The links below provide a brief introduction to engineering ethics, and three major ethical theories.
Here is a link to a YouTube podcast on ethical theories from a Leadership Seminar presented at the American Society of Engineering Management, National Meeting in November 2007:
Ethical Theories and Purposeful Action
In most actions, all three ethical theories lead to the same conclusion about the ethical balance of the action.
Can you think of three examples from your personal life, or from the actions of public persons, that illustrate this?
codes-standards
corporate-responsibility
ethical-concepts-and-theories
These files are part of a Micro-eCourse on Ethics, developed for engineering students and staff at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The starting premise for this post is that actions of purposeful servant leaders should be driven by vision (the first step in the
Framework for Purposeful Action) and not by expectations of achieving goals (step 4) or of results (step 10 - where the arrow lands) or rewards (step 12).
In Volume 1, Issue 13 of the
Brook of Life News, August 13, 2002 (some things do not change…) the following thoughts on vision and goals were published:
“I set goals but am not driven by them,” said the young woman.
“That makes no sense,” said the mature businessman. “Why set goals if you do not pursue them?”
“Goals are just milestones to evaluate the progress of your mission–towards your vision?” She replied.
“So, why are you not driven by your goals?” the man persisted.
“Because, I am driven by a commitment to my mission–which is to achieve my vision. If I were driven by goals, I would be tempted to manipulate in order to achieve them. This is the root cause of unethical actions we see today in politics and business.” She replied, with passion.
“You sound so idealistic.” He said with a knowing smile.
“I am practical,” She responded, “This is purposeful action.”
When you apply this young woman’s thinking to the actions of McCain, Clinton and Obama during the course of the recently ended election season, does some pattern emerge?
Some issues and promises by Candidates:
- Subsidies for runaway gas prices
- Taxing exorbitant profits of oil companies
- Graduated income tax relief
- The financial bailout of Wall Street firms
- Personal attack ads
- Interjection of Joe the Plumber
- Wardrobe-gate
- Campaign financing
- Interjecting gender and race
- Interjecting fear and experience. or lack thereof
- Environment versus energy independence
- Defense, war and diplomacy
- Universal healthcare versus insurance subsidies
- Immigration
- Education
- Jobs
Most of us are aware of the dramatic daily drops in the stock market, which have eroded more than eight trillion dollars of the value of US and foreign corporations. The general belief has been that this is a problem brought about by greed and corruption in financial firms, and predominantly financial firms that make their billions through “deals” involving “financial papers” - now mostly in electronic form. This has resulted in a spiral of increasing values and volumes of deals at higher and higher transaction speeds, across global markets - while at the same time, our Government has loosened regulations and regulatory oversight instead of pursuing the more prudent path of increasing scrutiny of the mushrooming deal-making euphoria that has led up to this unprecedented disaster.
So, do we mean to say that this crisis is a Wall Street problem that has been allowed to balloon to the current burst?
Do we also mean that we should let the Government and Wall Street work it out with our, Taxpayer, dollar serving as the fodder for this giant gone berserk?
Or, do we mean that this problem does not affect us, so long as we keep our jobs or other sources of income, even if the value of our investments is eroded temporarily (we hope)?
The graduate class on Legal and Ethical Perspectives in Business, at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, heard my views on this grave matter last Tuesday evening. Listen to audio excerpts on integrity from my lecture on purposeful action for quality improvement (3:09): Make Integrity a Habit
For those of you who are disturbed by the lucrative payoffs in the tens of millions of dollars to the CEOs of highflying and now bankrupt Wall Street firms, will relate to this excerpt from my lecture on purposeful action for quality improvement (4:09): Unjust Rewards: Compensation for Failure
We would like to hear from you on this most important matter that will affect the world for generations…
With best wishes,
Prem Chopra
Nothing occurs by accident. Everything has a purpose and flows with it. It is up to you to realize this. Once you understand action, what motivates it and what drives the actions of others, you are ready to navigate the whitewaters of the Brook of life. The Framework for Purposeful Action shows you how.
The Framework dissects action into twelve steps that apply equally to your personal and professional life. These twelve steps are organized in three phases:
- Forming the Mission for Action
- Performing the Action
- Reinforcing the Action
The first phase covers three steps. Using the metaphor of the archer, this phase expresses the desire to hunt, the spotting of the target and the aiming of the arrow.
Introspection is the search for resonance–to discover the dream that represents a state to which one aspires. One reaches within to find the vision for action. Enlightened Leadership starts with this step.
In Extrospection, one looks outside to reconcile the vision with the world. This is called ‘gap analysis’ in business–finding a need. It includes an assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Entrepreneurship starts with this step.
Once the internal vision is reconciled with the external world, a mission is formed and Commitment is made to the mission. Management starts with this step.
Listen to an excerpt from my lecture on purposeful action for quality improvement (2:28): What is Purposeful Action?
Look for additional excerpts in future posts.