GMR Institute of Technology, Rajam Department Level Presentation

GMR Institute of Technology, Rajam
Department Level Presentation

15-Jun-21
Engineering as Social Experimentation

GMR Institute of Technology
Dr S P Mishra
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Introduction
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Experimentation is commonly recognized to play an essential role in

the design process .
• Preliminary tests ,
• simulations,
• materials testing ,
•
process planning are done to convert a new engineering concept

into a product .
Beyond those specific tests and experiments ,each engineering
project in total is viewed as an experiment.
o Social experimentation is a research process. The ethics in
experimentation is concerned with the application of moral principles
in the conduct of research in relation to human beings to protect the
rights and welfare of the human beings involved in the research
process.
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o Even though the research causes harm sometimes in the initial

stages, it may do well for the society on successful completion .
o Therefore a balanced view of justifying any experimentation should
be taken considering the amount of harm and benefit to society.
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ENGINEERING EXPERIMENTS WITH
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STANDARD EXPERIMENTS:
Similarity to Standard Experiments:
There are many aspects of engineering that make it
appropriate to view engineering projects as experiments. The three
important aspects are as follows.
1. Engineering projects , like the standard experiments, are carried
out in partial uncertainties. The uncertainties may include in the,

✓ Design calculation
✓ Exact properties of raw materials used
✓ Constancies of material processing and fabrication
✓ Nature of working of final products
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2. The final outcomes of engineering projects are also generally

uncertain like those of other experiments.
➢ For example, Unexpected dangers to people being near a nuclear
power plant , the possibility of a break of LPG storage tank etc.,
3. Similar to standard experiments, engineering experiments also
requires thorough knowledge about the products at the pre-

production and post-production stages. Thus engineering, like any
other experimentation, requires constant monitoring, alertness, and
vigil on the part of the engineers at every stage of the project.
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➢Learning from the past:

Learning from the past is a continuous process in all
stages from conception to commission of any engineering project.
Learning from the past is not effective in organizations due to lack of
channels of communication, misplaced pride ,fear of litigation and
plain neglect
There are many examples to illustrate why it is not sufficient for
engineers to rely on hand books alone. Let us see a few
✓ Decades earlier the steamship “Arctic” met with a watery grave
due to non-availability of enough number of life boats and yet this
aspect was not taken into account in the case of titanic ship which
also met with similar accident ,a major disaster in sea.
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✓ In the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal, leaky valves in MIC

system had been a problem on at least six occasion earlier to the
accident.
The same company had a plant at West Virginia,USA where there
were 28 leaks of MIC over the previous five years and an internal
memo warning the management had not been transmitted to the

plant in India by Union Carbide.
Therefore Engineering ,just like experimentation demands
practitioners to remain alert, well informed at every stage of project’s
history and learn from the past
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Contrast with standard experiments:
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Engineering differs from standard experimentation in some respects

demanding engineers to take up special responsibilities.
1. Experimental control:
It is not possible to have ‘experimental group’ and ‘control group’
similar to standard experimentation ,as the experimental subjects
are human beings in case of engineering projects.
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• In engineering experiments, usually there is no control group.

Sometimes the control group is used only when the project is limited
to laboratory experiments. Because the engineering experiments
involve human beings are experimental subjects. In fact, clients and
customers have more control, as they own the authority of that
project. So here the experimental subjects say clients or end user‘s

are out of experimenter‘s control. In this type, it is not possible to
select the member from various group randomly. Instead the
engineers should work with the available historical and fair data
about various groups randomly. Instead, the engineering should
work the available historical and fair data about various groups that
uses the end product.
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Contrast with standard experiments:
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2. Informed consent* :
Engineering experimentation closely parallels medical testing of
new drugs and techniques on human beings .
As human beings are involved in all engineering products, they
have moral rights to know about the facts i.e. informed consent.
A success ‘Informed consent’ for experimentation has two main

elements:
• Knowledge :
All the information needed to make a reasonable decision.
• voluntariness:
They must enter into the experiment without force .fraud and
deception.
*agreement in opinion (or) sentiment

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▪ Conditions for ‘informed consent’:

o The consent must be given voluntarily
o The consent must be based on the information presented to them in
understandable form.
o The consent must be competent (knowledgeable ) to process the
information and make rational decisions.

o The information should be widely disseminated(spread)
o A group representing many subjects may offer consent.
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Engineering as Social Experimentation

Dr S P Mishra
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Responsible engineers in social experimentation
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General responsibility of engineering as society:

• Engineers are primarily considered as technical enablers or
facilitators, rather than being the sole experimenters.
• Engineers‘ responsibility is shared with management, the public and
others.
• The other unique responsibility of engineers include monitoring
projects, identifying risks, providing customers and clients the

required information to make reasonable decisions.
• While exercising engineering duties, the engineers should display
the virtue of being morally responsible person.
• General features of moral responsible engineers:
1. Conscientiousness
2. Relevant information
3. Moral Autonomy
4. Accountability
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• Conscientiousness: A primary obligation to protect the safety of

human subjects and respect their right of consent.
• Relevant information: A constant awareness of the experimental
nature of any project, imaginative forecasting of its possible side
effects and a reasonable effort to monitor them.
• Moral autonomy: Autonomous, personal involvement in all steps of

the project.
• Accountability: Accepting accountability for the results of the project.
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Conscientiousness (sense of awareness):

• Conscientious means showing that one cares about the doing things
well and thoroughly.
• It means commitment to live according to certain values.
• Engineers have to be sensitive to range of moral values and
responsibilities.
• Willingness to develop the skill and expend the effort needed to
reach the best balance possible among various considerations.
• Engineers should act as guardians of the public interest and to
guard the welfare and safety of those affected by engineering
projects.
• He should not force his own views upon the society.
• The social experimentation involved in engineering should be
restricted by participant’s consent (voluntary & informed consent).
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Relevant information
• Conscientiousness is impossible without relevant factual
information.
• Engineers have to show the commitment to obtain and properly
gauge all the information related to meeting one’s moral obligations.
• Moral concern involves a commitment to obtain and assess all

available pertinent information.
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Moral autonomy:
• The moral autonomy is the ability to think critically and
independently about moral issues and apply this moral thinking to
situations that arise during the professional engineering practice.
• It is understood that an individual personality depends on the
integration of his moral benefits and attitude.

• When one‘s labor and skills are sold, then it is an illusion to think
that the person is not morally autonomous.
• As an experimenter, an engineer has to undergo an extensive and
updated training to form his identity as a professional.
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• There will be a personal involvement in one‘s work.

• The magnitude of moral autonomy to be experienced by engineering
is highly influenced by the attitude of company‘s managements.
• Where there is a treat for engineers‘ moral autonomy, then
engineers can look for moral support from their professional
societies and outside organization.
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Accountability:
• Means being responsible, liable, answerable or obligated.
• Morally responsible peoples are expected to accept morally
responsibility for their actions.
• According to standley milgram, people are not willing to accept
personal accountability when placed under authority.
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CODES OF ETHICS
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The ‘codes of ethics’ exhibit, rights, duties, and obligations of the

members of a profession and a professional society. The codes exhibit
the following essential roles:
1. Inspiration and guidance
2. Support to engineers
3. Deterrence (discourage to act immorally) and discipline (regulate to

act morally).
4. Education and mutual understanding
5. Create good public image
6. Protect the status quo
7. Promotes business interests.
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1. Inspiration and guidance.

– Codes of ethics, which specify a collective commitment towards a profession,
help in motivating the engineers towards ethical conduct. Actually, these codes
make one feel really responsible and proud to be a professional thus motivating
towards the commitment one should have towards one’s profession.
– Codes are written in brief yet prove effective in offering general guidance to the
engineers. More specific directions may be given in supplementary statements or

guidelines, which tell how to apply the code. If needed, the assistance is
obtained for further specification
2. Support to engineers. The codes give positive support to
professionals for taking stands on moral issues. Further they serve as
potential legal support to discharge professional obligations.
3. Deterrence (discourage to act immorally) and discipline (regulate to
act morally). The codes serve as the basis for investigating unethical
actions. The professional societies sometimes revoke membership or
suspend/expel the members, when proved to have acted unethical.
This sanction along with loss of respect from the colleagues and the
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society are bound to act as deterrent.
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4. Education and mutual understanding. The codes which are widely

circulated and officially approved by professional societies, promote a
shared understanding among professionals, the public and government
organizations about the moral responsibilities of engineers. These
codes prompt discussion and reflection on moral issues.
5. Create good public image. The codes present positive image of the
committed profession to the public, help the engineers to serve the
public effectively. They promote more of self regulation and lessen the
government regulations. This is bound to raise the reputation of the
profession and the organization, in establishing the trust of the public.
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6. Protect the status quo. They create minimum level of ethical conduct
and promotes agreement within the profession. Primary obligation
namely the safety, health, and welfare of the public, declared by the
codes serves and protects the public.
7. Promotes business interests. The codes offer inspiration to the
entrepreneurs, establish shared standards, healthy competition, and

maximize profit to investors, employees, and consumers.
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Limitations: The codes are not remedy for all evils. They have many
limitations, namely:
1. General and vague wordings. Many statements are general in nature
and hence unable to solve all problems.
2. Not applicable to all situations. Codes are not sacred, and need not
be accepted without criticism. Tolerance for criticisms of the codes

themselves should be allowed.
3. Often have internal conflicts. Many times, the priorities are clearly
spelt out, e.g., codes forbid public remarks critical of colleagues
(engineers), but they actually discovered a major bribery, which might
have caused a huge loss to the exchequer.
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4. They can not be treated as final moral authority for professional

conduct. Codes have flaws by commission and omission. There are still
some grey areas undefined by codes. They can not be equated to laws.
After all, even laws have loopholes and they invoke creativity in the
legal practitioners.
5. Only a few enroll as members in professional society and non-

members can not be compelled.
6. Even as members of the professional society, many are unaware of
the codes
7. Different societies have different codes. The codes can not be
uniform or same! Unifying the codes may not necessarily solve the
problems prevailing various professions, but attempts are still made
towards this unified codes.
8. Codes are said to be coercive. They are sometimes claimed to be
threatening and forceful.
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A Balanced outlook on law
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• The ‘balanced outlook on law’ in engineering practice stresses the

necessity of laws and regulations and also their limitations in
directing and controlling the engineering practice.
• Laws are necessary because, people are not fully responsible by
themselves and because of the competitive nature of the free
enterprise, which does not encourage moral initiatives. Laws are

needed to provide a minimum level of compliance.
• The following codes are typical examples of how they were enforced
in the past:
1. Code for Builders by Hammurabi
2. Steam Boat Code in USA
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1. Code for Builders by Hammurabi

• Hummurabi the king of Babylon in 1758 framed the following code
for the builders:
• “If a builder has built a house for a man and has not made his work
sound and the house which he has built has fallen down and caused
the death of the householder, that builder shall be put to death.

• If it causes the death of the householder’s son, they shall put that
builder’s son to death.
• If it causes the death of the householder’s slave, he shall give slave
for slave to the householder.
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• If it destroys property, he shall replace anything it has destroyed;

and because he has not made the house sound which he has built
and it has fallen down, he shall rebuild the house which has fallen
down from his own property.
• If a builder has built a house for a man and does not make his work
perfect and the wall bulges, that builder shall put that wall in sound
condition at his own cost”.
• This code was expected to put in self-regulation seriously in those
years.
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Steam Boat Code in USA

• Whenever there is crisis we claim that there ought to be law to
control this. Whenever there is a fire accident in a factory or fire
cracker’s store house or boat capsize we make this claim, and soon
forget. Laws are meant to be interpreted for minimal compliance. On
the other hand, laws when amended or updated continuously, would

be counter productive.
• Laws will always lag behind the technological development. The
regulatory or inspection agencies such as Environmental authority of
India can play a major role by framing rules and enforcing
compliance.
• In the early 19th century, a law was passed in USA to provide for
inspection of the safety of boilers and engines in ships. It was
amended many times and now the standards formulated by the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers are followed.
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Proper Role of Laws

• Good laws when enforced effectively produce benefits. They
establish minimal standards of professional conduct and provide a
motivation to people. Further they serve as moral support and
defense for the people who are willing to act ethically.
Thus, it is concluded that:

1. The rules which govern engineering practice should be construed as
of responsible experimentation rather than rules of a game. This makes
the engineer responsible for the safe conduct of the experiment.
2. Precise rules and sanctions are suitable in case of ethical
misconduct that involves the violation of established engineering
procedures, which are aimed at the safety and the welfare of the public.
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3. In situations where the experimentation is large and time consuming,

the rules must not try to cover all possible outcomes, and they should
not compel the engineers to follow rigid courses of action.
4. The regulation should be broad, but make engineers accountable for
their decisions, and
5. Through their professional societies, the engineers can facilitate

framing the rules, amend wherever necessary, and enforce them, but
without giving-in for conflicts of interest.
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Safety and Risk

Dr S P Mishra
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• The perception varies from person to person based on physical

condition, age, experience, expertize and wisdom.
• A second hand electric water heater when purchased was alright.
But when used, it might give electric shock and result in loss of
human.
• Chlorinated municipal water supplied may be considered as unsafe,

we may judge that the harm to the stomach is unacceptable. But it
may really safeguard against gastroenteritis.
• Sometimes individual or group may think motor bike are unsafe and
scooters are safe.
• Some may never think about safety at all.
• A scissor with children is unsafe, but with adult it can be safe.
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Safety
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Safety as different connotations.

A product or a project is safe, with respect to a person or a group, at a
given time, if its risks were fully known and if the risks are judged to be
acceptable, in the light of settled perspectives.
When based on judgement, safety can be taken as objective.
When based on perspective of values, safety can be taken as
subjective.
Awareness and maintenance of this situation is called as safety.
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Various factors that influence the perception of risk are:

1. Probability of risk (statistical nature of occurrence of risk)
2. Consequence of the risk. It can be physical damage or death of
people, economic loss or damage of property, loss of money or
reputation, degradation of environment.
3. Voluntariness ( for thrill or under compulsion)

4. Magnitude i.e., number of people or extent of area involved
5. Proximity, the closeness of the relative with those affected
6. Method of information dissemination on risk
7. Job related i.e., under compulsion or violation
The knowledge of risk acceptance is useful to the engineers.
The designer can redesign the product/project to include safety
measures, so as to (a) allow the product to fail safely, (b) abandon it
safely, and (c) provide for safe escape from the product or site and thus
eliminate or minimize the human loss. 4
SAFETY AND RISK
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• Safety was defined as the risk that is known and judged as

acceptable. But, risk is a potential that something unwanted and
harmful may occur. It is the result of an unsafe situation, sometimes
unanticipated, during its use.
• Probability of safety = 1 – Probability of risk

• Risk = Probability of occurrence × Consequence in magnitude
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Methods to determine the Risk
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Different methods are available to determine the risk (testing for safety)
1. Testing on the functions of the safety-system components.
2. Destructive testing: In this approach, testing is done till the
component fails. It is too expensive, but very realistic and useful.
3. Prototype testing: In this approach, the testing is done on a
proportional scale model with all vital components fixed in the system.
Dimensional analysis could be used to project the results at the actual

conditions.
4. Simulation testing: With the help of computer, the simulations are
done. The safe boundary may be obtained. The effects of some
controlled input variables on the outcomes can be predicted in a better
way.
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Assessment of safety and Risk
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1. Uncertainties in Assessment
There are many positive uncertainties in determining the risk of a
product/service.
i. Restricted assess to knowledge on risk: Some organizations do
not disclose the data, citing legal restrictions.
ii. Uncertain behaviour of materials: Test data supplied by suppliers

are only statistical. The individual parts may behave differently
from the statistical mean obtained from the tests on random
samples.
iii. Uncertain and varying behaviour of user environments such as
physical shock, thermal shock, fatigue, creep, impulse and self
vibrations in components or structures due to winds, snowfall and
rains cause sudden failure of the whole structure. An error or
wrong procedure during assembly or joining the components may
cause additional stress leading to early failure.
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iv. The use or misuse of materials/products, remaining untracked, e.g.,

exposure to rain or snow or damp whether is likely to change
properties.
v. Newer applications of obsolete technologies, remaining unpublished.
vi. Substitution of newer materials whose behaviour are not disclosed
and
vii. The unexpected and unintended outcomes of the product/project.
All these aspects make the estimation of risk complex and unreliable.
Hence the data are to be monitored continuously and risk estimation
updated periodically.
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RISK-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
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The major reasons for the analysis of the risk benefit are:
1 To know risks and benefits and weigh them each
2 To decide on designs, advisability of product/project
3 To suggest and modify the design so that the risks are eliminated or
reduced
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limitations of risk-benefit analysis
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The economic and ethical limitations are presented as follows:

1. Primarily the benefits may go to one group and risks may go to
another group. Is it ethically correct?
2. Is an individual or government empowered to impose a risk on some
one else on behalf of supposed benefit to some body else? Sometimes,
people who are exposed to maximum risks may get only the minimum
benefits. In such cases, there is even violation of rights.
3. The units for comparison are not the same, e.g., commissioning the
express highways may add a few highway deaths versus faster and
comfortable travel for several commuters. The benefits may be in terms
of fuel, money and time saved, but lives of human being sacrificed.
How do we then compare properly?
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4. Both risks and benefits lie in the future. The quantitative estimation of
the future benefits, using the discounted present value (which may
fluctuate), may not be correct and sometime misleading.
5. Both risks and benefits may have uncertainties. The estimated
probability may differ from time to time, and region to region.
A. Personal risk: Assessing the involuntary personal risk is not an easy

task.
The following methodologies can be adopted to assess quantitatively,
the personal risk:
i. Assess the voluntary activities (life insurance policy taken)
ii. Assess the degree of occupational hazard(dust and radiation) and
its effect on health.
iii. Loss of senses such as sight, hearing and loss of limbs
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iv. Loss of hearing capability, especially due to physical disability

v. Get assistance by trained arbiters
2. Public risk:
Assessing the public risk is relatively easy in the societal value system
the cost of disability can be averaged out.
To assess the public risk, the loss on the assets and the
correction costs are estimated.
Ex:
1. Loss of or reduction in the future income or earning capacity due to
loss of limbs or their capability.
2. Cost associated with accident, which includes the transplantation of
body parts or limbs, and medical treatment and
3. Cost of welfare which includes rehabilitation, provision of less
demanding alternative jobs and other disability benefits.
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3. Voluntary Risk
• Voluntary risk is the involvement of people in risky actions, although
they know that these actions are unsafe. The people take these
actions for thrill, amusement or fun. They also believe that they have
full control over their actions (including the outcomes!) and
equipment or animals handled, e.g., people participate in car racing

and risky stunts.
Testing becomes inappropriate when the products are
1 Tested destructively
2 When the test duration is long, and
3 When the components failing by tests are very costly. Alternate
methods such as design of experiments, accelerated testing and
computer-simulated tests are adopted in these circumstances.
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4. Reducing risk (Improving safety)

Techniques adopted to reduce risk in a product or process are listed as
follows:
i. Application of inherent safety concepts in design
ii. Use of redundancy principle in the instrument protection/design
Ex: use of stand bye device, and back up for computer storage.
iii. Periodical monitoring (inspection) and testing of safety system to
ensure reliability, e.g.,fire extinguishers, ‘earth’ system in electric
circuits are checked periodically.
iv. Issue of operation manuals, training of the operating personnel and
regular audits are adopted to ensure that the procedures are
understood, followed and the systems are kept in working
condition.
v. Development of well-designed emergency evacuation plan and
regular rehearsal/drills to ensure preparedness, in case14 of
emergency.
OCCUPATIONAL CRIME
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• An occupational crime may be committed by (1) wrong actions of a

person through one’s lawful employment or (2) crime by an
employee to promote ones own or employer’s interest or (3) theft by
the employee or (4) damage to the property or an employees of
one’s organization.
• Examples of occupational crimes are
1. Price fixing
2. Industrial espionage
3. Bootlegging
4. Endangering lives
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• 1.Price fixing: Price fixing is when two entities, usually companies,

agree to sell a product at a set price. They do this to maintain profit
margin’s. It's easiest for monopolies to fix prices. They operate
without competitors that could offer products at lower prices.
• 2.Industrial espionage: Industrial espionage is the illegal and
unethical theft of business trade secrets for use by a competitor to

achieve a competitive advantage. Industrial espionage is conducted
by companies for commercial purposes rather than governments for
national security purposes. Industrial espionage may also be
referred to as "corporate spying or espionage”.
• 3. Bootlegging: Manufacturing, selling or transport products that are
prohibited by law is called bootlegging.
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• 4. Endangering lives: Industries who expose their employees to

hazards usually escape penalties. As per the Annual report of
RIL10, an initiative called Project CASH,Change Agent for Safety
and Health, had been formed to bring about a positive change and
continual improvement in occupational health practices at the work
place, besides attitudinal and behavior changes. This is claimed to

have prevented work-related diseases, injuries, reduced
absenteeism, and ultimately increased the productivity level.
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Employee Rights
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• An employee right can be any right, moral or legal, that involves the
status of being an employee. They involve some professional rights
also, such as the right to be paid according to the salary mentioned
in one’s contract. Privacy and equal opportunity can be considered
essential rights too.
1. Right to Privacy
• The right to privacy refers to the right of having a private life, off the
job. It is the right to control the access to and the use of information
about oneself.
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• The examples of situations where the functions of employers conflict

the rights of employees will be when the job-related queries or any
other tests conducted in a job, includes questions relating to
personal life such as alcohol usage or sexual conduct. The
instances when a supervisor unlocks and checks the desk of his
subordinate in his absence or when the management questions

about his likes, dislikes or posts on social media regarding his
personal opinions where it has nothing to do with the company.
• Employers should view the relationship with their employees
concerning confidentiality that cannot break the trust. The personal
information in such cases is given based on the special professional
relation and trust.
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Right to Equal Opportunity – Non-discrimination

• The demeaning of a person based on trivial factors such as one’s
sex, race, skin color, age or political or religious outlook can be
understood as Discrimination. Such a discrimination should never
be allowed at any workplace; this is where everyone has to be
treated equally. These things internally affect the person’s self-

identity and self-respect which is pernicious within the work
environment, where the work itself should represent a person’s self-
image.
• According to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “It shall be unlawful
employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to
discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any
individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or
privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color,
religion, sex or national origin”.
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Right to Equal Opportunity – Sexual Harassment

• In today’s world, there is an increase in the number of sexual
harassment cases across the world. This is quiet an unfortunate
scenario. There were a number of cases where the charges were
levied since last two decades, which kept on growing. A definition
of Sexual harassment is, “The unwanted imposition of sexual

requirements in the context of a relationship of unequal power”.
Sexual harassment is a display of power and aggression through
sexual means. It takes two forms, quid pro quo and hostile work
environment.
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• Quid Pro Quo includes cases where supervisors require sexual

favors as a condition for some employment benefit (a job, promotion
or raise). It can take the form of a sexual threat (of harm) or sexual
offer (of a benefit in return for a benefit). Hostile work
Environment by contrast, is any sexually oriented aspect of the
workplace that threatens employee's rights to equal opportunity. It

includes unwanted sexual proposals, lewd remarks, sexual leering,
posting nude photos and inappropriate physical contact.
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Right to Equal opportunity – Affirmative Action

• Affirmative action refers to the preference given to a person or a
group who was denied equal importance in the past. For example,
the women and the minority communities were not given equal
treatment and were ill-treated in the past. So to compensate that,
amendments were made in recent laws to provide them special

quota for reservations in education, employment and social sectors.
• These preferential treatments are made in order to compensate the
previous ill-actions. Ideally such compensation should be given to
those specific individuals who in the past were denied jobs. But the
practical possibilities of such actions are limited. Sexism and racism
still permeate in our society and to counterbalance their insidious
impact reverse preferential treatment is warranted in order to ensure
equal opportunity for minorities and women.
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Professional Rights
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The rights that engineers have as professionals are called Professional

Rights. These professional rights include −
1. The basic right of professional conscience.
2. The right of conscientious refusal.
3. The right of professional recognition.
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1. Right of Professional Conscience

• This is a basic right which explains that the decisions taken while
carrying on with the duty, where they are taken in moral and ethical
manner, cannot be opposed. The right of professional conscience is
the moral right to exercise professional judgement in pursuing
professional responsibilities. It requires autonomous moral

judgement in trying to uncover the most morally reasonable courses
of action, and the correct courses of action are not always obvious.
• There are two general ways to justify the basic right of professional
conscience.
❑ The exercise of moral reflection and conscience that justifies
professional duties is necessary, with respect to that duty.
❑ The general duties to respect persons and rule-utilitarianism would
accent the public good of allowing engineers to pursue their
professional duties.
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2. Right of Conscientious Refusal

• The right of conscientious refusal is the right to refuse to engage in
unethical behavior. This can be done solely because it feels
unethical to the doer. This action might bring conflicts within the
authority-based relationships.
The two main situations to be considered here are −

❑ When it is already stated that certain act is unethical in a widely
shared agreement among all the employees.
❑ When there occurs disagreement among considerable number of
people whether the act is unethical.
• Hence it is understood that engineers and other professionals have
a moral right to refuse the unethical acts such as bribery, forging
documents, altering test results, lying, padding payrolls or coercing
employees into acting by threatening, etc.
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15-Jun-21
3. Right to Recognition
• An engineer has a right to the recognition of one’s work and
accomplishments. An engineer also has right to speak about the
work one does by maintaining confidentiality and can receive
external recognition. The right for internal recognition which includes
patents, promotions, raises etc. along with a fair remuneration, are

also a part of it.
• The fulfillment of right to recognition motivates the employee to be a
trustful member of the organization, which also benefits the
employer. This makes the employee morally bound which enhances
the ethical nature to be abide by the professional ethics.
27
CONFIDENTIALITY
15-Jun-21
Confidentiality means keeping the information on the employer and

clients, as secrets. It is one of the important aspects of team work.
Justification for Confidentiality
• Confidentiality can be justified by various ethical theories.
• According to Rights-based theory, rights of the stakeholders, right to
the intellectual property of the company are protected by this
practice.
• Based on Duty theory, employees and employers have duty to keep
up mutual trust.
• The Utilitarian theory holds good, only when confidentiality produce
most good to most people. Act utilitarian theory focuses on each
situation, when the employer decides on some matters as
confidential.
28
15-Jun-21
Moral principles to justify the concept of ‘confidentiality’ are

1. Respect for autonomy
2. Respect for Promise
3. Respect for public welfare
29
15-Jun-21
I. Respect for autonomy:

• · Recognizing the legitimate control over private information
(individuals or corporations).
• · This control is required to maintain their privacy and protect
their self-interest.
II. Respect for Promise:

• · Respecting promises in terms of employment contracts not to
divulge certain information considered sensitive by the employer
III. Regard for public well being:
• · Only when there is a confidence that the physician will not
reveal information, the patient will have the trust to confide in him.
• · Similarly only when companies maintain some degree of
confidentiality concerning their products, the benefits of
competitiveness within a free market are promoted.
30
15-Jun-21
Types of confidential information

• The confidential information can be understood as Privileged
Information and Proprietary information.
• Privileged information means “available only on the basis of
special privilege” such as a privilege accorded an employee working
on a special assignment.
• Proprietary information is the information that a company owns or
is the proprietor of, and hence is a term carefully defined by property
law. It is simply called trade secret.
• The patents legally protect the products from being manufactured
and sold by other competitor unless a patent holder grants
permission.
31
15-Jun-21
Changing jobs
• The obligation to protect confidential information does not cease
when employees change jobs. The former employees are bound by
moral rules and are not supposed to indulge in revealing or selling
such information to the new employers. An employee may change
his job for his personal financial or career-oriented growth. But that
should never effect the old company, which he used to work for.
• An engineer’s knowledge base generates an intuitive sense of what
designs will work and will not work, and trade secrets form part of
this knowledge base. It is usually considered a better deal, if the
employee is not allowed to change the job until the project finishes;
this helps in avoiding unnecessary revelation of information.
32
15-Jun-21
Management Policies
• To protect the personal interest and rights of engineers and other
employees while recognizing the rights of employers, employment
contracts with a few restrictions imposed, helps. Usually, those
restrictions centered on the geographical location of future
employers, the length of time after leaving the present employer

before one can engage in certain kinds of work and the type of work
it is permissible to do for future employers.
33
15-Jun-21
• But such contracts threaten the right of individuals to pursue their

careers freely and hence courts tend not to recognize them as
binding. The employers might try different plans such as an
agreement not to work for similar project for few years or to be an
outside consultant for the same project until it finishes so as to make
them abide morally. Other tactics like restricting trade secrets to

employees where absolutely essential might result in lessening the
knowledge base of engineers involved in research and
development.
• One potential solution for employers might be generating a sense of
professional responsibility among the staff that reaches beyond
merely obeying the directives of current employers.
34
15-Jun-21
Justification
• The primary justification is to respect the autonomy (freedom, self-
determination) of individuals and corporations and to recognize their
legitimate control over some private information concerning
themselves. The rights and duties of autonomy along with its utilities
are to be observed. The trust and trustworthiness can grow once

confidentiality is maintained properly.
35
Respect for Authority
15-Jun-21
• In order to meet the organizational goals, the professionals should

possess respect for authority. The levels of authority maintained by
the organization provides a means for identifying areas of personal
responsibility and accountability.
• Following are the major types of authority −
❑ Executive Authority − The corporate or institutional right given to a
person to exercise power based on the resources of an

organization.
❑ Expert Authority − This is the possession of special knowledge,
skill or competence to perform a particular task or to give sound
advice.
36
15-Jun-21
• According to the goals of the company, the hierarchical authority is

distributed. A service oriented or engineer-oriented company
concentrates on the quality of the products which are decided by the
engineers as they are the subject matter experts. Whereas a
company when it is customer-oriented company, focuses primarily
on the satisfaction of the customers. Hence the goal of the company

decides the power between a General Manager and a Technical
Manager or an Engineer.
37
Collective Bargaining
15-Jun-21
• It is the bargain by the trade union for improving the economic

interest of the worker members.
• The process includes negotiation, threatening verbally and
declaration of strike.
• There exist always conflicting views between the professionalism
and unionism.
A. Faithful agent or Trustee? : Professional societies such as NSPE
and IEI refuse to accept the ‘collective coercive action’ of unionism,
holding the principles of professional integrity as right, e.g., as per
NSPE code III, i.e., engineers shall not promote their own interest at
the expense of the dignity and integrity of the profession. The
engineers are expected to perform an ethical duty to their employer as
faithful agent or trustee.
38
15-Jun-21
• The actions of the unions are usually against the interest of the
employers and they use coercion and force against employers.
These actions are interpreted as unprofessional and disloyal. But in
certain cases, the safety of the workers had been ignored for a long
period or the employees were unpaid for years.
Conclusion:
1. the duty of the employee to one’s employer does not mean sacrifice
of monetary self- interests and
2. Trustee or faithful agent means executing the assigned tasks and
safe guarding the property.
3. The codes insist that the paramount obligation is to the society, as
compared to their employers.
39
15-Jun-21
B. Service to the public?

• Service to the public is the foremost importance, but the unions
promote the interest of a few members only.
• Collective bargaining by engineers through union or associations or
forums may act within limits set by the concern for the public
welfare.
• Professional societies promotes and establishes principles and
practices for fair employment, but not as collective bargaining
agents.
• The collective bargaining is important as long as it does not harm
the persons or property.
40
15-Jun-21
Assessment on unionism:
• The moral assessment on unions is a complex process. A careful
consideration of all the moral facts are to be inquired into and
judged.
41
Pro and anti views on unionism.
15-Jun-21
For unionism Anti unionism

1.Unions have been useful in improving standard of 1. Unions disturb the economy of state by
living and economic benefits of the workers. increased salaries and expenses leading to
inflationary conditions
2. Unions have obtained greater participation in 2. Instead of being cooperative, they act in negative
organization, by participative management. and destructive ways, causing loss of man-days.
3. Unions have contributed to the job security, and 3. Unions encourage seniority-based promotion.
protection against arbitrary treatment to the Merit-based promotion and awards for personal
employees. achievement are disregarded.
4. They are able to put resistance to unethical 4. Unions thrive on prolonged unrest, dissatisfied,
orders and support to ethical actions and tense relations between workers and
management
5. They have provided for effective grievance
redressal mechanism for employees.
They act to safeguard against the possible political

interference, exploitation, and alienation in the
company affairs.
42
Conflict of interest
15-Jun-21
• A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or

organization is involved in multiple interest, financial or otherwise,
and serving one interest could involve working against another.
Types of COI
1. Actual COI
2. Apparent COI
3. Potential COI
1. Actual COI: This refers to the situation where the objective is lost in
decision making and the inability to discharge the duty to the
employer. It is the result of weaker judgement and service.
2. Apparent COI: This is explained with example. An engineer is paid
based on the percentage of the cost of the design and there is no
incentive to cut the cost. It appears that the engineer makes more
expensive design in order to get larger commission for him.
43
15-Jun-21
• 3. Potential COI:
• A potential conflict of interest arises where a public official has
private interests that could conflict with their official duties in the
future.
• (A) Favourable contact: When an engineer’s spouse is working for a
contractor, a conflict does not arise. But if the engineer is to give a

subcontract to the contractor, then the conflict rises. This happens
even when the engineer a stockholding in the business of that
contractor.
• (B) Bribe and gift: The conflict arises when accepting large gifts from
the suppliers. Bribe is different from a gift.
44
Difference of bribe and gift
15-Jun-21
Tests Bribe Gift

1. Timing Given before Given after
2. Cost of item Large amount Small amount, articles of daily
use
3. Quality of product Poor Good/High
4. Giver is a friend Yes No
5. Transparency Made in secret Made in open

6. Motive Expect undue favor Expect a favor or thanking for
the favor
7. Consequence on Damaging the goodwill No damage is involved
organization’s and reputation
goodwill
An additional thumb rule is that the acceptance of gift should not influence one’s
judgment on merit.
45
15-Jun-21
(c) Moonlighting
• It is a situation when a person is working as employee for two
different companies in the spare time. This is against the right to
pursue one’s legitimate self-interest. It will lead to conflict of
interests, if the person works for competitors, suppliers or
customers, while working under an employer. Another effect of

moonlighting is that it leaves the person exhausted and harms the
job performance in both places.
46
15-Jun-21
(D) Insider Information

• Another potential conflict of interest is when using ‘inside’
information to establish a business venture or get an advantage for
oneself or one’s family or friends. The information may be either of
the parent company or its clients or its business partners, e.g.,
engineers might inform the decision on the company’s merger with

another company or acquisition or an innovative strategy adopted. In
such cases, their friends get information on stock holding and decide
on trading their stocks to sell or buy quickly, so that gain more or
prevent a loss.
• For example, in WorldCom USA, the insider information was used to
manipulate and sell a large amount of stock holding by the Director,
upon knowing that the government has declined to admit their
product.
47

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GMR Institute of Technology, Rajam

Department Level Presentation

Engineering as Social Experimentation

Experimentation is commonly recognized to play an essential role in

process planning are done to convert a new engineering concept

o Even though the research causes harm sometimes in the initial

out in partial uncertainties. The uncertainties may include in the,

2. The final outcomes of engineering projects are also generally

requires thorough knowledge about the products at the pre-

➢Learning from the past:

✓ In the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal, leaky valves in MIC

memo warning the management had not been transmitted to the

Engineering differs from standard experimentation in some respects

• In engineering experiments, usually there is no control group.

project. So here the experimental subjects say clients or end user‘s

A success ‘Informed consent’ for experimentation has two main

*agreement in opinion (or) sentiment

▪ Conditions for ‘informed consent’:

information and make rational decisions.

Engineering as Social Experimentation

General responsibility of engineering as society:

projects, identifying risks, providing customers and clients the

• Conscientiousness: A primary obligation to protect the safety of

• Moral autonomy: Autonomous, personal involvement in all steps of

Conscientiousness (sense of awareness):

• Moral concern involves a commitment to obtain and assess all

integration of his moral benefits and attitude.

• There will be a personal involvement in one‘s work.

societies and outside organization.

personal accountability when placed under authority.

The ‘codes of ethics’ exhibit, rights, duties, and obligations of the

3. Deterrence (discourage to act immorally) and discipline (regulate to

1. Inspiration and guidance.

engineers. More specific directions may be given in supplementary statements or

4. Education and mutual understanding. The codes which are widely

entrepreneurs, establish shared standards, healthy competition, and

be accepted without criticism. Tolerance for criticisms of the codes

4. They can not be treated as final moral authority for professional

5. Only a few enroll as members in professional society and non-

• The ‘balanced outlook on law’ in engineering practice stresses the

enterprise, which does not encourage moral initiatives. Laws are

1. Code for Builders by Hammurabi

the death of the householder, that builder shall be put to death.

• If it destroys property, he shall replace anything it has destroyed;

Steam Boat Code in USA

the other hand, laws when amended or updated continuously, would

Proper Role of Laws

Thus, it is concluded that:

3. In situations where the experimentation is large and time consuming,

5. Through their professional societies, the engineers can facilitate

Safety and Risk

• The perception varies from person to person based on physical

• Chlorinated municipal water supplied may be considered as unsafe,

Safety as different connotations.

Various factors that influence the perception of risk are:

3. Voluntariness ( for thrill or under compulsion)

• Safety was defined as the risk that is known and judged as

• Probability of safety = 1 – Probability of risk

• Risk = Probability of occurrence × Consequence in magnitude

Dimensional analysis could be used to project the results at the actual

ii. Uncertain behaviour of materials: Test data supplied by suppliers

iv. The use or misuse of materials/products, remaining untracked, e.g.,