UniKL MICET

CHAPTER 3

Engineering
Technologist
Ethics & Responsibility
Universiti Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian Institute of Chemical and Bioengineering Technology
Objective

To understand the philosophy

of eng. tech ethics and to use
it in solving the morals issues
encountered in eng. tech
practices.
 Explain the scope of
eng. tech ethics.

Define the
function of eng.
tech. in society
 POLICIES
that are morally
desirable in eng. tech
practice and research
Eng. Tech ethics

Desirable

Eng. tech ethics is

an activity and
discipline aimed at
understanding the
moral values that
ought to guide eng.
tech practice.
Title
Aminah notice that most of the
other eng. tech in her division are
purposely taking home the office
supplies such as notepad, pens,
paper clips and others. Her
daughter has asked her for a
company pen drive (with cost less
than RM 20). It is all right for her to
take home the pen drive for her
daughter without asking her
supervisor permission?
Dolah a process eng. tech notices
that there is announced
inspection of his working plant.
Dolah believe that unsafe
practices are often tolerated in
the plant, especially in the
handling of toxic chemical.
However, no serious accidents
have occurred in
the plant during
the past few years.
What should Dolah do?
Actions
 Improving
Contributing to the ability
safe and useful to reflect
technological carefully on
products moral
issues
FORD
PINTO
On August 10, 1978, a Ford Pinto was
hit from behind on a highway in Indiana.
The impact of the collision caused the
Pinto's fuel tank to rupture and burst
into flame, leading to the deaths of
three teenage girls riding in the car.

A case against Ford hinged on charges that it was

known that the gas-tank design was flawed and
was not in line with accepted engineering standard.
The dilemma faced by the design
engineers who worked on the Pinto
was to balance the safety of the
people against the need to
produce Pinto at a competitive
price!
The work of eng. tech can affect public
health & safety and also can influence
business practices and even politics.

To sensitize you to
important ethical issues
before you have to
confront them.
➢ The ethical problems encountered in eng.
tech practice are very complex and involve
ethical problems.

To train you to analyze

complex problems and learn
to resolve them in the most
ethical manner.
Professional Engineering Ethics
Eng. tech
CODES
 Most information about how a
business is run, its products and
its suppliers, directly affects the
company's ability to compete in
the marketplace
Such information can be used
by a competitor to gain
advantage or to catch up
➔ Types of information should be

kept confidential: test results

data; upcoming products; and
designs or formulas of products.
Professional ethics may use
codes as a protector rights of
employees who are being
pressured by their employer to
do something unethical
or who are accusing
their
employers
of the
government
of
unethical conduct
Background
of
Eng. tech
ethics
 ➢ How well does
➢ it work?

How will it
affect people?
What changes will
this lead to in
society?
Engineering technologist What are the
often encounter situations effects of doing
in which they don't have nothing?
all of the information
Is it safe?
that is needed
 Ahmad is an automobile
engineer, who design a
sustainable car. He had
followed all the coded
engineering ethics and
considered all safety,
economic, social, cost and
etc aspects before
designing the car. Here,
the engineering ethics
will protect Ahmad
career and design for any
of the outcome risks
Provides a framework for ethical
judgement for a professional.
No code can be totally
comprehensive and cover all
possible ethical situations
that a professional eng. tech
Codes serve as a starting point
for ethical decision making.
A code defines the roles and
responsibilities of
professionals.
*Difficulties,
restriction
self interest
An exclusive concern to satisfy one’s
own interest..looking out for number
one

Hopes and ambitions

should not
restricted to
Professional ideas
Acknowledging Fear Bad
consequences
mistakes
Losing punishments
jobs
“Create difficulties to roles the responsibilities”

Step forward and

come out with a
resist group in
the organization
 Turning away from the
information to avoid dealing with
the challenges

Lack of Not looking in

imagination the right places
Pressure of
Fail to persist deadline

Ignorance is not always a

good excuse
 Interpret situations from limited
perspectives thus fail to understand things
from other perspectives

e.g: eng. Tech want to produce a

useful product but fail to realize how
different the average consumer’s
understanding of how to use its

Test runs of typical

consumer is needed
Microscopic
vision
Highly accurate & precise but the field
of vision is greatly limited

Gained accurate, detailed

knowledge but unable to see
things at the more ordinary level

e.g: the shoemaker can tell about a shoe

in a few seconds, but…while paying
attention to people’s shoes, he may be
missing what people in them are
saying/doing
Uncritical
acceptance of
authority
Most of eng. tech are not their own bosses, thus
have to defer to authority in the organization

Tends to decrease the

eng. tech’s sense of
personal accountability
and to be indifferent to
ultimate one’s work-
make partial
responsibility
 Situations in which groups come to
agreement at the expense of critical
thinking
Symptoms of group thinking:

• illusion of invulnerability/immunity
•Shared stereotypes
•Rationalizations
•Illusion of morality
•Self-censorship
•Illusion of unanimity/agreement
•Direct pressure
•Mind guarding
 Engineering technologist need to
concern with complying with the
law, adhering to standard norms &
practices, avoiding wrongful
behaviors….

Conclusion
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