1. ABC Company permits its employees to borrow company tools. Engineer Ali took full advantage of thisprivilege. He went one step further and ordered tools for his unit that would be useful for his home-buildingprojects even though they were of no significant use to his unit at ABC. Engineer Green had suspected forsome time that Ali was ordering tools for personal rather than company use, but he had no unambiguousevidence until he overheard a revealing conversation between Ali and Bob, a contract salesman from whomAli frequently purchased tools.Green was reluctant to directly confront Ali. They had never gotten along well and Ali was a senior engineerwho wielded great power over Green in their unit. Green was also reluctant to discuss the matter with theChief Engineer of their unit, in whom he had little trust. Eventually, Green decided to talk with the purchase officer, whose immediate response was, “this reallystinks”. The purchase officer agreed not to reveal that Green had a talk with him. He then called the C.E. tellingthat a reliable source had informed him of Ali’s inappropriate purchases. In turn the C.E. confronted Ali.Finally, Ali confronted all engineers in his unit he thought might have ‘ratted’ on him. When Ali questionedGreen, he denied any knowledge of what took place. Later Green explained to his wife, “I was forced to lie. Itold Ali, “I don’t know anything about this”. Discuss the ethical issues this case raises.
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1. ABC Company permits its employees to borrow company tools. Engineer Ali took full advantage of thisprivilege. He went one step further and ordered tools for his unit that would be useful for his home-buildingprojects even though they were of no significant use to his unit at ABC. Engineer Green had suspected forsome time that Ali was ordering tools for personal rather than company use, but he had no unambiguousevidence until he overheard a revealing conversation between Ali and Bob, a contract salesman from whomAli frequently purchased tools.Green was reluctant to directly confront Ali. They had never gotten along well and Ali was a senior engineerwho wielded great power over Green in their unit.
Green was also reluctant to discuss the matter with theChief Engineer of their unit, in whom he had little trust.
Eventually, Green decided to talk with the purchase officer, whose immediate response was, “this reallystinks”. The purchase officer agreed not to reveal that Green had a talk with him. He then called the C.E. tellingthat a reliable source had informed him of Ali’s inappropriate purchases. In turn the C.E. confronted Ali.Finally, Ali confronted all engineers in his unit he thought might have ‘ratted’ on him. When Ali questionedGreen, he denied any knowledge of what took place. Later Green explained to his wife, “I was forced to lie. Itold Ali, “I don’t know anything about this”. Discuss the ethical issues this case raises.
2. Several years ago, a TV station in Houston decided to strengthen its signal by erecting a new, taller (1,000-foot) transmission antenna in Missouri City, Texas. The station contracted with a TV antenna design firm todesign the tower. The resulting design employed twenty 50-foot segments that would have to be lifted intoplace sequentially by a jib crane that moved up with the tower. Each segment required a lifting lug to permitthat segment to be hoisted off the flatbed delivery truck and then lifted into place by the crane. The actualconstruction of the tower was done by a separate rigging firm that specialized in such tasks.
When the rigging company received the 20th and last tower segment, it faced a new problem. Although thelifting lug was satisfactory for lifting the segment horizontally off the delivery truck, it would not enable thesegment to be lifted vertically. The jib crane cable interfered with the antenna baskets at the top of thesegment. The riggers asked permission from the design company to temporarily remove the antenna basketsand were refused. Officials at the design firm said that the last time they gave permission to make similarchanges, they had to pay tens of thousands of dollars to repair the antenna baskets (which had been damagedon removal) and to remount and realign them correctly.
The riggers devised a solution that was seriously flawed. They bolted an extension arm to the tower sectionand calculated the size of the required bolts based on a mistaken model. A sophomore-level engineeringstudent who had taken a course in statics could have detected the flaw, but the riggers had no engineers ontheir staff. The riggers, knowing they lacked engineering expertise, asked the antenna design companyengineers to review their proposed solution. The engineers again refused, having been ordered by companymanagement not only not to look at the drawings but also not to visit the construction site during the liftingof the last segment. Management of the design firm feared that they would be held liable if there were anaccident. The designers also failed to suggest to the riggers that they should hire an engineering consultantto examine their lifting plans.
When the riggers attempted to lift the top section of the tower with the microwave baskets, the tower fell,killing seven men. The TV company was taping the lift of the last segment for future TV promotions, and thevideotape shows the riggers falling to their death. Consider how you would react to watching that tape if youwere the design engineer who refused to look at the lifting plans or if you were the company executive whoordered the design engineer not to examine the plans.
To take an analogy, consider a physician who examines a patient and finds something suspicious in an areaoutside her specialty. When asking advice from a specialist, the physician is rebuffed on the grounds that thespecialist might incur a liability. Furthermore, the specialist does not suggest that the patient should see aspecialist. What conceptions of responsibility seemed most prevalent in this case? Can you suggest otherconceptions that might have helped avoid this tragedy?
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