Controlling Technology

Controlling Technology: Ethics and the Responsible Engineer (2nd Edition)

Stephen H. Unger, John Wiley & Sons, 1994. ISBN 0-471-59181-5.

Unger examines the problem of "democratically controlling technology for the benefit of humanity." (p. xi) His thesis is that engineers must take responsibility for the work and strive for high ethical standards. Engineers must strive to 'do the right thing' even if it may damage their careers; as professionals, they have an obligation to protect the welfare of the general public.

Engineers may face ethical challenges of several different kinds; pressure from management to ignore safety concerns, cover-ups, bribery or kickbacks, or assignments that violate their personal values. Each of these situations demands a different response from the engineer, varying from raising objections up the chain of command, to traditional 'whistleblowing' sorts of activities, to resignation or transfer. Unger gives several examples of courageous engineers living their ethics and paying the consequences; an example is also given of the results that can follow from engineers' failure to blow the whistle on safety concerns -- in this case, a DC-10 accident that killed hundreds.

Engineers' failure to raise safety concerns to a high level can result in disaster, as evidenced by four examples: the Titanic sinking, the Bhopal gas cloud, the Chernobyl explosion, and the Challenger explosion. Each of these are examples of large engineering projects that had serious safety problems which were either never raised by the engineers involved, or were (relatively) easily brushed aside. Unger argues that the engineers involved could have (and should have) done something to prevent these accidents.

Unger argues that one solution to the problem of supporting and encouraging engineers to take action is to have definite codes of ethics. He presents in detail a sample ethical code and compares it to some existing codes (e.g. the IEEE Code of Ethics). He argues that while they are not panaceas, ethics codes can reinforce conduct, particularly public safety concerns.

Another means of encouraging engineers in their professional conduct is through the various engineering societies. Unger argues that most of the engineering societies do very little to support their members when faced with retaliation for whistleblowing and related activities; he feels that ethics codes have been used more often to police the engineers than to assist them in resisting pressure to violate the code. He recommends that the societies should find means to assist their members since it would benefit the engineers and even their managers who are sometimes pressured to act unethically.

Engineers have traditionally resisted unionization; this is mostly due to their viewpoint as an 'agent' of their employers. While licensing and registration requirements have been imposed on some engineers, most are not bound by these requirements.

Unger concludes with some helpful advice on how to be an ethical engineer and what an engineer should do if he/she needs to take action to avoid an ethics conflict.