Professional Engineers often face ethical challenges and have to make tough decisions. While it may seem easy to ensure your decisions and actions align with the Engineering Code of Ethics, most of the ethical dilemmas we face are not so obvious nor cut-and-dried.
Here are four examples of common breaches of engineering ethics:
- Conflict of Interest: An engineer takes pro-bono work for their church, a friend in public service, a company that a family member or themselves has a vested interest in, or real estate involved with a project
- Safety vs Cost: An engineer discovers a safety issue, but his employer or client pressures the engineer to find a cheaper solution or even ignore them to keep costs down
- Signing Off on Others’ Work: An engineer is expected to stamp other engineers’ or unlicensed engineers’ work that they did not personally oversee or are involved in
- Reporting Illegal Activity: An engineer finds themselves in the midst of illegal activity with a client or employer, such as dumping pollution, violating labor laws, or a product defect where reporting could lead to personal or professional repercussions
Let’s dig further into these examples of ethical dilemmas and why they should be taken seriously.
Engineering Ethics Dilemma #1: Conflict of Interest
An engineer who serves on the zoning board in his jurisdiction decides to provide pro bono engineering services to his local church outside of his primary employment firm. His influence easily pushes the church project through rezoning residential property to commercial use. At the same time, his employment firm is denied that same privilege on a strip mall project because the engineer recused himself from his own firm’s project due to a conflict of interest.
Engineers should avoid a conflict of interest, including providing free services unless their employer supports or offers it.
In providing free services, this real-life example placed this professional engineer in the proverbial ditch. His firm could see this conflict as steering or taking away work from them, while his position on the zoning board could be questioned over this ethical dilemma. The engineer recused himself from his firm’s project but inserted himself into his religious organizational project. If his firm chose to sue the city zoning board for conflicts, not only would they be deposed, but so would the engineer who sanctioned the church project and not his own firm.
In this case, the result of his actions was that the engineer was let go from his job. He was also reprimanded after a review by the state professional engineering licensing board for failure to communicate the conflict of interest between himself acting on his church’s behalf and his position on the zoning board and other violations.
Let’s break this down:
- The engineer accepted work outside his primary firm’s knowledge and failed to make them aware and ask for permission to do so.
- He placed himself in a position to be litigated, which would affect his primary firm’s liability malpractice insurance.
- He publicly recused himself from work his own firm pushed through the zoning board while working to push through his church-affiliated project without disclosing it to the public.
The final element is the greatest breach of engineering ethics as it is an act of deceiving the public interest. This one conflict of interest has further ethical, professional, and personal implications beyond the obvious ones presented here. In a statement, he said he was trying to do his church pastor and longtime friend a favor.
Engineering ethics dilemma #2: Safety vs. cost
Engineers are presented with choices on every project that can pit costs versus safety, creating ethical dilemmas. Choosing a less expensive design element, building material, or equipment that meets the same fit, form, function, and maintenance is normal. However, engineers can’t prioritize cost over safety, environmental, and community impacts.
Engineers must not sacrifice safety for cost
A historical case was the Ford Pinto. High inflation, tight fuel supplies, and rising material costs influenced engineers and executives within Ford to prioritize costs over consumer safety. They ignored known safety protocols and knowingly sold a vehicle that could not sustain rear-impact accidents without damaging the fuel tank.
The car was one of the cheapest to purchase, and Ford was setting sales records with the Pinto. Unfortunately, it carried a high risk of combustion upon impact, resulting in 27 known fatalities.
The vehicle was recalled, a class-action lawsuit was filed, and Ford had to pay a $128 million settlement. Post litigation, the company and its engineers suffered damaged reputations. Further, they fell into corporate peer pressure to bury safety issues. The company made a calculated risk that settling lawsuits was cheaper than changing the design of the car to make it safe. The difference in cost to manufacture the Pinto safely was about $11 per car.
The ethical dilemma for the engineers involved was that any one of them could have come forward publicly. Whistleblower protections were not available then; however, protections from the federal government were.
Engineering ethics dilemma #3: Signing off on others’ work you didn’t complete
The Hyatt Regency is one of the best examples of ethical dilemmas that can hinder an engineer’s honesty and integrity. Engineers know their license is not a rubber stamp used to approve other people’s work. This form of license abuse is a common licensing violation, leading to fines and possibly a revocation of your engineer’s license.
All work stamped by an engineer must be completed under their direction and review. Anything outside of this is a violation of not only the engineering code of ethics but all licensing boards.
Engineers must never stamp work that was not performed under their direction or that they created themselves.
The Hyatt Regency Collapse was a direct result of an engineer signing off on drawings created by a structural design drafter from a subcontracted structural engineering firm. The failed box beam connection on an elevated walkway collapsed, killing 114 people and injuring 216 others.
An engineer may get by with this several times because nothing happens, but it only takes one time for something to go wrong. However, having honesty, integrity, and an ethical compass protects the public as well as keeps your reputation and license safe.
Engineering ethics dilemma #4: Reporting Illegal activity
Boeing has come under fire recently over the failure of a door plug failure on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9. This could have been avoided — Joshua Dean and John Barnett, engineers at Boeing, raised concerns for several years about faulty parts and poor manufacturing practices, but were ignored. After many failed attempts to bring these concerns to the company, they eventually went directly to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Following the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 scandal, over a hundred employees, including many engineers, eventually asked for protection under whistleblower laws after the Boeing scandal.
Engineering ethics demands that a Professional Engineer hold public safety above everything else.
As an engineer, you have an ethical obligation to report illegal activity, especially if it risks public safety. While there are whistleblower laws in place, it can be challenging or even scary to report illegal activity, but engineers have an obligation to protect public safety, even at the risk of their own careers. Practicing engineering is a privilege, and protecting people while providing quality service with integrity is the basis for a successful career.
Learn more about engineering ethics with continuing education
To help you learn more about the importance of engineering ethics, McKissock has several classes that pinpoint specific issues as well as more comprehensive overviews. Build your knowledge with the following engineering continuing education courses:
- Ethical Principles for Professional Engineers
- Engineering Ethics: Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse
- New London School Tragedy: Gas & Boiler Analysis
Check out these courses and more or choose a professional development course package for the best value!
