Social & Ethical Aspects in Engineering

HM322
Assignment#1

Resource Person: Rizwan Younas

Name: Faheem Gulzar
ID: F2016134020
Section: A
Semester: Spring 2019
Department of Mechanical Engineering

School of Engineering
University of Management and Technology
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 Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to thank my teacher Rizwan
younas for his guidance and wisdom from whom I
have learned ethics of engineering I am grateful to
my university for giving me an opportunity to study
in my favorite field and most of all I am thankful to
my parents for their utmost support in every way
for me.

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Contents Page
numbers

Scenario 4

Origin and Development of Human society 5-6

Personality and Moralization (CLO-2, CLO-3, PLO-8, PLO-7) 6

Social Order and Social Control (CLO-3, CLO-4, PLO 5, PLO-6) 7-8

Social Institution (CLO-2, CLO-3, PLO-8, PLO-7

8-9

The family (CLO-4, PLO6):

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Refrences and CLO-PLO criteria followed

10-11

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 Case study: Oil Spill

Peter a hard-working rising engineer faces an ethical breach will he abide the law and
jeopardize his future or inform authorities and follow code of ethics protocol.

Abstract:

Peter has been working with the Earnest Oil Company’s local affiliate for several years, and he
has established a strong, trusting relationship with Jessie, manager of the local facility.

The local facility receives various petrochemical products via pipelines and tank trucks, and it
blends them for resale to the private sector.

Jesse has been so pleased with Peter’s work that he has recommended that Peter be retained as
the corporate consulting engineer. This would be a significant advancement for Peter and his
consulting firm, cementing Peter’s steady and impressive rise in the firm. There is talk of a vice
presidency in a few years.

One day, over coffee, Jesse starts telling Peter a story about a mysterious loss in one of the raw
petrochemicals he receives by pipeline. Sometime during the 1950s, when operations were
more lax, a loss of one of the process chemicals was discovered when the books were audited.
There were apparently 10,000 gallons of the chemical missing. After running pressure tests on
the pipelines, the plant manager found that one of the pipes had corroded and had been
leaking the chemical into the ground. After stopping the leak, the company sank observation
and sampling wells and found that the product was sitting in a vertical plume, slowly diffusing
into a deep aquifer. Because there was no surface or groundwater pollution off the plant
property, the plant manager decided to do nothing. Jesse thought that somewhere under the
plant there still sits this plume, although the last tests from the sampling wells showed that the
concentration of the chemical in the groundwater within 400 feet of the surface was essentially
zero. The wells were capped, and the story never appeared in the press.

Peter is taken aback by this apparently innocent revelation. He recognizes that state law
requires him to report all spills, but what about spills that occurred years ago, where the effects
of the spill seem to have dissipated?

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Discussion:
Jessie and peter have a strong relationship. They have come to become friends overtime due to
their dealings with each-other. Peter as an Engineer should follow the code of ethics he was
taught in School of engineering and he must abide by the rule of law according to his contract. If
he does not do that then that will be an ethical breach of contract. To discuss further what Peter
will choose to do following Protocol of Engineering code of Ethics here are some of the codes:

1)Origin and Development of Human society (CLO-1, CLO-2, PLO-6):

Peter should consider about his culture and his upbringing he should think about his family
history and he should think about how he will be setting an example for the next generation. He
should consider and think about all the cultural norms and think how his actions will affect him.
He should know what is ethics he should know that one uses one's knowledge and skills for the
benefit of the community to create engineering solutions for a sustainable future. In doing so,
one strives to serve the community ahead of other personal or sectional interests. He should
Act on the basis of a well-informed conscience and follow the role of code of ethics which states
that a professional engineer should

 Demonstrate integrity
 Practice competently
 Exercise leadership
 Promote sustainability

Peter will also face ethical dilemma and to counter that he should be Informed means knowing
and appreciating the implications of morally-relevant facts. In addition, it means being aware of
alternative courses of action and what they entail. Well-reasoned means that good judgment is
exercised in integrating the relevant moral values and facts to arrive at a morally desirable
solution.

during professional career of an engineer there are many responsibilities.

Responsibilities include both

 Internal – responsibilities to employers

 External – responsibilities to the outside world

Internal Responsibilities In today’s competitive world, the success of any organization relies on
its team-play. Working effectively as an engineer for a project requires the ethics of team-play.
Team-play involves virtues of:

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 1. Collegiality

 2. Loyalty

 3. Respect for authority and

 4. Collective Bargaining.

External responsibilities include

 Confidentiality

 Conflict of Interest

 Occupational crimes.

2)Personality and Moralization (CLO-2, CLO-3, PLO-8, PLO-7):

Peter should have a certain level of awareness and moral development according to Kohlberg’s
theory of Moral development and it should be one of these 3 levels

Level I: Preconventional/Pre-moral

Level II: Conventional/Role Conformity

Level III: Postconventional/Self-Accepted Moral Principles

Peter will act based on level of his moral development. It will shape his personality and help him
arrive at a decision with ease. He can then move on to do one of the two things blow a whistle
about oils spill in one of two ways

 Internal: it is blowing the whistle inside the organization.

 External: blowing the whistle to law enforcement agencies or to teams worried with the
matters.

Peter must consider if his organization (Earnest) encourages whistle blowing or not. He should
also consider if his organization will consider the role of his intention in blowing the whistle or
any other decision he has come to. It will help him to decide if he should blow whistle internally
by going to his superiors with an evidence or going to external authorities.

3)Social Order and Social Control (CLO-3, CLO-4, PLO 5, PLO-6):

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This refers to how Peter should consider the effects his decision on his social circle Peter must
have been taught some virtues and vices over his academic journey. According to Moral
framework

Virtue ethics says that good character is central to morality. virtue implies four categories of
virtues:

 Public well-being

 Professional competence

 Cooperative practices

 Personal integrity

Rights ethics says we ought to respect human rights. There are two kinds of rights ethics

 Liberty rights are rights to exercise our liberty, and they place duties on other people not to
interfere with our freedom
 Welfare rights are rights to benefits needed for a decent human life, when we cannot earn
those benefits, perhaps because we are severely handicapped, and when the community
has them available.

Duty ethics says we ought to respect individuals' rational autonomy.

Utilitarianism says that we ought to maximize the overall good, taking into equal account all
those affected by our actions.

Self-realization ethics emphasizes the moral significance of self-fulfilment.

Environmental Law:

 In 1969, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act, which may well be the
most important and influential environmental law in history.

 The act declared ‘‘a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony
between man and his environment.’’

Criteria of a clean environment

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 Comparative criterion: The environment is clean if it imposes no greater threat to human life
or health than do other risks.
 Normalcy criterion: The environment is clean if the pollutants present in it are normally
present in nature to the same degree.
 Optimal-pollution reduction criterion: The environment is clean if funds required to reduce
pollution further could be used in other ways that would produce more overall human well-
being.
 . Maximum protection criterion: The environment is clean only if any identifiable risk from
pollution that poses a possible threat to human health has been eliminated, up to the
capacity of available technology and legal enforcement to do so.
 Demonstrable harm criterion: The environment is clean if every pollutant that is
demonstrably harmful to human health has been eliminated.

These codes affect an Engineers interaction with people and his corporation it helps him in his
social standing and gives him a clear understanding of any violations of ethics.

4)Social Institution (CLO-2, CLO-3, PLO-8, PLO-7):

This section refers to communication skills of an engineer. It determines how to address an issue
and what form of communication should be chosen. It helps an engineer determine the right
course of action to be taken for communication in a group or in any institute.

There are two forms of communication with their respective advantages and disadvantages

Written communication: it has advantage of having a proof and it is easy to preserve however it
is time consuming and it can be used against an engineer

Oral communication: It is verbal communication therefore it has no record it is personal and

intimate and your words will not be used against you if there is not any record.

In case of peter since he only has had a verbal communication with Jesse therefore, he should
first find evidence in papers and then take that evidence to respective authorities or superiors
and the way he chooses to communicate the ethical breach is up to him. He should have
persuasive capabilities to present his evidence and sway people to his side.

As for the researching about the evidence Peter can choose one of the two ways

 Qualitative: In this research the Interviewer is fundamental part of research Human person
is primary instrument and Detailed data gained through open-ended questions
 Quantitative: In this type of research the interviewer aims to test hypothesis Generalize the
findings

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Peter will find evidence based on one of these two types of research that whether Jesse is
speaking the truth or not.

5) The family (CLO-4, PLO6):

who will he trust with his findings given that Jesse was speaking the truth? Peter’s family
members and superior must notice a change in behavior of peter and if any person close to
peter inquires how should peter react and should he lie or not about the issues he is facing
professionally and psychological can be determined from knowing clearly what is honesty and
dishonesty and what is the thin line between them how to counter questions without risk of
discovery and still being honest. to clearly know one should know that these are different forms
of dishonesty

 Lying

 Deliberate deception

 Withholding information

 Failure to seek out the truth

An engineer should respect confidentiality of his corporation and his client One can misuse the
truth not only by lying or otherwise distorting or withholding it but also by disclosing it in
inappropriate circumstances. Engineers in private practice might be tempted to disclose
confidential information without the consent of the employer. Information may be confidential
if it is either given to the engineer by the client or discovered by the engineer in the process of
work done for the client. It is crucial for an engineer to respect confidentiality.

Conclusion:
According to my perception as an Engineer Peter should first do research based on the
assumption that there has been an oil spillage and 10000 gallons of chemicals have been leaked
into the environment violating Environmental law told by Jessie. Peter should find evidence and
then persuade Jessie to inform their superiors who favor them and try to solve the problem
internally otherwise go to authorities on their own and blow the whistle if the leakage is
affecting the environment by polluting it as once a great scholar said

“Too see wrong and not to expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.”

-Dr. John Raymond Baker

Reference:

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 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11948-000-0042-y
 Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases, Fourth Edition Charles E. Harris, Michael S.
Pritchard, and Michael J. Rabins
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_ethics
 http://courses.washington.edu/cee440/ETHICS1B.htm
 Engineering Ethics Concepts and Cases by Harris, C.E. Pritchard, M.S.Rabins, M.J.
 https://www.transtutors.com/questions/peter-has-been-working-with-the-bigness-oil-
company-s-local-affiliate-for-several-ye-1695810.htm
 https://examples.yourdictionary.com/ethical-dilemma-examples.html

Course Learning Outcomes and their Mapping of Program Learning Outcomes

(PLOs):
Course Code: HM 322Semester: Sixth Semester

PLO 12Lifelong Learning

PLO 5Mod. Tool Usage

PLO 10Communication
PLO 2Problem Analysis
PLO 1Engg. Knowledge

PLO 3Solution Design

PLO 6Engr. & Society

PLO 11Proj. Mgmt.

PLO 4Investigation

PLO 9 Team Work

PLO 7Env. &Sust.
PLO 8Ethics
Course Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss awareness of professional, social and

ethical responsibility in engineering practice. 

2. Distinguish between individual behavior and

behavior in a group. 

3. Choose different safety issues in engineering

practice according to ethical behavior. 

4. Explain the impact of personality and cultural

norms on engineer’s responsibilities in society 

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 Course Title: Social & Ethical aspects in Engineering

Lectures Topics Textbook CLOs

Chapter(s)
Introduction to Social
1–4 1, 2

Origin and Development of Human Society: The

Cultural Context: Culture and Society, Social and Cultural
5-8 1, 2
Development, culture as a system of norms, real and ideal
culture, Ethnocentrism, Xenocentrism.
Personality and Moralization: The Sciences: Ethics and
Scientific Method: What is Ethics? Social Sciences and
common sense, scientific observation, characteristics of
scientific observation, the scientific method of
9-14 investigation.meaning of personality, factors in the 2, 3
development of personality, biological inheritance/physical
environment self and personality, culture and personality,
moralization and the.

16-21 Social Order and Social Control: Social control through 3,4
moralization, though moral pressure, through force
situational determinations of behaviour, moral deviation,
freedom and order.

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 Social Institutions: Concept of Institution and
Associations. Group and individual, groups dynamics,
22 -23 voluntary associations, institutions and associations, basic 2, 3
institutions.

The Family: Structure of the family, functions of the

24- 28 family, the Pakistani family today. 4

Religion: Religion and society, religion as a unifying force of

society, Islamic concept.
Education: Development of educational institutions, the school
29 - 30 1,2,3,4
as a moral system. Contemporary Moral Issues
Engineering Case Studies

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