This exercise in Business and Professional Ethics uses the DVD developed by the National Institute for Engineering Ethics, "Incident at Morales" to teach the ethical leadership and social responsibility in business and engineering. It also raises issues of how professionals must work to realize professional standards while operating within the constraints posed by the financial objectives of business corporations and the legal systems of different nations.
Module introduction
In this module, you will view the DVD Incident at Morales and carry out a series of activities designed to familiarize you with issues in ethical leadership, social responsibility, and globalization. Links to interviews with major figures on globalization, to the Connexions module "Socio Technical Systems in Decision Making" and to online material on "Incident at Morales" will help you to gather the information you need to complete this module.
Issues in incident at morales
- Quotes are taken from the Study Guide to "Incident at Morales"
- Confidentiality: "Although the lawyers note that Fred has no legal obligations to Chemitoil because he didi 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?
- Wally's "One Rule": What is the impact of Wally's "One Rule" on Fred's ability to do his job? More importantly, does this interfere with Fred's ability to meet his professional ethical obligations in the course of conducting his job?"
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Lutz and Lutz Controls: Wally claims that
Lutz and Lutz controls are the best among the available alternatives. He also claims that the fact that Chuck's brother-in-law works with
Lutz and Lutz is not a relevant factor. How should Fred choose in this situation regarding controls?
- Couplings: In choosing both the type of couplings and piping as well as to use a local (Mexico) supplier without a plant inspection, what factors should Fred take into account? What should be the margin of error in terms of pressure? How does Fred balance safety and reliability with the need to cut costs due to the parent company's recent acquisitions?
- Environmental Regulations--When in Rome...: Should Fred take advantage of less strict environmental regulations in Mexico to save money for Phaust corporation? What are the responsibilities of multi-national corporations that operate in countries like Mexico?
Exercise 1: incident at moral socio-technical system
Prepare a socio-technical analysis of Morales, Mexico. Your analysis will examine the insertion of the Phaust chemical plant into the Morales context. Using the following list of values, can you identify any potential value conflicts? Safety, Equity/Justice, intellectual property, confidentiality, responsibility, reasonableness.
Preparing a sts table
- Study the two templates in the module, "Socio Technical Systems in Professional Decision Making." See which one applies best to the Incident at Morales case.
- Redo the headings of the table substituting relevant items for those in the templates that are not relevant. For example, in preparing a STS table for a computer system, you may wish to change rate and rate structures into something like data and data structures.
- Fill in the relevant columns in your newly revised table. For example, in the Incident at Morales, the description of the physical surroundings would be based on the brief video segment where Fred is consulting with Wally and Manuel. What is the geographical area like? (It looks like a dry climate given the DVD.) What is the plant like? (It is, at the very least, small.) Attention to detail--even trivial detail--is important for these columns of the STS.
- For the second table, take the short value list we have been working with this semester and (1) look for new value mismatches, (2) identify existing value conflicts, and (3) describe any harmful long term consequences. In Incident at Morales, you may want to concentrate on justice (equity), responsibility for safety, respect, property, and free speech.
- Keep your tables simple and direct. You will have only a few minutes to debrief on them. Remember, this is a device to help you visualize value conflicts hidden in technologies and socio technical systems.
