Chapter 1 - ENG 310

The Responsibilities of Engineers
(Ibo Van De Poel and Lamber Royakkers)

Chapter 1
 Motivation
 Definition of Responsibility
 Passive Responsibility
 Active Responsibility and ideals
 Engineers vs Management
 Social Context of Technological Development
 Chapter Summary
 On January 28th 1986, the Challenger space
shuttle exploded just 73 seconds after its
launching
 This disaster took the life of 7 astronauts and
lead to a loss of 1.2 billion dollars
 The explosion was caused by the failure of a
rubber sealing ring
Who must be held accountable for such a

disaster?
 Engineers at the company that manufactured
the rings had communicated doubts about
the reliability of the product
 The engineers at the company weren’t invited
to the call with NASA to allow the launching
 Management, which was on the verge of
sealing a new contract with NASA decided no
to inform them about the possible risks
Such a disaster had many causes:
• The engineers did not provide a clear
criterion or temperature under which the
rings are unsafe
• Managers, which generally are more
concerned with business that technical issues
were given the final decision
• The mentality was “justify why it is unsafe to
launch” instead of “justify why it is safe to
launch”
This disaster illustrates many of the issues
encountered in Engineering Ethics :
• Responsibility and Accountability: in this
case, and in most others, it’s not a single
person responsible but a chain of actions or
events
• Engineers vs Management: Who should have
the final decision?
• Engineers’ right to publically announce
concerns
 Any disaster or mistakes sparks the questions
of who is responsible? Who must be held
accountable?
 Responsibility is towards decisions and
actions taken as well as failure to take action
 Responsibility can be evoked as a duty before
an event has happened: Active Responsibility,
or as an accountability after an event: Passive
Responsibility
 Role Responsibility: arises from a role played
in a certain situation, which may create what
is called a Conflict of Interest
 Moral Responsibility: arises from moral
obligations or duties which can be based on
philosophy, religion, culture…
We are concerned with Professional

Responsibility, which is based on our role as
professional engineers, taking into account
moral responsibilities
Involves backward looking after an undesirable
event to determine accountability and
blameworthiness. It implies the following:
 Wrong-doing: an institution norm or a moral
code haven’t been respected
 Causal Contribution: Without this particular
action or lack of action the consequence would
have been avoided
 Foreseability: The person must have been able to
predict the consequences
 Freedom of action: The person must not have
acted under compulsion or pressure
 Comes into play before an action
 Implies an attempt to avoid undesirable
consequences and maximize desirable ones
 Reached by thriving for ideals which are
strivings, in our case of professional nature.
A/ Technological Enthusiasm
The ideal of wanting to develop new

technological possibilities and taking up
technological challenges
Danger: to easily overlook the negative effects

and the social constraints
Example: Wernher von Braun

B/ Effectiveness and Efficiency
• Extent to which an
established goal is achieved
Effectiveness • Can be defined and
Both depend
quantifiable on the end
for which
they are
employed
• Ratio between goal achieved
and effort required
Efficiency • Frederic W. Taylor: founder
of the efficiency movement
C/ Human Welfare
 ASCE, ASME:
◦ “Engineers shall use their knowledge and skill for
the enhancement of human welfare”
◦ “Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health
and welfare of the public”
 Safety, health, environment and sustainability

 Technological enthusiasm, Effectiveness and
efficiency:
◦ Not always morally commendable
◦ Not always morally reprehensible
◦ Depend on goal and side effects
◦ Danger of forgetting the moral dimension
 Human welfare:
◦ Professional practice of engineer is morally neutral
◦ The profession develops more than means to
achieve certain goals
 Engineers have responsibility towards:
◦ The general public
◦ Their managers
 Three models of ethical behavior for

engineers dealing with managers:
◦ Separatism
◦ Technocracy
◦ Whistle-Blowing
 The notion that scientists and engineers
should apply the technical inputs, but
appropriate management and political
organs should make the value decisions
 Engineers are responsible for:
◦ Design (i.e. the engineering choices that they
make)
 Engineers are not responsible for:
◦ The consequences of their design
 Hired Gun: “Someone who is willing a to
carry out any task or assignment from his
employer without moral scruples”
 The government is run by experts
(Technocrats)
◦ E.g: Ideally, the Minister of the Environment would
be the best in their field
 Problems:
◦ Unclear criteria for choosing Technocrats
◦ Paternalism: The making of (moral) decisions for
others on the assumption that one knows better
what is good for them than those others themselves
◦ Steve Jobs
 Tattletaling (especially on someone who is
higher ranking than you)
 The disclosure of certain abuses in a

company by an employee in which he or she
is employed, without the consent of his/her
superiors and in order to remedy these
abuses and/or to warn the public about these
abuses.
 Sometimes engineers find themselves in a
dilemma:
◦ Should they remain faithful to their employees even
when they have a professional responsibility
towards the public?
◦ Or should they tell someone higher ranking about
the abuse of a superior?
 Engineer should be dealing with an issue that
will do serious and considerable harm to the
public
 Engineer already reported to immediate
superior, and concluded that superior will do
nothing effective
 Engineer has tried other internal procedures
 Engineer has enough evidence of threat
 Engineer believes that revealing the threat will
prevent the harm
 Actor: Any person or group that can make a
decision how to act and that can act on that
decision.
 A company is an actor (has a board of directors),

a mob is not.
 A variety of actors that play a role in

technological development:
◦ Developers and producers of technology
◦ Users
◦ Regulators
• Developers and producers of technology:
all of which usually employ scientists and engineers
(engineering companies, industrial laboratories,
consulting firms, universities and research centers.)
• Users:
Who use the technology. The users of technologies are a
very diverse group, including both companies and
citizens (consumers).
• Regulators:
who formulate rules concerning health and safety
• Others:
Stakeholders: Actors that have an interest (“a stake”) in
the development of a technology.
Example: Case The Invention of Teflon
• Roy Plunkett – a 28-year-old chemist at Du Pont – was

requested in 1938 to develop a new, non-poisonous coolant
for fridges.
• By an experimental mistake he created a new material: Teflon.

Nobody knew what it was at first. Best known as coating for
non-stick frying pans.
• In 2005, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) found that PFOA, a chemical
compound used to make Teflon, is “likely carcinogenic”.
 Technology Assessment (TA): Systematic method for
exploring future technology developments and assessing
their potential societal consequences.
 Collingridge dilemma : It is not always easy to predict/control

the direction of technological development, whether they
have positive or negative consequences. However, once the
(negative) consequences materialize it often has become very
difficult to change the direction of technological
development. (The Invention of Teflon case)
 Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) Approach to

Technology Assessment (TA) in which TA-like efforts are
carried out parallel to the process of technological
development and are fed back to the development and design
process.
▪ Notion of responsibility
◦ One that implies accountability and blameworthiness
◦ Active component to maximize positive output and
minimize unwanted consequences
▪ Role responsibilities as engineers and as

employees and members of a society
◦ We have 3 main aspects of this responsibility:
technological enthusiasm, effectiveness and efficiency,
human welfare
◦ We have also seen how to deal with conflicts of interest
(separatism, technocracy, whistle blowing)
▪ Social context of technological development adds

many stakeholders to the picture
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/
06/sci_nat_1986_challenger_disaster/html/1.stm
 http://physicsforme.files.wordpress.com
 http://3.bp.blogspot.com
 http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2013
/01/space_shuttle_challenger_disas.html
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG8BPB_oPlg
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbtY_Wl-hYI

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Chapter 1 - ENG 310

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The Responsibilities of Engineers

(Ibo Van De Poel and Lamber Royakkers)

Who must be held accountable for such a

We are concerned with Professional

The ideal of wanting to develop new

Danger: to easily overlook the negative effects

Example: Wernher von Braun

 Safety, health, environment and sustainability

 Three models of ethical behavior for

 The disclosure of certain abuses in a

 A company is an actor (has a board of directors),

 A variety of actors that play a role in

• Roy Plunkett – a 28-year-old chemist at Du Pont – was

• By an experimental mistake he created a new material: Teflon.

• In 2005, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Environmental

 Collingridge dilemma : It is not always easy to predict/control

 Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) Approach to

▪ Role responsibilities as engineers and as

▪ Social context of technological development adds

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