Question

 1. Discuss Professional Responsibility of engineers in a situation of ethical dilemma. CLO1(2.5)

 2. How individualism effect the situation when whistle blowing is going on? CLO2 (2.5)

 3. Why safety is important in state of practicing whistle blowing? CLO3 (2.5)

 4. How much the impact of personality and cultural norms effect on engineer's responsibilities in society? CL04 (2.5)

 CLO 1: Discuss awareness of professional, social and ethical responsibility in engineering practice

 CLO 2: Distinguish between individual behavior and behavior in a group

 CLO 3: Choose different safety issues in engineering practice

 CLO 4: Explain the impact of personality and cultural norms on engineer's responsibilities in society

Answer 1

1. As engineers, when we graduate from our universities, we hold certain responsibilities in our families, societies, organization, country, and ultimately, the world. In a world that is pumping out millions of engineers like mindless machines every year, it is the responsibility of every engineer to adhere and uphold the sanctity of the profession of "Engineer".
As professionals and ethical beings, the engineer should always possess and keep in mind the following guidelines:

• honesty, and integrity towards our trade, and towards our colleagues, both seniors and juniors is a must.  
• public interest and advancement of their societies should serve as the guiding light for them and hence should help further this idea and not deceive the public with malpractice.
• personal responsibility should be a character trait that allows us to seek justified remuneration for the services we provide and likewise provide recognition to someone when the situation presents itself.

Engineers are also people and hence are also social beings who have social lives. So, social responsibility should encompass

• the safety and well being of the client and the trade
• proper and justified use of the resources and monetary funds allocated
• Individualistic, holistic, and organizational impact of the project being undertaken
• a long-lasting commitment to help in designing and building sustainable products and technologies for the long life of others
• Creating awareness among laypeople about their field in the right way

The further a person ventures away from the above-mentioned lines, the further he downs the name of the engineering field. And hence contribute towards dragging the society down instead of lifting it up.

2. When we walk out into society, we walk out as individuals. Very soon, we find groups who help us feel in a certain way depending on the purpose of the group. They range from friend groups, work groups, organizational groups, focus groups, religious groups, and many more, the possibilities are endless.
As human beings, the natural tendency that comes from our ancestors is to belong to a group, a herd, a part of something bigger than us. Even as families, people might be different as individuals, and they are different when they are as a family.

Individual Behavior:

This behavior depends broadly on two things: Inherited traits and acquired traits.

Inherited traits are those that we get from our parents and siblings while we are growing up. Things like gender, caste, creed, race, religion are all that are inherited traits and we learn these from our families in the form of rituals, practices, etc.

Acquired traits are those that we learn as we grow up in society. How to behave in school, colleges, social gatherings, etc. Acquired traits range from the skills we know and learn to the way we behave when we are in certain settings.

Cumulatively, acquired traits and inherited traits amalgamate and form our personality.

Group Behaviour:

Drawing from the fact of inherited traits of individual behavior, a lot of it comes from how we are supposed to behave in society. It concerns itself on the dynamics of a particular group, how every individual behaves and how they react to each other. Further, group behavior also covers how a group responds to other groups, how disputes are discussed and settled, and which individual is more attached to which other members of the group?

As these traits are understood, a general hierarchy of power, leadership, and other norms of the group can be studied. These allow us to understand group behavior in a very encompassing and holistic view.

Overall, individual behavior is how a person responds to external and internal stimuli and how a person reacts to a certain situation. And group behavior is how two or more individuals who come together to work on a particular objective react.

3. Whistleblowers are often looked upon as the bad ones by the corporates. They are the ones who take the risk of making the shortcomings and the unjustified behavior of a certain organization comes to light in order to find some sense of justice.

For whistleblowers, they are sort of the precursory warning to all the people outside to understand how the employees are being treated in the organization. In order to ensure the safety of whistleblowers, the following measures should be adopted:

• legal terminology that is present in fine printing in legal jargons should be explained properly to the employees
• Employers should create a forum or a means to chat with their employees one on one to discuss their grievances and concerns. It will allow the company to keep the interests of the employee invested and also make sure that such a situation does not arise.
• For whistleblowers, the biggest issue is the retaliation of the employer. For them, the forum or the means to allow them to blow the whistle should also assure that the seniors will take it in goodwill and not resort to unfair means. This can be assured via an anonymous hotline, nameless slips, etc. so that the employee will also be assured that his/her suggestion is out there, and yet the boss will be forthcoming to accept that flaw and adopt measures to correct it.
• The legal grounds and HR grounds should be on the same page for a whistleblower. There may be a case when a whistleblower might have used proper legal channels as the company suggested, and the HR might fire them from the job. This can put the employer in a fix since the fired employee can sue for tarnishing the image of the employee and hence seek compensation, further adding to the problems of the company. In certain cases, the whistleblower can then go to the media and use it to drive down the ratings of the company.

4. The impact of social and cultural norms is seen in every profession. What is seen as a respectable profession in one community, can be considered as a low stature job and vice versa. Hence, for every profession, adherence to social norms is very important.

In the engineering profession, the personality and social norms are what form the basis of which type of engineer a person will become. For eg., an individual coming from a family in the construction business might be inclined towards civil engineering, or a person from a community of software developers might be inclined towards computer science or IT engineering.

Since all of the norms form the ideology of an individual, they create an impact on how well a person can do their job. There are exceptional cases in which a person from a certain background and social upbringing adopts a different career path, but in those cases, the person has to work harder since he is trying to overcome his personal ideology in order to succeed.

Cultural differences can also impact the profession in a very similar manner. Eg. A person from the state of Bavaria might be more learned in automobile engineering than a person from Silicon Valley with a degree. This is because of the exposure of a person in Germany and the person in Silicon Valley will be different. Their approach will be different and hence, the culture in which they have been brought up will also impact their ideology.

In order for both of them to work together cohesively, learning, and respecting each other's cultures and the differences should be there. This will ensure that both of them complement each other's faults and bring together an offering that will bring about a big change in society. This is precisely why more and more companies are emphasizing the importance of understanding cultural norms and differences.