinto with wheel
lugs made from substandard, weak steel that is susceptible to breaking is unethical
and wrong. This action could lead to the loss of a wheel while driving and could
cause numerous accidents and put many lives at risk. Of course, such a design decision would also be a commercial disaster for Ford.
However, many times, the ethical problems encountered in engineering practice are very complex and involve conflicting ethical principles. For example, the
engineers working on the Pinto were presented with a very clear dilemma. Tradeoffs were made so that the Pinto could be successfully marketed at a reasonable
price. One of these trade-offs involved the placement of the gas tank, which led to
the accident in Indiana. So, for the Ford engineers and managers, the question
became the following: Where does an engineering team strike the balance between
safety and affordability and, simultaneously, between the ability of the company to
sell the car and make a profit?
These are the types of situations that we will discuss in this book. The goal,
then, is not to train you to do the right thing when the ethical choice is obvious
and you already know the right thing to do. Rather, the goal is to train you to analyze complex problems and learn to resolve these problems in the most ethical
manner.
1.3 ENGINEERING IS MANAGING THE UNKNOWN
One source of the ethical issues encountered in the course of engineering practice
is a lack of knowledge. This is by no means an unusual situation in engineering.
Engineers often encounter situations in which they don’t have all of the information
that is needed. By its nature, engineering design is about creating new devices and
products. When something is new, many questions need to be answered. How well
does it work? How will it affect people? What changes will this lead to in society?
How well will this work under all of the conditions that it will be exposed to? Is it
4
1.6 Ethics and the Law
safe? If there are some safety concerns, how bad are they? What are the effects of
doing nothing? The answers to these questions are often only partly known.
So, to a large extent, an engineer’s job is to manage the unknown. How does an
engineer accomplish this? Really, as an engineer you can never be absolutely certain that your design will never harm anyone or cause detrimental changes to society. But you must test your design as thoroughly as time and resources permit to
ensure that it operates safely and as planned. Also, you must use your creativity to
attempt to foresee the possible consequences of your work.
1.4 PERSONAL VS. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
In discussing engineering ethics, it is important to make a distinction between personal ethics and professional, or business, ethics, although there isn’t always a clear
boundary between the two. Personal ethics deals with how we treat others in our
day-to-day lives. Many of these principles are applicable to ethical situations that
occur in business and engineering. However, professional ethics often involves
choices on an organizational level rather than a personal level. Many of the problems will seem different because they involve relationships between two corporations, between a corporation and the government, or between corporations and
groups of individuals. Frequently, these types of relationships pose problems that
are not encountered in personal ethics.
1.5 THE ORIGINS OF ETHICAL THOUGHT
Before proceeding, it is important to acknowledge in a general way the origins of
the ethical philosophies that we will be discussing in this book. The Western ethical
thought that is discussed here originated in the philosophy of the ancient Greeks
and their predecessors. It has been developed through subsequent centuries by
many thinkers in the Judeo–Christian tradition. Interestingly, non-Western cultures
have independently developed similar ethical principles.
Although for many individuals, personal ethics are rooted in religious beliefs,
this is not true for everyone. Certainly, there are many ethical people who are not
religious, and there are numerous examples of people who appear to be religious
but who are not ethical. So while the ethical principles that we will discuss come to
us filtered through a religious tradition, these principles are now cultural norms in
the West, and as such, they are widely accepted regardless of their origin. We won’t
need to refer explicitly to religion in order to discuss ethics in the engineering
profession.
1.6 ETHICS AND THE LAW
We should also mention the role of law in engineering ethics. The practice of engineering is governed by many laws on the international, federal, state, and local levels. Many of these laws are based on ethical principles, although many are purely of
a practical, rather than a philosophical, nature.
There is also a distinction between what is legal and what is ethical. Many things
that are legal could be considered unethical. For example, designing a process that
releases a known toxic, but unregulated, substance into the environment is probably unethical, although it is legal.
Chapter 1
Introduction 5
Conversely, just because something is illegal doesn’t mean that it is unethical.
For example, there might be substances that were once thought to be harmful, but
have now been shown to be safe, that you wish to incorporate into a product. If the
law has not caught up with the latest scientific findings, it might be illegal to release
these substances into the environment, even though there is no ethical problem in
doing so.
As an engineer, you are always minimally safe if you follow the requirements of
the applicable laws. But in engineering ethics, we seek to go beyond the dictates of
the law. Our interest is in areas where ethical principles conflict and there is no
legal guidance for how to resolve the conflict.
1.7 ETHICS PROBLEMS ARE LIKE DESIGN PROBLEMS
At first, many engineering students find the types of problems and discussions that
take place in an engineering ethics class a little alien. The problems are more open
ended and are not as susceptible to formulaic answers as are problems typically
assigned in other engineering classes. Ethics problems rarely have a correct answer
that will be arrived at by everyone in the class. Surprisingly, however, the types of
problem-solving techniques that we will use in this book and the nature of the
answers that result bear a striking resemblance to the most fundamental engineering activity: engineering design.
The essence of engineering practice is the design of products, structures, and
processes. The design problem is stated in terms of specifications: A device must be
designed that meets criteria for performance, aesthetics, and price. Within the
limits of these specifications, there are many correct solutions. There will, of
course, be some solutions that are better than others in terms of higher performance or lower cost. Frequently, there will be two (or more) designs that are very
different, yet perform identically. For example, competing automobile manufacturers may design a car to meet the same market niche, yet each manufacturer’s
solution to the problem will be somewhat different. In fact, we will see later that
although the Pinto was susceptible to explosion after rear-end impact, other similar subcompact automobiles were not. In engineering design, there is no unique
correct answer!
Ethical problem solving shares these attributes with engineering design.
Although there will be no unique correct solution to most of the problems we will
examine, there will be a range of solutions that are clearly right, some of which are
better than others. There will also be a range of solutions that are clearly wrong.
There are other similarities between engineering ethics and engineering design.
Both apply a large body of knowledge to the solution of a problem, and both
involve the use of analytical skills. So, although the nature of the solutions to the
problems in ethics will be different from those in most engineering classes,
approaches to the problems and the ultimate solution will be very similar to those
in engineering practice.
1.8 CASE STUDIES
Before starting to learn the theoretical ideas regarding engineering ethics and
before looking at some interesting real-life cases that will illustrate these ideas,
let’s begin by looking at a very well-known engineering ethics case: the space
6
1.8 Case Studies
shuttle Challenger accident. This case is presented in depth at the end of this chapter, but at this point we will look at a brief synopsis of the case to further illustrate
the types of ethical issues and questions that arise in the course of engineering
practice.
Many readers are already familiar with some aspects of this case. The space
shuttle Challenger was launched in extremely cold weather. During the launch, an
O-ring on one of the solid-propellant boosters, made more brittle by the cold,
failed. This failure led to an explosion soon after liftoff. Engineers who had designed
this booster had concerns about launching under these cold conditions and recommended that the launch be delayed, but they were overruled by their management
(some of whom were trained as engineers), who didn’t feel that there were enough
data to support a delay in the launch. The shuttle was launched, resulting in the
well-documented accident.
On the surface, there appear to be no engineering ethical issues here to discuss. Rather, it seems to simply be an accident. The engineers properly recommended that there be no launch, but they were overruled by management. In the
strictest sense, this can be considered an accident—no one wanted the Challenger to
explode—but there are still many interesting questions that should be asked. When
there are safety concerns, what is the engineer’s responsibility before the launch
decision is made? After the launch decision is made, but before the actual launch,
what duty does the engineer have? If the decision doesn’t go the engineer’s way,
should she complain to upper management? Or should she bring the problem to
the attention of the press? After the accident has occurred, what are the duties and
responsibilities of the engineers? If the launch were successful, but the postmortem
showed that the O-ring had failed and an accident had very nearly occurred, what
would be the engineer’s responsibility? Even if an engineer moves into management, should he separate engineering from management decisions?
These types of questions will be the subject of this book. As an engineer, you will
need to be familiar with ideas about the nature of the engineering profession, ethical theories, and the application of these theories to situations that are likely to occur
in professional practice. Looking at other real-life cases taken from newspaper
accounts and books will help you examine what engineers should do when confronted with ethically troubling situations. Many cases will be postmortem examinations of disasters, while others may involve an analysis of situations in which disaster
was averted when many of the individuals involved made ethically sound choices and
cooperated to solve a problem.
A word of warning is necessary: The cliché “Hind-sight is 20/20” will seem very
true in engineering ethics case studies. When studying a case several years after the
fact and knowing the ultimate outcome, it is easy to see what the right decision
should have been. Obviously, had the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) owned a crystal ball and been able to predict the future,
the Challenger would never have been launched. Had Ford known the number of
people who would be killed as a result of gas-tank failures in the Pinto and the subsequent financial losses in lawsuits and criminal cases, it would have found a better
solution to the problem of gas-tank placement. However, we rarely have such clear
predictive abilities and must base decisions on our best guess of what the outcome
will be. It will be important in studying the cases presented here to try to look at
them from the point of view of the individuals who were involved at the time, using
their best judgment about how to proceed, and not to judge the cases solely based
on the outcome.
Chapter 1
Introduction 7
APPLICATION
THE SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER AND COLUMBIA ACCIDENTS
The NASA Space Shuttle Disasters
The space shuttle is one of the most complex engineered systems ever built. The
challenge of lifting a space vehicle from earth into orbit and have it safely return to
earth presents many engineering problems. Not surprisingly, there have been several accidents in the U.S. space program since its inception, including two failures
of the space shuttle. The disasters involving the space shuttles Challenger and
Columbia illustrate many of the issues related to engineering ethics as shown in the
following discussion. The space shuttle originally went into service in the early
1980s and is set to be retired sometime in 2011 or 2012.
The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
The explosion of the space shuttle Challenger is perhaps the most widely written
about case in engineering ethics because of the extensive media coverage at the
time of the accident and also because of the many available government reports and
transcripts of congressional hearings regarding the explosion. The case illustrates
many important ethical issues that engineers face: What is the proper role of the
engineer when safety issues are a concern? Who should have the ultimate decisionmaking authority to order a launch? Should the ordering of a launch be an engineering or a managerial decision? This case has already been presented briefly, and
we will now take a more in-depth look.
Background
The space shuttle was designed to be a reusable launch vehicle. The vehicle consists
of an orbiter, which looks much like a medium-sized airliner (minus the engines!),
two solid-propellant boosters, and a single liquid-propellant booster. At takeoff, all
of the boosters are ignited and lift the orbiter out of the earth’s atmosphere. The
solid rocket boosters are only used early in the flight and are jettisoned soon after
takeoff, parachute back to earth, and are recovered from the ocean. They are subsequently repacked with fuel and are reused. The liquid-propellant booster is used
to finish lifting the shuttle into orbit, at which point the booster is jettisoned and
burns up during reentry. The liquid booster is the only part of the shuttle vehicle
that is not reusable. After completion of the mission, the orbiter uses its limited
thrust capabilities to reenter the atmosphere and glides to a landing.
The accident on January 28, 1986, was blamed on a failure of one of the solid
rocket boosters. Solid rocket boosters have the advantage that they deliver far more
thrust per pound of fuel than do their liquid-fueled counterparts, but have the disadvantage that once the fuel is lit, there is no way to turn the booster off or even to
control the amount of thrust produced. In contrast, a liquid-fuel rocket can be controlled by throttling the supply of fuel to the combustion chamber or can be shut
off by stopping the flow of fuel entirely.
In 1974, NASA awarded the contract to design and build the solid rocket boosters for the shuttle to Morton Thiokol. The design that was submitted by Thiokol
was a scaled-up version of the Titan missile, which had been used successfully for
many years to launch satellites. This design was accepted by NASA in 1976. The
solid rocket consists of several cylindrical pieces that are filled with solid propellant
and stacked one on top of the other to form the completed booster. The assembly
of the propellant-filled cylinders was performed at Thiokol’s plant in Utah. The
8
1.8 Case Studies
cylinders were then shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for assembly
into a completed booster.
A key aspect of the booster design are the joints where the individual cylinders
come together, known as the field joints, illustrated schematically in Figure 1.1a.
These are tang and clevis joints, fastened with 177 clevis pins. The joints are sealed
by two O-rings, a primary and a secondary. The O-rings are designed to prevent hot
gases from the combustion of the solid propellant from escaping. The O-rings are
made from a type of synthetic rubber and so are not particularly heat resistant. To
prevent the hot gases from damaging the O-rings, a heat-resistant putty is placed in
the joint. The Titan booster had only one O-ring in the field joint. The second
O-ring was added to the booster for the shuttle to provide an extra margin of safety
since, unlike the Titan, this booster would be used for a manned space craft.
Early Problems with the Solid Rocket Boosters
Problems with the field-joint design had been recognized long before the launch of
the Challenger. When the rocket is ignited, the internal pressure causes the booster
wall to expand outward, putting pressure on the field joint. This pressure causes the
joint to open slightly, a process called “joint rotation,” illustrated in Figure 1.1b.
The joint was designed so that the internal pressure pushes on the putty, displacing
the primary O-ring into this gap, helping to seal it. During testing of the boosters in
1977, Thiokol became aware that this joint-rotation problem was more severe than
on the Titan and discussed it with NASA. Design changes were made, including an
increase in the thickness of the O-ring, to try to control this problem.
Further testing revealed problems with the secondary seal, and more changes
were initiated to correct that problem. In November of 1981, after the second shuttle flight, a postlaunch examination of the booster field joints indicated that the
Putty
O-rings
Clevis
Pin
Putty
Tang
O-rings
Clevis
Inside of
booster
Pin
Figure 1.1
(a) A schematic drawing of a tang and clevis joint like the one on the Challenger solid
rocket boosters.
(b) The same joint as in Figure 1.1a, but with the effects of joint rotation exaggerated.
Note that the O-rings no longer seal the joint.
Chapter 1
Introduction 9
O-rings were being eroded by hot gases during the launch. Although there was no
failure of the joint, there was some concern about this situation, and Thiokol looked
into the use of different types of putty and alternative methods for applying it to
solve the problem. Despite these efforts, approximately half of the shuttle flights
before the Challenger accident had experienced some degree of O-ring erosion. Of
course, this type of testing and redesign is not unusual in engineering. Seldom do
things work correctly the first time, and modifications to the original design are
often required.
It should be pointed out that erosion of the O-rings is not necessarily a bad
thing. Since the solid rocket boosters are only used for the first few minutes of the
flight, it might be perfectly acceptable to design a joint in which O-rings erode in a
controlled manner. As long as the O-rings don’t completely burn through before
the solid boosters run out of fuel and are jettisoned, this design should be fine.
However, this was not the way the space shuttle was designed, and O-ring erosion
was one of the problems that the Thiokol engineers were addressing.
The first documented joint failure came after the launch on January 24, 1985,
which occurred during very cold weather. The postflight examination of the boosters revealed black soot and grease on the outside of the booster, which indicated
that hot gases from the booster had blown by the O-ring seals. This observation
gave rise to concern about the resiliency of the O-ring materials at reduced temperatures. Thiokol performed tests of the ability of the O-rings to compress to fill
the joints and found that they were inadequate. In July of 1985, Thiokol engineers
redesigned the field joints without O-rings. Instead, they used steel billets, which
should have been better able to withstand the hot gases. Unfortunately, the new
design was not ready in time for the Challenger flight in early 1986 [Elliot et al.,
1990].
The Political Climate
To fully understand and analyze the decision making that took place leading to the
fatal launch, it is important also to discuss the political environment under which
NASA was operating at that time. NASA’s budget was determined by Congress,
which was becoming increasingly unhappy with delays in the shuttle project and
shuttle performance. NASA had billed the shuttle as a reliable, inexpensive launch
vehicle for a variety of scientific and commercial purposes, including the launching
of commercial and military satellites. It had been promised that the shuttle would
be capable of frequent flights (several per year) and quick turnarounds and would
be competitively priced with more traditional nonreusable launch vehicles. NASA
was feeling some urgency in the program because the European Space Agency was
developing what seemed to be a cheaper alternative to the shuttle, which could
potentially put the shuttle out of business.
These pressures led NASA to schedule a record number of missions for 1986 to
prove to Congress that the program was on track. Launching a mission was especially important in January 1986, since the previous mission had been delayed
numerous times by both weather and mechanical failures. NASA also felt pressure
to get the Challenger launched on time so that the next shuttle launch, which was to
carry a probe to examine Halley’s comet, would be launched before a Russian
probe designed to do the same thing. There was additional political pressure to
launch the Challenger before the upcoming state-of-the-union address, in which
President Reagan hoped to mention the shuttle and a special astronaut—the first
teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe—in the context of his comments on education.
10
1.8 Case Studies
The Days Before the Launch
Even before the accident, the Challenger launch didn’t go off without a hitch, as
NASA had hoped. The first launch date had to be abandoned due to a cold front
expected to move through the area. The front stalled, and the launch could have
taken place on schedule. But the launch had already been postponed in deference
to Vice President George Bush, who was to attend. NASA didn’t want to antagonize
Bush, a strong NASA supporter, by postponing the launch due to inclement weather
after he had arrived. The launch of the shuttle was further delayed by a defective
microswitch in the hatch-locking mechanism. When this problem was resolved, the
front had changed course and was now moving through the area. The front was
expected to bring extremely cold weather to the launch site, with temperatures
predicted to be in the low 20’s (°F) by the new launch time.
Given the expected cold temperatures, NASA checked with all of the shuttle
contractors to determine if they foresaw any problems with launching the shuttle in
cold temperatures. Alan McDonald, the director of Thiokol’s Solid Rocket Motor
Project, was concerned about the cold weather problems that had been experienced with the solid rocket boosters. The evening before the rescheduled launch, a
teleconference was arranged between engineers and management from the
Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Alabama, and Thiokol in Utah to discuss the possible effects of cold temperatures
on the performance of the solid rocket boosters. During this teleconference, Roger
Boisjoly and Arnie Thompson, two Thiokol engineers who had worked on the solidpropellant booster design, gave an hour-long presentation on how the cold weather
would increase the problems of joint rotation and sealing of the joint by the O-rings.
The engineers’ point was that the lowest temperature at which the shuttle had
previously been launched was 53°F, on January 24, 1985, when there was blow-by of
the O-rings. The O-ring temperature at Challenger’s expected launch time the following morning was predicted to be 29°F, far below the temperature at which NASA
had previous experience. After the engineers’ presentation, Bob Lund, the vice
president for engineering at Morton Thiokol, presented his recommendations. He
reasoned that since there had previously been severe O-ring erosion at 53°F and the
launch would take place at significantly below this temperature where no data and
no experience were available, NASA should delay the launch until the O-ring temperature could be at least 53°F. Interestingly, in the original design, it was specified
that the booster should operate properly down to an outside temperature of 31°F.
Larry Mulloy, the Solid Rocket Booster Project manager at Marshall and a NASA
employee, correctly pointed out that the data were inconclusive and disagreed with
the Thiokol engineers. After some discussion, Mulloy asked Joe Kilminster, an engineering manager working on the project, for his opinion. Kilminster backed up the
recommendation of his fellow engineers. Others from Marshall expressed their
disagreement with the Thiokol engineers’ recommendation, which prompted
Kilminster to ask to take the discussion off line for a few minutes. Boisjoly and other
engineers reiterated to their management that the original decision not to launch
was the correct one.
A key fact that ultimately swayed the decision was that in the available data,
there seemed to be no correlation between temperature and the degree to which
blow-by gasses had eroded the O-rings in previous launches. Thus, it could be concluded that there was really no trend in the data indicating that a launch at the
expected temperature would necessarily be unsafe. After much discussion, Jerald
Mason, a senior manager with Thiokol, turned to Lund and said, “Take off your
engineering hat and put on your management hat,” a phrase that has become
Chapter 1
Introduction 11
Table 1.1 Space Shuttle Challenger Accident: Who’s Who
Organizations
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, responsible
for space exploration. The space shuttle is one of NASA’s
programs
Marshall Space Flight Center
A NASA facility that was in charge of the solid rocket booster
development for the shuttle
Morton Thiokol
A private company that won the contract from NASA for building
the solid rocket boosters for the shuttle
People
NASA
Larry Mulloy
Solid Rocket Booster Project manager at Marshall
Morton Thiokol
Roger Boisjoly
Arnie Johnson
Engineers who worked on the Solid Rocket Booster Development
Program
Joe Kilminster
Engineering manager on the Solid Rocket Booster Development
Program
Alan McDonald
Director of the Solid Rocket Booster Project
Bob Lund
Vice president for engineering
Jerald Mason
General manager
famous in engineering ethics discussions. Lund reversed his previous decision and
recommended that the launch proceed. The new recommendation included an
indication that there was a safety concern due to the cold weather, but that the data
were inconclusive and the launch was recommended. McDonald, who was in
Florida, was surprised by this recommendation and attempted to convince NASA to
delay the launch, but to no avail.
The Launch
Contrary to the weather predictions, the overnight temperature was 8°F, colder
than the shuttle had ever experienced before. In fact, there was a significant accumulation of ice on the launchpad from safety showers and fire hoses that had been
left on to prevent the pipes from freezing. It has been estimated that the aft field
joint of the right-hand booster was at 28°F.
NASA routinely documents as many aspects of launches as possible. One part of
this monitoring is the extensive use of cameras focused on critical areas of the
launch vehicle. One of these cameras, looking at the right booster, recorded puffs
of smoke coming from the aft field joint immediately after the boosters were ignited.
This smoke is thought to have been caused by the steel cylinder of this segment of
the booster expanding outward and causing the field joint to rotate. But, due to the
extremely cold temperature, the O-ring didn’t seat properly. The heat-resistant
putty was also so cold that it didn’t protect the O-rings, and hot gases burned past
both O-rings. It was later determined that this blow-by occurred over 70º of arc
around the O-rings.
Very quickly, the field joint was sealed again by byproducts of the solid rocketpropellant combustion, which formed a glassy oxide on the joint. This oxide
12
1.8 Case Studies
formation might have averted the disaster had it not been for a very strong wind
shear that the shuttle encountered almost one minute into the flight. The oxides
that were temporarily sealing the field joint were shattered by the stresses caused by
the wind shear. The joint was now opened again, and hot gases escaped from the
solid booster. Since the booster was attached to the large liquid-fuel booster, the
flames from the solid-fuel booster blow-by quickly burned through the external
tank. The liquid propellant was ignited and the shuttle exploded.
The Aftermath
As a result of the explosion, the shuttle program was grounded as a thorough review
of shuttle safety was conducted. Thiokol formed a failure-investigation team on
January 31, 1986, which included Roger Boisjoly. There were also many investigations into the cause of the accident, both by the contractors involved (including
Thiokol) and by various government bodies. As part of the governmental investigation, President Reagan appointed a blue-ribbon commission, known as the Rogers
Commission, after its chair. The commission consisted of distinguished scientists
and engineers who were asked to look into the cause of the accident and to recommend changes in the shuttle program.
One of the commission members was Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner
in physics, who ably demonstrated to the country what had gone wrong. In a demonstration that was repeatedly shown on national news programs, he demonstrated
the problem with the O-rings by taking a sample of the O-ring material and bending it. The flexibility of the material at room temperature was evident. He then
immersed it in ice water. When Feynman again bent the O-ring, it was obvious that
the resiliency of the material was severely reduced, a very clear demonstration of
what happened to the O-rings on the cold launch date in Florida.
As part of the commission hearings, Boisjoly and other Thiokol engineers were
asked to testify. Boisjoly handed over to the commission copies of internal Thiokol
memos and reports detailing the design process and the problems that had already
been encountered. Naturally, Thiokol was trying to put the best possible spin on the
situation, and Boisjoly’s actions hurt this effort. According to Boisjoly, after this
action he was isolated within the company, his responsibilities for the redesign of
the joint were taken away, and he was subtly harassed by Thiokol management
[Boisjoly, 1991, and Boisjoly, Curtis, and Mellicam, 1989].
Eventually, the atmosphere became intolerable for Boisjoly, and he took
extended sick leave from his position at Thiokol. The joint was redesigned, and the
shuttle has since flown numerous successful missions. However, the ambitious
launch schedule originally intended by NASA was never met. It was reported in
2001 that NASA has spent $5 million to study the possibility of installing some type
of escape system to protect the shuttle crew in the event of an accident. Possibilities
include ejection seats or an escape capsule that would work during the first three
minutes of flight. These features were incorporated into earlier manned space
vehicles and in fact were in place on the shuttle until 1982. Whether such a system
would have saved the astronauts aboard the Challenger is unknown, and ultimately
an escape system was never incorporated into the space shuttle.
The Space Shuttle Columbia Failure
During the early morning hours of February 1, 2003, many people across the
Southwestern United States awoke to a loud noise, sounding like the boom associated with supersonic aircraft. This was the space shuttle Columbia breaking up during
Chapter 1
Introduction 13
Explosion of the space shuttle Challenger soon after liftoff in January 1986. NASA/
Johnson Space Center
reentry to the earth’s atmosphere. This accident was the second loss of a space shuttle in 113 flights—all seven astronauts aboard the Columbia were killed—and pieces
of the shuttle were scattered over a wide area of eastern Texas and western Louisiana.
Over 84,000 individual pieces were eventually recovered, comprising only about
38% of the shuttle.
This was the 28th mission flown by the Columbia, a 16-day mission involving
many tasks. The first indication of trouble during reentry came when temperature
sensors near the left wheel well indicated a rise in temperature. Soon, hydraulic
lines on the left side of the craft began to fail, making it difficult to keep control of
the vehicle. Finally, it was impossible for the pilots to maintain the proper positioning of the shuttle during reentry—the Columbia went out of control and broke up.
The bottom of the space shuttle is covered with ceramic tiles designed to dissipate the intense heat generated during reentry from space. The destruction of the
Columbia was attributed to damage to tiles on the leading edge of the left wing.
During liftoff, a piece of insulating foam on the external fuel tank dislodged and
14
1.8 Case Studies
struck the shuttle. It was estimated that this foam struck the shuttle wing at over
500 miles per hour, causing significant damage to the tiles on the wing over an area
of approximately 650 cm2. With the integrity of these tiles compromised, the wing
structure was susceptible to extreme heating during reentry and ultimately failed.
Shuttle launches are closely observed by numerous video cameras. During this
launch, the foam separation and strike had been observed. Much thought was given
during Columbia’s mission to attempting to determine whether significant damage
had occurred. For example, there was some discussion of trying to use groundbased telescopes to look at the bottom of the shuttle while in orbit. Unfortunately,
even if it had been possible to observe the damage, there would have been no way
to repair the damage in space. The only alternatives would have been to attempt to
launch another shuttle on a dangerous rescue mission, or attempt to get the astronauts to the space station in the hopes of launching a later rescue mission to bring
them back to earth. In the end, NASA decided that the damage from the foam
strike had probably not been significant and decided to continue with the mission
and reentry as planned.
This was not the first time that foam had detached from the fuel tank during
launch, and it was not the first time that foam had struck the shuttle. Apparently
numerous small pieces of foam hit the shuttle during every launch, and on at least
seven occasions previous to the Columbia launch, large pieces of foam had detached
and hit the shuttle. Solutions to the problem had been proposed over the years, but
none had been implemented. Although NASA engineers initially identified foam
strikes as a major safety concern for the shuttle, after many launches with no safety
problems due to the foam, NASA management became complacent and overlooked
the potential for foam to cause major problems. In essence, the prevailing attitude
suggested that if there had been numerous launches with foam strikes before, with
none leading to major accidents, then it must be safe to continue launches without
fixing the problem.
In the aftermath of this mishap, an investigative panel was formed to determine the cause of the accident and to make recommendations for the future of
the shuttle program. The report of this panel contained information on their findings regarding the physical causes of the accident: the detachment of the foam,
the damage to the tiles, and the subsequent failure of critical components of the
shuttle. More significantly, the report also went into great depth on the cultural
issues within NASA that led to the accident. The report cited a “broken safety culture” within NASA. Perhaps most damning was the assessment that many of the
problems that existed within NASA that led to the Challenger accident sixteen years
earlier had not been fixed. Especially worrisome was the finding that schedule
pressures had been allowed to supercede good engineering judgment. An accident such as the Challenger explosion should have led to a major change in the
safety and ethics culture within NASA. But sadly for the crew of the Columbia, it
had not.
After the Columbia accident, the space shuttle was once again grounded until
safety concerns related to foam strikes could be addressed. By 2005, NASA was confident that steps had been taken to make the launch of the shuttle safe and once
again restarted the launch program. In July of 2005, Discovery was launched. During
this launch, another foam strike occurred. This time, NASA was prepared and had
planned for means to photographically assess the potential damage to the heat
shield, and also planned to allow astronauts to make a space walk to assess the damage to the tiles and to make repairs as necessary. The damage from this strike was
Chapter 1
Introduction 15
repaired in space and the shuttle returned to earth safely. Despite the success of the
in-orbit repairs, NASA again grounded the shuttle fleet until a redesign of the foam
could be implemented. The redesign called for removal of foam from areas where
foam detachment could have the greatest impact on tiles. The shuttle resumed
flight with a successful launch in September of 2006 and no further major accidents
through early 2011.
SUMMARY
Engineering ethics is the study of moral decisions that must be made by engineers
in the course of engineering practice. It is important for engineering students to
study ethics so that they will be prepared to respond appropriately to ethical challenges during their careers. Often, the correct answer to an ethical problem will not
be obvious and will require some analysis using ethical theories. The types of problems that we will encounter in studying engineering ethics are very similar to the
design problems that engineers work on every day. As in design, there will not be a
single correct answer. Rather, engineering ethics problems will have multiple correct solutions, with some solutions being better than others.
REFERENCES
Roger Boisjoly, “The Challenger Disaster: Moral Responsibility and the Working
Engineer,” in Deborah G. Johnson, Ethical Issues in Engineering, Prentice Hall,
Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1991, pp. 6–14.
Norbert Elliot, Eric Katz, and Robert Lynch, “The Challenger Tragedy:
A Case Study in Organizational Communication and Professional Ethics,”
Business and Professional Ethics Journal, vol. 12, 1990, pp. 91–108.
Joseph R. Herkert, “Management’s Hat Trick: Misuse of ‘Engineering Judgment’
in the Challenger Incident,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 10, 1991, pp. 617–620.
Patricia H. Werhane, “Engineers and Management: The Challenge of the
Challenger Incident,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 10, 1991, pp. 605–616.
Russell Boisjoly, Ellen Foster Curtis, and Eugene Mellican, “Roger Boisjoly
and the Challenger Disaster: The Ethical Dimensions,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 8, 1989, pp. 217–230.
David E. Sanger, “Loss of the Shuttle: The Overview; Shuttle Breaks Up, Seven
Dead,” February 2, 2003, Section 1, p. 1. Numerous other articles can be
found in The New York Times on February 2, 2003 and subsequent days or in
any local U.S. newspaper.
Columbia Accident Investigation Board, Information on the investigation
including links to the final report can be found at the board’s website, caib.
nasa.gov, or on the NASA website, www.nasa.gov.
16
Problems
PROBLEMS
1.1 How different are personal ethics and professional ethics? Have you found
this difference to be significant in your experience?
1.2 What are the roots of your personal ethics? Discuss this question with a friend
and compare your answers.
1.3 Engineering design generally involves five steps: developing a statement of
the problem and/or a set of specifications, gathering information pertinent
to the problem, designing several alternatives that meet the specifications,
analyzing the alternatives and selecting the best one, and testing and implementing the best design. How is ethical problem solving like this?
SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER
1.4 The astronauts on the Challenger mission were aware of the dangerous nature
of riding a complex machine such as the space shuttle into space, so they can
be thought of as having given informed consent to participating in a dangerous enterprise. What role did informed consent play in this case? Do you think
that the astronauts had enough information to give informed consent to
launch the shuttle that day?
1.5 Can an engineer who has become a manager truly ever take off her engineer’s
hat? Should she?
1.6 Some say that the shuttle was really designed by Congress rather than NASA.
What does this statement mean? What are the ramifications for engineers if
this is true?
1.7 Aboard the shuttle for this flight was the first teacher in space. Should civilians
be allowed on what is basically an experimental launch vehicle? At the time,
many felt that the placement of a teacher on the shuttle was for purely political
purposes. President Reagan was thought by many to be doing nothing while
the American educational system decayed. Cynics felt that the teacher-in-space
idea was cooked up as a method of diverting attention from this problem and
was to be seen as Reagan doing something for education while he really wasn’t
doing anything. What are the ethical implications if this scenario is true?
1.8 Should a launch have been allowed when there were no test data for the
expected conditions? Keep in mind that it is probably impossible to test for all
possible operating conditions. More generally, should a product be released
for use even when it hasn’t been tested over all expected operational conditions? When the data are inconclusive, which way should the decision go?
1.9 During the aftermath of the accident, Thiokol and NASA investigated possible causes of the explosion. Boisjoly accused Thiokol and NASA of intentionally downplaying the problems with the O-rings while looking for other
causes of the accident. If true, what are the ethical implications of this type of
investigation?
1.10 It might be assumed that the management decision to launch was prompted in
part by concerns for the health of the company and the space program as a
whole. Given the political climate at the time of the launch, if problems and
delays continued, ultimately Thiokol might have lost NASA contracts, or NASA
budgets might have been severely reduced. Clearly, this scenario could have
led to the loss of many jobs at Thiokol and NASA. How might these considerations ethically be factored into the decision?
Chapter 1
Introduction 17
1.11 Engineering codes of ethics require engineers to protect the safety and health
of the public in the course of their duties. Do the astronauts count as “the
public” in this context? How about test pilots of new airplane designs?
1.12 What should NASA management have done differently? What should Thiokol
management have done differently?
1.13 What else could Boisjoly and the other engineers at Thiokol have done to
prevent the launch from occurring?
SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA
1.14 The Columbia tragedy was attributed to a foam strike on the shuttle wing. This
sort of strike had occurred often in previous flights. What role do you think
complacency of NASA engineers and managers played in this story?
1.15 Some people believe that the shuttle should have been better engineered for
crew safety, including provisions for repair of the shuttle during the mission,
escape of the crew when problems occur during launch, or having a backup
shuttle ready to launch for rescue missions. What are some reasons why NASA
would not have planned this when the shuttle was designed?
1.16 The space shuttle is an extremely complex engineered system. The more complex a system, the harder it is to make safe especially in a harsh environment
such as outer space. Do you think that two accidents in 113 flights is an acceptable level of risk for an experimental system such as the shuttle?
CHAPTER
2
Professionalism and
Codes of Ethics
Objectives
After reading this chapter, you
will be able to
• Determine whether
engineering is a
profession
L
• Understand what codes of
ethics are, and
• Examine some codes of
ethics of professional
engineering societies.
ate in 1994, reports began to appear in the news media that the latest generation
of Pentium® microprocessors, the heart and soul of personal computers, was
flawed. These reports appeared not only in trade journals and magazines aimed at
computer specialists, but also in The New York Times and other daily newspapers. The
stories reported that computers equipped with these chips were unable to correctly
perform some relatively simple multiplication and division operations.
At first, Intel, the manufacturer of the Pentium microprocessor, denied that
there was a problem. Later, it argued that although there was a problem, the error
would be significant only in sophisticated applications, and most people wouldn’t
even notice that an error had occurred. It was also reported that Intel had been
aware of the problem and already was working to fix it. As a result of this publicity,
many people who had purchased Pentium-based computers asked to have the defective chip replaced. Until the public outcry had reached huge proportions, Intel
refused to replace the chips. Finally, when it was clear that this situation was a publicrelations disaster for them, Intel agreed to replace the defective chips when customers requested it.
Did Intel do anything unethical? To answer this question, we will need to
develop a framework for understanding ethical problems. One part of this framework will be the codes of ethics that have been established by professional engineering organizations. These codes help guide engineers in the course of their
Chapter 2
Professionalism and Codes of Ethics 19
professional duties and give them insight into ethical problems such as the one
just described. The engineering codes of ethics hold that engineers should not
make false claims or represent a product to be something that it is not. In some
ways, the Pentium case might seem to simply be a public-relations problem. But,
looking at the problem with a code of ethics will indicate that there is more to
this situation than simple PR, especially since the chip did not operate in the way
that Intel claimed it did.
In this chapter, the nature of professions will be examined with the goal of
determining whether engineering is a profession. Two representative engineering
codes of ethics will be looked at in detail. At the end of this chapter, the Pentium
case is presented in more detail along with two other cases, and codes of ethics are
applied to analyze what the engineers in these cases should have done.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
When confronted by an ethical problem, what resources are available to an engineer to help find a solution? One of the hallmarks of modern professions are codes
of ethics promulgated by various professional societies. These codes serve to guide
practitioners of the profession in making decisions about how to conduct themselves and how to resolve ethical issues that might confront them. Are codes of ethics applicable to engineering? To answer this question, we must first consider what
professions are and how they function, and decide if this definition applies to engineering. Then we will examine codes of ethics in general and look specifically at
some of the codes of engineering professional societies.
2.2 IS ENGINEERING A PROFESSION?
In order to determine whether engineering is a profession, the nature of professions must first be examined. As a starting point, it will be valuable to distinguish
the word “profession” from other words that are sometimes used synonymously with
“profession”: “job” and “occupation.” Any work for hire can be considered a job,
regardless of the skill level involved and the responsibility granted. Engineering is
certainly a job—engineers are paid for their services—but the skills and responsibilities involved in engineering make it more than just a job.
Similarly, the word “occupation” implies employment through which someone
makes a living. Engineering, then, is also an occupation. How do the words “job”
and “occupation” differ from “profession?”
The words “profession” and “professional” have many uses in modern society
that go beyond the definition of a job or occupation. One often hears about
“professional athletes” or someone referring to himself as a “professional carpenter,” for example. In the first case, the word “professional” is being used to distinguish the practitioner from an unpaid amateur. In the second case, it is used to
indicate some degree of skill acquired through many years of experience, with an
implication that this practitioner will provide quality services.
Neither of these senses of the word “professional” is applicable to engineers.
There are no amateur engineers who perform engineering work without being
paid while they train to become professional, paid engineers. Likewise, the length
of time one works at an engineering-related job, such as an engineering aide or
engineering technician, does not confer professional status no matter how skilled a
technician one might become. To see what is meant by the term “professional
engineer,” we will first examine the nature of professions.
20
2.2 Is Engineering a Profession?
2.2.1 What Is a Profession?
What are the attributes of a profession? There have been many studies of this question, and some consensus as to the nature of professions has been achieved. Attributes
of a profession include:
1. Work that requires sophisticated skills, the use of judgment, and the exercise
of discretion. Also, the work is not routine and is not capable of being
mechanized.
2. Membership in the profession requires extensive formal education, not simply
practical training or apprenticeship.
3. The public allows special societies or organizations that are controlled by members of the profession to set standards for admission to the profession, to set
standards of conduct for members, and to enforce these standards.
4. Significant public good results from the practice of the profession [Schinzinger
and Martin, 2000].
The terms “judgment” and “discretion” used in the first part of this definition
require a little amplification. Many occupations require judgment every day. A secretary must decide what work to tackle first. An auto mechanic must decide if a
part is sufficiently worn to require complete replacement, or if rebuilding will do.
This is not the type of judgment implied in this definition. In a profession, “judgment” refers to making significant decisions based on formal training and experience. In general, the decisions will have serious impacts on people’s lives and will
often have important implications regarding the spending of large amounts of
money.
“Discretion” can have two different meanings. The first definition involves
being discrete in the performance of one’s duties by keeping information about
customers, clients, and patients confidential. This confidentiality is essential for
engendering a trusting relationship and is a hallmark of professions. While many
jobs might involve some discretion, this definition implies a high level of significance to the information that must be kept private by a professional. The other
definition of discretion involves the ability to make decisions autonomously. When
making a decision, one is often told, “Use your discretion.” This definition is similar
in many ways to that of the term “judgment” described previously. Many people are
allowed to use their discretion in making choices while performing their jobs.
However, the significance and potential impact of the decision marks the difference
between a job and a profession.
One thing not mentioned in the definition of a profession is the compensation received by a professional for his services. Although most professionals
tend to be relatively well compensated, high pay is not a sufficient condition for
professional status. Entertainers and athletes are among the most highly paid
members of our society, and yet few would describe them as professionals in the
sense described previously. Although professional status often helps one to get
better pay and better working conditions, these are more often determined by
economic forces.
Earlier, reference was made to “professional” athletes and carpenters. Let’s
examine these occupations in light of the foregoing definition of professions and
see if athletics and carpentry qualify as professions. An athlete who is paid for her
appearances is referred to as a professional athlete. Clearly, being a paid athlete
does involve sophisticated skills that most people do not possess, and these skills are
Chapter 2
Professionalism and Codes of Ethics 21
not capable of mechanization. However, substantial judgment and discretion are not
called for on the part of athletes in their “professional” lives, so athletics fails the first
part of the definition of “professional.” Interestingly, though, professional athletes
are frequently viewed as role models and are often disciplined for a lack of discretion in their personal lives.
Athletics requires extensive training, not of a formal nature, but more of a practical nature acquired through practice and coaching. No special societies
(as opposed to unions, which will be discussed in more detail later) are required by
athletes, and athletics does not meet an important public need; although entertainment is a public need, it certainly doesn’t rank high compared to the needs met by
professions such as medicine. So, although they are highly trained and very well
compensated, athletes are not professionals.
Similarly, carpenters require special skills to perform their jobs, but many
aspects of their work can be mechanized, and little judgment or discretion is
required. Training in carpentry is not formal, but rather is practical by way of
apprenticeships. No organizations or societies are required. However, carpentry
certainly does meet an aspect of the public good—providing shelter is fundamental
to society—although perhaps not to the same extent as do professions such as medicine. So, carpentry also doesn’t meet the basic requirements to be a profession. We
can see, then, that many jobs or occupations whose practitioners might be referred
to as professionals don’t really meet the basic definition of a profession. Although
they may be highly paid or important jobs, they are not professions.
Before continuing with an examination of whether engineering is a profession,
let’s look at two occupations that are definitely regarded by society as professions:
medicine and law. Medicine certainly fits the definition of a profession given previously. It requires very sophisticated skills that can’t be mechanized, it requires judgment as to appropriate treatment plans for individual patients, and it requires
discretion. (Physicians have even been granted physician–patient privilege, the duty
not to divulge information given in confidence by the patient to the physician.)
Although medicine requires extensive practical training learned through an apprenticeship called a residency, it also requires much formal training (four years of
undergraduate school, three to four years of medical school, and extensive handson practice in patient care). Medicine has a special society, the American Medical
Association (AMA), to which a large fraction of practicing physicians belong and
that participates in the regulation of medical schools, sets standards for practice of
the profession, and promulgates a code of ethical behavior for its members. Finally,
healing the sick and helping to prevent disease clearly involve the public good. By
the definition presented previously, medicine clearly qualifies as a profession.
Similarly, law is a profession. It involves sophisticated skills acquired through
extensive formal training; has a professional society, the American Bar Association
(ABA); and serves an important aspect of the public good. (Although this last point
is increasingly becoming a point of debate within American society!) The difference between athletics and carpentry on one hand and law and medicine on the
other is clear. The first two really cannot be considered professions, and the latter
two most certainly are.
2.2.2 Engineering as a Profession
Using medicine and law as our examples of professions, it is now time to consider
whether engineering is a profession. Certainly, engineering requires extensive
and sophisticated skills. Otherwise, why spend four years in college just to get a
22
2.2 Is Engineering a Profession?
start in engineering? The essence of engineering design is judgment: how to use
the available materials, components, and devices to reach a specified objective.
Discretion is required in engineering: Engineers are required to keep their
employers’ or clients’ intellectual property and business information confidential. Also, a primary concern of any engineer is the safety of the public that will
use the products and devices he designs. There is always a trade-off between
safety and other engineering issues in a design, requiring discretion on the part
of the engineer to ensure that the design serves its purpose and fills its market
niche safely.
The point about mechanization needs to be addressed a little more carefully
with respect to engineering. Certainly, once a design has been performed, it can
easily be replicated without the intervention of an engineer. However, each new
situation that requires a new design or a modification of an existing design
requires an engineer. Industry commonly uses many computer-based tools for
generating designs, such as computer-aided design (CAD) software. This
shouldn’t be mistaken for mechanization of engineering. CAD is simply a tool
used by engineers, not a replacement for the skills of an actual engineer. A
wrench can’t fix an automobile without a mechanic. Likewise, a computer with
CAD software can’t design an antilock braking system for an automobile without
an engineer.
Engineering requires extensive formal training. Four years of undergraduate
training leading to a bachelor’s degree in an engineering program is essential, followed by work under the supervision of an experienced engineer. Many engineering jobs even require advanced degrees beyond the bachelor’s degree. The work of
engineers serves the public good by providing communication systems, transportation, energy resources, and medical diagnostic and treatment equipment, to name
only a few.
Before passing final judgment on the professional status of engineering, the
nature of engineering societies requires a little consideration. Each discipline
within engineering has a professional society, such as the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for electrical engineers and the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for mechanical engineers. These societies serve to
set professional standards and frequently work with schools of engineering to set
standards for admission, curricula, and accreditation. However, these societies differ significantly from the AMA and the ABA. Unlike law and medicine, each specialty of engineering has its own society. There is no overall engineering society that
most engineers identify with, although the National Society of Professional
Engineers (NSPE) tries to function in this way. In addition, relatively few practicing
engineers belong to their professional societies. Thus, the engineering societies are
weak compared to the AMA and the ABA.
It is clear that engineering meets all of the definitions of a profession. In addition, it is clear that engineering practice has much in common with medicine and
law. Interestingly, although they are professionals, engineers do not yet hold the
same status within society that physicians and lawyers do.
2.2.3 Differences between Engineering and Other Professions
Although we have determined that engineering is a profession, it should be noted
that there are significant differences between how engineering is practiced and
how law and medicine are practiced. Lawyers are typically self-employed in private
practice, essentially an independent business, or in larger group practices with
Chapter 2
Professionalism and Codes of Ethics 23
other lawyers. Relatively few are employed by large organizations such as corporations. Until recently, this was also the case for most physicians, although with the
accelerating trend toward managed care and HMOs in the past decade, many
more physicians work for large corporations rather than in private practice.
However, even physicians who are employed by large HMOs are members of
organizations in which they retain much of the decision-making power—often, the
head of an HMO is a physician—and make up a substantial fraction of the total
number of employees.
In contrast, engineers generally practice their profession very differently from
physicians and lawyers. Most engineers are not self-employed, but more often are a
small part of larger companies involving many different occupations, including
accountants, marketing specialists, and extensive numbers of less skilled manufacturing employees. The exception to this rule is civil engineers, who generally practice as independent consultants either on their own or in engineering firms similar
in many ways to law firms. When employed by large corporations, engineers are
rarely in significant managerial positions, except with regard to managing other
engineers. Although engineers are paid well compared to the rest of society, they
are generally less well compensated than physicians and lawyers.
Training for engineers is different than for physicians and lawyers. One can be
employed as an engineer after four years of undergraduate education, unlike law
and medicine, for which training in the profession doesn’t begin until after the
undergraduate program has been completed. As mentioned previously, the engineering societies are not as powerful as the AMA and the ABA, perhaps because of
the number of different professional engineering societies. Also, both law and medicine require licenses granted by the state in order to practice. Many engineers,
especially those employed by large industrial companies, do not have engineering
licenses. It can be debated whether someone who is unlicensed is truly an engineer
or whether he is practicing engineering illegally, but the reality is that many of
those who are trained as engineers and are employed as engineers are not licensed.
Finally, engineering doesn’t have the social stature that law and medicine have
(a fact that is partly reflected in the lower pay that engineers receive as compared to
that of lawyers and doctors). Despite these differences, on balance, engineering is
still clearly a profession, albeit one that is not as mature as medicine and law.
However, the engineering profession should be striving to emulate some of the
aspects of these other professions.
2.2.4 Other Aspects of Professional Societies
We should briefly note that professional societies also serve other, perhaps less
noble, purposes than those mentioned previously. Sociologists who study the nature
of professional societies describe two different models of professions, sometimes
referred to as the social-contract and the business models. The social-contract
model views professional societies as being set up primarily to further the public
good, as described in the definition of a profession given previously. There is an
implicit social contract involved with professions, according to this model. Society
grants to the professions perks such as high pay, a high status in society, and the
ability to self-regulate. In return for these perks, society gets the services provided
by the profession.
A perhaps more cynical view of professions is provided by the business model.
According to this model, professions function as a means for furthering the
economic advantage of the members. Put another way, professional organizations
24
2.3 Codes of Ethics
are labor unions for the elite, strictly limiting the number of practitioners of the
profession, controlling the working conditions for professionals, and artificially
inflating the salaries of its members. An analysis of both models in terms of law and
medicine would show that there are ways in which these professions exhibit aspects
of both of these models.
Where does engineering fit into this picture? Engineering is certainly a serviceoriented profession and thus fits into the social-contract model quite nicely.
Although some engineers might wish to see engineering professional societies function more according to the business model, they currently don’t function that way.
The engineering societies have virtually no clout with major engineering employers
to set wages and working conditions or to help engineers resolve ethical disputes
with their employers. Moreover, there is very little prospect that the engineering
societies will function this way in the near future.
2.2.5 If Engineering Were Practiced More Like Medicine
It is perhaps instructive to speculate a little on how engineering might change in
the future if our model of the engineering profession were closer to that of law or
medicine. One major change would be in the way engineers are educated. Rather
than the current system, in which students study engineering as undergraduates
and then pursue advanced degrees as appropriate, prospective engineers would
probably get a four-year “preengineering” degree in mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, or some combination of these fields. After the four-year
undergraduate program, students would enter a three- or four-year engineering
professional program culminating in a “doctor of engineering” degree (or other
appropriately named degree). This program would include extensive study of engineering fundamentals, specialization in a field of study, and perhaps “clinical” training under a practicing engineer.
How would such engineers be employed? The pattern of employment would
certainly be different for engineers trained this way. Engineers in all fields might
work for engineering firms similar to the way in which civil engineers work now,
consulting on projects for government agencies or large corporations. The corporate employers who now have numerous engineers on their staff would probably
have far fewer engineers on the payroll, opting instead for a few professional engineers who would supervise the work of several less highly trained “engineering technicians.” Adoption of this model would probably reduce the number of engineers
in the work force, leading to higher earnings for those who remain. Those relegated to the ranks of engineering technicians would probably earn less than those
currently employed as engineers.
2.3 CODES OF ETHICS
An aspect of professional societies that has not been mentioned yet is the codes of
ethics that engineering societies have adopted. These codes express the rights,
duties, and obligations of the members of the profession. In this section, we will
examine the codes of ethics of professional engineering societies.
It should be noted that although most of the discussion thus far has focused on
professionalism and professional societies, codes of ethics are not limited to professional organizations. They can also be found, for example, in corporations and universities as well. We start with some general ideas about what codes of ethics are and
what purpose they serve and then examine two professional engineering codes in
more detail.
Chapter 2
Professionalism and Codes of Ethics 25
2.3.1 What Is a Code of Ethics?
Primarily, a code of ethics provides a framework for ethical judgment for a professional. The key word here is “framework.” No code can be totally comprehensive
and cover all possible ethical situations that a professional engineer is likely to
encounter. Rather, codes serve as a starting point for ethical decision making.
A code can also express the commitment to ethical conduct shared by members of
a profession. It is important to note that ethical codes do not establish new ethical
principles. They simply reiterate principles and standards that are already accepted
as responsible engineering practice. A code expresses these principles in a coherent, comprehensive, and accessible manner. Finally, a code defines the roles and
responsibilities of professionals [Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins, 2000].
It is important also to look at what a code of ethics is not. It is not a recipe
for ethical behavior; as previously stated, it is only a framework for arriving at good
ethical choices. A code of ethics is never a substitute for sound judgment. A code of
ethics is not a legal document. One can’t be arrested for violating its provisions,
although expulsion from the professional society might result from code violations.
As mentioned in the previous section, with the current state of engineering societies, expulsion from an engineering society generally will not result in an inability to
practice engineering, so there are not necessarily any direct consequences of violating engineering ethical codes. Finally, a code of ethics doesn’t create new moral or
ethical principles. As described in the previous chapter, these principles are well
established in society, and foundations of our ethical and moral principles go back
many centuries. Rather, a code of ethics spells out the ways in which moral and
ethical principles apply to professional practice. Put another way, a code helps the
engineer to apply moral principles to the unique situations encountered in professional practice.
How does a code of ethics achieve these goals? First, a code of ethics helps create
an environment within a profession where ethical behavior is the norm. It also serves
as a guide or reminder of how to act in specific situations. A code of ethics can also
be used to bolster an individual’s position with regard to a certain activity: The code
provides a little backup for an individual who is being pressured by a superior to
behave unethically. A code of ethics can also bolster the individual’s position by indicating that there is a collective sense of correct behavior; there is strength in numbers. Finally, a code of ethics can indicate to others that the profession is seriously
concerned about responsible, professional conduct [Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins,
2000]. A code of ethics, however, should not be used as “window dressing,” an
attempt by an organization to appear to be committed to ethical behavior when it
really is not.
2.3.2 Objections to Codes
Although codes of ethics are widely used by many organizations, including engineering societies, there are many objections to codes of ethics, specifically as they
apply to engineering practice. First, as mentioned previously, relatively few practicing engineers are members of professional societies and so don’t necessarily feel
compelled to abide by their codes. Many engineers who are members of professional societies are not aware of the existence of the society’s code, or if they are
aware of it, they have never read it. Even among engineers who know about their
society’s code, consultation of the code is rare. There are also objections that the
engineering codes often have internal conflicts, but don’t give a method for resolving the conflict. Finally, codes can be coercive: They foster ethical behavior with a
26
2.3 Codes of Ethics
stick rather than with a carrot [Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins, 2000]. Despite these
objections, codes are in widespread use today and are generally thought to serve a
useful function.
2.3.3 Codes of the Engineering Societies
Before examining professional codes in more detail, it might be instructive to
look briefly at the history of the engineering codes of ethics. Professional
engineering societies in the United States began to be organized in the late
19th century. As these societies matured, many of them created codes of ethics to
guide practicing engineers.
Early in the 20th century, these codes were mostly concerned with issues of
how to conduct business. For example, many early codes had clauses forbidding
advertising of services or prohibiting competitive bidding by engineers for
design projects. Codes also spelled out the duties that engineers had toward
their employers. Relatively less emphasis than today was given to issues of service to the public and safety. This imbalance has changed greatly in recent decades as public perceptions and concerns about the safety of engineered products
and devices have changed. Now, most codes emphasize commitments to safety,
public health, and even environmental protection as the most important duties
of the engineer.
2.3.4 A Closer Look at Two Codes of Ethics
Having looked at some ideas about what codes of ethics are and how they function,
let’s look more closely at two codes of ethics: the codes of the IEEE and the NSPE.
Although these codes have some common content, the structures of the codes are
very different.
The IEEE code is short and deals in generalities, whereas the NSPE code is
much longer and more detailed. An explanation of these differences is rooted in
the philosophy of the authors of these codes. A short code that is lacking in detail is
more likely to be read by members of the society than is a longer code. A short code
is also more understandable. It articulates general principles and truly functions as
a framework for ethical decision making, as described previously.
A longer code, such as the NSPE code, has the advantage of being more explicit
and is thus able to cover more ground. It leaves less to the imagination of the individual and therefore is more useful for application to specific cases. The length of
the code, however, makes it less likely to be read and thoroughly understood by
most engineers.
There are some specifics of these two codes that are worth noting here. The
IEEE code doesn’t mention a duty to one’s employer. However, the IEEE code
does explicitly mention a duty to protect the environment. The NSPE code has a
preamble that succinctly presents the duties of the engineer before going on to
the more explicit discussions of the rest of the code. Like most codes of ethics, the
NSPE code does mention the engineer’s duty to his or her employer in Section I.4,
where it states that engineers shall “[a]ct . . . for each employer . . . as faithful
agents or trustees.”
2.3.5 Resolving Internal Conflicts in Codes
One objection to codes of ethics is the internal conflicts that can exist within them,
with no instructions on how to resolve these conflicts. An example of this problem
would be a situation in which an employer asks or even orders an engineer to
Chapter 2
Professionalism and Codes of Ethics 27
implement a design that the engineer feels will be unsafe. It is made clear that the
engineer’s job is at stake if he doesn’t do as instructed. What does the NSPE code
tell us about this situation?
In clause I.4, the NSPE code indicates that engineers have a duty to their
employers, which implies that the engineer should go ahead with the unsafe design
favored by his employer. However, clause I.1 and the preamble make it clear that
the safety of the public is also an important concern of an engineer. In fact, it says
that the safety of the public is paramount. How can this conflict be resolved?
There is no implication in this or any other code that all clauses are equally
important. Rather, there is a hierarchy within the code. Some clauses take precedence over others, although there is generally no explicit indication in the code of
what the hierarchy is. The preceding dilemma is easily resolved within the context
of this hierarchy. The duty to protect the safety of the public is paramount and takes
precedence over the duty to the employer. In this case, the code provides very clear
support to the engineer, who must convince his supervisor that the product can’t be
designed as requested. Unfortunately, not all internal conflicts in codes of ethics
are so easily resolved.
2.3.6 Can Codes and Professional Societies Protect Employees?
One important area where professional societies can and should function is as protectors of the rights of employees who are being pressured by their employer to do
something unethical or who are accusing their employers or the government of
unethical conduct. The codes of the professional societies are of some use in this
since they can be used by employees as ammunition against an employer who is
sanctioning them for pointing out unethical behavior or who are being asked to
engage in unethical acts.
An example of this situation is the action of the IEEE on behalf of three electrical engineers who were fired from their jobs at the Bay Area Rapid Transit
(BART) organization when they pointed out deficiencies in the way the control
systems for the BART trains were being designed and tested. After being fired, the
engineers sued BART, citing the IEEE code of ethics which impelled them to hold
as their primary concern the safety of the public who would be using the BART
system. The IEEE intervened on their behalf in court, although ultimately the
engineers lost the case.
If the codes of ethics of professional societies are to have any meaning, this
type of intervention is essential when ethical violations are pointed out. However,
since not all engineers are members of professional societies and the engineering
societies are relatively weak, the pressure that can be exerted by these organizations
is limited.
2.3.7 Other Types of Codes of Ethics
Professional societies aren’t the only organizations that have codified their ethical
standards. Many other organizations have also developed codes of ethics for various
purposes similar to those of the professional engineering organizations. For example, codes for the ethical use of computers have been developed, and student
organizations in universities have framed student codes of ethics. In this section, we
will examine how codes of ethics function in corporations.
Many of the important ethical questions faced by engineers come up in the
context of their work for corporations. Since most practicing engineers are not
members of professional organizations, it seems that for many engineers, there is
2.3 Codes of Ethics
little ethical guidance in the course of their daily work. This problem has led to the
adoption of codes of ethics by many corporations.
Even if the professional codes were widely adopted and recognized by practicing engineers, there would still be some value to the corporate codes, since a corporation can tailor its code to the individual circumstances and unique mission of the
company. As such, these codes tend to be relatively long and very detailed, incorporating many rules specific to the practices of the company. For example, corporate
codes frequently spell out in detail the company policies on business practices, relationships with suppliers, relationships with government agencies, compliance with
government regulations, health and safety issues, issues related to environmental
protection, equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, sexual harassment, and diversity and racial/ethnic tolerance. Since corporate codes are coercive
in nature—your continued employment by the company depends on your compliance with the company code—these codes tend to be longer and more detailed in
order to provide very clear and specific guidelines to the employees.
Codes of professional societies, by their nature, can’t be this explicit, since
there is no means for a professional society to reasonably enforce its code. Due to
the typically long lengths of these codes, no example of a corporate code of ethics can
be included here. However, codes for companies can sometimes be found via the
Internet at corporate websites.
Some of the heightened awareness of ethics in corporations stems from the
increasing public scrutiny that has accompanied well-publicized disasters, such as
the cases presented in this book, as well as from cases of fraud and cost overruns,
particularly in the defense industry, that have been exposed in the media. Many
large corporations have developed corporate codes of ethics in response to these
problems to help heighten employee’s awareness of ethical issues and to help establish a strong corporate ethics culture. These codes give employees ready access to
guidelines and policies of the corporations. But, as with professional codes, it is
important to remember that these codes cannot cover all possible situations that an
employee might encounter; there is no substitute for good judgment. A code also
doesn’t substitute for good lines of communications between employees and upper
management and for workable methods for fixing ethical problems when they occur.
CASES
APPLICATION
28
Codes of ethics can be used as a tool for analyzing cases and for gaining some
insight into the proper course of action. Before reading these cases, it would be
helpful to read a couple of the codes in Appendix A, especially the code most
closely related to your field of study, to become familiar with the types of issues that
codes deal with. Then, put yourself in the position of an engineer working for these
companies—Intel, Paradyne Computers, and 3Bs Construction—to see what you
would have done in each case.
The Intel Pentium® Chip
In late 1994, the media began to report that there was a flaw in the new Pentium
microprocessor produced by Intel. The microprocessor is the heart of a personal
computer and controls all of the operations and calculations that take place. A flaw
in the Pentium was especially significant, since it was the microprocessor used in
80% of the personal computers produced in the world at that time.
Chapter 2
Professionalism and Codes of Ethics 29
Apparently, flaws in a complicated integrated circuit such as the Pentium,
which at the time contained over one million transistors, are common. However,
most of the flaws are undetectable by the user and don’t affect the operation of the
computer. Many of these flaws are easily compensated for through software. The
flaw that came to light in 1994 was different: It was detectable by the user. This particular flaw was in the floating-point unit (FPU) and caused a wrong answer when
double-precision arithmetic, a very common operation, was performed.
A standard test was widely published to determine whether a user’s microprocessor was flawed. Using spreadsheet software, the user was to take the number
4,195,835, multiply it by 3,145,727, and then divide that result by 3,145,727. As we
all know from elementary math, when a number is multiplied and then divided by
the same number, the result should be the original number. In this example, the
result should be 4,195,835. However, with the flawed FPU, the result of this calculation was 4,195,579 [Infoworld, 1994]. Depending on the application, this sixthousandths-of-a-percent error might be very significant.
At first, Intel’s response to these reports was to deny that there was any problem
with the chip. When it became clear that this assertion was not accurate, Intel
switched its policy and stated that although there was indeed a defect in the chip, it
was insignificant and the vast majority of users would never even notice it. The chip
would be replaced for free only for users who could demonstrate that they needed
an unflawed version of the chip [Infoworld, 1994]. There is some logic to this policy
from Intel’s point of view, since over two million computers had already been sold
with the defective chip.
Of course, this approach didn’t satisfy most Pentium owners. After all, how can
you predict whether you will have a future application where this flaw might be
significant? IBM, a major Pentium user, canceled the sales of all IBM computers
containing the flawed chip. Finally, after much negative publicity in the popular
personal computer literature and an outcry from Pentium users, Intel agreed to
replace the flawed chip with an unflawed version for any customer who asked to
have it replaced.
It should be noted that long before news of the flaw surfaced in the popular
press, Intel was aware of the problem and had already corrected it on subsequent
versions. It did, however, continue to sell the flawed version and, based on its early
insistence that the flaw did not present a significant problem to users, seemingly
planned to do so until the new version was available and the stocks of the flawed
one were exhausted. Eventually, the damage caused by this case was fixed as the
media reports of the problem died down and as customers were able to get unflawed chips into their computers. Ultimately, Intel had a write-off of 475 million
dollars to solve this problem.
What did Intel learn from this experience? The early designs for new chips continue to have flaws, and sometimes these flaws are not detected until the product is
already in use by consumers. However, Intel’s approach to these problems has
changed. It now seems to feel that problems need to be fixed immediately. In addition, the decision is now based on the consumer’s perception of the significance of
the flaw, rather than on Intel’s opinion of its significance.
Indeed, similar flaws were...
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