Today: Loyalty & the impact of workplace decisions on society Week 3, Lesson 4 Monday, September 14, 1998 Dr. Vincent Duffy - IEEM SOSC Science, Technology and Society 1

Overview for today n Loyalty, workplace decisions & their impact u What should I do if I am assigned work that is not in the best interests of society? n Begin : tools for analysis n Turn in sheets with photos, etc. 2

Questions of the day -bonus n Q1. What should I do if I am assigned work that is not in the best interests of society? u How do you decide? u Best interests? F Whose best interests? 3

Loyalty, decisions, impact n Loyalty ‘it never occurred to us that conflicts could arise’. n We assumed: “if engineer is loyal to superiors, colleagues and clients, that service to the community came naturally....” n Relativity of ethics- your perspective u Eddie Stanky - played baseball u dirty player or resourceful and clever 4

n Exxon engineer u in charge of off shore drilling u sees his colleagues - as regular guys u town engineer for a nearby seaside resort F giant heartless corporation obsessed w/profits n Particularly important in HK u especially since housing development (a noble goal) can sometimes have damaging effects on the environment 5

n Individuals Working within the system n Florman says work with enthusiasm u let institutions with opposing views resolve conflicts between organizations v Reading ‘Loyalty: Or Why Engineering is like Baseball’ S.Florman 6

n Florman calls it ‘healthy competition’ u ecologically, politically and technologically n the conflicting institutions could include u corporations, labor, bureaucracies u universities, trade associations, charities, foundations, political parties u public/private interest organizations 7

Q.2. What do you think about this case? n Mr. Tam worked for a brake manufacturer in Hong Kong for many years u he was known to be a good technical writer. u He was asked to write a report on the performance of the brakes. u He became aware of limitations and problems in testing. u They failed to meet the specifications. u Upon pointing this out, he was given a direct order u to stop complaining and write the report.. 8

What should he do? v Should he write the report? v What would you do? v Does age matter? What does he risk to write the report? v What does his company stand to gain? v Mr. Tam was 42 years old with a wife and 6 children. v Loyalty to society? self? company or Family? 9

n to society - fix the brakes n to company - write the report n to family - keep the job n to himself - dont write (lie) in the report n dont write? u maybe they fire him and someone else writes it n write it? u maybe he loses his license to practice n what did he do? u He wrote the report but would not sign it. Loyalty: 10

Does this solve the issue of faulty brakes? v Issue of faulty brakes not really resolved –however, superiors happy - –put their name on it v if work known to be damaging... v he may be able to influence the change –from within the company after the report is written. –or maybe as a member of community 11

For Wednesday:Tools for analysis n Is more technology always a good thing? u good when we get the intended results u what about the unintended results? n Primary result, Secondary results n Social Lag, Social Payoff, Social Cost 12

Questions of the Day (QOTD) n Q.3. n Q.3. Please tell one club or student organization you belong to on campus. If you know the webpage for the club, please write it here. n _name_ club___webpage (if known)______ n write on photo sheet if possible, or write on QOTD sheet u (if no club write ‘none’ and tell ‘reason for no club’) 13

Administrative issues n Reading: Florman: Loyalty u also, next section of text - put on web page n Form groups of 3 or 4 u Please prepare a team sheet w/photos v latest Wednesday 16th. v if anyone does not have a group, please let me know and I will help to form the group. v Please see me after class v Wednesday, choose in class, date of oral presentation 14