Ethical issues faced by engineers in developing new products

Discuss About The Engineering Ethics Concepts Cases Learning.

According to the case, 19 it has been received that incident and morals is considered as the multistage video case study, which is developed by NAEE.  It has been found that the engineers of many organizations face various types of ethical issues. To gain competitive advantages, the engineers try to develop a new plant to produce a new chemical product. However, the development of new product includes various issues include safety issue, environmental issue and financial problem.

From the case 20, it has been received that gender inequality is a big problem in the engineering profession. Based on the conversation between Jack, Tom and Judy it has been found that there is quite gender inequality in the professional sectors. Judy had been led to believe that women are not suitable for engineering profession compared to man. However, Judy was hired as the only woman engineer in her division. She has faced a struggle in her 1-year job to convince other to take her idea seriously.

According to the case 19, the major ethical issue highlights that the engineers want to develop a new product, but there is no proper safety management. During this situation, the engineers should arrange a safe environment besides developing new products to gain competitive advantages.

According to the case 20, gender inequality is a significant ethical problem in the engineering profession. However, Judy has faced challenges during the conversation with other male engineers. On the other hand, she faced challenges in her professional life while male engineers did not accept her ideas and made discrimination with her. To deal with this situation the engineering organization and each needs to support the gender equality. This will help to establish an ethical culture in an organization.

From the case 19, I have learned that for the engineering organization it is essential to maintain safety and arrange proper financial resources while developing new products. However, the safety issue is a significant ethical concern of the manufacturing industry. The engineers face ethical issue while they want to develop a new chemical product, but they do not have a safe environment for it. 

 In the case 20, I have found that gender discrimination is a significant ethical issue in the engineering profession. However, females are always isolated from the male based on their capabilities. Therefore, the male employees do not provide value to the capability of the female employees. This is a primary ethical concern, which needs to eradicate from the professional sectors.

Gender inequality in engineering profession

In case 20, Judy should have answer Jack that she has more knowledge than her beauty and the meeting should have been more about the engineering topic rather than her beauty topics.

In case 20, Tom could have replied that he may not be beautiful like Judy, but they both wanted to discuss some serious topics. 

In case-1, the Aberdeen Proving Ground named after three chemical engineers—Carl Gepp, William Dee and Robert Lentz, is a U.S army facility where chemical weapons were made, tested, stored and dumped along with other weapons since World War II. Some inspections stated that flammable and cancer-causing substances were left in open space, hazardous chemicals were kept together, and some toxic substances like sulfuric acid were leaking. After about 200 gallons of acid leakage into the nearby rivers and ground, an investigation started, and those three engineers were found guilty on several charges by Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). They received sentences of 1,000 hours of community service and three years of probation. U.S army also could not help them as they were inducted in criminal cases and it marked as the first criminal conviction of federal employees under RCRA.

In case-3, on August 1, 2007, the I-35W bridge collapsed over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis during the rush hour killing 13 people and several injuries to the public. Though it was inspected every two years and the rating out of 0-9 was poor, and the bridge needed proper maintenance, none predicted the bridge to fall. Approximately 27% of bridges in the US were examined to be structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. According to ASCE, America should change the transportation system and traffic management and also repair the bridges.

According to case-1, being an engineer, Carl Gepp, William Dee and Robert Lentz had the responsibility of conservation of the place and the environment and also prevent the chemicals from leakage to the surrounding. They lacked the value of social responsibility and also lacked the managerial ability to handle and educate the officials of the workplace.

According to case-3, the engineers should have done their work correctly and ethically. Every engineer should be able to identify the outcome of their negligence in their work and should have some ethical and moral values to do proper and responsible work. 

According to case-1, I learnt that being responsible is very important in any organization. The engineers were not responsible for handling the toxic chemicals correctly which lead to massive leakage and damage to the environment. Being an engineer, we have the social responsibility to conserve and protect the environment.   

Responsibility of engineers in conserving the environment

According to case-3, I learned that the engineers of the bridge in the US lacked responsibility and knowledge about the construction of the bridge and also lacked ethical values of an engineer which resulted in the improper construction of the bridge.

According to case 8, the use of the electric chair has been disappearing from the engineering history. This is due to the death of people. However, extreme shock by using electrical chair may cause death of the people. Bernstein is the retired professor of Wiscon University, and his subject is computer and electrical engineering. According to him, the design of the electrical chair is poor, and it is made of old equipments. It has been found that to keep the reputation of the organization engineers tries to modify the electrical chair, which may cause death. For example, an electrical chair that includes alternating currents causes death.

 From the case 11 it has been found that carbon emission is a global problem, which affects the environment. Hence, the use of renewable energy is an effective way to reduce the carbon emission. AVA solar power establishes a project to produce solar energy as a renewable resource. However, this process uses cadmium, which creates cancers among the people. This is a significant drawback of this renewable energy sources. On the other hand, Powertech Uranium has taken initiatives to produce uranium, which reduces the carbon emission. This process affects the solar popularity. Hence, it can be said that the renewable energy resources have both positive and negative aspects. Hence, it is a significant concern of the engineers how to produce renewable energy by reducing its negative impact on the environment and society.

From the case 8 it has been found that the engineers faced challenges during the medication of the electrical chair. The engineering company gives their concern towards the reputation rather than improving the product design. This is a major ethical concern. To deal with this issue, the engineers should give their concern to improve the design of technical chair beside keeping the reputation of the organization.

 From the case 11, it has been found that the engineers of AVA Solar and Powertech Uranium faced issue while producing renewable energy. They want to reduce the carbon emission by developing renewable sources, but these processes include some drawbacks, which affects the human life and demand of solar production. This is a major ethical concern for the engineers. To deal with this situation, they should focus on their responsibilities while producing renewable energy. The Fort Collin is worried about the engineer’s responsibility how to deal with these issues.

Drawbacks of renewable energy sources

From case 8, I have learned that the engineering organizations should develop their product feature. They need to concentrate on the development of product feature besides maintaining the brand image.

 From case 11, I have identified that engineers face major ethical problems while developing renewable energy sources. During the development of solar power and uranium to reduce the carbon they have to deal with the loopholes of these methods. They need to comply with the policy to make their process successful.

In case 43, Charles Landers, former Anchorage assemblyman was found guilty of forging partner Henry Wilson’s signature and using his professional seal on at least 40 documents without his knowledge when he was away from his office. Judge Michael Wolverton banned Landers for a year from practicing as an engineer’s, architect, or land surveyor’s assistant. He was sentenced 20 days in jail, 160 hours of community service, $4,000 in fines, and one year of probation and was also directed to inform the owners about the rectification and also pay for the problem occurred by him.

The case study of 44, revolves around the statistics of girls in the engineering background compared with the other background. In the US, only 20% girls take up engineering but among the very few of them take up electrical or mechanical stream. Most of the professors in the engineering colleges are taught by male teachers, and it has not changed for decades. The numbers suggest that women make baccalaureate and medical and law colleges more than men which proves that they do not lag in knowledge yet the numbers in the engineering colleges are very less and inadequate.

According to case 43, Charles Lander did not have moral and values to be able to understand the importance of the signature of an engineer. Public trust is very important for any organization to be able to work freely. Though he portrayed himself as an engineer, he failed to understand the philosophy of an engineer.

According to case 44, the ethical problems revolve around the myth that women are not good in mathematics compared with men which are incorrect. The main issue regarding the women in engineering is the social beliefs and thoughts about it. The society lags into broad thinking and also narrows down the opportunities for girls and women.

According to case-43, Professional engineers are required to protect the public from unqualified practitioners for the assurance of from all the people involved in the project like architects and land surveyors responsible for their work. The discovery of the case led the officials and the public to know about the wrongdoings and also the importance of an engineer.  

Maintaining product feature and complying with the policy

According to case-44, women are considered less capable in many aspects like engineering. It is considered that women faculties are not productive compared to men and they are more interested in family than careers is also a myth which is wrong. It is also considered that women have more off due to child-related issues which have been proved wrong for decades. The system and society are outdated and needs to figure out that women have outshined men in many aspects and are capable of overcoming men in engineering as well.

The case 28 revolves around the students of MIT and instances of the students studying in US colleges opting out of the colleges and preferring to work for the survival. The instance of Mr. Matkins, who worked in the Akamai, a company formed by Mr. Leighton and Mr. Lewin to code algorithms for the summer job. His grades dropped, but it did not affect him as he got rich working for the company. He preferred being wealthy instead of being graduated. This case study follows the instances how students left their colleges for working in organizations.   

The case 29 revolves around a mechanical engineer who works in Super Mulcher Corporation that makes Model 1 Pulverizer, a chipper/shredder that grinds yard waste into small particles that can be composted and blended into the soil. In the 5years of sales of the machine, 300 accidents were recorded due to the discharge chute that gets plugged and the accident occurs for the rotating blades when the operator wants to unplug it. Charlie Burns, president of the company organized a meeting with the engineers addressing the accidents occurring and steps to reduce it. The steps were taken in the form of a statutory warning on the machine and booklets rather than changing the model of the machine due to rise in the production cost of the machine.

According to case 28, the students lacked the idea of education, and they preferred monetary gains due to the financial strain on the students of their families. The entrepreneurs lacked the basic moral and ethics hiring students in less amount of money instead of hiring graduates.

In the case 29, the management lacked the moral values and humanity as they did not try to fix the problem with their machine. The president and the management of the company only wanted to do business instead of thinking about the values of life of their customers.

In the case 28, I learned that students need to be educated before they are considered for corporate responsibility. Colleges and companies should strictly follow a requirement of basic education from the students instead of hiring them for a lesser amount of salary.

In the case 29, I learned that the company was only interested in doing business rather than thinking of the well being of the customers. They wanted the customers to use the machine cautiously instead of making the appropriate change in their model due to the rise of the production cost of their machine.

References:

Harris Jr, C. E., Pritchard, M. S., Rabins, M. J., James, R., & Englehardt, E. (2013). Engineering ethics: Concepts and cases. Cengage Learning.