ETHICS IN TECHNOLOGIST

CASE 1 - CHALLENGER
CASE 1 - CHALLENGER
CASE 2 – TAKATA AIRBAG FAILURE

TAKATA Corporation
CASE 2 – TAKATA AIRBAG FAILURE
CASE 2 – TAKATA AIRBAG FAILURE
 CASE 2 – TAKATA AIRBAG FAILURE
• The New York Times:
published a report suggesting that Takata knew about the airbag issues in
2004 and conducting secret tests off work hours to verify the problem

results confirmed major issues with the inflators

• engineers quickly began researching a solution, BUT instead of notifying federal

safety regulators and moving forward with fixes, Takata executives ordered the
engineers to destroy the data and dispose the physical evidence and that occurred a
full four years before Takata publicly acknowledged the problem
• dilemma faced by the design engineers who work in Takata;
 to balance the safety of the people who would be riding in the car
 the need to produce the Airbag at a price that would be
competitive in the market
 INTRODUCTION

• By its nature, engineering 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 conditions that it will be exposed to?
 Is it safe?
 If there are some safety concerns, how bad are they?
 What are the effects of doing nothing?
 INTRODUCTION

Those cases are examples of the ethical problems faced by engineers in their
professional practice

ETHICS

• Ethics is the study of the characteristics of moral

• Ethics is a code of moral standards of conduct for what is “good” and “right” as
opposed to what is “bad” and “ wrong”
• Ethics also deals with the moral choices that are made by each person in his or her
relationship with other persons.
 INTRODUCTION
Why is it important to learn ETHICS ?
• Several cases that received a media attention
have led engineers to gain an increased sense
of their professional responsibilities  Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Plant Disaster
• Those cases have led to an awareness of the  The Bhopal Chemical Plant
importance of ethics within the engineering Disaster
profession as engineers / technologists /  Boeing 737 MAX
technicians realize how their technical work Maneuvering Characteristics
has far-reaching impacts on society Augmentation System (MCAS)
 Highland Tower
• Not a training of doing the right thing when
you already know what to do, but it is a
training of analyzing complex problems and
learn to resolve these problems in the most
ethical manner
 ETHICS VS. LAW
• The practice of engineering is governed by many laws on the international, federal,
state, and local levels
• Most of the laws are based on ethical principles, and there is also a distinction
between what is legal and what is ethical
• There are things that legal but could be considered unethical
 For example, designing a process that releases a known toxic maybe legal,

but unregulated releasing

substance into the environment is probably unethical
• There is also things that illegal but doesn’t mean that it is unethical
 For example, there might be substance that were once thought to be harmful
but now has been shown to be safe and 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 the substance into the environment, even though there is no ethical
 ETHICS VS. LAW

• Moral acts are based on an internal and possibly external sense of what is inherently
Right or Good
• Legal acts are simply Acts that conform to the law
• For examples,
 Driving 20 km/h over the speed limit is not generally kept to be immoral but
that is illegal
 Buying a Jeruk Mangga Abg John at traffic light’s junction is probably a moral
act but that is illegal.
• As an engineer / technologists, 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
 MBOT CODE OF ETHICS

• MBOT Code of Ethics reflects the commitment that all registered professionals
make to high standards of competency and ethics
• The Code of Ethics benefits and protects the public, provides standards for
delivering services, knowledge, and advances professionalism among the Board’s
registrants
• Compliance with the Code of Ethics is a requirement of registration and help
promote integrity among registrants
• Violations of the Code of Ethics may subject a MBOT professional to disciplinary
action.

*Code of Ethics is sequence to Part IV, Suspension, Cancellation of Registration, etc., Section 27(1) of the
Technologists and Technicians Act 2015 [Act 768]
 MBOT CODE OF ETHICS
• MBOT is assisted by the Act, Fee and Professional Practice Committee:
 pertaining to the professional ethics and conduct of registered technologists
and technicians
 responsible to hear and determine disputes relating to professional conduct
or ethics of registrants
• MBOT shall protect the technologist and technician professional system by;
i. Ensuring only registered persons provides technology services
ii. Investigating all complaints brought to it against registered person or technology consultancy
practice
iii. Conducting disciplinary hearing for complaints with prima facie case
iv. Taking action against registered person pursuant to Section 27(1)
v. Issuing Notification, Guidelines, and Circular as benchmarks for quality of service in the
technology profession
 MBOT CODE OF ETHICS

Strive to Perfection
Professionalism Benevolence

Code of Ethics

Integrity
Diligence
Competence

MBOT Code of Ethics

MBOT CODE OF ETHICS
MBOT CODE OF ETHICS
MBOT CODE OF ETHICS
MBOT CODE OF ETHICS
MBOT CODE OF ETHICS
 MBOT CODE OF ETHICS

serves as a social control tool

• indicate to others that the profession is seriously concerned about responsible,

dignity and professional conduct  Professionalism
• doing right thing in reliable way, honest and keeping promises  Integrity
• achieves and shows a highest quality of work  Competence
• finish what has been started  Diligence
• perform services with sympathy, empathy and human rights  Benevolence
• sustainable development and lifelong learning  Strive for Perfection
CODE OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

BEM
Code of Professional Conduct
 ETHICAL THEORIES

There four ethical theories:

• Utilitarianism  prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all
affected individuals
• Duty ethics  duties that should be performed regardless of whether these act
lead to the most good
• Right ethics  emphasises that we all have moral right, and any action that
violates these right is ethically unacceptable
• Virtue ethics  good actions as ones that display virtuous character, like courage,
loyalty, or wisdom. Bad actions display the opposite, such as cowardice, treachery,
and ignorance
 UTILITARIANISM
• Utilitarianism may be understood as a commitment to the search for the common good
• Holds that those actions are good that serve to maximise human well-being
• The emphasis is not on maximising the well-being of the individual, but rather on
maximising the well-being of society as a whole
• It is fundamental to many types of engineering analysis, including risk-benefit analysis
and cost-benefit analysis
i. Act utilitarianism  It is about
right and wrong and involves traits
such as honesty, fairness and
responsibility vs
ii. Rule utilitarianism  “do not
harm others” and “do not steal”,
moral rules are most important
 UTILITARIANISM

Example:

• Tom has worked in the computer field for ABC Inc. since 2007
• His immediate supervisor, Smith, suggested Tom take part in a meeting with a
man from India who had developed innovative software and wanted to sell it
exclusively to ABC Inc.
• Two days later, Smith invites Engineer Tom to join him in a meeting with the
CEO of ABC Inc., during which he intends to submit “their” creation, that is to say
a copy of the very same software from India
 UTILITARIANISM

• Tom tosses and turns the whole night before the meeting, pondering a thousand
questions
 Should he go to the meeting and act as if everything was normal?
 Could he simply withdraw from the project and do nothing?
 Or, on the contrary, does he have an obligation to act?
 If he blows the whistle and tells the Engineering Board or the CEO about the
situation, what will happen to him?
 Will he lose his job?
 And what will his superior, who had been his teacher in University and mentor
during his internship, be exposed to?
• In short, what should he do?
 DUTY ETHICS & RIGHT ETHICS
• Duty and Right ethics are mirror images of each other
"You have the right to live, I have a duty not to kill you; and if I have a duty not to
deceive you, you have the right not to be deceived“
Rights Corresponding Duties
Kelly has a right to kept promises Others have a duty not to break their promises to Kelly
Kelly has a right to free action Others have a duty not to coerce Kelly
Kelly has a right to free speech Others have a duty not to prevent Kelly from speaking freely
Kelly has a right not to be stolen from Others have a duty not to steal from Kelly
Kelly has a right to nondiscrimination Others have a duty not to deny Kelly opportunities based on
race, gender, creed or sexual preferences

• Duty and Rights ethics don’t always account for the overall good of society very
well; right is said to have priority over the Good
 VIRTUE ETHICS

• Virtue is often defined as moral distinction and goodness

• Emphasizes an individual's character as the key element of ethical thinking,
rather than rules about the acts themselves or their consequences
 determining what kind of person we should be…

• In virtue ethics, actions are considered right if they

support good character traits and wrong if they
support bad character traits
• Virtues character traits are honesty,
courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity,
fairness, self-control, prudence, competence,
courage, loyalty, humility etc.
INTEGRITY
INTEGRITY
INTEGRITY
INTEGRITY
INTEGRITY
INTEGRITY
INTEGRITY
INTEGRITY
INTEGRITY
TRANSPARENCY

Failures in
Transparency
 TRANSPARENCY

How to be Transparent?
 ETHIC ISSUE – CASE STUDY
Example 1: Cheating the information
Scott once had an opportunity to work with and shared lab space with a Professional
Engineer (PE) during their study. Scott was often in classes with this PE and they
never missed any points on homeworks or exams. One day, during examination, Scott
noticed that the PE drew and erased curves several times, not changing the curvature
or inflection points, just re-positioning the line until it looked exactly like the solution.
Then, in another class, Scott found out that the PE’s solutions were always identical to
the professor’s, even when multiple solution strategies were valid. Eventually the
professor made the same mistake on an assignment that Scott had worked for days to
point out as wrong to the PE.

Clearly something unethical is going on here. Is that Scott bound by a Code of Ethics to
report this suspicious behavior as this person is a full PE?
How would you handle this?
 ETHIC ISSUE – CASE STUDY
Example 2: Reporting of Safety Violations
Mark is an engineer and knew a Professional Engineer (PE) who conducted research
in their research lab. One day, the PE accidentally mixed two substances in the fume
hood, leading to an explosion that destroyed the hood. The PE, under pressure to
reduce accidents in their research lab, however, did not report the incident to others.
Months later, another researcher in the PE’s unit, who was un-informed of the first
incident, had a similar incident that destroyed another fume hood. Then, a year later, a
similar accident occurred and sent 16 people to the hospital. The PE eventually moved
to make safety incidents, and failure to report these safety incidents, part of
performance evaluations for their unit.

Since this person is a PE, is Mark required to report this behavior to the Board of
Ethical review? Did unethical behavior occur?
 ETHIC ISSUE – CASE STUDY

Engineering Ethics Case Study: The Challenger Disaster

By,

Mark P. Rossow, Ph.D, PE Retired

"It was always, always do the right thing for the right reason at the right time with the right people,
and you will have no regrets for the rest of your life.“

- Allan McDonald -