Research an engineering ethics case study. Search the Internet, books, and/or magazines to find an engineering project which resulted in an ethical dilemma.
Write a four-pages discussion of the case study including the following:
- 1. Describe the project including the ethical dilemma.
- 2. How does the problem associated with this project qualify as engineering ethics problem?
- 3. Did the characters follow the ethical guidelines? Why or why not?
- 4. What are some ways in which the ethical problem could have been dealt with?
Project Including ethical Dilemma:
Ethical dilemmas, also called as moral dilemmas, are conditions in which you have to choose between two options, neither of which solves the situation in an ethically acceptable manner.
One project include ethical dilemma is ‘Taking credit for others work’. ‘Suppose you worked in an organization for five years and your work was perfect in all standards, including the supervisor's performance ratings. The head of the department has just announced that a staff member will be promoted to the position of assistant supervisor to replace the employee who leaves, who earn an annual salary above 50,000 Rupees. You believes that you deserves promotion and needs additional money to help pay for your son's medical expenses. You and your colleague recently completed a project with three other team members. You are responsible for the project. The moral question is whether you should send the report in your name and acknowledge the participation of team members or send the report as a collective effort. Let's say that in the first case, your chances of getting promoted are more likely.’
Now if you send only your progress with your name just for getting good job or promotion without your team members then it is against the ethics. When your team members know that you send only your name and you acknowledge the participation of your team members then there will may be conflict occur.
Problems Associated with this project:
Problems discussed in above project are not only related with professional ethics but also link the personal ethics. As an engineer and working in a group, it is ethically wrong that one person expressed the team work only with his name just for promotion and good salary. ‘Thus, the services provided by engineers require honesty, integrity, fairness and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of public health, safety and well-being. Engineers must work in accordance with standards of professional conduct that require compliance with the highest principles of ethical conduct.’
One problem is that when your team members know you acknowledge their names from project and they discussed these situations to boss then as an engineer your profession is in danger.
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You also destroy your image, character and profession in industry as well as in front of colleagues. Similarly, your behavior with your team members also degrades.
Did the Character follow the ethical Guideline?
As an engineer, a person must follow personal ethics as well as professional ethics. In the above-discussed project there are two ways:
One is that person send only his contribution to boss and get promotion. As a human he first consider that he need this promotion for good future but this is ethically wrong because he use the work of his team members also. So in this case he does not follow the ethics just because of good chance of promotion and good salary.
In second way, a person must follow the ethics that this project not only contain his work but also his group members. By personal ethics, He first think that if he does not include his team members then his character will degrade in front of his members and other colleagues. Similarly his profession also came in danger so he must follow ethical guidelines and he send all members contributions to boss and after interview one person will select for assistant supervisor.
On the other hand, if your colleagues not follow the personal and professional ethics, they can make controversy or conflict with you and they also try to harm you when they have a chance. But if your colleagues follow the personal and professional ethics, they can resolve this problem without degrading your character and profession by talking with you.
Solutions to ethical problems:
The ethical problems discussed in above can be solved by:
- When such problem occurs with you first keep calm down and assess the situation.
- Instead of doing conflict, resolve this problem by talking with your team members and be clear to your contributions.
- Ask your team members to mention your name when the idea or project comes up in conversation.
Be prepared to explain what happened in a rational way and how you dealt with the situation with your co-worker. ‘If your coworker takes credit for something that's a big problem, such as presenting his ideas to a new product or promoting and passing ideas on his own. Then you need to have a discussion with your manager about the situation.’
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