1. ELEC4011 Ethics & Electrical Engineering Practice Hugh Outhred
Lecture 8: Professional Responsibility & Employer Authority (Chapter 5, Martin & Schinzinger, ‘Ethics in Engineering’)
ELEC4011 Ethics & Electrical Engineering Practice
Hugh Outhred

2. ELEC4011 - Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority
Contents
Professionalism (review)
Institutional authority
Expert advice
Negotiating conditions of employment
Confidentiality
Conflicts of interest
Bribes & extortion
Occupational crime
Career implications
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

3. Attributes of a professional engineer
Sophisticated skills, independent judgement
Acceptance of responsibility (moral autonomy)
Expert authority, balancing complex obligations:
What is the legitimate authority of an employer?
In what sense, and to what extent, are the interests of the public paramount?
Collegiality with one’s fellow engineers
Loyalty to an employer or client
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

4. ELEC4011 - Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority
Collegiality
Attributes of collegiality:
Respect for the professionalism of one’s peers
Ethical conduct, even in a competitive context
Connectedness to the profession of engineering:
Continuing education, professional activities
Benefits of collegiality :
Public assurance, respect for the profession
Threats to collegiality :
Exploitation of public trust, cut-throat competition
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

5. Loyalty to an employer or client
Agency loyalty:
Fulfil contractual obligations (subject to public interest)
Identification loyalty:
In addition, personally identify with an employer/client:
Appropriate if part of a reciprocal commitment
Both consistent with the role of ‘faithful agent’
Misguided loyalty:
Ignoring public interest to protect an employer:
An abrogation of moral autonomy
Risky for both engineer & employer in the long run
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

6. Relevant tenets of the IEAust Code of Ethics
1. “… responsibility for the … community before … sectional or private interests”
4. “… fairness, honesty, … good faith towards all … including clients, employers and colleagues”
5. “… skill & knowledge in the interests of their employer or client … as faithful agents …, without compromising the welfare … of the community”
6. “… inform themselves, their clients & employers & the community of the social & environmental consequences”
8. “… continue to develop knowledge, skills & expertise …”
9. “… not assist, induce or be involved in a breach of these tenets … support those who ... uphold them”
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

7. Institutional authority
Societies are organised on the basis of institutions:
e.g. corporations operating under company law
Institutional authority is delegated to individuals:
The right to make decisions on behalf of an institution:
In performing assigned duties (managers & subordinates)
Based on institutional rules (written & unwritten)
Requires the ‘authority of leadership’:
May conflict with the ‘expert authority’ of a professional subordinate
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

8. Legitimacy of institutional authority
Legitimacy depends on answers to two questions:
Are the goals of the institution morally permissible?
Does a proposed act violate basic moral duties?
Acceptance of institutional authority:
Within a (self-monitored) ‘zone of acceptance’
Retain independent moral autonomy:
Balance paramount obligation to the public against obligations to the employer, family & other stakeholders
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

9. ELEC4011 - Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority
Expert advice
Managers hold decision-making responsibility in companies:
However usually based on expert advice:
Some responsibility for decisions lies with expert advisers
Implications for expert advisers:
Explain the rationale for your recommendations:
In lay terms, not overstating the case
Correct any misconceptions that a manager holds:
These may bias the outcome
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

10. Negotiating conditions of employment
Conditions of employment are negotiated between employer & employees:
Usually an imbalance of power:
Employees’ rights depend on ethical behaviour by employer
Unionism & collective bargaining:
Employees negotiate with employer as a group rather than as individuals
Relinquish individual rights to achieve a better outcome
Usually employment conditions, sometimes public interest
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

11. Professionalism & unionism
Some professional societies oppose unionism:
Claimed to be in conflict with role as a ‘faithful agent’ & with paramount duty to the public
An alternative view:
Unionism has similar ethical issues to employment:
Accept institutional authority within a ‘zone of acceptance’
Hence:
Unionism acceptable if retain moral autonomy
Conclusion:
Union membership is a personal matter for an engineer
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

12. Confidential information
Information is confidential to an organisation if:
It was developed within the organisation, it is not widely known & it has commercial value:
‘Intellectual property’ or ‘trade secrets’
Patent - a description of a product or process:
placed in the public domain in return for protection of the ‘intellectual property’ for a defined period
Confidential information & patents:
Allow organisations to benefit from innovation
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

13. Obligation to maintain confidentiality
While employed by the organisation concerned:
Duty to the employer subject only to public interest
After changing jobs:
Obligation to protect confidentiality remains
Particularly if new employer is a competitor to the old one
Difficult to define boundary between:
Previous employers’ trade secrets
The engineer’s developing professional skills & knowledge
Requires good judgement by all parties
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

14. Professional conflicts of interest
Conflict with another professional activity, e.g:
Consulting for two companies that are competitors
Conflicting personal interest, e.g:
Employee of one company while shareholder of competitor
General characteristic of a conflict of interest:
A situation with the plausible potential to distort professional judgement
Basic rule:- avoid any such situation
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

15. ELEC4011 - Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority
Bribes and extortion
Bribe:
A substantial gift intended to influence or corrupt:
Particularly when not widely known
Extortion:
A gift demanded by a decision maker
When does a gift become a bribe?
If it were to become publicly known:
Would professional integrity be brought into question?
Would the employer’s reputation be tarnished?
All such acts are inconsistent with moral autonomy
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

16. ELEC4011 - Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority
Occupational crime
Illegal acts made possible through employment:
Misusing confidential information for personal gain
Promoting employer’s interests in an unlawful way
Industrial espionage:
Illegally acquiring the trade secrets of a competitor
Price fixing:
Collusion between companies to defraud the public
Endangering lives:
Infringements of occupational health & safety law
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

17. ELEC4011 - Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority
Career implications
Most engineers are employees or consultants:
Likely to work for more than one company
Long term success depends on developing good judgement about employer & client relationships
Strategies for success:
Develop collegiality and avoid misguided loyalty
Respect legitimate authority but retain moral autonomy:
Choose career & employers to avoid potential conflicts
Maintain confidentiality
Avoid potential conflicts of interest
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority

18. ELEC4011 - Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority
Summary
Professional engineers work both for employer or client & for society:
Need sophisticated judgement to balance obligations:
Respect legitimate institutional authority
Provide sound expert advice
Protect confidentiality & avoid conflicts of interest
Avoid corporate crime
In future, most engineers will work for more than one company:
Balance self & family interests with career & client interests
ELEC Lecture 8: Professional Responsiblity & Employer Authority