Response to case study scenario 1

Can I ignore my own ethics? That’s the key question I had to answer when making the decision not to ignore this situation. To help me decide I weighed up both the positive and negative consequences.

Foremost, finding three failures in a possible two hundred that could cause a potential fire hazard to the user brought made me question my own ethical beliefs. If the failures were ignored, and as a consequence somebody was seriously hurt or killed, I would feel personally responsible for an incident I could have prevented. Forever a lingering guilt would stay with me and I don’t think I would ever be able to forgive myself.

Beyond that it is also clear that this is a serious breach of the ethical principles produced by ‘The Royal Academy of Engineering’ that all professional engineers should adhere to. This single act would break numerous principles, namely to ‘hold paramount the health and safety of others’ and ‘not knowingly mislead or allow others to be misled about engineering matters’. By ignoring the failures I would be breaking ethics with one act and my ‘professional word’ rendered meaningless.

An incident such as this has the potential to seriously shape a company’s future, with product recall costs, future revenue, reputation, and job security all being affected. In today’s economic situation these could be key factors in the companies’ very survival. It’s like selling a football with a puncture, once the customer realises it’s faulty they won’t come back for another one in the future, so the staff member is not required to sell it.

I was given an instruction to ignore the findings by the ‘safety testing’ manager. He’s senior to myself and a recognised ‘expert’. To go above him would affect our working relationship with no guarantee, as a junior engineer with little experience, of my views being heard. I faced a similar situation working in retail where I tried to express my views concerning a manager, the situation was not dealt with and my concerns ignored. It resulted in an uncomfortable working atmosphere and a situation I wouldn’t like to repeat. My job could be in jeopardy and as a junior engineer with debts an almost impossible scenario.

What if I was heard? Would I be seen as the hero or the villain? I would have prevented a possibly life threatening situation but at what cost? A recall would cost money, and since the aim of every company is to make money, would I be breaking the most fundamental objective? I don’t think so but some people might adopt this view and frown upon it.

My proposals would be an immediate recall of all USB memory drives from the ‘faulty’ batch is fundamental. Enhanced safety checks, reviewed twice before dispatch, are installed as soon as possible to minimise future risk. I would be prepared to escalate my concerns and proposals until my views are heard or I am convinced otherwise. I considered the consequences of this but felt if I was to ignore this situation then I would be following the ethics of the manager, and feel it is my responsibility to do everything within my power to uphold both my own and those set for all engineers. I will not, therefore, ignore this situation.