Socio-technical system
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Software |
Physical Surroundings |
People, Groups, Roles |
Procedures |
Laws, Statutes, Regulations |
Data and Data Structures |
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Sts and values
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Hardware/Software |
Physical Surroundings |
People, Groups, Roles |
Procedures |
Laws, Statutes, Regulations |
Data and Data Structures |
| Justice (Equity and Access) |
Responsibility |
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| Responsibility |
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| Respect (Privacy and Due Process) |
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| Property |
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Exercise 2: opportunities for ethical leadership
You will be assigned one of the topics described above. Discuss this topic with your group. Answer the questions. The prepare a brief summary of your answers to share with the rest of the class. The topics, again, are confidentiality, Wally's "One Rule", Lutz and Lutz Controls, the quality and integrity of the couplings, and the difference in environmental regulations. Throughout your reflections look for opportunities open to Fred to demonstrate ethical leadership. What obstacles stand in his way? What can he do to overcome them?
Decision point for business ethics, fall 2007
- Generate Solutions, Test Solutions, and Develop a Solution Implementation plan from the perspective of Fred. Focus specifically on whether Fred, as an engineer, should sign off on the plant as it is being passed over to operations.
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Decision Point : Chuck's solution to the French company's budget cuts was to pass along long term expenses and operational problems to the plant operation group.
- At the end of the video, Fred has been asked to sign off on the plant's documents and, essentially, approve this "pass along" strategy.
- What kind of ethical problems does Chuck's solution create?
- Knowing this, should Fred have signed off on the plant at the end of the video?
- Take Fred's perspective. Generate solutions, test them, and develop an implementation from Fred's perspective. Summarize your group's work by developing a solution table, solution evaluation matrix, and a feasibility table. Be prepared to summarize (not present) these tables informally to the rest of the class.
Refined solution table
| Decision Alternative |
Description |
Justification: problem fit, ethics, feasibility |
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Solution evaluation matrix
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Reversibility |
Harm / Benefits |
Publicity |
Feasibility (Global) |
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For feasibility table, see m14789.
Exercise 3
Read and listen to the interviews with Shiva, who is opposed to globalization, and O'Rourke, who takes a pro-globalization. Summarize their arguments. Using these arguments, construct your own argument on globalization and apply it to the Morales case: Is the incident that occurred at Morales an inevitable result of globalization or merely the result of bad individual and corporate decisions?
Incident at morales in ethics bowl
Decision scenario from "incident at morales" (taken from study guide)
- "Although the lawyers note that Fred has no legal obligations to Chemitoil because he did not sign a non-disclosure agreement, does Fred have a moral obligation to ensure the confidentiality of the information he may have learned at Chemitoil?
- Return to the moment where Wally gives Fred the preliminary plant plans. Then place yourself in the following dialogue:
- WALLY
Good. Chuck is going to have a project kick-off meeting this afternoon. Your plant design will be on the agenda. It’ll be at three. We don’t waste time around here. We’re fast at Phaust. Corporate tag line.As Fred gazes around his new work-station, smiling, Wally starts routing through a filing cabinet. He finds the preliminary plant plans and hands them to Fred.
WALLYYou might want to look at this.
(hopeful)Tell me if this is like what you were building at your last job.
- You are Fred. Is Wally asking you to violate your (moral) confidentiality obligation with Chemitoil? Present a response to Wally's question. Show how this response respects both your former employer, Chemitoil, and your current employer, Phaust.
Decision scenario from "incident at morales:" environmental integrity or reliable controls
- You are Fred. After you point out to Wally, that Lutz and Lutz controls are expensive, he advises you to "pick your fights when you can win them." (Chuck's brother-in-law is the customer representative for Lutz and Lutz.) On the other hand your wife, an EPA compliance litigator, points out how dangerous it is to put untreated toxic waste material in unlined evaporation ponds because of the possibility of drinking water contamination.
- You think about taking Wally's advice. Which fight should you choose, saving the environment while opting for cheaper controls or remaining with the expensive Lutz and Lutz controls but going ahead with the unlined evaporation ponds?
- In your presentation address this broader issue. Is Wally right? Should we trade off safety and environmental concerns when the budget is tight?
