Perspectives of engineers on ethical dilemmas in the workplace

Abstract

The research questions explored in this study were: To what extent do engineers feel that they are confronted with ethical dilemmas at work? Did ethical dilemmas contribute to changing jobs or careers? Did these issues vary between types of engineering jobs, engineering disciplines, or gender? Survey responses were received from 504 individuals and represented 719 different jobs. For 31% of the jobs, individuals indicated that they never felt that they had been confronted with an ethical or moral dilemma regarding how their work impacted people, society, and/or the environment. This may truly reflect a lack of these circumstances, or may indicate that some individuals are not adept at recognizing such issues. For 34% of the jobs, ethical/moral dilemmas were encountered infrequently and were not of significant personal concern, compared to ethical/moral dilemmas encountered infrequently but of significant personal concern in 16% of the cases. Smaller percentages of the jobs were reported to have frequent ethical dilemmas that were and were not of significant personal concern; 9% and 8%, respectively. Finally, 2% indicated that the moral/ethical dilemma was the primary reason that they had left their job. These cases might reflect that the individual was in moral distress, feeling powerless to pursue what they believed to be an ethical course of action. The frequency and degree of concern of ethical dilemmas encountered varied between job sectors and engineering disciplines, but not by gender. Informing students about the likelihood of encountering ethical dilemmas might better prepare them for these challenges.