Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Foreword
- INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL CONCEPTS
- 1 ETHICS AS DESIGN: DOING JUSTICE TO ETHICAL PROBLEMS
- 2 THE BASIS AND SCOPE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
- 3 CENTRAL PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF ENGINEERS
- 4 TWO MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR: ROGER BOISJOLY AND THE CHALLENGER, WILLIAM LEMESSURIER'S FIFTY-NINE STORY CRISIS
- 5 WORKPLACE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- 6 RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESEARCH INTEGRITY
- 7 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF INVESTIGATORS FOR EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS
- 8 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
- 9 FAIR CREDIT IN RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION
- 10 CREDIT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN ENGINEERING PRACTICE
- EPILOG: MAKING A LIFE IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE
- Bibliography and References
- Index
5 - WORKPLACE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Foreword
- INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL CONCEPTS
- 1 ETHICS AS DESIGN: DOING JUSTICE TO ETHICAL PROBLEMS
- 2 THE BASIS AND SCOPE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
- 3 CENTRAL PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF ENGINEERS
- 4 TWO MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR: ROGER BOISJOLY AND THE CHALLENGER, WILLIAM LEMESSURIER'S FIFTY-NINE STORY CRISIS
- 5 WORKPLACE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- 6 RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESEARCH INTEGRITY
- 7 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF INVESTIGATORS FOR EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS
- 8 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
- 9 FAIR CREDIT IN RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION
- 10 CREDIT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN ENGINEERING PRACTICE
- EPILOG: MAKING A LIFE IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE
- Bibliography and References
- Index
Summary
As we saw in Chapter 3, it is in everyone's interest that engineers be heeded when they foresee risks and threats to the public welfare. It is in a company's interest to see that engineers' concerns are heard within the company, rather than only after they have gone outside to “blow the whistle.” In prior chapters we have focused on the moral skills that enable engineers to fulfill their responsibilities both in responsive and unresponsive organizations. In the United States and other countries where employee engineers usually have no written employment contracts (as they do in Germany for instance), companies may retaliate against engineers for pursuing ethical concerns that clash with their company's short-term business objectives. Therefore, creating a workplace that is relatively free of the risk of such harassment is a much larger topic in engineering ethics in a country such as the United States than in a country such as Germany.
The case of Roger Boisjoly in Chapter 4 shows that even concerns arising from engineers' most fundamental responsibilities may fall on deaf ears. In this chapter we examine various organizations – corporations, government agencies, universities, and research facilities – to see what makes them more able to listen. In Chapters 2 and 3 we considered many problems of engineers in private practice; however, most engineers work as employees and are immersed in organizational cultures that significantly influence their moral lives.
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- Information
- Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research , pp. 156 - 193Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998