Engineering Ethics Training Session

SWEDE 2009

Peter LoPresti

PART 1 – BASIC ETHICS

What do we mean by ethics?

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Why are ethics important?

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PART 1 – BASIC ETHICS

General Categories/Examples of Ethical Situations?

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PART 1 – BASIC ETHICS

General Categories/Examples of Ethical Situations?

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PART 1 – BASIC ETHICS

Examples from the Engineering Code of Ethics

• Society first, Employer/Client second, Employee third

• Appropriate Knowledge or Expertise• Express opinions founded on adequate knowledge of facts or competent evaluation• Accepting assignments in areas of competence, or subordinate competence

• Conflicts of interest• Issuing statements/criticisms inspired/paid for by others with interests.• Soliciting financial or valuable considerations from contractors, agents, other parties• Full disclosure of potential conflicts, real or apparent, that influence judgement

• Honesty• Falsification of credentials, exaggeration of duties, disparagement of others

• Integrity• Leaking company secrets, professional confidentiality, errors in judgement

PART 1 – BASIC ETHICS

What are the practical issues associated with ethical actions?

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PART 1 – BASIC ETHICS

What are the practical issues associated with ethical actions?

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PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

What we’re going to do….

1. Form groups (probably by tables?)

2. Present an ethics situation and five possible responses

3. Give groups a few minutes to discuss

4. Review answers and discussion

5. Award points for degree of correctness (keep track of own)

6. See who is the “most ethical” group.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

Record your answers

(1) __________ (6) __________

(2) __________ (7) __________

(3) __________ (8) __________

(4) __________ (9) __________

(5) __________ (10) _________

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

1. Situation: Two of your subordinates often provide their children with school supplies from the office. How do you handle this situation?

A. Lock up the supplies and issue only as needed and signed for.

B. Discuss the issue with the two subordinates, and explain that supplies are only for office use

C. Report the theft of supplies to Security, because it is Security’s responsibility to deal with these matters.

D. Tell the two subordinates that supplies are only for office use. Also, send a reminder to all employees that office supplies are for office use only.

DOGBERT: Hoard the good stuff for yourself before someone else gets their paws on it.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

2. Situation: As an hourly worker, you observe the stockroom manager drop a very expensive gyroscope on the stockroom floor, pick it up and replace it on the shelf with other good gyroscopes. He then walks away. What do you do?

A. Do nothing, because its none of your business.

B. Politely confront the manager and ask, “Shouldn’t that gyroscope be reinspected?”

C. Report the incident to your manager or quality manager.

D. Report the incident to your Ethics unit/person.

DOGBERT: Carefully note which gyroscope is damaged so you can get one of the good ones.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

3. Situation: A co-worker is injured on the job. You are a witness and what you saw reflects poorly on the company. What do you do?

A. Don’t get involved.

B. Contact the injured co-worker and offer to testify on her behalf.

C. Report what you saw to the company.

D. Protect the company by refusing to testify as a witness for the injured person.

DOGBERT: Test your theory that laughter promotes healing.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

4. Situation: For several months, one of your colleagues has been performing poorly at work and you are faced with an increased workload in order to compensate for the colleague’s poor performance. You think this is unfair. What do you do?

A. Recognize this as an opportunity for you to demonstrate how capable you are.

B. Go to your supervisor and discuss the situation.

C. Discuss the problem with your colleague in an attempt to solve the problem without involving others.

D. Discuss the problem with the Human Resources department.

DOGBERT: Send his resume to someone you don’t like and recommend him highly.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

5. Situation: In a department meeting, your supervisor takes credit for some excellent work done by a colleague who is absent. What do you do?

A. Put the word out to your fellow workers as to who really did the work.

B. Seek a private meeting with the supervisor in order to make sure your colleague gets the proper credit.

C. During an informal conversation with “the big boss,” casually let it slip that your colleague did not get the credit she deserved on a recent project.

D. Inform your colleague as to what took place, and let him take whatever action she desires.

DOGBERT: Learn from this example. Someday you might be a supervisor too.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

6. Situation: A member of your immediate family has a financial interest in a small, privately-owned supplier to your company. Are you required to report this fact?

A. Yes, all employees should report any conflict or appearance of conflict.

B. Yes, because it could “look bad” even though I don’t deal directly with that supplier in my work.

C. No, if I don’t allow that financial interest to improperly influence my job responsibilities.

D. No, if that financial interest is less than $10,000.

DOGBERT: No, I have a constitutional right to free enterprise.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

7. Situation: When a particular male supervisor talks to any female employee, he always addresses her as “Sweetie.” You have overheard him use this term several times. As the supervisor’s manager, what should you do?

A. Nothing, no one has complained.

B. Talk to the supervisor and explain that, while he may have only good intentions, his use of “Sweetie” could be offensive to some employees and must stop.

C. Order the supervisor to call an all-hands meeting to discuss the company policy on sexual harassment.

D. At the next staff meeting, remind all supervisors of their obligation to maintain a professional work environment, free of discrimination or harassment of any kind.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

8. Situation: Employees in the department have noticed that your supervisor spends a good portion of his day doing homework for a company-sponsored college course. He also spends a significant amount of time making phone calls that they suspect are personal, and may be at company expense. What should you do?

A. Tell the employees to just do their work and mind their own business.

B. Tell the employees that you don’t want to risk your job by becoming involved.

C. Suggest that your fellow employees contact the Ethics unit or other company official.

D. Raise the issue directly with your supervisor.

DOGBERT: Make your personal calls from his phone. He has a lot of explaining to do anyway.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES*

9. Situation: A company-sponsored training course is being held in Orlando, Florida, and you have been selected to attend. You have no interest in the training, but you are ready for a vacation and have never been to Florida. What would you do?

A. Ask your supervisor if she thinks it’s beneficial. If so, pack your bags.

B. Under the theory that any training will be of some benefit to you, sign up.

C. Forget about the training.

D. Convince your supervisor that the course will be beneficial, then go only to the sessions that have an obvious relationship to your current work assignment.

DOGBERT: Wear mouse ears to work and hum “It’s a Small World After All” all day long.

*From “The Ethics Challenge” game, Lockheed Martin

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES**

10. Situation: Your group is competing for a multidisciplinary concept project. Your firm is the lead group in a consortium formed to compete. During negotiations with the project owner, you realize you will have to drop a consortium member with special expertise not found in any other member to meet the cost requirements of the contract. Is your response ethical?

A. Not if the owner is left with the impression that the consortium is still fully qualified to perform all of the tasks.

B. Yes, if the remaining members hire a few new, lower-cost employees to do the special work.

C. No, because a supervisor may not accept a contract to coordinate a project that provides capabilities/services not under their direct control.

D. Yes, if accepting the assignment to coordinate, a single person signs off on all of the work.

*From “TU FE course”

PART 2 – GENERAL ETHICS EXAMPLES

How did you do?

PART 3 – GROUP WORK

Each Group/Table/Section

1. Given a topic to discuss in relation to ethics.

2. Discuss one or more of the following items

• Common problems observed in relation to the topic

• How do the problems impact you or your company?

• What might be done about these problems, if anything?

3. Share results of discussions with the group

PART 3 – GROUP WORK

Notes:

Safety Gifts, Gratuities, Business Courtesies

Charging Practices Conflicts of Interest

Employee Relations Software/Computer Misuse

Use of Company Resources Business Competition