Engineering Ethics and

Management Ethics: Cases

Prof. Kumar Neeraj Sachdev

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
 Case Study - One
"You know, Jeff, the reason you're so upset is that you're young
and idealistic. School has put a bunch of crazy notions in your
head. Forget about saving the world and concentrate on your
career." Perhaps youth and idealistic tendencies do motivate
Jeff Johnson, who is part of a group of junior engineers hired by
Engineers R Us, Inc, but even if this is true, it overlooks the fact
that the memo Jeff has written points to his commitment to
the importance of protecting public welfare. Jeff has detected
a flaw that introduces an element of risk, a risk that he believes
is unacceptable. The supervisors of the project, however,
respond negatively on two levels. First, they claim the element
of risk is acceptable. Second, they say that the complete
insulation of public welfare is unrealistic.
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 The Questions
• Jeff’s attitude about the supremacy of public
welfare is different from that of his
supervisors. What is the main difference?
Who do you think is correct?

• To what extent do you agree with the

supervisors’ response that guaranteeing the
public safety is not possible, since risk is an
inherent part of engineering?
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 Case Study - Two

Robert Ludlum is an engineer. He designs tires for Tires R Us, Inc. One day
he comes across one of his colleague’s designs and notices an important
flaw, one that might have disastrous results. Because the design of the
tires is intended for sports recreational vehicles, the problem is
aggravated by the higher than usual center of gravity. A blowout may
cause the vehicles to flip over. Ludlum seeks advice from his supervisor,
but she is not convinced that he is right and attempts to set Ludlum’s
fears at ease. While Ludlum is not afraid to bring this to the public’s
attention if he has to, he is nevertheless bound by an oath of loyalty to
attempt to solve problems like this within the company first. He decides to
go over her head, which is his right according to company policy. The
situation is also complicated because the design of the tires employs a
trade secret. Ludlum knows that if he has to go public with this
information, he may be required to prove his case, which can be done
only by revealing the trade secret. Does it represent a situation in which a
trade secret may be revealed or even should be revealed?
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 Case Study - Three
Newly hired as a production engineer, you find a potential problem on the shop
floor: workers are routinely ignoring some of the government mandated safety
regulations governing the presses and stamping machines. The workers
override the safety features such as guards designed to make it impossible to
insert a hand or arm into a machine. Or they rig up "convenience" controls so
they can operate a machine while close to it, instead of using approved safety
switches, etc., which requires more movement or operational steps. Their
reason (or excuse) is that if the safety features were strictly followed then
production would be very difficult, tiring and inefficient. They feel that their
shortcut still provides adequately safe operation with improved efficiency and
worker satisfaction. Should you immediately insist on full compliance with all
the safety regulations, or do the workers have enough of a case so that you
would be tempted to ignore the safety violations? And if you're tempted to
ignore the violations, how would you justify doing so to your boss? Also, how
much weight should you give to the workers' clear preference for not following
the regulations: ethically, can safety standards be relaxed if those to whom
they apply want them to be relaxed?
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 Case Study - Four
Rajeshwar Reddy, CEO of Reddy Industries, is known for his
firm management style. He expects his managers and other
employees to work as hard as he does. Now a shipment of
parts has come in late, which could cause potential setbacks
for other companies relying on Reddy Industries. The delay can
be avoided, but only by having the employees work late into
the night, and this is in fact what Reddy orders them to do. In
fact, he thinks avoiding the delay is so important that he
threatens to fire employees who do not stay and work late.
Suppose one of the employees refuses to work. Is she violating
the moral virtue of loyalty by disobeying her CEO? If she gets
fired for refusing to work, is her firing morally justified?

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 Thank you.

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