What Future Engineers and Scientists Learn About Ethics

Consider two stories: * An inexperienced young development engineer ponders the data he has taken to prove the structural integrity of a key part in a new product. His supervisor has cautioned him that the user's safety will depend on the behavior of this part. The supervisor has also emphasized that it is extremely important that the tests be completed on schedule in order to meet the product introduction date. Unfortunately, the test data do not provide the young engineer with a clear-cut answer. He mulls several options: Repeat the tests and delay the schedule; pass the part, assuming the designers built in some extra margin of safety; "adjust" the data so that the part clearly passes. "None of my college engineering courses really prepared me to make a decision like this, particularly when user safety is so clearly involved," he mutters. * A female college student is working during summer vacation in the procurement department of a major corporation. Her supervisor requests that she telephone the procurement department of several competitors and ask where they procure a critical component and what they have to pay for it. To elicit this information, she is told to say she is a business student working on a project for her M.B.A. degree. Reluctantly, the student complies. She needs the income from the job to finance her next year in college and is fearful she will be discharged if she doesn't follow the supervisor's orders. These two hypothetical--but not unrealistic--examples illustrate students who have received inadequate instruction in ethics and the making of ethical decisions as a part of their technical curriculum. Many universities offer elective courses on ethics in science and engineering, but only a few require them for undergraduate or graduate technical degrees. Consequently, most engineering and science students have had little opportunity to think about the meaning of ethics in terms of the decisions they must be prepared to make as professionals. Asked about the meaning of "ethical," students give such answers as: "What my feelings tell me is right"; "what is in accord with my religious beliefs"; "what conforms to The Golden Rule'"; "what does the most good for the most people"; "what is customary behavior in our society"; "what corresponds to my self-interest"; "what is legal"; "what my conscience tells me is right"; "trustworthy"; "taking responsibility for my actions"; "it depends on the situation." Student behavior in the classroom reveals considerable ignorance or disregard for ethical principles. Donald McCabe, a professor of business ethics at Rutgers, polled over 15,000 students at 31 universities about cheating on tests. Business and engineering majors "led" this poll, with over 70 percent saying they had cheated at least once, and over 10 percent saying they cheated regularly (1). National press coverage of catastrophes such as the Ford Pinto gas tank accidents, the Kansas City Hyatt-Regency Hotel walkway collapse, the Challenger shuttle O-ring failure, the Chernobyl nuclear plant catastrophe, Three Mile Island, and the Exxon Valdez incident has focused public attention as never before on the professional and ethical responsibilities of engineers and scientists. Although these highly publicized disasters may be due to poor engineering judgment or practice, the possibility of unethical or inappropriate decision making is also present. As recently as 1967, polls showed Americans had a great deal of confidence in most institutions and professions. This confidence has since dropped significantly. In 1991, doctors and engineers led a Gallup poll asking if people in certain fields had high standards of honesty and ethics; however, the doctors scored only 54 percent and 33 engineers 45 percent! College professors also scored 45 percent and business executives came in at 21 percent (2). National media coverage and intensifying public worry about professional ethics have occasioned concern about the need to put ethical issues into the engineering curriculum. …