Unit-4 Ethics

PANIMALAR ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
UNIT IV SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS
Safety and Risk – Assessment of Safety and Risk – Risk Benefit Analysis and Reducing Risk -
Respect for Authority – Collective Bargaining – Confidentiality – Conflicts of Interest –
Occupational Crime – Professional Rights – Employee Rights – Intellectual Property Rights
(IPR) – Discrimination.
4.1 SAFETY AND RISK
What is Meant by Safety?
 Safety means the state of being safe. Safe means protected from danger and harm.
 The term ‘safety’ is always difficult to describe completely. What may be safe for one person
may not be safe for another person. It is because different persons have different perceptions
about what is safe. For example, a shaving razor in the hands of a child is never safe as it can
be in the hands of an adult.
 The American Heritage Dictionary defines safety as freedom from damage, injury, or risk.
 Absolute safety that satisfies all individuals or group under all conditions is neither attainable
nor affordable.
 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
The initial version of William W. Lowrence’s definition for safety is as follows:“A thing is safe
if its risks are judged to be acceptable”.It means, a thing is safe for a person if the perceived risk
is less. Similarly a thing is unsafe if the perceived risk is high.
Safety Defined
The initial version of William W. Lowrence’s definition for safety is as follows:
“A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be acceptable”.
It means, a thing is safe for a person if the perceived risk is less. Similarly a thing is unsafe if the
perceived risk is high.
Concept Of Relative Safety
 Safety is expressed frequently in terms of degree and comparisons. We often use

words such as ‘fairly safe’ or ‘relatively safe’. The relative safety expresses the safety
of a thing in comparison with safety of similar things.
 Example: Stating that airplane travel is safer than car travel and car travel is safer
than traveling in a bike.
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Criteria to Ensure Safe Design
It is universally accepted that safety should be an integral part of any engineering design. In
order to ensure the safe design, the following criteria should be met:
1. A design should comply with the legal standards for product safety and other applicable
laws.
2. An acceptable design should meet the standard of ‘accepted engineering practice’.
3. Alternative designs that are potentially safer should be explored.
4. While designing any product, all possible misuses of the product by the consumer should
be identified and the identified problems should be avoided by the engineers.
5. Finally, the designed product should be tested using prototypes to determine:
whether the product meets the specifications, and (ii) whether the product is safe to use.
Designing For safety
(Incorporating safety into the engineering design process)
Alan D. Wilcox has summarized the process of incorporating safely into the engineering
design as follows:
Step 1: Define the problem. It includes the issues of safety in the product definition and
specification.
Step 2: generate multiple alternate design solutions.
Step 3: analyze each design solution. It evaluates the pros and cons of each solution.
Step 4: test the solutions.
Step 5: select the best solution.
Step 6: implement the chosen solution.
During steps 1 to 6, the safety and risk criteria should be given paramount importance
than other issues.
Concept of Safety
1. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for” – John A.Shedd
2. „A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be acceptable‟ - William W. Lawrence
 We buy an ill-designed Iron box in a sale-> Underestimating risk

 We judge fluoride in water can kill lots of people -> Overestimating risk
 We hire a taxi, without thinking about its safety -> Not estimating risk
 How does a judge pass a judgement on safety in these 3 cases?So, this definition won't do
in real life.
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Then, what is acceptable also depends upon the individual or group‟s value judgment. Hence a
better, working definition of concept of safety could be,“A thing is safe (to a certain degree) with
respect to a given person or group at agiven time if, were they fully aware of its risks and
expressing their most settledvalues, they would judge those risks to be acceptable (to that certain
degree).” -Mike Martin and Roland Schinzinger
A thing is NOT SAFE if it exposes us to unacceptable danger or hazard .RISK is the potential
that something unwanted and harmful may occur.a. We take a risk when we undertake something
or use a product that is not safe.
RISK AND ITS CONCEPT
What Is Meant By Risk?
 A risk is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur.
 The American Heritage Dictionary defines risk as the possibility of suffering harm or
loss.
 Generally the term ‘risk’ is synonymously used with adverse effect or harm. The
term ‘harm’ may be defined as an invasion or limitation of a person’s freedom or
well-being.
 The three most important types of well-being are physical well-being psychological
well-being, and economical well-being.
 It is experienced that engineering risk affects mostly the physical and economic well-
being. For example, faulty design of a chemical plant can cause accidents and
economic disaster.
Risk Defined
 William W. Lowrence has defined risk as “a compound measure of the probability
and magnitude of adverse effect”.
 Mathematically, Risk = (Probability of the harm) * (Magnitude or consequence
of the harm)
 In simple words, the risk is the product of the likelihood and the magnitude of the
harm.
 A relatively slight harm having more probability of occurring might constitute a
greater risk than a relatively large harm having lesser probability of occurring.
 Risk is akey element in any engineering design.Risk in technology could include dangers
of bodily harm, economic loss, or environmental degradation.Some may assume that
“safety” is a concrete concept, while “risk” is a vague,hypothetical concept . In fact, its
the other way around Risks always exist. But true safety never exists, except in
hypothetical situations. So, risk is reality, safety is fantasy.
 Risk is one of the most elaborate and extensive studies. The site is visited and exhaustive
discussions with site personnel are undertaken. The study usually covers risk
identification, risk analysis, risk assessment, risk rating, suggestions on risk control and
risk mitigation.
 Interestingly, risk analysiscan beexpanded to fullfledgerisk managementstudy. The risk

management study also includes residual risk transfer, risk financing etc.
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Effects of risk:
it includes dangers of bodily harm, economic loss, and environmental degradation.
Causes of risk:
risk or harms are caused be delayed job completion, faulty products or systems, and
economically or environmentally injurious solutions to technological problems.
Degree of risk :
Safety is a matter of how people would find risks acceptable or unacceptable, if they knew the
risks, and are basing their judgments on their most settled value perspective. So, to this extent, it
is objective. Perspectives differ. To this extent, it is subjective. So, Safety is 'acceptable risk'.
Types of Risks:
 Voluntary and Involuntary Risks
 Short term and Long Term Consequences
 Expected Portability
 Reversible Effects
 Threshold levels for Risk
 Delayed and Immediate Risk
Acceptable Risk:
A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer (or not) apprehensive about it.
Apprehension (i.e. anxiety) depends largely on factors such as
 whether the risk is assumed voluntarily.
 how the probabilities of harm (or benefit) is perceived.
 job-related or other pressures that causes people to be aware of or to overlook risks.
 whether the defects of a risky activity or situation are immediately noticeable or close at
hand .
 whether the potential victims are identifiable beforehand.
Stepwise, Risk Analysis will include:

1. Hazards identification
2. Failure modes and frequencies evaluation from established sources and best practices.
3. Selection of crediblescenarios and risks.
4. Fault and event trees for various scenarios.
5. Consequences-effect calculations with work out from models.
6. Individual and societal risks.
7. •ISO risk contours superimposed on layouts for various scenarios.
8. Probability and frequency analysis.
9. Established risk criteria of countries, bodies, standards.
10. Comparison of risk against defined risk criteria.
11. Identification of risk beyond the location boundary, if any.
12. Risk mitigation measures.
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Natural Hazards And Disaster
 Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, droughts, volcanoes etc greatly threaten
and damage the long lifelines of human populations.
 A disaster is a serious disruptive event coincides with a state of insufficient
preparation.
 In recent years, engineering and technology have greatly reduced some of the ill
effects of natural hazards and disasters.
Thus engineers should be aware of the ethical and professional issues regarding risk.
Factors Influencing Risk
Since the concept of risk is subjective in nature, it depends on many factors. They are:
1. Voluntary Vs Involuntary Risk
 If a person knowingly takes any risk, then he feels it safe. In contrast, if the same risk is
forced to him, then he feels it unsafe.
 In simple terms, the voluntary risks are considered as safe (even if the risks are really unsafe)
and the involuntary risks are considered as unsafe (even if risks are really safe).
2. Short-term Vs Long-term Consequences
 A thing, which causes a short-loved illness or disability, seems safer than a thing that will
result in permanent disability.
3. Delayed Vs Immediate Risk
 An activity whose harm is delayed for many years will seem much less risky than something
with an immediate effect.
4. Expected Probability
 A relatively slight harm having more probability of occurring (say , 50:50 chance) seems to
be a greater/unacceptable risk than a relatively a severe harm having lesser probability of
occurring (say, 1 in 1,00,000)
5. Reversible Effects
 Something will seem less risky if the bad effects are ultimately reversible.
6. Threshold Levels for Risk
 something that is risky only at fairly high exposures will seem safer than something with a
uniform exposure to risk.
From the above discussion, it is understood that something is unsafe or risky to one person may
seem very safe to someone else. This creates the great challenge for the engineers to decide on
the optimal safety level.
Voluntary risk and Control
A person is said to take „VOLUNTARY RISK‟,-when he is subjected to risk by either his own
actions or action taken by others and -volunteers to take that risk without any apprehension.-For
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example, John and Ann Smith enjoy riding motorcycles over rough ground for amusement. They
take voluntary risk, part of being engaged in such a potentially dangerous sport.
Connected to this notion of voluntarism is the matter of Control. In the example cited,the Smiths
are aware of the high probability of accident figures in such a sport, but they display
characteristically unrealistic confidence of most people when they believe the dangers to be
under their control. In terms of engineering as social experimentation, people are more willing to
be the subjects of their own experiments than of someone else‟s (whether social experiment or
not).
Chauncey Starr informs us that individuals are more ready to assume voluntary risks than
involuntary risks, even when voluntary risks are 1000 times more likely to produce a fatality than
the involuntary ones.
 A DISASTER = A seriously disruptive event + A state of unprepared ness.
 e.g., Titanic collision with an iceberg, at night: Emergency
 Fewer lifeboats, inadequate training and warnings of icebergs unheeded -> Disaster.
Job Related Risks:

 Many workers are taking risks in their jobs in their stride like being exposed to asbestos.
 Exposure to risks on a job is in one sense of voluntary nature since one can always refuse
to submit to the work or may have control over how the job is done.
 But generally workers have no choice other than what they are told to do since they want
to stick to the only job available to them.
 But they are not generally informed about the exposure to toxic substances and other
dangers which are not readily seen, smelt, heard or otherwise sensed.
 Occupational health and safety regulations and unions can have a better say in correcting
these situations but still things are far below expected safety standards.
 Engineers while designing work stations must take into account the casual attitude of
workers on safety (esp. when they are paid on piece rate).
Problems faced by engineers about public concept of safety:

 The optimistic attitude that things that are familiar, that have not caused harm before and
over which we have some control present no risks.
 The serious shock people feel when an accident kills or maims people in large numbers
or harms those we know, even though statistically speaking such accidents might occur
infrequently.
Safety in a commodity comes with a price:

 Absolute safety is never possible to attain and safety can be improved in an engineering
product only with an increase in cost.
 On the other hand, unsafe products incur secondary costs to the producer beyond the
primary (production) costs, like warranty costs loss of goodwill, loss of customers,
litigation costs, downtime costs in manufacturing, etc.
 Figure indicates that P- Primary costs are high for a highly safe (low risk) product and S-
Secondary costs are high for a highly risky (low safe) product.
If we draw a curve T=P+S as shown, there is a point at which costs are minimum below
which the cost cannot be reduced.
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 If the risk at Minimum Total Cost Point is not acceptable, then the producer has to choose
a lower acceptable risk value in which case the total cost will be higher than M and the
product designed accordingly.
 It should now be clear that „safety comes with a price‟ only.
ACCEPTABILITY OF RISK
What Is Meant By Acceptable Risk?
 According to D.Rowe, “A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer (or
not) apprehensive about it”.
 Apprehensiveness (or doubtfulness) mainly depends on how the risk is perceived by the
people.
Elements Of Risk Perception

(factors influencing the perception of risk)
The risk perception is influenced by the factors such as:
1. Whether the risk is assumed voluntarily;

2. The effect of knowledge on how the probabilities of harm are perceived;
3. Job-related or other pressures that cause people be aware of risks;
4. Whether the effects of a risky activity or situation are immediately noticeable; and
5. Whether the potential victims are identifiable beforehand.
We shall discuss these elements of risk perception, in detail, in the following sections.
1. Voluntarism and Control

 Voluntary risk: if people take risk knowingly, then their involvement of risk is
known as voluntary risk.
 Many people consider safer if they knowing take on the risk. Also the people believe
that they have ‘full control’ over their actions.
 Examples for voluntary risk
1. Buying a flat/house near a chemical plant that emits low levels of a toxic
waste into the air, because the property values are very low.
2. Participating in a potentially adventurous sport such as motorcycle racing,
skiing boxing, hang-gliding, bungee jumping, etc without much safety
guards.
 Controlled risk: If the risk taken is within the control limit, which can be controlled
by any means then the risk is known as controlled risk.
 Examples for controlled risk: In practice, all the dangerous sports such as
motorcycle racing, skiing, hang-gliding, bungee jumping, horseback riding, boxing
etc are carried out under the assumed control of the participants. They use all safety
guard to keep the risk under control.
2. Effect of information on Risk Assessments
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 The information about a harm/danger should be presented in a systematic and

appropriate manner. Because the manner in which the required information or
decision-making is presented has a great influence on how risks are perceived.
 Many case studies and experiments have proved that the manner in which information
about a danger is presented can lead to undesirable and wrong perceptions about
danger.
 The threshold limit of individuals for information varies from person to person. Some
would be comfortable only when they have information of deeper depth and quality,
while others may be comfortable with minimal information.
 Many experiments have drawn the following two conclusions:
 Options perceived as yielding company gains will tend to be preferred over
those from which gains are perceived as risky or only probable.
 People tend to be more willing to take risks in order to avoid perceived
company losses than they are to win only possible gains.
3. Job-related Risks
 The exposure of risk depends on the person’s job and his work place.
 The nature of the job and the working environment will determine the risk level of a person.
 For example, people working in the coalmines, oil mines, shipyards, chemical plants, nuclear
power plants, etc have more probability of being exposed to the high risk.
 Because of high competition for survival, the employees don’t have any options other than
undertaking high-risk jobs.
 Unions, and occupational and safety regulations should regulate and enforce the employers,
to facilitate the standard working environment.
 Most importantly, engineers who design and equip workstations must take into account the
various safety issues and the workers suggestions/complaints regarding their workplace.
4. Magnitude and Proximity
 Our reaction to risk is affected by the magnification and the personal identification or
relationship we have with the victims.
 For instance, we feel very bad if one of our close relatives or friends are subjected to
great harm by some accident than if it might affect 20 strangers.
 Thus the magnitude of risk and the proximity (i.e closeness) with the victims greatly
influences the degree of reaction to the risk.
LESSONS FOR THE ENGINEERS

Engineers have the challenge to face/overcome the following two different public
conceptions of safety.
1. Positive or optimistic attitude: Some people assume that things that are familiar, that
have not hurt before and over which they have some control, present no real risks.
2. Negative or pessimistic attitude: Some people feel feared, when an accident kills or
harms in large numbers, or affects their relations, they consider those risks as high risks.
 Therefore, while designing a thing engineers should recognize and consider such widely
held perceptions of risks along with their routine technical design issues. So engineers
should recognize this as part of their work.
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 Engineers should also understand that it is not wise to proceed under an assumption that
education will quickly change the people’s under-estimation or over-estimation of the
risk.
 The continuous, proper information about dangers and other issues of risk are necessary
to educate the people to have right attitude and perception about the risk.
 The risk communication and risk management efforts should be structured as a two way
process (between experts and ordinary people).
TYPES OF ACCIDENTS
Engineers should have the knowledge about different nature of accidents so that
to try to prevent them. The three important types of accidents are procedural, engineered, and
systemic accidents.
1. Procedural Accidents
 Procedural accidents are the result of someone making a bad choice or not
following established standard procedures.
 Example: Road accidents because of not following the traffic rules.
2. Engineered Accidents
 Engineered accidents are caused by errors in the design.
 Because of minor design error, the device may not perform as expected or the
device may not perform well under all circumstances.
 Engineers should have the knowledge and experience to anticipate all possible
engineered failures during the design stage itself.
 Example: Minor casting defects in aircraft turbine blades may cause failure of the
system.
3. Systemic Accidents
 Systemic accidents are difficult to understand and difficult to control.
 They are characterized of very complex technologies and the complex
organization that are required to operate them.
 Example: Failure of US Space Shuttle, in which 7 astronauts including Indian-
born astronaut Chawla were killed.
4.2 ASSESSMENT OF SAFETY AND RISK
Relationship between Safety, Risk and Cost
It is always a great challenge to engineers to balance quality and safety against cost. In
general engineer’s tendency is to design and produce high-quality products but business
managers tend to keep the cost down. Therefore it is necessary to understand the relationship
between safety, risk, costs and price. The relationship between them is depicted below.
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Relationship between safety, risk, cost and price.
Safety
High Low
High safety and High risk, Low safety and High risk, Low
High cost, High price cost, High price Examples:
High
Examples: Nuclear plant, Automobiles.
Risk
aircraft, missiles.
High safety and Low risk, High Low safety and Low risk, Low
cost, Medium price Examples: cost, Low price Examples:
Low
Electrical products, safety Electronic goods, computers.
valves.
Why Both Low-risk and high-Risk Products are Costly?
 A product cost may have two elements:

1. Primary cost of product and
2. Secondary cost of product.
 The primary cost of product (P) includes production cost and cost of safety measures
involved.
 The secondary cost of product (S) includes costs associated with warranty expenses, loss
of customer good will litigation, possible downtime in the manufacturing process etc.
 Fig 4.2 illustrates relationship between risk and cost to manufacture.
 As Fig 4.2 indicates, a stress on low risk and high safety leads to high primary costs and
lower secondary costs and vice versa.
 The total cost is the sum of primary and secondary costs of product.
 As Shown in Fig 4.2, the total cost is minimum at point M, where the slopes of the
primary and secondary cost curves are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction.
Therefore it is evident that both low-risk and high-risk products are costly. The optimal total cost
(M) occurs in between low-risk and high-risk region.
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
redicted in a better way.
Imagine you are a fresh graduate.You get a job as an engineer in a large atomic power plant.
 Would you take it or not?
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 Under what conditions would you take it?

 Under what conditions would you not?
 Why?
People as Consumers:
 Active Consumers: directly involve themselves e.g., mowing the lawn,washing clothes or
toasting bread.
 Passive Consumers: have less choice and less control e.g., Water, Electricity,Petrol,
 Bystanders: e.g., exposed to Pollution from unknown sources..What is safe to
Entrepreneurs, may not be so to Engineers. e.g., Pilots: "Indian Airports are not safe; Low
Vision in Fog“
What is safe to Engineers, may not be so to Public. e.g., Top loading Washing Machine
Typically several groups of people are involved in safety matters but have their own interests at
stake. Each group may differ in what is safe and what is not.
DETERMINATIONN OF RISK
In order to determine the risk, one should have knowledge about the following
criterions.
1. Knowledge of Risk
 To assess a risk, an engineer must first identify it. To identify a risk and engineer must
first know the information about the safety of standard products.
 Though past experience and historical data provide good information about the safety of
standard products, still it is insufficient to completely assess the risk of a product.
 The past experience and historical data are inadequate to access the risk, because of the
following reasons:
 Information is not freely shared among firms, and
 There are always new applications of old technology that makes the available
information less useful.
 Therefore in order to access the risk, engineers and firms should share the information
and knowledge about the safety of products freely.
2. Uncertainties in Design
 While designing a product, the design engineer must deal with many uncertainties. Many
of the risks can be expressed as probabilities and as educated guesses.
 The uncertainties are in the form of application of the product, materials used for
producing the product, changing economic conditions, unfavorable environment
conditions, temperature, etc.
 Traditionally engineers use ‘factor of safety’ while designing to cope with uncertainties
about materials and actual operating conditions of the product. The factor of safety is
proposed to account for unpredictably high loads or unaccountably weak construction
material.
 A product is said to be safe if its capability exceeds its duty.
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3. Testing for Safety
 Once the product is designed, both prototypes and finished devices must be thoroughly
tested.
 The testing is not just to determine whether the product meets the specification. It should
also involve testing to see if the product is safe.
 It is essential that in any engineering design, all safety systems be tested to ensure that
they work as planned.
Different Approaches for Testing
The various testing approaches other then destructive testing are given below:
1. Scenario Analysis: This test starts from a given event, and then studies the different
consequences that might develop from it.
2. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis: This approach systematically examines the failure
modes of each component without focusing on causes or relationships among the
elements of a complex system.
3. Fault- Free Analysis: This approach proposes a system failure and then traces the events
back to possible causes at component level.
4. Event-Free Analysis: This is the reverse of the fault-free analysis. This analysis is very
useful in identifying a potentially hazardous situation in the plant.
Out of these several techniques, the fault-free analysis is most effective, because it
explains the possible approaches for proper functioning and safety of a complex system.
RISK-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
What Is Risk-Benefit Analysis?
 Risk- benefit analysis is a technique, similar to cost-benefit analysis, used to analyze
the risk in a project and to determine whether the project should be carried out or not.
 Risk – benefit analysis answers the following questions;
 What are the benefits of the project/product?;
 Is the project/product worth the risks connected with its use?; and
 Do benefits outweigh the risks?
 It is understood that everyone is ready to certain levels of risk as long as the
project/product/activity promises sufficient benefit or gain.
 In risk-benefit analysis, the risks and benefits of a project/product are assigned money
values, and the most favorable ratio between risks and benefits is determined.
Ethical Implications On Risk-Benefit Analysis
While performing the risk-benefit analysis, one should keep in mind the following ethical
questions:
(a) Under what conditions, someone in society is entitled to impose a risk on someone else
on behalf of a supposed benefit to others?
(b) How can we consider the worst-case scenarios of persons exposed to maximum risks
while they are also obtaining only minimum benefits? Are their rights violated? Are they
provided safer alternatives?
PERSONAL RISK
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 If sufficient information is given to a person, then he can be able to decide whether to

participate in a risky activity or not.
 Many experiments have concluded that individuals are more willing to face voluntary
risks than involuntary risks, even when the voluntary risks are more harmful than the
involuntary ones.
 Personal risks are difficult to assess especially if they are involuntary personal risks.
 Examples for personal risks:
 A person living near a chemical plant voluntarily or involuntarily; and
 A person working in a nuclear power plant or oil refinery plant.
 The quantification in assessing personal safety and risk is very difficult to estimate.
 While assessing the personal risk, one should consider the following ethical
questions:
 How to access the money value of an individual’s life?
 On what basis, the compensation for a risk can be decided?
 Is the compensation for a risk by an amount based on the exposure
tolerance of the average person justifiable?
 What will be the compensation if the tolerance level of the person is
below or above the average tolerance level?
 In order to minimize the above difficulties in assessing personal risks, the analysis
employ all the available quantitative measures such as
 Making judgments on the basis of the amount of life insurance taken out
by an individual; and
 Assessing a hazardous job by looking at the increased wages a worker
demands to carry out the task.
PUBLIC RISK AND PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE
 Risk and benefits to the public at large can be more easily determined than the
personal risks and benefits. Because individual differences tend to even out as large
numbers of people are considered.
 Assessment studies relating to technological safety can be conducted in a better
manner for public risk than for personal risk, as statistical parameters take on greater
significance.
 In this regard, America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) has emphasized the following two points.
1. A value for human life can be estimated based on loss of future
income and other costs associated with an accident.
2. An estimate of quantifiable losses in social welfare (resulting from a
fatality) is not based on the maximum expenditure allocated to save a life.
ACCOUNTING PUBLICLY FOR BENEFITS AND RISKS

 Public accountability for risk has been affected by the following problems.
 An expert or even group of experts cannot be expected to know everything. Hence
the public processes (which are designed to establish safeguards and regulations)
suffer from incomplete engineering knowledge
 The uncertainty produced by scientists and regulators (who assure the public that
there are no risks, but they know that the answers are not at hand) also infects the risk
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regulation. In other words, a refusal to face the hard questions created by lack of
knowledge affects the risk regulation.
 Since the conceptions of risk vary depending on how the facts are presented.
Therefore special caution should be given when stating probabilities of rare events.
BECOMING A RESPONSIBLE ENGINEER REGARDING RISK
(Role Of Engineers To Safeguard The Public From Risk)
 The engineers can provide background material to prove the faulty positions.
 Engineers should actively participate in the debates related to safety and risk.
 Engineers should always insist on meaningful numbers and figures when
assessing safety and risk.
 Engineers should also recognize the previously mentioned difficulties with
measuring risks and benefits in absolute terms.
 Engineers should not be influenced by any influential lobby or trade organization.
 Engineers need to be sensitive to various qualitative value judgments related with
human and ethical values.
 Engineers should be aware at the legal liabilities regarding risk.
REDUCING RISK
 As we know, it is impossible to design and manufacture anything to be completely risk free.

However, it is the responsibility of the engineers to explore all the possible ways to reduce the
risk under the given financial and time constraints.
 Risk Management Defined: Risk management may be defined as the eradication or
minimization of the adverse effects of the pure risks to which an organization is exposed.
 Elements of a risk management programme: According to the recent health and safety
legislation, the three important elements of a risk management programme are:
1. Risk identification;
2. Risk evaluation (or risk measurement); and
3. Risk control.
1. Risk Identification
 Risk can be identified by various techniques such as physical inspection, safety audit,
job-safety analysis, management and worker discussions, and historical data analysis.
2. Risk Evaluation
 Risk can be measured on the basis of economic, social or legal considerations.
 Economic and social considerations include financial aspects, uninsured cost of accidents,
insurance premium, overall effect on the profitability, and possible loss of production.
 Legal considerations include possible constraint from compliance with health and safety
legislation, code of practice, guidance notes and accepted standards, fire prevention, pollution
and product liability.
3. Risk Control
 Risk control consists of four areas: risk avoidance, risk retention, risk transfer and risk
reduction.
 Risk avoidance: It refers to the conscious decision by the management to avoid completely a
particular risk by discounting the operation producing the risk.
 Risk retention: It refers to retaining a particular risk for which any consequent loss is financed
by the organization.
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 Risk transfer: It refers to the legal assignment of the cost of certain potential losses from one
party to another (example by insurance)
 Risk reduction: It refers to the reduction or elimination of all aspect of accidental loss that lead
to a wastage of an organization’s assets.
FAULTY ASSUMPTION AND THEIR REALITIES ABOUT SAFETY
There are many misconceptions about safety. Some of the popular fault assumptions
and their realities about safety are given below:
1. Assumption: The principle causes of all accidents are operator error and negligence.
Reality: Accidents are caused by dangerous conditions, which can be corrected.
2. Assumption: Producing a safe product always increases the costs.

Reality : If safety is incorporated in the design stage itself, the initial cost will be reduced. If
there are any later design changes, it will increase the product cost.
3. Assumption: We learn about safety after a product has been completed and tested.
Reality: If safety is not built into the original design, people can be hurt during the testing stage.
Unwillingness to change a design means compromising on safety.
3. Assumption: Warnings about harms are sufficient. Insurance coverage is cheaper than
planning for safety.
Reality: Warning can provide minimal protection against harmful events. Insurance rates are
very high.
4.3 Risk Benefit Analysis And Reducing Risk

Risk-benefit analysis is the comparison of theriskof a situation to its related benefits. For esearch
that involves more than minimal risk of harm to the subjects, the investigator must assure that the
amount of benefit clearly outweighs the amount of risk.Only if there is favorable risk benefit
ratio, a study may be considered ethical.
Risk Benefit Analysis Example

Exposure to personal risk is recognized as a normal aspect of everyday life. We accept a certain
level of risk in our lives as necessary to achieve certain benefits. In most of these risks we feel as
though we have some sort of control over the situation.
For example,driving an automobile is a risk most people take daily. "The controlling factor
appears to be their perception of their individual ability to manage the risk-creating situation."
Analyzing therisk ofasituation is, however, very dependenton theindividualdoing theanalysis.
When individuals are exposed to involuntary risk, risk which they have no control, they make
risk aversion their primary goal. Under these circumstances individuals require the probabilty of
risk to be as much as one thousand times smaller then for the same situation under their
perceived control.
Evaluations of future risk:

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 Real future risk as disclosed by the fully matured future circumstances when they
develop.
 Statistical risk, as determined by currently available data, as measured actuarially for
insurance premiums.
 Projected risk, as analytically based on system models structured from historical studies.
 Perceived risk, as intuitively seen by individuals.
Air transportation as an example:

 Flight insurance company -statistical risk.
 Passenger -percieved risk.
 Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) -projected risks.
Reduce Risk:
 As we know, it is impossible to design and manufacture anything to be completely risk free.
However, it is the responsibility of the engineers to explore all the possible ways to reduce the
risk under the given financial and time constraints.
 Risk Management Defined: Risk management may be defined as the eradication or
minimization of the adverse effects of the pure risks to which an organization is exposed.
 Elements of a risk management programme: According to the recent health and safety
legislation, the three important elements of a risk management programme are:
 Risk identification;
 Risk evaluation (or risk measurement); and
 Risk control.
Risk Identification
 Risk can be identified by various techniques such as physical inspection, safety audit,
job-safety analysis, management and worker discussions, and historical data analysis.
Risk Evaluation
 Risk can be measured on the basis of economic, social or legal considerations.
 Economic and social considerations include financial aspects, uninsured cost of accidents,
insurance premium, overall effect on the profitability, and possible loss of production.
 Legal considerations include possible constraint from compliance with health and safety
legislation, code of practice, guidance notes and accepted standards, fire prevention, pollution
and product liability.
Risk Control
 Risk control consists of four areas: risk avoidance, risk retention, risk transfer and risk
reduction.
 Risk avoidance: It refers to the conscious decision by the management to avoid completely a
particular risk by discounting the operation producing the risk.
 Risk retention: It refers to retaining a particular risk for which any consequent loss is financed
by the organization.
 Risk transfer: It refers to the legal assignment of the cost of certain potential losses from one
party to another (example by insurance)
 Risk reduction: It refers to the reduction or elimination of all aspect of accidental loss that lead
to a wastage of an organization’s assets.
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To reducing risk,
1.D efine the Problem
2.Generate Several Solutions
3. Analyse each solution to determine the pros and cons ofeach
4. Test the solutions
5.S elect the best solution
6. Implement the chosen solution
7. Analyse the risk in the chosen solution
8. Try to solve it. Or move to next solution.
Risk-Benefit Analysis and Risk Management

Informative risk-benefit analysis and effectiverisk managementare essential to the ultimate
commercial success of your product. We are a leader in developing statistically
rigorous,scientifically valid risk-benefit assessment studies that can be used to demonstrate the
level of risk patients and other decision makers are willing to accept to achieve the benefits
provided by your product.
Risk-Benefit Modeling Systematically quantify the relative importance of risks and

benefits to demonstrate the net benefits of treatment
Risk-Benefit Tradeoffs Quantify patients’ maximum acceptable risk for specific

therapeutic benefits
Factors Influencing Risk
Since the concept of risk is subjective in nature, it depends on many factors. They are:
1. Voluntary Vs Involuntary Risk
If a person knowingly takes any risk, then he feels it safe. In contrast, if the same risk is
forced to him, then he feels it unsafe.In simple terms, the voluntary risks are considered as
safe (even if the risks are really unsafe) and the involuntary risks are considered as unsafe
(even if risks are really safe).
2. Short-term Vs Long-term Consequences
A thing, which causes a short-loved illness or disability, seems safer than a thing that will
result in permanent disability.
3. Delayed Vs Immediate Risk
An activity whose harm is delayed for many years will seem much less risky than something
with an immediate effect.
4. Expected Probability
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A relatively slight harm having more probability of occurring (say , 50:50 chance) seems to
be a greater/unacceptable risk than a relatively a severe harm having lesser probability of
occurring (say, 1 in 1,00,000)
5. Reversible Effects
Something will seem less risky if the bad effects are ultimately reversible.
6. Threshold Levels for Risk
something that is risky only at fairly high exposures will seem safer than something with a
uniform exposure to risk.From the above discussion, it is understood that something is unsafe
or risky to one person may seem very safe to someone else. This creates the great challenge
for the engineers to decide on the optimal safety level.
Elements Of Risk Perception(factors influencing the perception of risk)

The risk perception is influenced by the factors such as:
6. Whether the risk is assumed voluntarily;

7. The effect of knowledge on how the probabilities of harm are perceived;
8. Job-related or other pressures that cause people be aware of risks;
9. Whether the effects of a risky activity or situation are immediately noticeable; and
10. Whether the potential victims are identifiable beforehand.
Elements of risk perception, in detail, in the following sections.
1.Voluntarism and Control
 Voluntary risk: if people take risk knowingly, then their involvement of risk is known as
voluntary risk.
 Many people consider safer if they knowing take on the risk. Also the people believe that
they have ‘full control’ over their actions.
 Examples for voluntary risk
3. Buying a flat/house near a chemical plant that emits low levels of a toxic waste into
the air, because the property values are very low.
4. Participating in a potentially adventurous sport such as motorcycle racing, skiing
boxing, hang-gliding, bungee jumping, etc without much safety guards.
 Controlled risk: If the risk taken is within the control limit, which can be controlled by any
means then the risk is known as controlled risk.
 Examples for controlled risk: In practice, all the dangerous sports such as motorcycle
racing, skiing, hang-gliding, bungee jumping, horseback riding, boxing etc are carried out
under the assumed control of the participants. They use all safety guard to keep the risk under
control.
2. Effect of information on Risk Assessments
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 The information about a harm/danger should be presented in a systematic and appropriate

manner. Because the manner in which the required information or decision-making is
presented has a great influence on how risks are perceived.
 Many case studies and experiments have proved that the manner in which information about
a danger is presented can lead to undesirable and wrong perceptions about danger.
 The threshold limit of individuals for information varies from person to person. Some would
be comfortable only when they have information of deeper depth and quality, while others
may be comfortable with minimal information.
 Many experiments have drawn the following two conclusions:
 Options perceived as yielding company gains will tend to be preferred over those
from which gains are perceived as risky or only probable.
 People tend to be more willing to take risks in order to avoid perceived company
losses than they are to win only possible gains.
3. Job-related Risks
 The exposure of risk depends on the person’s job and his work place.
 The nature of the job and the working environment will determine the risk level of a person.
 For example, people working in the coalmines, oil mines, shipyards, chemical plants, nuclear
power plants, etc have more probability of being exposed to the high risk.
 Because of high competition for survival, the employees don’t have any options other than
undertaking high-risk jobs.
 Unions, and occupational and safety regulations should regulate and enforce the employers,
to facilitate the standard working environment.
 Most importantly, engineers who design and equip workstations must take into account the
various safety issues and the workers suggestions/complaints regarding their workplace.
4. Magnitude and Proximity
 Our reaction to risk is affected by the magnification and the personal identification or
relationship we have with the victims.
 For instance, we feel very bad if one of our close relatives or friends are subjected to
great harm by some accident than if it might affect 20 strangers.
 Thus the magnitude of risk and the proximity (i.e closeness) with the victims greatly
influences the degree of reaction to the risk.
4.4 Respect of Authority:
The professional like engineers have obligations to respect their employees' legitimate authority.
An authority offers a way for identifying the areas of personal responsibility and accountability.
Expert Authority:
In order to avoid the problems in the institutional authority. Expert authority is the possession of
special knowledge, skill, or competence to perform some takes or to give sound advice. For
example, doctors are authorities on health matters, civil engineers are authorities on structures
and aesthetics of building, lawyers are authorities in law matters and computer professionals are
the authorities on software, hardware, etc. The name for expert authority is "authority for
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leadership" since it involves the expertise the effectively direct others. In most of the cases,
engineers will have expert authority in matters related to the technology, while institutional
authority will be held by line managers who look after the day-to-day activities of the
organization.
Institutional authority:
It refers to the authority within the organization. For instance, accounts manager is authorized
with some limitations to sanction financial commitments within his institution. If the authority is
given to the qualified personnel, the goals of the organization will be met easily.
Authority versus power:

Ineffective persons cannot command power if they lack leadership, they cannot inspire, and
motivate employees, even if authorized to do so. In other words, people who are effective may
acquire great power or influence - power goes well beyond the authority of position held.
Charismatic leaders often have influence outside their domains of authority and highly respected
engineers of proven integrity may have power an organization exceeding their explicitly
institutions rights.
Morally Justified authority:

The engineers may have the institutional duty to obey the employer to do morally unjustified
issues. So, institutional rights and duties cannot be applied in the same sense with rights and
duties that are morally justified.
The institutional authority is morally justified, only when the goals of the institution are morally
permissible or morally desirable and the manner in which it is exercised does not violate other
moral duties.
Accepting authority:
Employees mostly accept the guidance and obey their employer, seldom disobey on moral
grounds. Each employee of an organization has something called as "zone acceptance" that
shows their interest to accept their employees authority. Most of the times, employees expand
their zone of acceptance without looking into whether the authority demands moral acts or not.
This reveals that the employees lack moral integrity. Hence, the employer's directives are to be
evaluated carefully by the employees in order to have justifications before going ahead to accept
the directive.
Thus, engineering professionals should weigh their obligation to the public, their employees,
their colleagues, and others when conflicts between such obligations arise. A simple, exception
less ordering of priorities is not always possible.
4.5 Collective Bargaining
It is the bargain by the trade union for improving the economic interests of the worker members.
The process includes negotiation, threatening verbally, and declaration of ‘strike’. It is
impossible to endorse fully the collective bargaining of unions or to condemn. There exist
always conflicting views between the professionalism and unionism.
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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
4.6 Confidentiality
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.
Further, the following moral principles also justify the concept of ‘confidentiality’:
1. Respect for Autonomy
It means respecting the freedom and self-determination of individuals and organizations to
identify their legitimate control over the personal information of themselves. In the absence of
this, they can not keep their privacy and protect their self-interest..
More on Confidentiality
A. Is Switching Job Ethical?
When persons change jobs (employers), what happens to their moral obligation? The obligation
to protect the information does not cease, when one shifts to another employee. Otherwise, the
former employee will reveal this information to the new employer or sell it to a competitor of
the former employer. The integrity of the employee, even upon switching the employer demands
that he maintains confidentiality and does not to divulge the information. The professional
integrity of engineers is more valuable than the loyalty to the current employer.
Many engineers value professional advancement than long-term tie and loyalty to a single
employer. The engineers involved in research and development and expert contribution change
jobs. Normally they are familiar with the innovative developments in the parent organizations.
For example, one manufacturing expert along with his colleagues as well as with some secret
documents left General Motors and joined Volkswagen. This violation of trade secret, lead the V
W to pay huge compensation to GM in cash and compulsion to buy parts from GM for seven
subsequent years. Employees, who change jobs, will not able to withhold their knowledge and
expertise.
They are sought after only for their expertise. They may not carry the papers and but their active
brain always carry memories. Although some organizations hold that this is unethical, the
individuals can not be prevented from divulging the facts to benefit the current employer. The
courts have held a moral verdict. Even though the previous employers had the right to maintain
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their trade secrets confidential, the personal rights of the employees, who switched job in pursuit
of career advancement, had to be honored and balanced.
B. Management Policies
How can we protect the rights of the employers and at the same time recognize the genuine
personal rights and other rights of the engineers/employees? Some of the management practices
and their limitations are discussed hereunder:
1. One way is to restrict the future employment of employees, by using employment contracts at
the time of their exit. Details such as the restriction on geographical location, time gap between
the departure from one place and engagement with the other employer, and on the type of jobs
that one can perform with future employer, are entered in to contracts. But such contracts have
not been given legal sanction.
2. An incentive instead of threatening their rights by the employment contract, may offer some
positive benefits in exchange for the restrictions listed. A lump sum post-employment payment
or compensation over a specific period may offered as incentive to restrict him.
3. Another approach by the management is to effect tighter controls on internal information flow
on trade secrets and other vital features. But this is likely to create a mutual distrust in the
organization and to throttle the creativity of engineers involved in the research and development.
A better understanding between the ethical management and the professional responsibility of
the engineers will fulfill both professional concerns and employee loyalty.
4.7 Conflicts of Interest
What Is A Conflict Of Interest?

 In general, conflicts of interest means an individual has two or, more desires that all
interests cannot be satisfied given the circumstances.
 Professional conflicts of interest are situations where professional have an interest, if
pursued, could keep them from meeting one of their obligations to their employers.
Examples:
An employee working in a company depositing a substantial investment in a competitor’s
company.
An employee working in a company serving as consultant for a competitor’s company.
Difference Between General Conflicts Of Interest And Professional Conflicts Of Interest

 In general conflicts of interest, satisfying all desires/interest of person cannot by possible
because of physical or economical or other problems.
 By contrast, the professional conflicts of interest cannot be pursued only because of
moral or ethical problems (not because of physical or economical problems).
Types Of Conflicts Of Interest

The three important types of conflicts of interest are:
1. Actual conflicts of interest;
2. Potential conflicts of interest; and
3. Apparent conflicts of interest.
Actual Conflicts Of Interest
The actual conflicts of interest arises when an employee compromise objective engineering judgment.
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It refers to the loss of objectivity in decision-making and inability to faithfully discharge

professional duties to employer.
Example : A mechanical engineer working in the purchase department of an automobile
industry might have his personal influence while offering the contract for supply of raw materials
to a vendor. In this case, pursuing his financial interest with the vendor might lead him not to
objectively and faithfully discharge his professional duties to his industry.
Thus actual conflicts of interest can corrupt professional judgment.
Potential Conflicts Of Interest
 The potential conflicts of interest may corrupt professional judgment in the future,
if not in the present.
 Although potential conflicts of interest may not harm the interest of the employer
initially, there is a threat that potential conflicts of interest will become actual
conflicts of interest at later stage.
Example : An engineer becoming a friend with a supplier for his company. In this case, the
engineer may not have conflicts of interest initially. However, in future he may favor his friend,
as in the case of actual conflicts of interest.
Apparent Conflicts of Interest

 There are situations in which there is the appearance of a conflict of interest. This
type is referred as apparent conflicts’ of interest.
 Apparent conflicts of interest actually not corrupting the professional judgment.
However it decreases the confidence of the employer and the public in the
objectivity and trustworthiness of professional services. Thus it harms both the
profession and the public.
Example: Consider a situation, where a design engineer is paid based on a percentage of the
cost of the design and there is no incentive for him to reduce the costs down. In this context, it
may appear that the engineer will make the design more expensive in order to earn more
commission for himself. This appearance of conflict of interest may cause the distrust on the
engineer’s ability to perform his professional duties.
What Do The Engineering Codes Of Ethics Say About Conflicts Of Interest?
Some of engineering codes that address conflicts of interest are given below:
1. Fundamental canons of the NSPE code says:

 “Engineers shall not be influenced in their professional duties by conflicting interests”.
 “Engineers shall not accept financial or other considerations, including free engineering
designs, from material or equipment suppliers for specifying their product”
 “Engineers shall not accept commissions or allowances, directly or indirectly, from
contractors or other parties dealing with clients or employers for the engineer in connection
with work for which the Engineer is responsible”.
2. Fundamental cannons of ethics of ABET says:
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 “Engineers shall not solicit nor accept gratuities, directly or indirectly, from contractors, their
agents, or other parties dealing with their clients or employers in connection with work for
which they are responsible”.
Conflicts Of Interest And Accepting Gifts/Bribes
 Mostly engineers find themselves in actual, potential, or apparent conflicts of interest are
those involving accepting gifts.
 What is a bribe?
 A bribe is something, such as money or a favor, offered or given to someone
in a position of trust in order to induce him to act dishonestly.
 It is something offered to influence or persuade.
 What are the ethical reasons for not tolerating bribery?
Bribes are illegal and immoral because of the following three reasons:
1. Bribery corrupts free-market economic system and is anticompetitive.

2. Bribery corrupts justice and public policy by allowing rich people to make all
the rules. In today’s business, it is understood that only large and powerful
companies will survive, since they are capable of providing bribes.
3. Bribery treats people as commodities that can be bought and sold. This
practice degrades the human beings and corrupts both the buyer and the seller.
 What is meant by the term ‘kickbacks’?
 Kickbacks are another form of bribing.
 Prearranged payments made by contractors to companies or their
representatives in exchange for contracts actually granted are called
‘kickbacks’.
 When is a gift a bribe?
(what are the differences between a gift and a bribe?)
 Gifts are not bribes as long as they are gratuities of smaller amounts. But bribes are
illegal and immoral because they are worth of substantial amounts.
 Gifts may play a legitimate role in the normal conduct of business, whereas a bribe
influences the judgment.
 In olden days, the following thumb rule was applied:
 “A gift is a bribe if one can’t ear, drink or smoke it in a day”.
 Today a more appropriate thumb rule says:
 “If you think that your offer (or acceptance) of a particular gift would have grave or
merely embarrassing consequences for your company if made public, then the gift
should be considered a bribe”.
What Is Moonlighting? Does It Create Conflicts Of Interest?
The term ‘moonlighting’ is used when an employee of a company works for another company
during his spare time.
Moonlighting creates conflicts of interest only in special circumstances, such as working for
competitors, suppliers, or customers.
Different Ways To Avoid Conflicts Of Interest
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 It is understood that all conflicts of interests, whether actual, potential, or apparent, shoild be
avoided in all possible ways. Some of the effective ways to avoid conflicts of interest are as
follows:
 To follow the guidance of company policy.
 In the absence of company policy, one can go for a second opinion from a coworker or
manager.
 In the absence of above tow options, it is better to examine one’s own motives and use
ethical problem solving techniques.
 Finally, one can follow the statements in the professional code of ethics. Some of the ethics
codes have given clear statements to identity whether the given situation is a conflict of
interests or not.
4.8 Occupational Crime:
4.8.1. What Are Occupational Crimes?
 Occupational crimes are illegal acts committed through a person’s lawful employment.
 It is the secretive violation of laws regarding work activities.
 When professionals or office workers commit the occupational crimes, it is referred as
‘white collar crime’.
 Most of the occupational crimes are special instances of conflicts of interest. These crimes
are motivated by personal greed, corporate ambition, misguided company loyalty, and many
other motives.
 Even crimes that are aimed at promoting the interests of one’s employer rather than oneself
are also considered as occupational crimes.
 Occupational crimes impinge on various aspects such as professionalism, loyalty, conflicts
of interest, and confidentiality.
4.8.2. Examples of Occupational Crimes
These cases of occupational crimes that are commonly observed are:
1. Price fixing.
2. Endangering lives, and
3. Industrial espionage i.e. industrial spying
1. Occupational Crime Of Price Fixing
 While fixing a price for any commodity/product/service, sometimes all competitors come
together and jointly set the prices to be charged. These are called as pricing cartels.
 The above price fixation is unfair and unethical practice. This leads to restraint the free trade
and open competition. Thus the above kind of price fixing is an example of occupational
crime.
 Case Illustration: In 1983, in American state of Washington, six large electrical contractors
along with eight company presidents and vice presidents were indicted on charges of fixing
bids (contracts) for building power plants. This is evident instance of occupational crime.
 In order to avoid the above kind of occupational crimes, the laws are enforced which forbids
companies from jointly fixing prices.
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2. Endangering Lives
 Endangering the lives of employees is another kind of occupational crime.

 Some companies employ workers without disclosing them the harmful health effects and
safety hazards about the working environment and the product to be manufactured. In
due course of time, workers are exposed to very serious health problems. In this case, the
employers are guilty of involved in an occupational crime.
 Case Illustration: Manville Corporation, the largest producer of asbestos in U.S, knew
that asbestos dust was harmful for their employees’ health. It could cause a lung disease
named ‘asbestosis’ and an incurable cancer named ‘mesothelioma’. The company kept
this information secret from the employees and the public. During 1940-1979, over 27
million workers were exposed to asbestos and more than 1, 00,000 workers have died.
Many victims and their families have successfully filed civil suits to claim damages.
 The above shocking case study is the typical illustration of an occupational crime
committed by the Manville Corporation.
3. Industial Espionage
 Industrial espionage means industrial spying. Espionage refers secret gathering of

information in order to influence relationships between two entities.
 Keeping information secret is a right. But acquisition of others secret to one’s advantage is
espionage. The espionage is one of the most unethical and lawless activities.
 The vital information are secretly gathered/theft through espionage agents (also called spies)
 Industrial or corporate espionage is the theft of trade secrets for economic gains. The trade
secret may be any of the intellectual properties such as designs, marketing plans, supplier/
contractor details, etc.
 From the above discussion, it is clear that the industrial espionage is also a typical
occupational crime existing in out society.
4.9 Professional Rights

 Engineers not only have many responsibilities, they also have rights to go along with these
responsibilities. Always rights, duties and responsibilities go together. In fact, rights and
responsibilities are two sides of the same coin. The most popular definition of right states,
“A right is a valid claim to something and against someone which is recognized by the
principles of an enlightened conscience”
Types Of Rights
 The concepts of rights can be categorized into the following three types:
 Human rights
 Employee rights
 Contractual rights
 Non-contractual rights
 Professional rights.
Human Rights
 Human rights are the rights possessed by virtue of being people or moral agents.
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The fundamental human rights adopted by the United Nation’s International Bill of Human
Rights are listed ,
 Rights to Life.
 Rights to liberty
 Rights to security of person
 Rights not to be held in slavery
 Rights not to be tortured or subjected to inhuman or degrading punishment.
 Rights to recognition before the law.
 Rights to impartial trial and protection from arbitrary arrest.
 Rights to freedom of movement.
 Rights to marriage.
 Rights to marry without free consent.
 Rights to property ownership.
 Rights to freedom of thought.
 Rights to peaceful assembly and participation in government.
 Rights to social security and work.
 Rights to education.
 Rights to participate in and form trade unions.
 Rights to nondiscrimination.
 Rights to minimal standard of living.
 Thus engineers as human beings, have human rights to live and freely practice their
legitimate interests.
Professional Rights
 Professional rights are the rights possessed by virtue of being professionals having special
moral responsibilities.
 Examples: The professional rights include
 Rights to exercise one’s professional judgment on the basis of his conscience.
 Rights to refuse to involve in unethical activities
 Rights to warn the public about harms and dangers
 Rights to express one’s professional judgment, including his right to disagree
 Rights to fair recognition and remuneration for professional services.
Arious Asplects Of Professional Rigthts

Rights of Professional Conscience
 It is one of the most fundamental rights of engineers.
 The rights of professional conscience refer to the moral right to exercise responsible
professional judgment in discharging one’s professional responsibilities.
 The rights of professional conscience are a ‘negative’ right. Because it places an obligation
on other people not to interfere with its exercise.
 In order to exercise the rights of professional conscience, engineers require special resources
and support from others. So this right is also considered as a ‘positive’ right, as it is placing
on other people an obligation to do more merely not interfering.
Specific Rights
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 The right of professional conscience is most general professional rights. It consists of many
other specific rights. Two of the important specific rights are:
 Rights of conscientious refusal
 Rights to recognition
1. Rights of Conscientious Refusal
 The right of conscientious refusal is the right to engage in unethical behavior.
 According to this right, no employer can force or pressure an employee to do something that
the employee considers unethical and unacceptable.
 This conscientious refusal arises under two situations:
 Where there is widely shared agreement in the profession regarding ethical and unethical acts
 Where there is a possibility for disagreement among the people over unethical acts.
 Thus the engineers should have a moral right to refuse in participating unethical activities.
The examples of unethical activities are forging documents, lying, giving or taking bribes,
selling the company secrets to others, information theft, etc.
 Also the employers should have a moral right not to force or pressurize the employee to
participate in any unethical activities. Employers should not use any revenge techniques
(such as denial of promotions, harassment, and assigning irrelevant tasks) against the
employees in this regard.
2. Rights to Recognition
 The right to recognition refers to the engineer’s right to professional recognition for their
work and accomplishments.
 The recognition /reward may be of any one of the following types:
 Extrinsic rewards: These are related to monetary remuneration such as increased salaries,
commissions, cash bonus, gain sharing, etc.
 Intrinsic Rewards: These are related to non-monetary remunerations such as acknowledging
achievements by issuing appreciation letters, certificates and oral praises, etc.
 The right to fair remuneration should be worked out cooperatively between employers and
employees. The remuneration depends on the resources of the company and the bargaining
power of the employees.
FOUNDATION OF PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS(Justification of Professional Rights by

Ethical Theories)
 The basic professional rights discussed so far, can be justified by the ethical theories (rights
ethics, duty ethics, and utilitarianism) as given below.
Rights Ethics
 Rights ethics emphasizes that all should have human moral rights, and any action that
violates these rights is unethical.
 Thus rights ethicists justify the basic right of professional conscience by referring to human
moral rights.
Duty Ethics
 Duty ethics emphasizes that there are duties that should be performed, without considering
much about moral rights.
 For examples, if an individual has a right to do something it is only because others have
duties or obligations to support him to do so. In this view the basic professional right is
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justified by reference to other duties to support or not interfere with the work related exercise
of professional conscience.
Utilitarianism
 Utilitarian theory argues that the greatest good is promo2ted by allowing engineers to
practice their obligations.
 Thus utilitarian justify the right of professional conscience by referring to the basic goal of
producing the most good for the greatest number of people.
4.10 Employee Rights

 Employee rights are the rights that apply or refer to the status or position of employee. Infact,
the professional rights are also employee rights. For example the professional rights such as
the right to go against the unethical instructions and the rights to be express dissent about
company policies are also evidently employee rights.
 Employee rights also include fundamental human rights relevant to the employment
situation.
Types of employee rights:

 Contractual employee rights
 Non-contractual employee
1. Contractual Employee Rights

 These employee rights are institutional rights that arise only due to specific agreements in the
employment contact.
 Examples: The contractual employee rights include
 Rights to receive a salary of a certain amount
 Rights to receive other company benefits such as bonuses, salary increments. Etc.
2. Non-contractual employee Rights

 These are rights existing even if not formally recognized in the specific contracts or company
policies.
 Examples: The non-contractual employee rights include
 Rights to choose outside activities
 Rights to privacy and employer confidentiality
 Rights to due process from employer
 Rights to nondiscrimination and absence of sexual harassment at the workplace.
Right to Outside Activities

 As per the basic human rights, all employees have the right to practice outside activities of
their own interest without any interference from employers.
 However, the rights of employees to practice outside activities should not violate the duties
and responsibilities of their jobs.
 Also, employers have the rights to take action when outside activities create a conflict of
interest.
 In addition, employees have no right to damage their employer’s interests even during non-
working hours.
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Rights to Privacy
 The right to personal privacy means the right to have a private life off the job.
 In order words, the right to privacy refers the right to control access to and use of information
about oneself.
 As with outside activities, the right to privacy is also limited by the legitimate exercise of
employers rights. The employers can obtain and use information of employees for their
effective management of the company. However this personal information should not be
given to outsiders.
Rights to Due Process
 The rights to due process means right to fair procedures safeguarding protecting the exercise
of other rights.
 This right also extends to fair procedures in firing, demotion, and other disciplinary actions.
 In order to implement the right of due process the following two general procedures can be
used:
 Written explanations, specifying the reasons, should be given to employees who are
penalized in any ways.
 An appeals procedure should be established so that an employee can appeal against their
penalties if he believes his rights have been violated.
4.11 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR)

 Intellectual property (IP) is a property that results from mental labor.
 The intellectual property is originating mainly form the activities of the human intellect.
 Intellectual property is the information and original expression that derives it original value
from creative ideas with a commercial value.
 In the legal sense, intellectual property is a patented invention, a trade secret, or copyrighted
material.
 Like other properties, intellectual property is also an asset, which can be bought or sold,
licensed and exchanged.
What Are Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)?
 The legal rights built up on the intellectual property created are known as intellectual
property rights (IPRs).
 These rights are approved and regulated by the law on IPR of the country.
 IPR allows the people to independently own their innovations and creativity, which is similar
to legal protection of any other properties.
 According to the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights System (TRIPS), all the
members of World Trade Organization (WTO) have to comply with the enforcement of
intellectual property right protection laws.
 The IPRs safeguard and encourage the innovations in the various sectors for the benefit of
the society.
Elements Of Intellectual Property Rights
 The WTO has established seven elements of IPRs, which were agreed by TRIPS.
They are:
 Patents.
 Industrial designs;
 Trade marks;
 Copy rights;
30
 Trade secrets;
 Design of integrated circuits; and
 Geographical indications.
Patents
 Patents are the legal rights approved for new inventions involving scientific and technical
knowledge.
 Patents means an official document giving the holder the sole right to make, use or sell an
invention and preventing others from copying it.
 To be patent, the invention must be useful, original, new, unusual and hardly noticeable.
 An invention may be a product, method, apparatus, design, composition of matters, etc. but
one cannot patent ‘a way of doing business’ or anything that occurs in nature.
 The validity periods of most of the patents are 20 years from the date of filling. However
 For the design patents such as new design for a product, the patent validity is 14 years.
Industrial Designs
 It is the right to safeguard one’s industrial designs.
 As stated by TRIPS, a design is an idea or conception as to the features of shape,
configuration patter, ornament of composition of lines or colors applied to any article, two or
three dimensional or both by any industrial process or means which in the finished article
appeals to and is judged solely by the eye or product.
Trademarks
 Trademarks are words, phrases, sounds or symbols associated with goods or services.
 Trademark means a registered design or name used to identify a company’s goods.
 It is used to indicate the public the origin of manufacture of the goods affixed with that mark.
 Examples: Pepsi is a registered trademark in soft drinks; Thomson in electronic goods; and
Nestle in food products.
Copyrights
 Copyright means the legal right, held for a certain number of years, to print, publish, sell,
broadcast, perform, film or record an original work or any part of it.
 The copyrights protect the expression of the idea, not the idea themselves.
 The copyright expires fifty years after the death of the author.
 Example: Poems, Paintings, Script of movies, and Computer programs.
Trade Secrets
 Trade secret means a device or technique used by a company in manufacturing its products,
etc and kept secret from other companies or the general public.
 Trade secrets such as formulas, patterns methods, and data compilations are kept secret in
order to gain a competitive advantage over competitors.
 Though the trade secrets cannot be registered like other intellectual properties, thefts of trade
secrets are legally considered as a crime.
 Examples: The formula of Fanta soft drink, and the formulas for making drugs.
Design of integrated circuits
31
 It is the right granted to the inventor to prevent anybody making use of the design of
integrated circuits, semiconductor devices, and other electronic devices.
 Example: Invention of a new microprocessor chip.
Geographical Indications
 Geographical indications identify goods as originating in the territory of a country, an origin
or a locality in that territory, where a specific quality, reputations or other characteristics of
the goods is essentially attributed to their geographical origin.
 Examples: Tirunelveli halva, Dindugal locks, Sivakasi crackers , Kancheepuram sarees.
Benefits of Intellectual of Property Rights

The benefits of implementing IPRs are given below:
 IPRS provide incentives for the inventions and ensure adequate return on commercialization
of the invention.
 IPRs prevent the competitors from using one’s invention.
 IPRs are useful in identifying unprotected areas to avoid violation.
 IPRs grant exclusive rights to the inventors.
 IPRs provide use the invention for the public purpose.
 IPRs are useful in identifying unexplored areas for undertaking research so as to become a
leader in that area.
4.12DISCRIMINATION
 Discrimination is the unequal treatment of an individual intentionally of unintentionally.
 Discrimination refers to treating people unfairly because of one’s sex, race, skin color, age,
or religious outlook.
 Discrimination based on these aspects of biological makeup and basic convection is
disgraceful.
 Discrimination violates the fundamental human rights of fair and equal treatment humans.
 Discrimination defined: Discrimination is a morally unjustified treatment of people on
arbitrary or irrelevant grounds.
Preferential Treatments
 Preferential treatment mean giving an advantage to a member of a group that in the past was
denied equal treatment, in particular, women and minorities.
 The preferential treatments are also referred as reverse preferential treatments, as it ‘reverse’
the historical order of preferences.
Two Kinds Of Preferential Treatment
 1. Weak preferential Treatment: In involves giving an advantage to members of traditionally
discriminated-against groups over equally qualified applicants who are members of other
group.
 2. Strong Preferential Treatment: In involves giving preference to minority applicants or
women over better-qualified applicants from other groups.
Arguments Over Preferential Treatment
1. Arguments Favoring Preferential Treatment
 A rights-ethics who favor preferential treatment emphasizes on the principle of compensatory
justice. According to them, past violations of rights must be compensated. So preference
32
should be given on the basis of membership in a group that has been disadvantaged in the
past.
 The utilitarian who favor preferential treatment argue that the women and minorities should
be integrated into the economic and social mainstream.
2. Arguments Against Preferential Treatment
 It can be argued that preferential treatment is a straightforward violation of other people’s
rights to equal opportunity.
 It is also argued that there is the economic harm that results from a policy of not consistently
recruiting the best-qualified persons.
 The reverse discrimination is unfair in the present, similar to the unfair discrimination made
against disadvantaged groups in the past.
 Thus in the present scenario, it is vary important to find a way to balance these for and
against arguments over preferential treatment, in order to achieve social integration.
Sexual Harassment
 Sexual harassment is a particular undesirable, objectionable form of sex discrimination.
 “Sexual harassment is any sexual oriented practice that endangers a woman’s job that
undermines her job performance and threatens her economic livelihood”.
 “Sexual harassment is the unwanted imposition of the sexual requirements in the context of a
relationship of unequal power”.
 Sexual harassment can be in many forms such as threats of penalties, offers of rewards,
assaults, and annoyance.
 All ethicists unanimously condemn the sexual harassment as it violates the basic human right
to pursue one’s work free from the pressures, fears, penalties, and insults.
33

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PANIMALAR ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

UNIT IV SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS

4.1 SAFETY AND RISK

What is Meant by Safety?

Probability of safety = 1 – Probability of risk

The initial version of William W. Lowrence’s definition for safety is as follows:

“A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be acceptable”.

Concept Of Relative Safety

 Safety is expressed frequently in terms of degree and comparisons. We often use

Criteria to Ensure Safe Design

Designing For safety

(Incorporating safety into the engineering design process)

Step 2: generate multiple alternate design solutions.

Step 4: test the solutions.

Step 5: select the best solution.

Step 6: implement the chosen solution.

 We buy an ill-designed Iron box in a sale-> Underestimating risk

RISK AND ITS CONCEPT

What Is Meant By Risk?

 Interestingly, risk analysiscan beexpanded to fullfledgerisk managementstudy. The risk

Stepwise, Risk Analysis will include:

Natural Hazards And Disaster

Factors Influencing Risk

1. Voluntary Vs Involuntary Risk

Voluntary risk and Control

Job Related Risks:

Problems faced by engineers about public concept of safety:

Safety in a commodity comes with a price:

What Is Meant By Acceptable Risk?

Elements Of Risk Perception

The risk perception is influenced by the factors such as:

1. Whether the risk is assumed voluntarily;

1. Voluntarism and Control

 The information about a harm/danger should be presented in a systematic and

LESSONS FOR THE ENGINEERS

4.2 ASSESSMENT OF SAFETY AND RISK

Relationship between Safety, Risk and Cost

Relationship between safety, risk, cost and price.

Why Both Low-risk and high-Risk Products are Costly?

 A product cost may have two elements:

1. Testing on the functions of the safety-system components.

 Under what conditions would you take it?

3. Testing for Safety

 If sufficient information is given to a person, then he can be able to decide whether to

ACCOUNTING PUBLICLY FOR BENEFITS AND RISKS

(Role Of Engineers To Safeguard The Public From Risk)

 As we know, it is impossible to design and manufacture anything to be completely risk free.

2. Assumption: Producing a safe product always increases the costs.

4.3 Risk Benefit Analysis And Reducing Risk

Risk Benefit Analysis Example

Evaluations of future risk:

Air transportation as an example:

Risk-Benefit Analysis and Risk Management

Risk-Benefit Modeling Systematically quantify the relative importance of risks and

Risk-Benefit Tradeoffs Quantify patients’ maximum acceptable risk for specific

1. Voluntary Vs Involuntary Risk

2. Short-term Vs Long-term Consequences

3. Delayed Vs Immediate Risk

6. Threshold Levels for Risk

Elements Of Risk Perception(factors influencing the perception of risk)

6. Whether the risk is assumed voluntarily;

1.Voluntarism and Control

2. Effect of information on Risk Assessments