Ethical Behaviour

Ethical behaviour?

Who owns your knowledge?

Ken is a process engineer for Stardust Chemical Corp., and he has signed a secrecy agreement with the firm that prohibits his divulging information that the company considers proprietary. 

Stardust has developed an adaptation of a standard piece of equipment that makes it highly efficient for cooling a viscous plastics slurry. (Stardust decides not to patent the idea but to keep it as a trade secret.) 

Eventually, Ken leaves Stardust and goes to work for a candy-processing company that is not in any way in competition. He soon realises that a modification similar to Stardust's trade secret could be applied to a different machine used for cooling fudge and, at once, has the change made.

Mike W. Martin & Roland Schinzinger, Introduction to Engineering Ethics, 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill, Noew York, 2010, p. 156

Has Ken acted unethically?

The codes of ethics classify this case as a conflict of interests. On one side, Ken had signed a secrecy agreement with his previous employer Stardust not to expose their technologies without their permission. However, that agreement may or may not validate that Ken should abide by it as long as he’s working or as long as he lives. Also, Stardust didn't protect the cooling technology developed by deciding not to patent it which indicates trusting their employees not to divulge any information about it. On the other side, Ken felt no obligation on his behalf to remain loyal to Stardust ever since he left it. Seeking for his best interest with his new employer, he saw an opening for applying the Stardust cooling technology in his new firm. As a new employee, one may argue that he can use his expertise in gaining good status and making the best impression. It may seem not fair to Stardust for Ken to apply its technology without permission. Although, since he is not claiming the right of developing this technology to him and only applying it may seem justified. I would say some similar cases are based on the circle of trust versus interest and certainly depend on the place people worked for. For Stardust versus the Candy Company, where no competition is relevant, I think there was no harm for Ken to use Stardust’s technology since he left it already. Moreover, if Stardust was willing to own this knowledge for life and not share it, they would have patented it. After Ken joined the new company, he had an obligation to deliver his best knowledge to it. In some other sectors like the military, sharing the knowledge after resigning or moving to a new sector is considered a risky violation and cannot be justified to seek one’s interest.

The collapse of Hyatt Hotel

Missouri -Kansas City – July 1981

Introduction:

      The construction of this fine hotel as part of the Hyatt chain of hotels was completed in July, 1980. People in Kansas were following the hotel's progress since the initial announcement in 1976. The design phase followed by the construction one, faced many obstacles due to the fact that the main contractor distributed the work to some other subcontractors after the contract was awarded. The subcontractors in turn made agreements with third party subcontractors to do their jobs. They were so many people involved in executing this project that the main contractor couldn’t keep a track of who’s doing what.

The Disaster:

        One year exactly after the opening, there was a dancing contest in the lobby which is held every week. The atrium lobby had large space for such contests and it contained three suspended walkways that were connected to the above floors by suspended rods. The three walkways were designed so that one of them is connected with the second floor, another with the third floor and the last with the fourth floor. The disaster took place as more than 1500 individuals were enjoying their time in the lobby when two of the suspended walkways collapsed. The accident resulted in 114 casualties and more than 200 injuries.  Ironically, there was a similar accident that occurred prior to the official opening of the hotel which took place at the weekend and luckily no one was injured. It happened at the final stage of construction when part of the atrium ceiling came off and no workers were present at the weekend. The disaster started when the walkway attached to the fourth floor collapsed adding more stress to the walkway connected to the second floor which collapsed in return.

Causes and finger-pointing:

       Initially, the accident was thought to be caused by the loud noisy sound stress during the dancing concert. No matter how lame this possibility sounds, the prime cause was found to be an alteration on the original design of the suspended rods which was done by one of the subcontractors in an attempt to reduce the expense. After further investigation within the collapse shrub, the suspended rods had major failure and didn’t comply with the original design causing the two walkways to collapse.

Ethical issues:

        The problem with most construction firms is taking unplanned shortcuts in executing the designed work for the sake of reducing the total expense without enough study. Any modification to the original design should be communicated and addressed clearly with all parties involved to sustain its safety and workability. The other side of the coin suggests that the people hired to commence such jobs are fully experienced and qualified with no room for shortcuts or mistakes. However, the truth remains that any job holder‘s intention is to make as much profit as possible out of greed especially when the consequences permit. Also, the idea of having so many people from different employers work together in one project reduces the allegiance to the main contractor and leads to violations.

Conclusion:

        The Kansas disaster reflected how important testing the building construction from every angle no matter how complex the design is. Also, it showed high weakness in the project management in the sense of not keeping a track of the subcontractor work after distributing the jobs.

Reference:

• Guyer, J. P. (2010). Pdh library - kansas hyatt hotel. Retrieved from http://www.pdhlibrary.com/pdh-ethics-hyatt-hotel-collapse-2918

Human Rights

Human rights

The American Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau:

"Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains" That was the first sentence of Rousseau's "The Social Contract."

This was the concept of ‘the noble savage’.

Thomas Hobbes:

"In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently, not culture of the earth, no navigation, nor the use of commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

Aluminium Cans

Aluminium Cans

Approximately 1 billion are produced in the USA each year. The first can was designed in 1958 by Kaiser Aluminium. This metal proved ideal as it was a lightweight, flexible material that allowed manufacturing of the bottom & sides of the can from a single sheet, leaving the top to be added after the can was filled.

The first cans were opened with a separate opener but this was inconvenient so Ermal Fraze designed a small lever attached to the can which was removed as the can was opened.

The design was workable but after a while it created an ethical dilemma:

First of all it was a human problem because discarded drink tabs were a health hazard, despite what has been going around over half a century; the recycling of used aluminium cans has been the driving force in the growth of the aluminium sector world-wide.

So in 1976 Daniel F. Cudzik invented a simple, stay-attached opener of the sort familiar today.

As improvements were made in the design & production of aluminium cans, various ethical problems arose concerning:

a. Human Safety

   The health issues associated with canned food are the use of the preservatives and the substances used to seal the lids of the cans. Bisphenol-A is an epoxy material used to seal the can internally. Many tests were administered on such substances which showed some toxicity. The canning factories apply these substances as inner lining to protect the cans from corrosion and avoid food contamination. The question of whether this action is ethical or not remains of how people perceive the use of canned food and its effects. The same effects might occur from using aluminium in the cans as long as the sealing media is the same. Some people suggested the use of glass gars which are not easy to handle and transport. The use of plastic containers on the other hand cannot be fully recycled and may not be suitable to preserve the food.

       b. Environmental pollution:

           The wrong disposal of tin cans can create organic tin to spread in many areas especially the one neighboring the beach or the sea. The organic tin might pollute the marine life or water by depositing on the algae and fungi which provides the oxygen for the aquatic creatures. The accumulation of organic tin in the soil cannot be decomposed by the microorganism which also affects the food chain stability. Aluminium cans may cause less environmental effects as long as the decomposition occurs after disposal.

       c. Convenience:

            The canned food offers a cheaper alternative for many fresh types of food such as meat, vegetables and fish. Many consumers prefer canned food because it's easy to store, doesn't require cooling, is easy to heat up and cook and doesn't need any cutting or slicing. Therefore, the best advantage of using canned food is how it shortens the preparation time of meals and reduces the amount of leftovers as life is becoming more hectic for many people.

       d. Money:

           The expense of canned food can differ based on the brand, the country of origin, the ingredients and the quality of packaging, precooking, preserving and seasoning. For some types of food, preparing ordinary meals from fresh food can be more economic than the canned one while it needs more time. Most of the time, the canned food is considered less of a burden on the budget than fresh and frozen food. Taking into account, all cans are produced based on one serving which means it might cost higher if we are catering for many guests.