Engineering in the Global Context

Chapter Eight
Main Ideas in This Chapter
 Some progress has been made in establishing international technical standards. Whether engineers worldwide think
(or should think) of themselves as professionals n is more controversial.
 Economic, cultural, and social differences between countries sometimes produce boundary-crossing problems for
engineers. Solutions to these problems must avoid absolutism and relativism and should find a way between moral
rigorism and moral laxism.
 Applying the standards of one s own country without modification or uncritically adopting the standards of the host
country in which one is working are rarely satisfactory solutions to the moral issues that arise in international
engineering.
 Adaptations of the methods and standards for resolving ethical problems discussed in Chapter 2 can be useful in
resolving issues encountered in the international arena. Solutions involving creative middle ways are often
particularly useful.
 Engineering work in the international arena can raise many ethical issues, including exploitation, bribery,
extortion, grease payments, nepotism, excessive gifts, paternalism, and paying taxes in a country where taxes are
negotiable.
THE MOVENT TOWARD GLOBALIZED
ENGINEERING EDUCATIONAL
STANDARDS

 One of the first steps in the globalization of engineering is establishing universal criteria for engineering
education.
 In its move toward globalization, the engineering profession is attempting to establish international
standards for technical education. The Washington Accord, established in 1989, is an attempt to establish
substantial agreement among the signatories in the requirements for engineering education. A much older
organization, the FEANI, has established common standards in Europe for licensing individual engineers.
 While many statements from engineering societies, especially in Asia, call engineers professionals,
evidence as to whether engineers think of themselves as professionals or should be called professionals is
less clear. Interpreting the evidence depends partly on what account of professionalism is used.
INTERNATIONAL PROFESSIONALISM AND
ETHICS

 Another step in the globalization of engineering is establishing a consensus on whether

engineers are professionals and, if so, what professionalism might mean.
 Do Engineering Societies Call Their Members Professional?
 Its Code of Ethics begins with the statement: In the course of engineering practice,
professional engineers will In addition to claiming professional status for their members,
the Code makes other commitments typical of professional societies which we discuss
later.7
INTERNATIONAL PROFESSIONALISM AND
ETHICS

 Do Engineers Worldwide Have the Concept of Professional?

 Many engineering societies around the world call their members professionals. Are they really professionals? Let s recall
the three accounts of professionalism given in Chapter 1 to help in answering this question
 Sociological account. Extensive training, knowledge, and skill vital to the public s well-being, monopoly over the
provision of certain services, unusual autonomy in the workplace, and a claim to be regulated by ethical standards.
 Social contract account. An implicit contract between the professions and society, giving the public high-quality
expertise and regulation by ethical standards, in return for social prestige and above-average pay.
 Michael Davis account. A number of individuals in the same occupation voluntarily organized to earn a living by openly
serving a common moral ideal in a morally permissible way beyond what law, market, morality, and public opinion
would otherwise require.
 BOUNDARY-CROSSING PROBLEMS

 Let us call the problems encountered when one crosses national and cultural borders
boundary-crossing problems. We shall refer to the country in which the engineers originally
lived.
 Simple solutions to boundary-crossing problems are attractive but often unacceptable. One
simple solution is to hold to home-country values and ways of doing things, no matter how
different they may be from host-country values.
 Call this the absolutist solution or the imperialist solution, because it requires importing
values from the home country into a different society. Home-country standards, however,
may pose serious, if not insurmountable, problems if applied in host countries.
ETHICAL RESOURCES FOR GLOBALIZED
ENGINEERING

 Creative Middle Ways

 The Golden Rule
 Dignity: Universal Human Rights
 Development: Promoting Basic Human Well-Being
 The Resources of Virtue Ethics
 Codes of Engineering Societies
ECONOMIC UNDERDEVELOPMENT: THE PROBLEM
OF EXPLOITATION

 Exploitation, especially of the weak and vulnerable, is a serious moral problem, and it is particularly likely to occur in
economically underdeveloped countries, where workers have few options for jobs. According to Robert E. Goodin, the
risk of exploitation arises when the following five conditions are present.
Conditions for Exploitation
 An imbalance of (usually economic) power between the dominant and subordinate or exploited party.
 The subordinate party needs the resources by the dominant party to protect his or her vital interests.
 For the subordinate party, the exploitative relationship is the only source of such resources.
 The dominant party in the relationship exercises discretionary control over the needed resources.
 The resources of the subordinate party (natural resources, labor, etc.) are used without adequate compensation.
PAYING FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT: THE
PROBLEM OF BRIBERY

 Bribery is one of the most common issues faced by U.S. engineers when they practice in host
countries. In response to the problem of bribery, the U.S. Congress passed the FCPA in 1977. The
act is limited in its scope. It only prohibits bribery of government officials and it allows some
extortion payments to protect in-place property. Nevertheless, it was a landmark piece of
legislation and has prompted similar legislation in other countries.
 In engineering work, a bribe is typically made to a government official in exchange for violating
some official duty or responsibility. The payment might result, for example, in an official s
making a decision to buy a product because of a bribe, rather than because of its merits.
 On the basis of this paradigm case of bribery, we can give the following definition of a bribe: A
bribe is a payment of money (or something of value) to another person in exchange for his giving
special consideration that is incompatible with the duties of his office, position, or role.
PAYING FOR DESERVED SERVICES: THE
PROBLEM OF EXTORTION AND GREASE
PAYMENTS

 Extortion
 Many actions that might appear to be bribery are actually cases of extortion. Consider a variation on the case
of the executive of Company A described previously. Suppose he knows he is offering the best deal on
airplanes to the official of Country X who has the authority to authorize purchases for his national airlines.
The executive knows, however, that his bid will not even be considered unless he offers the official a large
cash payment. The payment will not guarantee that Company A will get the contract, only that his bid will at
least be considered. If the executive makes the cash payment, he will be paying extortion, not a bribe.
 Grease Payments
 Grease payments are typically offered to facilitate routine bureaucratic decisions, such as hastening the
passage of goods through customs or getting faster processing of permits. Grease payments usually involve
relatively small amounts of money compared to many bribery and extortion payments.
 THE EXTENDED FAMILY UNIT: THE
PROBLEM OF NEPOTISM

 The policy of hiring the most qualified applicant in every case is surely the most desirable
approach. Hiring many members of an employee s family, regardless of qualifications,
would be unacceptable, because it would seriously harm economic efficiency. Such a
policy would also be too severe a violation of the virtue of justice and the rights of other
applicants to nondiscrimination. The policy of hiring one, but only one, family member, by
contrast, seems like an acceptable creative-middle-way solution. It makes a concession to
the deeply held convictions of many people in a tradition-oriented culture and it promotes
harmony in the workplace (and perhaps economic efficiency in this way). This solution
again shows the need to take a middle way between moral rigorism and laxism.
BUSINESS AND FRIENDSHIP: THE PROBLEM
OF EXCESSIVE GIFTS

 For people in many cultures, business relationships are built on personal relationships.
Two people first become friends and then they do business together. The rule Don t mix
business with pleasure, often accepted in the West, seems cold and inhuman.
Furthermore, friendships are often cemented with gifts: the way to show affection and
trust is to give a gift.
 For many in the West, large personal gifts look too much like bribes. Is there a creative-
middle-way solution to this problem? Jeffrey Fadiman has suggested an answer: Give
the gifts to the community, not to individuals.
THE ABSENCE OF TECHNICAL-SCIENTIFIC
SOPHISTICATION: THE PROBLEM OF
PATERNALISM

 Because of lower educational levels and the general absence of exposure to technology in their daily lives,
citizens in less-industrialized countries can easily misunderstand many issues related to technology, especially
those having to do with risk, health, safety, and the environment. This situation can give rise to either
exploitation or paternalism.
 Exploitation occurs when individuals (including engineers), governments, or corporations take advantage of
this ignorance to advance their own selfinterest. For example, they can adopt policies that expose workers to
unnecessary health and safety issues when the workers are not aware of the dangers.
 Paternalism occurs when individuals (including engineers), governments, or corporations override the ability
of others to decide what they should (or should not) do in the interests of those others. Because overriding the
decisions of others is for their own good, this is paternalism, not exploitation. Paternalistic action has a very
different motivation from exploitation
THE ABSENCE OF TECHNICAL-SCIENTIFIC
SOPHISTICATION: THE PROBLEM OF
PATERNALISM

 Two Types of Paternalism

 Weak paternalism. The paternalist overrides the decision-making powers of the recipient
when there is reason to believe the recipient is not able to exercise her moral agency
effectively.
 Strong paternalism. The paternalist overrides the decision-making powers of the recipient,
even when there is no reason to believe the recipient is not exercising his or her moral
agency effectively.
DIFFERING BUSINESS PRACTICES: THE
PROBLEM OF NEGOTIATING TAXES

 Sometimes the business practices in host countries cause dilemmas for U.S. engineers
and perhaps for engineers in the host countries as well. Consider the following case that
illustrates the practices in a number of countries. James works for a U.S. firm in
Country X, where it is customary for the government to assess taxes at an exorbitant
rate because it expects firms to report only half their actual earnings. If a firm reported
its actual earnings, the taxes would force it out of business.
 CHAPTER SUMMARY

 In its move toward globalization, the engineering profession is attempting to establish international
standards for technical education. The Washington Accord, established in 1989, is an attempt to establish
substantial agreement among the signatories in the requirements for engineering education. A much older
organization, the FEANI, has established common standards in Europe for licensing individual engineers.
 While many statements from engineering societies, especially in Asia, call engineers professionals,
evidence as to whether engineers think of themselves as professionals or should be called professionals is
less clear. Interpreting the evidence depends partly on what account of professionalism is used.
 CHAPTER SUMMARY

 The problems faced by engineers when they cross cultural borders can be called boundary-crossing
problems. They are not readily solved by simply importing one s own values into another culture or by
accepting the standards of the other culture without evaluation. The ethical resources developed in Chapter
2, however, can be useful in resolving boundary-crossing problems, especially if they are adapted to the
culture in a careful manner. Creative middle ways are especially useful in resolving boundarycrossing
problems, but appeal to the Golden Rule, virtue ethics, universal human rights, conditions necessary for
human well-being, and engineering codes can also be useful.
 Among the problems faced by engineers in the international environment is exploitation of vulnerable
people. Bribery is perhaps the most widespread problem. Paying extortion, which is giving money for
something that one deserves anyhow, is perhaps less morally serious than bribery. Grease payments, which
are smaller exchanges of money or something of value, may be either bribery or extortion depending on the
circumstances.
 CHAPTER SUMMARY

 Practices and traditions in many countries require that family members secure jobs for
other family members, even when the family members may not be the most qualified.
Such problems of nepotism can sometimes be addressed with creative middleway
solutions. The practice of giving large gifts, common in many cultures, may not
necessarily involve bribery or extortion. Adapting to this practice may require giving
larger gifts than would be acceptable in the United States, but the gifts must not be used as
bribes. The absence of technical-scientific sophistication can lead to paternalistic behavior
that is often problematic. Generally, weak paternalism is easier to justify