Ethical issues in engineering design - 3TU.Centre for Ethics and ...

Table 8.4: continued Summary of the trailer case-study.
Ethical issues
questions and
problems
A safe trailer is
structurally reliable.
What load scenarios,
and material
properties should be
used?
Simultaneously
changing load
scenarios and design
in finite element
calculations.
Ascription of
responsibilities
especially to the
customer and
government.
Kind of issues Solution and
decision approaches
Operationalisation II of
safety.
Operationalisation II of
structural reliability,
and thereby further
operationalisation II of
safety.
Operationalisation II of
structural reliability,
and thereby further
operationalisation II of
safety.
Division or ascription
of responsibilities.
8.2 Ethical issues and design type and hierarchy
Conclusions of the empirical study
Internal design team
norms and customer
norms.
Internal design team
norms.
Internal design team
norms.
Internal design team
norms include an
assessment of
responsibilities in
contract.
Decision makers
Engineers and
customer
Engineers
Engineers
Engineers and
customer
The working hypothesis 1a about whether the kinds of ethical issues depend on
the design type and hierarchy will be assessed in this section. The ethical issues
in the four cases are summarised in tables 8.1 to 8.4. Based on these tables it can
be concluded that in both normal and radical design most ethical issues are of
the operationalisation I and II kind. Operationalisation I kind of ethical issues
were encountered more often than operationalisation II kind of ethical issues in
the normal design processes. From tables 8.2 and 8.3, it can be seen that in the
normal design cases, piping and equipment and the bridge, more than half of
the ethical issues were of the operationalisation I kind. Operationalisation I kind
of ethical issues were not encountered in the radical designs, lightweight car and
light open trailer. So, although ethical issues concerning the operationalisation
of requirements can be found in all design processes, there is a difference in the
nature of the operationalisation problems between normal and radical design
processes.
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