During recent years, the level of ethical behavior among professionals and others in prominent positions in society has fostered increased interest and scrutiny. Observers lament trends in society that appear to weaken the norms of individual ethical behavior and are concerned about the challenges to what they view as the bulwarks of ethical and moral decision making.
Nevertheless, society tends to hold the professions to high standards and expects practicing engineers, associated scientists, architects and allied design professionals to perform on an ethical plane commensurate with their responsibility to the community. This expectation creates a dilemma for the university student and for the practicing design professional since standards for ethical decision making are seldom addressed in professional training.
While there is a wide spectrum of ethics theories available, and growing yearly, many are couched in terms which are difficult for the design professional to apply to the every day, sometimes gut-wrenching circumstances encountered in professional practice. As a consequence, the focus of this program is to present real situations taken from professional practice in order to stimulate greater emphasis on ethical issues, and to hopefully allow our visitors an opportunity to avoid similar pitfalls in their own careers.
It is suggested that in addition to providing an opportunity for individuals to read and respond to the case histories, these situations may also provide a convenient focus for informal brown bag discussions in firms and agencies.
The language used is straight-forward and the solutions provided for consideration are realistic and, for the most part, practical. The expressed intent of this program is to foster discussion of ethical issues in professional practice and to derive practical solutions to ethical problems for practicing design professionals.
Periodically, a new applied ethics case taken from actual professional practice experience is presented in narrative format. The names of the participants and the locations are altered to obscure the identities of those involved in the situation described. This information is kept confidential by the Applied Ethics in Professional Practice Case of the Month Club.
Several suggested solutions to the ethics situation are also presented. Not all of these solutions are necessarily ethical, but may represent reactions commonly found in professional practice.
Based on research conducted by the original program director, Dr. Ron Bucknam, a list of six (6) recommended core ethical values was compiled. They are presented in this program to assist in evolving solutions to ethical dilemmas encountered in professional practice, as well as other facets of life.
Additionally, based on the same work indicated above, basic steps to personal ethical decision making and guidelines for facilitating solutions to ethical dilemmas in engineering practice are presented for reference on separate pages.
By following the instructions, it is possible to vote via the Web for the solution(s) the reader believes to be the most applicable to the situation described. Alternatively, site visitors are encouraged to submit their own solutions to the ethical dilemma presented. This can also be accomplished via the Web.
When a new case is posted, the tabulated results of the site visitors' responses and additional solutions are compiled and presented at this Web site. The corresponding case narrative is also available for reference. All reasonable additional solutions submitted are synopsized and presented as well. The identities of those submitting additional solutions are kept confidential.
Where applicable, references to specific provisions in one or more Codes of Ethics are made to focus on issues related to the case history. Also, an epilog is included when the actual resolution of the presented case is known.
The professional organizations listed in this group on the home page have indicated their interest in the objectives of this program and willingness to cooperate with it, including case history contributions, volunteers for the Board of Review, and cross-links from their home pages. The views expressed on this website are not necessarily supported or endorsed by any individual or organization associated with or interested in the website or its programs.
Contributions of real life case histories from a variety of professional design disciplines are encouraged. They may be transmitted by email, letter or fax. In addition to the description of the ethics situation, it is requested that an indication be given as to whether the names and locations have been sufficiently obscured to protect those involved. The Director of the Case of the Month Club program reserves the right to further obscure names and locations.
Reviewers for each case history presented at this Web site are selected from a non-convening Board of Review. These reviewers are asked to comment on the ethics cases and submit alternative solutions to the cases, for inclusion in the list of suggested solutions as each case is presented. The identities of the reviewers for each case and their respective suggested solutions remain confidential. Only a list of the full Board of Review members is available.
Contributions of applied ethics cases and indications of willingness to serve as a reviewer may be sent to the program director, as follows:
Dr. Jimmy H. Smith, Director
National Institute for Engineering Ethics
Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism
Texas Tech University
Box 41023
Lubbock, TX 79409-1023
Voice: (806) 742-3525Fax: (806) 742-0444
email: direct: Jimmy.Smith@ttu.edu
email: program: niee@ttu.edu