Ian Mair

Ayla Peters

John Norton

Cory McDowell

Group 2 Project Proposal

Throughout the course of the semester, we have learned about various schools of ethical thought and how they apply to engineering. We have also discussed and analyzed various engineering situations in which we are called to make an ethical decision based on our values and defend the decisions we make. However, the environment in an engineering firm or in a company that employs engineers is vastly different than that of an academic setting, and we feel that although this class has helped us to recognize ethical issues and identify why it is paramount that we deal with them rather than push them under the rug, many students going into the engineering field straight out of college do not know what resources there are for them to deal with the issues they face. This can be detrimental for both the new employee and the company: the employee may feel that they are unequipped to address the issues (for example, if the employee is a junior engineer and has very limited ways to reach management, or if they are threatened by their superiors and told to keep quiet), and it is detrimental to the company because employees may not say anything about issues that can harm the company’s revenue or reputation later on, or even issues that are endangering their lives or the lives of others.

To deal with the ethical issues that are found on a day-to-day basis around the workplace, we are proposing to establish a company that will serve as a resource for employees and employers in dealing with specific ethical issues they have found. Our plan is for this company to be an outside, nonbiased firm that will not only educate employees about the resources available to them (such as OMBUDS, outside organizations, pertinent legislation, etc.), but also act as a bridge to those witnessing/experiencing the ethical issues for themselves and management, who may not be aware of or understand the gravity of these issues. The goal for our company is to educate employees about the different resources that are available to them so they can deal with the problems they face, but also to establish more preventative (rather than reactive) methods in dealing with ethical problems in the workplace.

In order to be most effective in accomplishing our company’s goals, we would maintain small close knit teams of 4 members. Each business or company that we provide ethics consultation for, will be assigned a single team. That team would be responsible for conducting a full scale investigation into that companies ethics policies as well as workplace environment. Upon conclusion of the investigation, the team would present their findings in a manner that they feel best communicates their message to the employees. Furthermore, that team would work to maintain a relationship with that corporate customer to follow up on the effectiveness of our service as well as provide consulting for their future company ethics concerns. Teams will be comprised of an field specialist, a legal consultant, a presentation designer, and a group leader. The field specialist’s responsibilities are to bring domain specific knowledge of the types of ethical issues in the customer’s field. The legal consultant’s job is to understand the company’s legal structure and extract pieces pertinent to potential ethics issues. The presentation designer is in charge of coalescing the main ideas revealed from the investigation into the best means with which to present that to the employees. Finally, the group leader serves as the point of contact with the corporate customer. Each group will be hand selected to suit the customer and be educated on how to best conduct an ethics consultation by an in-house training program our company provides.

A specific example of a resource our company will relay to employees is The Whistleblower Protection Programs offered by the United States Department of Labor. A whistleblower is someone who exposes misconduct or dishonest or illegal activity in an organization. The program provides information about the different statutes that protect whistleblowers from retaliation from their employers, and it even gives someone the opportunity to file a complaint. It might dissuade an employee from reporting misconduct if he/she fears repercussions from his/her company, but if an employee knows he/she is protected by the statutes outlined in the Whistleblower Protection Program, then he/she can feel comfortable to expose and thus eliminate misconduct in the workplace. Whether an employee knows about such a resource dictates whether that employee will do what is right even when the employee is ordered to do what is wrong, and that is why our company is so important.

Another subject that is particularly important to engineers is that of the intellectual property rights of an employee. In general, if an engineer is an employee of a company, any idea or invention that this engineer develops while working for the company is the property of the company, not the engineer. Even if the engineer develops this invention outside of work, if he/she uses the company in any way at all (even something as small as using the company copy machine), then the company can claim the invention. What our company will do is warn employees about their very limited intellectual property rights and advise employees as to how they can develop ideas without sacrificing their rights. These rights vary on a case-by-case basis, depending on the contract signed between the company and the employee, so our company would read over each contract and levy advice accordingly.

Another confusing issue that our company would clear up is that of bribery. We would answer the question of what exactly is bribery? Is taking a client out to a nice dinner bribery? Well, in the medical industry the answer is yes because specific laws have been enacted forbidding pharmaceutical representatives from even giving doctors free pens. However, in other industries, this is completely acceptable and deemed as “customer entertainment”. Our company would illuminate the line between entertainment and bribery, allowing employees to do their jobs and be certain whether or not they are being ethical.

Throughout this course, we have seen the devastation that can occur when an engineer makes the wrong choice in an ethical dilemma. Existing ethical resources are often overlooked or ignored by employees of many corporations. Our consulting company will make sure ethical resources are improved and noticed. If an employee needs to learn about his or her available ethical resources at the time he or she has an ethical dilemma, it is too late. By educating employees about what they can do before any incident occurs, this proactive rather than retroactive approach can hopefully eliminate most ethical dilemmas, as employees will have been taught how to conduct themselves properly. Through improvement of resources and better-aware employees, our consulting company will work to eliminate ethical dilemmas, and work towards having engineers making a purely positive impact.

See our civic engagement poster to be presented at an engineering convention next semester here: Group2CivicEngagementPoster.