Ethical Problem-Solving Techniques Study Notes

Ethical Problem-Solving Techniques

• Objectives:
  • Apply ethical problem-solving methods to hypothetical and real cases.
  • Understand how flow charting can be used to solve ethical problems.
  • Learn about bribery and how to avoid it.

Introduction

• Engineers frequently encounter scenarios with health or safety risks associated with their designs.
• The exact nature of hazards may be poorly understood.
• Engineers must decide if it is ethical to work on a particular product or process.
• The chapter develops analysis and problem-solving strategies to address these ethical questions.

Analysis of Issues in Ethical Problems

• A first step in solving ethical problems is to understand all the issues involved.
• Issues can be split into three categories: factual, conceptual, and moral.

Types of Issues

• Factual Issues:
  • Involve what is actually known about a case.
  • Facts are not always clear and may be controversial.
  • Example: Controversy over when life begins in the abortion rights debate.
  • Example: Global warming - the extent to which greenhouse emissions cause atmospheric warming is not fully understood.
• Conceptual Issues:
  • Relate to the meaning or applicability of an idea.
  • Example: Defining what constitutes a bribe versus an acceptable gift.
  • Example: Determining whether certain business information is proprietary.
  • Conceptual issues can be controversial.
• Moral Issues:
  • Determining which moral principle is applicable to the situation.
  • Resolution often becomes obvious once the problem is defined.
  • Example: Determining whether a gift is simply a gift or a bribe clarifies the appropriate action.
• Resolving Controversies:
  • Factual issues: resolved through research to establish the truth.
  • Conceptual issues: resolved by agreeing on the meaning and applicability of terms and concepts.
  • Moral issues: resolved by agreement as to which moral principles are pertinent and how they should be applied.

Application to a Case Study: Paradyne Computers

• In 1980, Paradyne bid to supply the Social Security Administration (SSA) with new computer systems.
• Factual issues:
  • The request for proposals specified that only existing systems would be considered.
  • Paradyne did not have an existing system and had never tested the operating system on the proposed product.
  • Paradyne employed a former SSA worker to lobby SSA for the contract.
• Conceptual issues:
  • Whether bidding to provide an off-the-shelf product only in the planning stages is lying or acceptable business practice.
  • Whether placing a Paradyne label over the real manufacturer’s label is deceptive.
  • Whether lobbying your former employer on behalf of your current employer constitutes a conflict of interest.
• Moral issues:
  • Is lying an acceptable business practice?
  • Is it alright to be deceptive if doing so allows your company to get a contract?
  • Lying and deceit are no more acceptable in business life than in personal life.

Line Drawing

• Useful for situations where the applicable moral principles are clear, but there seems to be a great deal of “gray area” about which ethical principle applies.
• Draw a line and place examples and hypothetical situations along it.
• At one end is the "positive paradigm,” an example of something unambiguously morally acceptable.
• At the other end is the “negative paradigm,” an example of something unambiguously not morally acceptable.
• Place the problem under consideration and other similar examples in between.
• Determine whether the problem is more like the positive or negative paradigm to assess acceptability.

Hypothetical Situation Example:

• Company wants to dispose of slightly toxic waste by dumping it into a local lake from which a nearby town gets its drinking water.
• Problem: The average concentration of the waste in the lake will be $5$ parts per million (ppm).
• EPA limit is $10$ ppm.
• At $5$ ppm, no expected health problems, and consumers would not be able to detect the compound in their drinking water.
• Positive paradigm: The water supply for the town should be clean and safe.
• Negative paradigm: Toxic levels of waste are put into the lake.
• Other hypothetical examples:
  1. At $5$ ppm, the chemical will be harmless, but the town’s water will have an unusual taste.
  2. The chemical can be effectively removed by the town’s existing water-treatment system.
  3. The chemical can be removed by the town with new equipment that will be purchased by the company.
  4. The chemical can be removed by the town with new equipment for which the taxpayer will pay.
  5. Occasionally, exposure to the chemical can make people feel ill, but this only lasts for an hour and is rare.
  6. At $5$ ppm, some people can get fairly sick, but the sickness only lasts a week, and there is no long-term harm.
  7. Equipment can be installed at the plant to further reduce the waste level to $1$ ppm.
• After setting up examples, identify gaps and seek more information.
• Dumping the toxic waste may be a morally acceptable choice, but better choices can be made.
• Political aspects and community relations should also be considered.
• Line drawing can help solve the ethical aspects of a problem, but a morally acceptable choice might not be the best choice when politics and community relations are considered.

Pitfalls in Line Drawing

• It can easily be used to prove something is right when it is actually wrong.
• It is only effective if used objectively and honestly.
• False conclusions can be reached by using incorrect paradigms, dishonest placement of examples, and dishonest placement of the problem.
• Casuistry: a precursor to this method that was used improperly in the Middle Ages to reach false conclusions.

Application of Line Drawing to the Pentium Chip Case

• In 1994–95, it was discovered that the latest version of the Intel Pentium chip had flaws.
• Positive paradigm: Products should perform as advertised.
• Negative paradigm: Knowingly sell products that are defective and that will negatively affect customers’ applications.
• Examples:
  1. There is a flaw in the chip, but it truly is undetectable and won’t affect any customer’s applications.
  2. There are flaws in the chip, the customer is informed of them, but no help is offered.
  3. A warning label says that the chip should not be used for certain applications.
  4. Recall notices are sent out, and all flawed chips are replaced.
  5. Replacement chips are offered only if the customer notices the problem.
• The approach taken by Intel wasn’t the best ethical choice.

Flow Charting

• Used in developing computer programs, engineering disciplines, and business processes.
• Helpful for analyzing cases with a sequence of events or a series of decision consequences.
• Gives a visual picture of the situation and allows one to readily see the consequences that flow from each decision.
• Different flow charts can be used to emphasize different aspects of the same problem.
• It is essential to be as objective as possible and to approach flow charting honestly.

Bhopal Disaster Example

• MIC, a toxic substance, was mixed with water, creating toxic fumes at Union Carbide’s plant in Bhopal, India.
• Flow chart examples:
  • Safety issues for the surrounding community in the decision-making process of building a plant at Bhopal.
  • Decisions required during the maintenance of the flare tower at the Bhopal plant.
  • Issues of whether the MIC tank was filled at the time that the flare tower was taken off-line for maintenance.
  • Whether other safety systems were operating when the flare tower was taken out of operation.
  • Whether the remaining safety systems were sufficient to eliminate potential problems.
• The key to effective use of flow charts for solving ethical problems is to be creative in determining possible outcomes and scenarios and to not be shy about getting a negative answer and deciding to stop the project.

Conflict Problems

• Problems that present a choice between two conflicting moral values, each of which seems to be correct.
• Conflict problems can be solved in three ways:
  1. One choice is obviously more significant than the other (e.g., protecting public health and safety is more important than duty to the employer).
  2. “Creative middle way” - Attempt at a compromise that will work for everyone.
  3. Make the hard choice based on “gut feelings” when there is no easy choice or successful middle ground.

Challenger Explosion Example

• Dilemma faced by engineering manager, Bob Lund.
• Conflict: Unknown probability that the shuttle would explode vs. responsibility to his company and the people who worked for him.
• Consequences of postponing the launch: loss of future contracts from NASA, loss of jobs, bankruptcy of the company.
• Easy choice: do not launch.
• Creative middle ground: Delay the launch until later in the day, when the temperature will have warmed up or Inform astronauts of engineer’s concerns and allow them to choose.
• Hard choice: Lund chose to risk the launch.

Bribery / Acceptance of Gifts

• Potential for gifts to become bribes or be perceived as bribes.
• Concerns arise when engineers deal with vendors or act as vendors themselves.
• Bribery is illegal in the United States and everywhere else in the world.
• United States federal law forbids American businesses from engaging in bribery overseas, regardless of local customs or expectations.
• There is a fine line between bribery and a simple gift, with the distinction based on the value and intent of the gift.
• Avoid the appearance of impropriety.

When is a Gift a Bribe?

• A bribe is something offered or given to someone in a position of trust to induce dishonestly.
• Ethical reasons for not tolerating bribery:
  • Corrupts our free-market economic system and is anticompetitive.
  • A sellout to the rich.
  • Treats people as commodities that can be bought and sold.

Examples of Gifts vs. Bribes

• Gifts of nominal value are really just an advertising tool.
• Dining with a customer or a supplier is also an acceptable practice, especially if everyone pays his or her own way.
• When meals or gifts are no longer of low cost and the expense of these items is not shared equally, the possibility for abuse becomes large.

Problem Solving

• Bribery can easily be analyzed by looking at the factual, conceptual, and moral issues.
• Conceptual issues involve determining whether the gift is of sufficient value to influence a decision or whether that influence is the intent of the gift.
• Line drawing can be very effectively applied to the examples given previously.
• Flow charting can be used to examine the consequences that will result from the acceptance or offer of a gift.

Avoiding Bribery Problems

• Look at company policy.
• In the absence of strict corporate guidelines, a preapproval from one’s management is the best guide to what is acceptable.
• “New York Times Test”: Could your actions withstand the scrutiny of a newspaper reporter?

Application Cases

Cellular Phones and Cancer

• Concerns about potential adverse health effects of cell phones began in 1992.
• The possible problems with cell phones are clear: source of electromagnetic radiation proximity to the brain.
• The biological effects of rf energy have been studied for many years.
• Typically, these were epidemiological studies and were retrospective looks at people who have used cell phones.
• Studies have also been performed on laboratory animals, laboratory tissue, and cell cultures.
• This study found that cell phone use leads to a 7% increase in brain activity in areas of the brain closest to the phone’s antenna.
• Cell phones can certainly be redesigned to reduce or eliminate problems, but will probably cost more.
• What is the prudent and ethical thing to do in designing such products in an atmosphere where some doubt about safety exists?

Vice President Spiro Agnew and Construction Kickbacks in Maryland

• In January of 1973, architects and consulting engineers were seeking out defense attorneys due to subpoenas related to bribes and kickbacks given to elected officials in the construction industry.
• Matz donated $500$ to Agnew’s campaign for Baltimore county executive in 1962.
• With this arrangement, Matz, Childs and Associates prospered, and Matz became relatively wealthy.
• These payments continued even after Agnew was elected vice president in 1968.
• Was to give cash “bonuses” to key employees and was then returned by the employee.
• The company books record the transaction as a bonus, yet much of the money is retained by the firm.
• Agnew would resign as vice president and plead nolo contendere to a single count of income-tax evasion for payments received in 1967.
• $10,000 fine and three years of unsupervised probation.

Job Search

• Ethical issues arise in the course of looking for a job.
• Even though as you approach graduation you are still an “amateur,” ethical and professional behavior is expected during your job search.
• Examples include discussing plans honestly with the recruiter.

Cheating

• The intense pressure to get good grades in college often leads to temptations to cheat on exams or assignments.
• Cheating is a form of dishonesty.
• Honesty helps trust between individuals and vice versa.
• People rarely want to associate with others who they feel don’t behave fairly and can’t be trusted.