Incident at Morales: An Engineering Ethics Video, Research Paper Example

Executive Summary

This paper is based on the 36-minute video which is a fictional drama involving the incident at Morales. This video was commissioned by the Engineering Ethics National institute and talks about the ethical dilemmas faced by the young engineers. This event happened at a new chemical plant located in Mexico. The video shows that a licenses engineering professional named ‘Fred Martinez’ has recently joined for one of the French multinational companies based in the division of U.S.A with the name of ‘Phaust Chemicals’. In this case, we can see some ethical issues being violated and how Fred faces these implications. We can see in the video that Fred warns the authorities that due to this budget cut there might be both technical and environmental issues that can jeopardize the safety of the employees. In the climax of this video, we can see that how the decisions of Fred are impacted and what are the ethical issues highlighted in this video. This paper also addresses the ethical issues pertaining to the Morales case.

Introduction

This paper is based on the 36-minute video which is a fictional drama involving the incident at Morales. This video was commissioned by the Engineering Ethics National institute and talks about the ethical dilemmas faced by the young engineers. This event happened at a new chemical plant located in Mexico. The video shows that a licenses engineering professional named ‘Fred Martinez’ has recently joined for one of the French multinational companies based in the division of U.S.A with the name of ‘Phaust Chemicals’ (Loui, 2006). As an engineer, Martinez is assigned to look after the design of the new plant in Mexico. However, his challenges are to meet the regulatory requirements of the new environmental laws and to reformulate a new stripping paint product. His task also involves competing with the products of the rival company (Stephan, 2007).

Martinez believed that he had accomplished his moral and ethical responsibilities to design an efficient and a safe plant. But, the corporate headquarters gave them orders to get the plant on the production line faster and they also cut the budget (Loui, 2006).  In that case, Fred warns the authorities that due to this budget cut there might be both technical and environmental issues that can jeopardize the safety of the employees. In the climax of this video, we can see that how the decisions of Fred are impacted and what are the ethical issues highlighted in this video. This paper also addresses the ethical issues pertaining to the Morales case.

Step 1: Determination of the Facts of the Case

This video is produced by Gilbane Gold and is another breakthrough that covers vividly the different dilemmas of ethics faced presently by the engineers. A number of facts are highlighted in this case and this gives the viewers the opportunities to figure out how to resolve the hard issues of ethics (Loui, 2006). These ethical issues comprises of the consequences of the technical and financial decisions, international responsibilities and the environmental concerns (Stephan, 2007).

Step 2 & 3: Stakeholders and their Motivation

The ethical dilemmas are presented with examples in the video ‘Incident at Morales’ which helps the professionals and students to confront the similar situations in their routine lives. The video is taught at any international schools of engineering and shows how an engineering professional must react to violation of ethics and make the right decisions to tackle it (Loui, 2006).  So, the main stakeholders that benefit from this video are the engineering professionals and the students. This video aims to motivate and educate them to tackle the ethical issues like Morales Case.

Step 4: Possible Solutions

In order to tackle these kinds of ethical issues, the corporation needs to be penalized for jeopardizing the safety of the employees (Stephan, 2007). These corporation needs to be regulated vigorously because this industry deals with the chemical processes which are hazardous to the environment. This is the core responsibility of the corporation to follow the ethical and moral codes all the time. They need to prioritize the safety of the employees and also the environment instead of tackling competition and making profits (Loui, 2006).

Step 5: Evaluating Alternatives

There are few alternatives that the company should have followed to avoid the violation of its ethical codes. One is that they should have focused on the long run and fully finances the production plant to avoid the loopholes in the plant construction.

Step 6: Seeking additional assistance

The corporation should have taken additional finance from banks to cover up the complete construction cost of the plant. This would have resulted in the new plant to be fully compatible with the ethical codes and safety of the employees (Stephan, 2007).

Step 7: Selecting the best course of Action

The violation of these ethical issues are destructive to the company in the long run as it doesn’t only ruin their reputation but also can put the organization to a serious risk. The best possible solution is to safeguard the employees working in the plant and to set up a high ethical code.

Step 8: Implementing the solution

A lot of ethical and potential technical problems may arise because of the choice in constructing a plant. These comprises of piping, valves and the leakages of chemicals. In order to tackle this issue, the processes need to be regulated and also designed and controlled by automation (Loui, 2006). The process of manufacturing comprises of high pressures and temperatures which require a special handling and the use of chemicals in a safe way.

Step 9: Monitoring the Outcome

In order to monitor the results of the ethical policies, the company needs to review its ethical code of conduct regularly. They must ensure full Corporate Social Responsibility and must focus more on the safety of employees rather than getting profits. The company that have a strict ethical code of conduct then the reputation of the company is safeguarded in the long run.

Recommendations

After going through the video, there are some solutions that would be beneficial for the company and also ensuring good ethical practices. The results of following the ethical codes and adhering to it lead to a sound environmental, technical and financial safety. The company must monitor and feel ethically responsible for the negative outcomes (Loui, 2006). They must be aware that their obligations and the responsibilities not only stop outside the borders of U.S. They must make ethics an explicit and integral part of their business decision making. The role of the engineers needs to be more concerned towards the employees and people safety, instead of objects (Stephan, 2007). The professionals who are ethically sensitive, competent and are logical can face complex ethical problems. In order to evaluate the outcome of this, the problems of ethics need to be tackled with compromise and rational methods.

Conclusion

To sum up, we can see from the video that ethical considerations are crucial and essential part of the process of decision making especially in the field of engineering. A well-developed set of ethical codes will help the corporation in the process of right decision making. It doesn’t matter if the corporation belongs to a different country, the obligations of the ethical codes must be followed i.e. that Phaust chemicals is French company and has setup operations in United States as well, so their ethical responsibilities are not only restricted to their own borders but they need to follow the ethical code in the borders of United States as well (Loui, 2006).  An engineering professional’s obligation is not only fulfilling a contract with the customer or a client but it goes beyond that (Stephan, 2007).They must adhere to the ethical codes and must have the moral sense to make correct decisions to avoid jeopardizing the life of others.

References

Hollingworth, D., & Valentine, S. (2014). The Moderating Effect of Perceived Organizational Ethical Context on Employees’ Ethical Issue Recognition and Ethical Judgments. Journal Of Business Ethics. doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2088-9

Loui, M. (2006). Assessment of an Engineering Ethics Video: Incident at Morales. Journal Of Engineering Education, 95(1), 85-91. doi:10.1002/j.2168-9830.2006.tb00879.x

Loui, M. C., LeFevre, E. W., Nichols, S. P., Skooglund, C. M., Smith, J. H., Suppe, F., … & Weil, V. (2003, November). Incident at Morales: an engineering ethics video. In Frontiers in Education, 2003. FIE 2003 33rd Annual (Vol. 3, pp. S1H-1). IEEE.

Stephan, K. (2007). Incident at Morales (DVD and VHS) [Video Review]. IEEE Technology And Society Magazine, 26(4), 6-7. doi:10.1109/mts.2207.912583