Ethics for Engineers: Toward Ethical Behavior within Engineering Organizations

Ethics for Engineers: Toward Ethical Behavior within Engineering Organizations offers a multilevel perspective on engineering ethics with considerable breadth and depth, making it a valuable resource for students, educators, and professionals alike.

This pragmatic book contains case studies of micro-level ethical violations, evaluating their moral implications and discussing moral self-licensing behind making unethical decisions. It also explores macro-level cases that have caused significant reputational and financial damage to major companies. In addition, the authors touch on topics whose overall impact is not yet fully understood, such as environmental ethics issues related to wind turbine blades and space debris management. By presenting examples from different levels and offering reflections from various perspectives, this text prompts readers to critically evaluate the ethical implications of their actions and understand what may drive a work community to behave unethically.

Key features:

• Covers both moral theoretical and behavioral ethics perspectives.
• Contains day-to-day micro-level cases from the lives of practicing engineers, supplemented with macro-level cases.
• Provides pragmatic guidance for individual engineers and their organizations to move toward value-based ethics.
• Features colloquial language to make the book an enjoyable and accessible read.
• Includes 29 demonstrative vignettes, 87 class exercises, and an insightful interview with an ethics ambassador.

This unique text serves as a pedagogically sound learning companion for courses in engineering ethics and related topics, striking a balance between research-based findings (with over 40 scholarly references) and real-world experiences (featuring an Appendix by an industry executive).