Engineering Ethics

Practice as according to the final

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Engineers shall hold paramount the (blank), (blank), and
(blank) of the public.

safety, health, welfare

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Engineers shall issue public statements only in an (blank)
and (blank) manner.

objective, truthful

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Engineers shall act for each employer or client as (blank) or (blank).

faithful agents, trustees

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Engineers shall perform services only in the (blank).

areas of their competence

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Engineers shall avoid (blank) acts.

deceptive

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Engineers shall uphold and enhance the (blank), (blank), and
(blank) of the profession.

honor, integrity, diginity

How do you create an ethical culture?

• Set priorities of ethics above other issues and ensure
  everyone understands these priorities

• Encourage communication, including critical questions, without fear of retaliation

• Treat ethical concern as a positive aspect of the
  organization, not a negative one

What is “Responsibility”?

Explicit expectations expected of a person to perform a task. It is imposed externally on an individual by some authority.

What is “Accountability”?

Assumption of consequences for actions and judgments that occur in your organization. It is internally generated and is a key component of leadership.

What is the key difference between Responsibility and Accountability?

Responsibility can be delegated, but Accountability can not.

What can you do to prevent negative consequences
in engineering practice?

• Remember that accountability is internally determined.

• Communicate in your organization so that everyone knows who is accountable.

• Know when to and when not to assume accountability.

• Remember that you may not be directly accountable, but you can always help the person who is.

What is “Communication Failure”?

Important information relevant to an organization’s ethical obligations or overall performance is known in one part of the organization but does not appropriately influence decisions in another part of the organization.

“X” knows something important for “Y’s” decision but can’t bring it to Y’s attention.

What can you do to prevent negative consequences of “communication failure” in engineering practice?

• Create culture of open communication.

• Assess what communication channels are needed and establish them.

• Be an active listener.

• Encourage everyone to say “I don’t understand” when needed.

What is “normalization of deviance”?

The gradual process through which unacceptable practice or
standards become acceptable. As the deviant behavior is
repeated without catastrophic results, it becomes the social
norm for the organization.

How can you prevent normalization of deviance?

• Prevent “groupthink”; know and avoid its symptoms.

• Proactively solicit alternate positions.

• Never use past success as sole justification to redefine acceptable system performance.

• Adopt management strategies requiring engineers to “prove systems are safe and reliable” rather than “prove they are unsafe or unreliable.”

• Employ a rigorous systems engineering process. Be extremely vigilant in monitoring system performance and trends.

• Encourage/facilitate critical peer reviews of engineering analysis and test results.

• Ensure unimpeded information flow from engineers to decision‐makers.

What is Implicit Bias?

An engineer considers a person and/or the work and information provided by him to be unduly positive or negative based on an unrelated personal characteristic: gender, age, education, wealth, race, etc.

What is Confirmation Bias?

An engineer believes that a condition exists and accepts information that supports the belief but rejects disproving information.

What is Anchoring Bias?

The first quantity or quality that an engineer hears (even if it has no justification) becomes an assumed value, and it becomes difficult to believe that reality is far from that “anchor” value.

What is Overconfidence Bias?

An engineer gains some experience with a situation and then believes she understands it better than she really does. Possibility of the situation departing from past experience is downplayed.

What is Groupthink Bias?

An engineer learns that several others believe something and becomes hesitant to challenge that belief – if the group believes it, then it must be true.

What is Framing Bias?

An engineer’s tendency to answer a question is affected by how the question is framed. It’s natural to respond differently to “Should we confirm this design parameter to ensure user safety?” versus “Should we force the project to go further over‐budget and behind schedule to consider a low probability scenario?”

What is Intertemporal Bias?

Greater weight is given to short‐term issues than long‐term ones. This can apply to both possible failures and possible rewards.

What is Loss Aversion Bias?

An engineer considers it more impactful to lose something she considers “in hand” than to gain the same net quantity from nothing.

For example, believing that it’s worse to state a project will be delivered in 4 weeks and be a week late than to state that it will be delivered in 5 weeks and deliver it on time; the net result is the same, but many will prefer the latter over the former.

Ways to avoid negative effects of bias?

• Avoid ethical lapses resulting from bias by:

  • Documenting procedures that are grounded in objective evaluation
    based on scientific background of processes or systems

  • Accountability and responsibility

  • Understanding cultural norms, implications and educate

• Be mindful on how to ask questions

  • Stereotypical statements such as “her achievements are exceptional for
    being a woman” are not helpful (speaker may assume that it is
    complimentary but this falls into implicit bias)

  • Don’t phrase questions to lead to desired answers (framing and
    confirmation bias)

• Perspective taking is helpful – “put yourself in other peoples shoes”

• Possible to get objective, verifiable, and quantitative data in most engineering situations

  • Use well‐established engineering and scientific principles to establish facts