The document discusses various ethical responsibilities and issues faced by professionals, particularly engineers, including collegiality, loyalty, authority, confidentiality, and conflicts of interest. It emphasizes that engineers have a paramount obligation to public safety and welfare, which supersedes loyalty to employers in case of conflict. Additionally, it discusses the implications of collective bargaining, occupational crime, and the moral rights of engineers within their professional roles.

1. 8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 1
PREPARED BY
P.NANDA KUMAR
Assistant Professor/CSE
CAHCET

2. 8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 2

3. CONTENTS
Collegiality
Loyalty
Respect for Authority
Collective Bargaining
Confidentiality
Conflicts of Interest
Occupational Crime
Professional Rights
Employee Rights
IPR
Discrimination
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 3

4. Collegiality
Collegiality
is the tendency to support and cooperate with
colleagues.
is a virtue essential for the team work to be effective.
consists of various aspects such as respect to ideas and
work of others, commitment to moral principles,
connectedness.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 4

5. Loyalty
is exhibited in two senses, namely ‘Agency Loyalty’
and ‘Identification Loyalty’.
Agency Loyalty
is an obligation to fulfill his/her contractual duties to
the employer.
These duties are specified in terms of the particular
tasks for which one is paid and in general
cooperating with others in organization.
For engineers, the paramount obligation is still “ the
safety, health and welfare of the public”.
Identification Loyalty
Is concerned with attitudes, emotions and a sense of
personal identity.
Is a more virtue than an obligation
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 5

6. Relationship Between Professional
Responsibility and Loyalty
Acting on professional commitments to the public can be
more effective way to serve a company than a mere
willingness to follow company orders.
Loyalty to companies should not be equated with merely
obeying one’s immediate supervisor.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 6

7. Authority
Decisions can be taken by a few people, but putting into
action requires larger participation from different groups
of people such as operation, purchase etc.
In effectively and efficiently transferring decisions to
actions, the authority comes into play a great role.
Clear lines of authority provide a means for identifying
areas of personal responsibility and accountability.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 7

8. Institutional Authority
is the authority exercised within the organization.
is the right given to the employees to exercise power, to
complete the task and force them to achieve their goals.
Duties such as resource allocation, recommendation ,
issue orders on subordinates vested to institutional
authority.
E.g. Project Managers have the institutional duty to
make sure that the products/projects are completed
successfully.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 8

9. Expert Authority
is the possession of special knowledge, skills and
competence to perform a job thoroughly.
is the advice on jobs.
These experts direct others in effective manner.
E.g. adviser, experts and consultants are engaged in an
organization for a specific term.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 9

10. Authority vs. Power
Institutional authority must also be distinguished from
power.
Institutional authority typically carries with it an
allotment of the sources needed to complete tasks.
Ineffectual persons may not be able to summon the power
their position allows them to exercise.
E.g. A manager who lacks the skills of leadership may
be unable to inspire and encourage employees to
produce in ways the institution requires.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 10

11. Accepting Authority
A subordinate is said to accept authority whenever he
permits his behavior to be guided by the decision of a
superior, without independently examining the merits
of that decision.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 11

12. Paramount Obligations
Paramount means “chief in importance or deserving primary
emphasis”.
Engineer’s paramount obligation is to protect the public
health, safety and welfare rather than the obligations of loyalty
and faithful service to employers.
In a technical philosophical sense, whenever the obligations to
employers and the public come into a conflict, the obligation
to the public always takes precedence.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 12

13. Continued…
Obligation to the public should override the obligation to
the employer in cases where something of extreme
importance is at stake for the public: generally where lives
are threatened
Engineers must weigh their obligations to the public, their
employers, their colleagues and others when conflicts
between such obligations arise.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 13

14. Collective Bargaining
is the bargain by the trade union for improving the
economic interests of the worker members.
The process includes negotiation, threatening verbally
and declaration of ‘strike’.
It is impossible to endorse fully the collective bargaining
of unions or to condemn.
There exist always conflicting views between the
professionalism and unionism.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 14

15. Faithful Agent Argument
Professional societies such as NSPE and IEI refuse
to accept the ‘ collective coercive action’ of
unionism, holding the principles of professional
integrity as right.
The actions of unions are usually against the
interests of the employers and they use coercion
and force against the employers.
These actions are interpreted as unprofessional
and disloyal.
The safety of the workers had been ignored for a
long period or employees were under paid for
years.
Can we still hold the action as unethical?
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 15

16. Continued…
It can be concluded from this discussion that
The duty of the employee to one’s employer doesn’t
mean sacrifice of monetary self-interests.
Faithful agent means executing the assigned tasks and
safeguarding the property. It does not nullify the right
to negotiate for safe and hygienic working conditions,
and economic benefits collectively.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 16

17. Public Service Argument
The service to the public is of foremost importance.
Unions promote the interests of a few members only.
The public welfare should not suffer because of their
actions.
E.g. Imagine a situation when all teachers, medical
practitioners and ambulance drivers go on strike.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 17

18. Continued…
The collective bargaining cannot be judged as unethical,
unless we study the cases individually and decide
The collective bargaining is acceptable , but the means
should be constructive, persuasive, firm based on mutual
understanding.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 18

19. Union Critics
Unions are main source of inflation.
Unions encourage adversarial, rather than cooperative,
decision making.
They also remove person-to-person negotiations between
employers and employees and make the individual worker
a pawn of the collective bargaining.
Unions encourage unrest and strained relations between
workers and management.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 19

20. Union Supporters
Unions have been the primary factor in creating healthy
salaries and the high standard of living enjoyed by today’s
workers.
They give employees a greater sense of participation in
company decision making.
Unions are a healthy balance to the power of employers to
fire at will.
Unions yield stability by providing an effective grievance
procedure for employee complaints.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 20

21. ConfidentialityKeeping confidences is one of the most central and
widely acknowledged duties of any professional.
E.g. Doctors and counselors must keep information on
their patients confidential.
Teachers must keep at least personal information
about their students confidential.
Confidential information is information deemed
desirable to keep secret.
Confidential information is any information that the
employer or client would like to have kept secret in order
to compete effectively against business rivals.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 21

22. Confidential Information-Related
Terms
On the basis of possession, the confidential information
are divided into two types as follows:
Privileged Information
 is a synonym for “confidential information”.
 It means “available only on the basis of special
privilege” such as the privilege accorded an employee
working on a special assignment.
 It covers information that has not yet become public
or widely known within an organization.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 22

23. Proprietary Information
is information that a company owns or is the proprietor of.
This term is used primarily in a legal sense, just as
“property” and “ownership” are ideas carefully defined by
law.
“Trade Secrets” is a rough synonym for “Proprietary
Information”.
It is protected legally by the organization from use by
others, including the employees.
A limited legal protection is available for this proprietary
information by common law.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 23

24. Patents vs. Trade Secrets
Patents differ from trade secrets.
Patents legally protect specific products from being
manufactured and sold by the competitors without the
express permission of patent holder.
Trade secrets have no such protection.
A corporation may learn about a competitor’s trade
secrets thro’ legal means.
E.g. Reverse Engineering
U.S patents can be held for seventeen years where as trade
secrets have no restrictions.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 24

25. Justification And Limits
Upon what moral basis does the confidentiality obligation
rest, with its wide scope and obvious importance?
The obligation of confidentiality can be justified at two
levels:
The first level is to appeal to three ordinary moral
considerations: respect for autonomy, respect for
promises, regard for public well-being.
The second level is to appeal directly to the major
ethical theories.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 25

26. Continued…
Rights ethicists justify employees’ confidentiality obligation
by appealing to basic human rights.
No employer has a right to safeguard proprietary information
by preventing the engineers from blowing the whistle in cases
where public knowledge of such information would save
human lives and thereby protect the rights of people to live.
Duty ethicists will emphasize the basic duties of both
employers and employees to maintain the trust placed in
them at the time committed themselves to an employment
agreement.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 26

27. Continued…
Rule-utilitarians will view rules governing confidentiality
as justified to the extent that such rules produce the most
good for the greatest number of people.
Act-utilitarians will focus on each instance where an
employer decides on what is count as confidential
information.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 27

28. Changing Jobs
The obligation to protect confidential information doesn’t
stop when employees change jobs.
Former employees would quickly disclose confidential
information to their new employers or perhaps for a price,
sell it to competitors of their former employers.
The relationship between employer and employee in
regard to confidentiality continues beyond the formal
period of employment.
Many engineers value professional advancement more
than long-term ties with any one company and so change
jobs frequently.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 28

29. Management policies
One approach is to use employment contracts
that place special restrictions on future
employment like restriction on geographical
location, type of jobs that one can perform
with future employer.
An incentive instead of threatening their rights
by the employment contract. A lump sum
post-employment payment over a specific
period may be offered as incentive to restrict
him/her.
Another approach by the management is to
effect tighter controls on internal information
flow on trade secrets and other vital features.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 29

30. Conflicts of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when the employee has
more than one interest.
A professional conflict of interest is the situation
where the professional has an interest that, if
pursued, might prevent him/her from meeting
his/her obligations to employers or clients.
Conflicts of interest threaten good judgment in
faithfully serving an employer or client.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 30

31. Conflicts of interest
“conflicting interests” is different from “conflict of
interest”.
E.g. A student may have interests in excelling on four
final exams. She knows, however, that there is time to
study adequately for only three of them and so she
must choose which interest not to pursue.
“Conflicting interests” means a person has two or
more desires that cannot all be satisfied given the
circumstances.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 31

32. Gifts and bribes
A bribe is a substantial amount of money or goods
offered beyond a stated business contract with the
aim of winning an advantage in gaining or keeping
the contract.
Gifts are not bribes as long as they are small gratuities
offered in the normal conduct of the business.
Prearranged payments made by contractors to
companies in exchange for contracts actually granted
are called “kickbacks”.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 32

33. Bribes and gifts
Bribes are illegal or immoral because they are
substantial enough to threaten fairness in competitive
situations, while gratuities are of smaller amounts.
According to ABET, “Engineers shall not solicit nor
accept gratuities directly or indirectly from
contractors, their agents, or other parties dealing with
their clients or employers in connection with work for
which they are responsible”.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 33

34. How does bribe differ from gift?
Tests Bribe Gift
Timing Given before Given after
Cost of item Large amount Small amount, articles of
daily use
Quality of Product Poor Good/High
Transparency Made in secret Made in open
Motive Expect undue favor Thanking for favor
Consequence on
organizations’ good will
Damaging the goodwill
and reputation
No damage is involved.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 34

35. Interests in other companies
Some conflicts of interest consist in having an
interest in a competitor’s or sub-contractor’s business.
E.g. working for the competitor or subcontractor as an
employee or consultant.
Moon lighting
is a situation when a person is working as employee for
two different companies in spare time.
It will lead to conflict of interest.
It leaves the person exhausted and harms the job
performance in both places.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 35

36. Insider information
An especially sensitive conflict of interest consists in
using “inside” information to gain an advantage or set
up a business opportunity for oneself, one’s family or
one’s friends.
The information might concern one’s own company
or another company with which one does business.
E.g. engineers might tell their friends about their
corporation’s plans for a merger that will greatly
improve the worth of another company's stock. In
doing so, they give those friends an edge on an
investment promising high returns.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 36

37. Occupational crime
Occupational crimes are illegal acts made possible
thro’ one’s lawful employment.
It is the secretive violation of laws regulating work
activities.
When committed by office workers or professionals,
occupational crime is called “white-collar crime”.
Employee theft is a type of occupational crime when
it is associated with an employee’s assigned tasks.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 37

38. Industrial espionage
It means simply spying for personal or company benefits.
E.g. Espionage is very common in company manufacturing
computer chips, Ics and microprocessors.
Espionage is more prevalent in computer chips
manufacturing company due to the following factors:
The development of chips is extremely competitive and on
fast track.
Profit and loss can be made quicker
The crime detection and law enforcement are difficult and
ineffective.
The components involved are small. Hence pilferage or
removal or gadgets could be done easily.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 38

39. Price fixing
Fixing the bidding rate by companies, in collusion
with other companies, especially for the
contract/services, is called price fixing.
E.g., This is an occupational crime generally in
electrical equipment industries where there used to be
a few contractors but large number of contracts.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 39

40. Endangering lives
Employers who expose their employees to safety
hazards usually escape criminal penalties.
Victims have the right to sue, but only to claim some
monetary compensation.
Even after 26 years since Bhopal gas tragedy,
appropriate compensation has not been paid.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 40

41. Boot legging
Manufacturing, selling or transporting products that
are prohibited by law is called “bootlegging”.
In engineering context, it refers to working on
projects which are prohibited or not properly
authorized.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 41

42. Rights of engineers
Engineers have several types of moral rights, which
fall into the some times overlapping categories of
human, employee, contractual and professional
rights.
As human beings, engineers have fundamental rights
to live and freely pursue their legitimate interests/
As employees, engineers have special rights,
including institutional rights that arise from specific
agreements in the employment contract.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 42

43. Rights of engineers
Engineers as professionals have special rights that
arise from their professional role and the obligations
it involves.
E.g. Right to refuse to carry out illegal and unethical
activity, the right to protect clients and public from the
dangers.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 43

44. Aspects of professional right
Right of Professional Conscience
The moral right to exercise responsible
professional judgment in pursuing professional
responsibilities.
Pursuing those responsibilities involves
exercising both technical judgment and moral
convictions.
Institutional Recognition of Rights
Having a moral right is one thing . Having it
respected by others and given recognition
within a corporation quite another. When
engineers appeal to the basic right of
professional conscience they may be arguing for
its institutional recognition by employers.8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 44

45. Aspects of professional right
Specific rights
Obligation to the public might in special situations
require whistle-blowing, and hence engineers have a
limited right to whistle-blow.
The whistle-blowing right becomes more precisely
specified by listing conditions under which whistle-
blowing is permissible.
Right of conscientious refusal
 is the right to refuse to engage in unethical behavior, and
to refuse to do so solely because one views it as unethical.
 is a kind of second-order right.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 45

46. Aspects of professional right
Right to Recognition
Engineers have a right to professional recognition for
their work and accomplishments.
Part of this involves fair monetary remuneration and
part nonmonetary forms of recognition.
Right to recognition is not sufficiently precise to
pinpoint just what a reasonable salary is or what a
fair remuneration for patent discoveries is.
Such detailed matters must be worked out
cooperatively between employers and employees.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 46

47. Whistle-blowing
is alerting relevant persons to some moral or
legal corruption.
Features of whistle-blowing
Act of disclosure
 Information is intentionally conveyed outside
approved organizational channels.
Topic
 The information concerns what the person believes
is a significant problem for the organization.
Agent
 The person disclosing the information is an
employee or former employee.
Recipient
 The information is conveyed to a person or8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 47

48. Types of whistle-blowing
Based on the destination, whistle blowing is classified
into:
Internal
 The information is conveyed to a person within the
organization, but beyond the approved channels.
External
 This happens when the information is transmitted outside
the organization.
Based on the source, it is classified into:
Open
Anonymous
Partly anonymous8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 48

49. When to justify whistle-blowing
When the potential harm existing is identified as
serious or anticipated to occur with a high probability
in the near future.
The concerns have been reported earlier to the
immediate superiors and no satisfactory response was
forthcoming from them, within a reasonable time.
There is a reasonable hope that the whistle blowing
can prevent the damage existing or anticipated.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 49

50. Whistle-blowing
Instructions to be followed before blowing the
whistle:
One should familiarize with the rules for appealing
with in an organization.
Consult the trusted colleagues for advice and to avoid
isolation.
Use polite and tactful language.
Keep the supervisors informed of our actions, thro’
informal discussion.
Keep our observations and claims precise and accurate.
Prepare formal record of events in support of our
victims.8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 50

51. Employee rights
are any rights , moral or legal, that involve the status
of being an employee.
They include some professional rights that apply to
the employer-employee relationship.
Employee rights include fundamental human rights
relevant to the employment situation.
e.g. the right not to be discriminated against one’s race,
sex, age or national origin.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 51

52. Right to privacy
is the right to control the access to and use of
information about oneself.
is limited in certain situations by employers’ rights.
Only duly authorized persons can get the personal
information.
A supervisor might suspect a worker and conduct a
search in his cupboard when the worker is absent. But
the supervisor is to have another officer as witness in
such cases.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 52

53. Right to choose outside
activities
means right to have a private life outside the job.
There are some situations when this right can be
curbed:
When those activities lead to violation.
When moonlighting.
When the interest of the employer is getting damaged.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 53

54. Right to due process from
employer
is the right to fair process or procedures in firing,
demotion and in taking any disciplinary actions
against employees.
Written explanation should be initially obtained from
the charged employee and the orders are given in
writing with clearly stated reasons.
Fairness here is specified in terms of the process
rather than the outcomes.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 54

55. Intellectual property rights
It is the information and original expression that
derives its original value from creative ideas and is
with a commercial value.
IP permits people to have fully independent
ownership for their innovations and creativity.
This encourages the IP owners towards innovation
and benefit to the society.
The agreements with WTO and Trade-Related
aspects of Intellectual Property System(TRIPS) have
been adopted effective from January 2005.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 55

56. Need for protection of ip
IP prevents others using it.
It prevents using it for financial gain.
It provides a strategy to generate steady income.
It prevents plagiarism.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 56

57. Types and norms
Patents
is a contract between the individual and the society.
Patents protect legally the specific product from sold by
others without the permission of patent holder.
Types of patents are
 Utility patent
 Industrial Design Patent
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 57

58. copyright
The copyright is specific and exclusive right,
describing rights given to creators for their literary
and artistic works.
This protects literary material, aesthetic material,
music, paintings etc.
Copy right gives protection to particular expression
and not for the idea.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 58

59. trademark
Trademark is a wide identity of specific good and
services, permitting differences to be made among
different trades.
It is a territorial right which needs registration.
Registration is valid initially for 10 years and
renewable.
It may be registered in form of a heading, label, a
ticket, a word, logos.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 59

60. Trade secret
Trade secret is the information which is kept
confidential as a secret.
This information is not accessed by other than the
owner and this gives a commercial advantage over the
competitors.
Trade secrets are not registered but only kept
confidential.
Trade secrets may be formulae or methods or test
results or data collected, analyzed and synthesized.
This information should not be disclosed or used by
any other person.8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 60

61. discrimination
is morally unjustified treatment of people on arbitrary
or irrelevant grounds.
Because of caste, sex, religion and language are
regressive actions.
Is to condemn it.
Reverse preferential treatment is giving an advantage
to a member of a group that in the past was denied
equal treatment, in particular, women and minorities.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 61

62. Discrimination-examples
A senior manager post is vacant. There is competent
ad proven candidate from outside the state. A local
engineer with lesser competence is proved.
Prize amounts for the winners in the world sport are
not the same for men and women.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 62

63. Preferential treatment
Hiring a woman or a member of minority over an
equally qualified while male is only one form of
preferential treatment. Let us call it the weak form.
The strong form by contrast consists in giving
preference to women or minorities over better-
qualified white males.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 63

64. Pro- and –against reverse
preferential treatment
In favor of reverse preferential
treatment
Against reverse preferential
treatment
Compensatory justice: violations of
rights in the past must be
compensated. Usually this treatment is
extended to all the group rather than
individuals
Compensation may be given only to
specific individuals and not for all
Racial and sexual violation and
violence still exist today. To counter
balance this, the reverse preferential
treatment is necessary to ensure equal
opportunity to minorities and women.
It violates the rights to equal
opportunity for majority, to compete
on merits.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 64

65. Sexual harassment
is a particularly offensive form sex discrimination,
involving as it doesn’t only the abuse of gender roles
and work-related power relationships , but the abuse
of sexual intimacy itself.
Is currently applied to a wide variety of sexually
oriented acts and practices that may involve physical
and psychological attacks, abuse of authority, force
and a variety of unwanted provocations.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 65

66. Sexual harassment
may come in many forms:
Sexual Threats
Sexual offer
Sexual assaults
Sexual annoyance
E.g.
Following an interview for a job as secretary, a woman
is told that the job is hers if she is willing to grant
sexual favors to the interviewer.
A woman is told by her superior that she will have first
priority for receiving a promotion if she is “nice” to him.8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 66

67. bibliography
Text Book
Mike Martin and Roland Schinzinger, Ethics in
Engineering, Mcgraw Hill, New York, 1996.
Reference Books
M.Govindarajan, S.Natarajan, V.S.SenthilKumar,
Engineering Ethics, PHI, 2004.
Charles D.Fleddermann, Engineering Ethics, Prentice
Hall, New Mexico, 1999.
R.S.Naagarazan, Professional Ethics and Human Values,
New Age International Publishers, 2006.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 67

68. Review questions
What is collegiality?
Name two senses of loyalty.
What is meant by proprietary information?
How do ethical theories justify confidentiality?
What is moonlighting?
What is bootlegging?
List a few non-contractual employee rights.
Differentiate patent and trade secrets.
What is meant by whistle blowing?
List four aspects of whistle blowing.
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 68

69. THANK YOU
8/22/2011 School of Computing, Department of IT 69