Responsibility in Engineering

Group 2




Technological Institute of the Philippines
Quezon City









INTRODUCTION
The concept of responsibility is many-faceted. It may be applied to individual engineers, team of engineers,
divisions or units within organizations, or even organization themselves. It may focus primarily on legal
liabilities, job-defined roles, or moral accountability.
As professionals, engineers are expected to commit themselves to high standards of conduct.
The preamble of the code of ethics of the National Society for Professional Engineers (NSPE) states the
following:
Engineering is an important and learned profession. As members of this profession, engineers are
expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity. Engineering has a direct and vital impact
on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty,
impartiality, fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety, and
welfare. Engineers must perform under a standard professional behavior that requires adherence to the
highest principles of ethical conduct.
If engineers are to be given opportunities to provide services to others, it is important for them to conduct
themselves in ways that do not generate distrust.
A highly responsible engineer would expected to exhibit imaginativeness and perseverance, to
communicate clearly and informatively, to be committed to objectivity, to be open to acknowledging and
correcting mistakes, to work well with others, and to be committed to quality, and to be able to see the big
picture as well as more minute details.

2.2 ENGINEERING STANDARDS
One way in which engineers can try to gain the trust of those they serve and with whom they work is to
commit themselves to a code of ethics that endorses high standards of performance.
Like other engineering codes of ethics, the NSPE code requires that the work of engineers conform with
applicable engineering standards. Engineering standards may also require that certain procedures be
undertaken to ascertain that specific, measurable levels of quality or safety are met, or they may require
that whatever procedures are used be documented, along with their results.
First and foremost, engineers have a responsibility to use their specialized knowledge and skills in ways
that benefit clients and the public and do not violate the trust placed in them.
Two Concepts of Responsibility:
Obligation-responsibility positive and forward-looking
Blame-responsibility negative and backward-looking
2.3 THE STANDARD OF CARE
Engineers have a professional obligation to conform to the standard operating procedures and regulations
that apply to their profession and to fulfill the basic responsibilities of their job as defined by terms of their
employment.
Engineers are expected to satisfy a more demanding norm, the standard of care.

Joshua B. Kardon characterizes the standard of care in the following way:
An engineer is not liable, or responsible, for damages for every error. Society has decided, through case
law, that when you hire an engineer, you buy the engineers normal errors. However, if the error is shown to
have been worse than a certain level of error, the engineer is liable. That level, the line between non-
negligent and negligent error, is the standard of care.
A good working definition of the standard of care of professional is: that level or quality of service ordinarily
provided by other normally competent practitioners of good standing in that field, contemporaneously
providing similar services in the same locality and under the same circumstance.

2.4 BLAME RESPONSIBILITY AND CAUSATION
Physical Cause
Organizational Cause
Blame is the act of censuring, holding responsible, making negative statements about an individual
or group that their action or actions are socially or morally irresponsible, the opposite of praise.
When someone is morally responsible for doing something wrong their action is blameworthy.
When someone is morally responsible for doing something right, we may say that his or her action
is praiseworthy.
2.5 LIABILITY
Liability can mean something that is a hindrance or puts an individual or group at a disadvantage,
or something that someone is responsible for, or something that increases the chance of
something occurring


Concepts of Causing Harm
Intentionally Causing Harm knowingly or deliberately cause harm.
Recklessly Causing Harm not aiming to cause harm but by being aware that harm is likely to
result.
Negligently Causing Harm the person may simply overlook something or not even be aware of
the factors that could cause harm

2.6 DESIGN STANDARDS
Detailed engineering drawings and/or specifications promulgated by public or private organizations
that leave little choice to design engineers and technicians

IMPEDIMENTS TO RESPONSIBLE ACTION
What attitudes and frames of mind can contribute to less than fully responsible action, whether it be
international, reckless, or merely negligent? In this section, we discuss some impediments to responsible
action.

2.9.1 SELF-INTEREST
- Egoism.
- Concerns for own interests tempts to act contrary to the interests of others.
- Opportunities for personal gain at the expense of others.

2.9.2 SELF-DECEPTION
- Rationalization.
- Self-defensiveness or excuse making.
- Betrays a willful act of self-understanding.


2.9.3 FEAR
- Taking advantage of others due to fear of acknowledging our mistakes, of losing our jobs, or of
some sort of punishment or other bad consequences.

2.9.4 EGOCENTRIC TENDENCIES
- Egocentricity.
- Selfishness.

2.9.5 IGNORANCE
- An obvious barrier to responsible action.
- A turning away from information in order to deal with the challenges it may pose.

2.9.6 MICROSCOPIC VISION
- Limited perspective.
- Failure to understand the perspectives of others.

2.9.7 UNCRITICAL ACCEPTANCE OF AUTHORITY
- Autonomy.
- Most engineers are not their own bosses, and they are expected to defer to authority in their
organization.

2.9.8 GROUPTHINK
- A noteworthy feature of the organizational settings within which engineers work is that individuals
tend to work and deliberate in groups.