Engineering Ethics

Part III

Individual Case Studies

In Part II we discussed national cases in which at least one engineer

forewarned his or her supervisor of an impending disaster but was ignored.

Using an ethical vocabulary based on previous experience and study, we

discussed the decisions made by engineers and their managers that eventu-

ally made headlines.

In Part III we discuss more personal case studies. In Chapter 16, actual

anonymous industrial cases of engineering ethics are presented that

include an abbreviated description of each situation and how each engi-

neer responded. Each of the 10 case studies begins with an ethics dilemma

scorecard, identifying dilemmas the engineer faced in the work environ-

ment. Because the engineers in these case studies want students to be pre-

pared for ethics situations before the students encounter them in industry,

they were willing to discuss these painful events. To keep their identities

secret, some small details have been changed to obscure company charac-

teristics. Case Studies 3 and 10 are positive and are included for a balanced

perspective.

Ch16-P088531.qxd 2/22/06 11:49 AM Page 185

Prelims-P088531.qxd 3/1/06 3:09 PM Page i

This Page is Intentionally Left Blank