Engineering Ethics

A Personal Engineering Ethics Threshold 7

engineering programs, mandated that ethics topics be incorporated

into undergraduate engineering curricula. Similarly, the Association to

Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which accredits Masters of

Business Administration (MBA) programs, increased the emphasis on

ethics in its 2004 curriculum learning standard (AACSB, 2004). We wish

that this type of study had been available to us in the classroom. Some of

my colleagues felt strongly enough that they contributed their personal

engineering dilemmas as the anonymous case studies found in Chapter 16.

We believe that engineering ethics should be taught in school to provide

engineers entering industry with a foundation for ethical behavior.

The corporate culture is very powerful and can sway a young engineer’s

thinking.

For example, Dennis Gioia was promoted to field recall coordinator at

Ford Motor Company in 1973, only 2 years out of school (Bachelor of Science

[BS] in Engineering Science, MBA). Part of his new position involved making

initial recommendations about possible future recalls. Although he received

reports of Pinto fires after low-speed rear-end collisions, Gioia did not recom-

mend a Pinto recall. He does remember, however, “being disquieted by a

field report accompanied by graphic, detailed photos of the remains of a

burned-out Pinto in which several people had died” (Gioia, 1992). Writing

about the Ford Pinto experience 19 years later, Gioia stated that his “own

schematized (scripted) knowledge influenced me to perceive recall issues in

terms of the prevailing decision environment and to unconsciously overlook

key features of the Pinto case, mainly because they did not fit an existing

script” (Gioia, 1992).

By discussing the foundation for engineering ethics and reviewing

national headlines and personalized case studies, my colleagues and I hope

that you will be better prepared to enter the industrial environment. We

will consciously reflect on our moral beliefs within the context of corporate

situations, extending and refining these beliefs. By practicing ethical analy-

sis, we will strengthen our ability to conduct it. It is important to integrate

your professional life with personal convictions in order to maintain your

moral integrity.

ETHICAL THEORIES

We begin our discussion of an engineering ethics foundation by consi-

dering some of the classic ethical theories: utilitarianism, duty ethics, rights

ethics, and virtue ethics. Realizing that a thorough treatment of each theory

would result in four textbooks, we will restrict ourselves to highlights of

each theory. Most of our discussion is based on the ethics textbook by

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