HU-222 Lecture 2-Responsibility of Engineers (1).pptx

Responsibility of engineers is explaines in these slides

1. HU-222 1 Department of Aerospace Engineering, School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering (SMME), NUST, H-12, Islamabad E-Mail: [email protected] Professional Ethics

2. © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri 2

3. Lecture 2 Professional ethics-The responsibility of engineers 3 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

4. Learning Objectives 4 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri Describe passive responsibility, and distinguish it from active responsibility Describe the four conditions of blameworthiness and apply these to concrete cases Describe the professional ideals: technological enthusiasm, effectiveness and efficiency, and human welfare Evaluate the role of the professional ideals of engineering for professional responsibility Demonstrate an awareness that professional responsibility can sometimes conflict with the responsibility as employee and how to deal with this Evaluate the impact of social context of technological development for the responsibility of engineers

5. Responsibility Professional responsibility is the responsibility that is based on your role as a professional engineer Responsibility as far as it stays within the limits of what is morally allowed Professional responsibilities are not just passive but they also contain an active component After all this lecture’s theory, the Space Shuttle Challenger case will be visited. 5 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

6. Passive Responsibility Passive responsibility is backward-looking and concerns the moral and legal consequences engineers must face in case something goes wrong Must provide an account why he/she followed a particular course of action Held to justify his/her actions to those who are in a position to demand the person in question accounts for his/her actions ACCOUNTABILITY Blameworthiness – another type of Passive Responsibility Blameworthiness – it is proper to blame someone for his/her actions or the consequences of those actions 6 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

7. Passive Responsibility-Blameworthiness Four conditions need to be applied for blameworthiness; Wrong-doing: Whenever one blames a person or institution one usually maintains that in carrying out a certain action the individual or the institution in question has violated a norm or did something wrong. We determine this by looking at moral beliefs, ethical theories and codes of conduct. Causal contribution: The person(s) who is(/are) held responsible must have made a causal contribution to the consequences for which he or she is held responsible To keep in mind: not only an action, but also a failure to act may often be considered a causal contribution. often, a range of causal contributions will have to be present for the consequence to occur. Foreseeability: A person who is held responsible for something he/she must have been able to know the consequences of his or her actions. Freedom of action: He or she must not have acted under compulsion. Individuals are either not responsible or are responsible to a lesser degree if they are, for instance, coerced to take certain decisions. 7 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

8. Active Responsibility and the Ideals of Engineers We discussed about responsibility when something has gone wrong Responsibility is also something that comes into play beforehand , if nothing has yet gone wrong OR If there is the chance to realize something good ACTIVE RESPONSIBILITY Active Responsibility of engineers => ideals of engineers Ideas or strivings which are particularly motivating and inspiring for the person having them Typical of ideals that they aim at achieving an optimum or maximum Also called professional ideals 8 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

9. Active Responsibility and the Ideals of Engineers As professional ideals, these ideas are part of professional responsibility as far as they stay within moral limits Examples of these professional ideals of engineers are; Technological enthusiasm Effectiveness and Efficiency Human Welfare The first two ideals are NOT ALWAYS morally commendable => may become immoral Third ideal is morally laudable, hence part of professional responsibility of engineers 9 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

10. Active Responsibility and the Ideals of Engineers Conflict => professional responsibility as engineer vs. responsibility as employee Three models of dealing with this conflict between engineers and managers are; Separatism Technocracy Whistle-blowing 10 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

11. Whistle-blowing When an employee discloses certain abuses in a company in which he or she is employed WITHOUT the consent of his superiors The primary purpose is to remedy these abuses and/or to warn the public about these abuses Abuses include; Endangerment of public health and safety Endangerment to Environment Violation of the law and of legislation Deception of the public or the government Corruption, Fraud Destroying or manipulating information Abuse of power, including sexual harassment & discrimination 11 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

12. Whistle-blowing Business ethicist Richard De George (1990) has proposed guidelines, for when whistle-blowing is MORALLY required; The organization to which the would-be whistleblower belongs will, through its product or policy, do serious and considerable harm to the public (whether to users of its product, to innocent bystanders, or to the public at large). The would-be whistleblower has identified that threat of harm, reported it to her immediate superior, making clear both the threat itself and the objection to it, and concluded that the superior will do nothing effective. The would-be whistleblower has exhausted other internal procedures within the organization (for example, by going up the organizational ladders as far as allowed) – or at least made use of as many internal procedures as the danger to others and her own safety make reasonable. 12 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

13. Whistle-blowing The would-be whistleblower has exhausted other internal procedures within the organization (for example, by going up the organizational ladders as far as allowed) – or at least made use of as many internal procedures as the danger to others and her own safety make reasonable. The would-be whistleblower has good reason to believe that revealing the threat will (probably) prevent the harm at reasonable cost (all things considered). 13 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

14. Precautionary Principle Originates from the Rio Declaration , the closing statement of the first conference of the United Nations on sustainable development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 “ Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” There is a connection between sustainable development and the precautionary principle and it lies in the notion that DON’T LEAVE ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS TO THE COMING GENERATIONS 14 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

15. Precautionary Principle The principle also suggests that where there is an identifiable risk of serious or irreversible harm , it may be appropriate to place the BURDEN OF PROOF Advocates inaction until cause is proven – on the person or organization proposing the activity that is potentially harmful to the environment or risky The principle permits the taking of preventative measures without having to wait until the reality and seriousness of threat become fully known 15 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

16. Which is Precautionary Principle and Burden of Proof? 16 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

17. The Challenger Space Shuttle Catastrophe 17 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

18. The Challenger & Colombia Space Shuttle Catastrophe 18 © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri

19. © Dr Muhammad Nafees Mumtaz Qadri 19 The End