Keanu

Lecture 7a

Engineering Ethics

Lecturer: Mr Robert Holdom

Term 3, 2020

CVEN3101

ENGINEERING OPERATIONS AND

CONTROL

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Introduction 2 What is importance of Ethics in society?

• Ethics is about the social norms of how community and individuals within it

conduct themselves in an acceptable way

• Straight away it can be seen that there will be differences between the socially

acceptable norms exhibited around the world

• So as not to get bogged down with different cultural customs and their impact in

setting the societal differences across cultures the focus of the Ethics lectures

and learnings will be specific to the cultural norms for Australia

• That said, for those of you with from overseas you have inherent qualities that

you have been trained in your learnings here in Australia and you have the

cultural understanding of your birth country and that which you have experienced

in your studies here in Australia

• These are important values for you if you return to your birth country to work

especially if you become employed by an international organisation which has

won contracts to complete in you birth country

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Introduction 3 Why are Ethics important to you in a professional sense?

• Each of the different professions have industry associations which are available

for individuals to join. For you, Engineers Australia is such an organisation

• The professional associations enable members to seek out training, and provide

meeting times that allow its members to keep up with changes in industry

standards, be able to gain insight how others in the industry do/ have done work

and provide a forum for you to get to know others across industry(s)

• Each of the professional associations provide guidance upon acceptable industry

professional practice through either a Code of Conduct or through the use of a

Code of Ethics. It is expected that members will abide and comply with the

requirements in their work practices

• Before discussing in detail the Code of Ethics that Engineers Australia requires of

its membership, a general introduction of concept of what ethics involves shall

first be discussed

Introduction 4 Doing things right!

• It is an inherent trait that for each of us in how we spend our time that we have

purpose in the things that we do

• We genuinely want to do a good job in the things we attempt

• Whether it be in our study, the sport we play, our hobbies, the time we spend

with others, or our work, we want to make the most of our time and so we want to

do it right

• There are several reasons for this:

• We all value our time and how we prioritise its worth

• Doing things once, properly, is personally satisfying

• We choose with whom we spend our free time

• We want to perform to the best of our potential

• There is personal satisfaction when others recognise that we have done a

good job in the things that we did

• Each of these elements have one thing in common, what is it?

Introduction 5 Doing the right things!

• If we are concentrating on doing the right things then it could take more time or it

may involve spending more resources to produce a successful outcome

• Does this matter?

• It might be well argued that expending more resources is wasteful

• But what if it were in the context that a person was injured and in order to

maximise the preservation of their life a helicopter instead of an ambulance was

used for their extraction to have them at a surgical hospital more quickly. Would

this be classified as a waste of resources?

• From a WHS and safe site perspective, all personnel are individually

prosecutable under the law whether they be a site labourer, an engineer, or the

Managing Director of the organisation if any one of these individuals fails to

perform their roles without consideration of their impact upon the safety of others

who might be impacted by their practices!

• Again, each of these exemplars have one thing in common, what is it?

The conundrum in ethics 6 Doing things right and Doing the right things, the difference?

• In doing things right this is individually centric. In other words the individual

controls how they spend their time and with whom and the expense (or resources

used) in meeting their satisfaction

• In many instances it could be well argued that doing things right is also doing the

right thing in any case, so what does it matter?

• Let’s now reconsider what is different between these different statement.

• In doing the right things the focus is on the other person. No longer is it about the

person doing the task or work. Instead, the focus of the work is about how it

impacts upon others and this is where we will commence the learning about

ethics.

• It does not meant that doing things right is not part of ethical work practices. In

fact, if it is not part of the consideration in developing your solution you would be

negligent in doing your job!

• An ethical solution must be considerate of how the solution impacts upon others!

The conundrum in ethics 7 Doing things right Doing the right things

• How would you determine whether or not you are performing your tasks,

ethically? After all, the way you perform your tasks or work or the way you

conduct your personal transactions are for the most, choices you are able to

make.

• It would be easy if you had someone to ask! But who would be your choice?

• Your parents?

• A work colleague?

• Your supervisor ?

• A lecturer or demonstrator?

• A friend ?

• The opinion of others?

• The person you would select would depend on the exact circumstance and

nature of your concern

• But what if it was a decision that you had to make then and there. How would you

justify that you have made an ethical decision on your own?

Who will help you in ethical decision making? 8 Doing things right Doing the right things

• Let us now examine the advice that each of these different groups of people

would offer you.

• Your Parents

• Your parents have hopefully been responsible for instilling in you:

• Teaching you the difference between right and wrong

• Teaching you life-preservation rules

• Your social adjustment through group activities and team sports

• Teaching you how your actions impact others

• Teaching you the societal value system

• Teaching you decision making

• Family religious values

• Morality values extending from the societal value system

• Money and the value system surrounding it

• Focus on your schooling and learning, habits and life education

• But what if it was a decision that you had to make then and there. How would you

justify that you have made an ethical decision on your own?

Who will help you in ethical decision making? 9 Doing things right Doing the right things

• A Work Colleague

• A work colleague will be able to provide you with insights about:

• Your workplace

• Your workload

• Provide you with some technical advice

• Act as a sounding board to your ideas

• Create the circumstances for your engagement in work social functions

• Developing friendships through the workplace

• Developing professional relationships

• Creating learning circles for you to expand your knowledge

• Teach you new processes, programs and software applications

• Application of your knowledge for pro-bono instances

• But what if it was a decision that you had to make then and there. How would you

justify that you have made an ethical decision on your own?

Who will help you in ethical decision making? 10 Doing things right Doing the right things

• Your Supervisor

• A work supervisor will direct you about:

• Your workplace

• Your job requirements

• Your professional conduct in the organisation

• Your social conduct in the organisation

• The WHS aspects and your responsibilities

• Your workload timetable

• Your workplace training

• Your work output requirements

• Direct you in your work requirements in particular instances

• Your development within the workplace

• Your career path within the organisation

• Act as a sounding board to your ideas

• Provide you some technical advice

• But what if it was a decision that you had to make then and there. How would you

justify that you have made an ethical decision on your own?

Who will help you in ethical decision making? 11 Doing things right Doing the right things

• Your Lecturer(s) and Demonstrator(s)

• They will direct you concerning:

• Developing your knowledge areas

• Developing your individual skills

• Developing your group skills

• Developing your learning skills

• Developing you comprehension skills

• Developing your written skills

• Developing your oral communication skills

• Providing you with evidenced-based learning skills

• Teaching you to how to apply principles to new scenarios

• Extrapolating your learning

• Act as a sounding board to your ideas

• Providing you knowledge about industry/ employment

• But what if it was a decision that you had to make then and there. How would you

justify that you have made an ethical decision on your own?

Who will help you in ethical decision making? 12 Doing things right Doing the right things

• A Friend

• They will provide you with:

• Developing your social contexts

• Advise you on your life balances

• Impart on you their value system

• May be from industry and provide you with professional advice

• Be a person who you can always rely on for support

• Be a person who you can always rely on for support without judgement

• Help you in developing your communication skills

• Act as a sounding board to your ideas

• Help you in your decision making on life matters you choose to discuss

with them

• But what if it was a decision that you had to make then and there. How would you

justify that you have made an ethical decision on your own?

Who will help you in ethical decision making? 13 Doing things right Doing the right things

• The opinions of Others

• They will provide you with:

• Developing your social contexts

• Advise you on your life balances

• Impart on you their value system

• May be from industry and provide you with professional advice

• Help you in developing your communication skills

• Act as a sounding board to your ideas

• Help you in your decision making on life matters you choose to discuss

with them

• The ‘pub test’ review

• But what if it was a decision that you had to make then and there. How would you

justify that you have made an ethical decision on your own?

The role of a mentor 14 Doing things right Doing the right things

• From these different perspectives you should start to see that you need help from

others as you progress through life

• We call these people ‘mentors’

• However, it should now be apparent to you that you will need several different

people to mentor you throughout the many areas your life

• Mentors offer two things to a mentoree:

• Knowledge (accrued about a specific field)

• Wisdom (acquired through lived experiences)

• A mentor’s ‘roadmap’, if you follow the guidance being offered, it will prevent you

from making many unnecessary mistakes in your learnings through life.

• The question below still remains unresolved!

• But what if it was a decision that you had to make then and there. How would you

justify that you have made an ethical decision on your own?

Guidance in choosing mentors 15 Doing things right Doing the right things

• You will find the people who you have chosen over life-guidance matters [your

mentors] will be mostly older than you by at least half a generation [about +15

years].

• You may find that some of your mentors may be more that two generations older

than you [i.e. your age +50 years!]

• Are we off topic, in dealing with ethics?

• Let’s now commence to deal with the carry-over issue and question:

But what if it was a decision that you had to make then and there.

How would you justify that you have made an ethical decision on your own?

• Here is the guidance, and it is more about how the impact of the answer affects

others. There are four approaches taken:

The basis of making ethical decisions 16 Doing things right Doing the right things

1. The ‘Mother’ test • In reaching your decision as to the solution you would take, then ask yourself

would your Mother approve of the decision that you have selected?

• If in answering this question you decide that your Mother would not approve of

that course of action, or you are hesitant in concluding that your Mother would

approve of your decision to act, then there is a really high chance that your

decision is not ethically based.

• The simple explanation of this reasoning is that for most people the persons

responsible for you inherent development of knowing the difference between

‘right and wrong’ have been your parents and even more so, it is the women in

most cultures who set the society’s values and its ‘moral fabric’ and enact them

• In your life there will be someone in your life who has been responsible for this

guidance. Regard them as your ‘mother’ for the sake of the previous explanation

• You will have other mentors who will be your ‘mother’ substitute on technical or

workplace matters and so you substitute them to work out your ethics bounds

The basis of making ethical decisions 17

Doing things right Doing the right things

2. The ‘Golden Rule’ test

• Paraphrasing it:

Don’t do something to someone else that you would not like done to you!

• Here are eight translations of religious texts and one secular commentary as it

appears that there is a version of the Golden Rule in most (maybe all) major

religions:

Christianity

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is

the law of the prophets.” Matthew 7:12

Judaism

"What is harmful to you, do not to your fellow men. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.”

Talmud, Shabbat, 312

Hinduism

"This is the turn of duty; do naught unto others which could cause you pain if done to you.“

Mahabharata, 5, 1517

The basis of making ethical decisions 18

Doing things right Doing the right things

Confucianism

"Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto other that you would not have them do unto

you.“ Analects, 15, 23

Taoism

"Regard your neighbour's gain as your own gain and your neighbour's loss as your own loss.“

T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien

Buddhism

"Hurt not others in ways you yourself would find hurtful.” Udana-Varga 5, 18

Zoroastrianism

"That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself.”

Dadistan-i-dinik, 94, 5

Islam

"No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.“ Sunnah

Secular view

"Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same..”

George Bernard Shaw

A pitfall in ethical decision making 19

Doing things right Doing the right things

3. The ‘Pub’ test

• This is a ‘court of public opinion’ in the present era

• You have to be very careful in its use because:

• It is likely that there will be insufficient detailed understanding of the topic

transferred to those passing opinion

• Where is the proof of their ‘wisdom’ concerning the topic?

• It is likely that those include as the sounding board in the ‘Pub’ test are all

about the same age and so there is not a lot of different knowledges to that

you already know , and probably no better life experiences that you have

lived

Ethical professional practice in business 20

Doing things right Doing the right things

4. Ethical professional practice

• This is a variation on the ‘Golden Rule’

• In the work that you conduct you need to ask yourself whether the practices you

have undertaken are at the standard that would be acceptable to you.

• After all, if the work that you do is not satisfactory to you, then why should others

be required to accept it?

• Again, if you are readily accepting of the standard, then the work undertaking has

most likely been practiced ethically

• If however, you consider that the work performance is not to an acceptable

standard, or again you are hesitant in forming your response, then there may be

an ethical issue in the work undertaking that is being offered or being delivered

Ethical professional practice in business 21

Doing things right Doing the right things

4. Ethical professional practice continued

• You must also consider ‘perceived value’ here. You may be delivering a solution

to a client and for all intents and purposes it is correct and to a standard

acceptable by the client for the price offered in contract.

• This meets the requirements of being an ethical solution, but it might not be at a

‘perceive value’ or standard that you would be willing to accept if the work

performed was being done for you

• What is being described here is that there may well be a range of acceptable

solutions

• Of key consideration ethically is that the client has been told of the different

solutions available for their selection and that you have explained these

variations and that the client has been given the appropriate guidance on the

pros and cons for these options before they have decided on their course of

action in contract