Ethical Responsibilities of an Electrical Engineer
Electrical Engineering
Like all jobs, Electrical
engineers also have their own ethical responsibilities that they
should up hold. There are many branches of
this field such as: Microelectronics,
Signal processing, Telecommunications engineering, Instrumentation engineering,
and Computer engineering, but they all share some similar ethical
responsibilities. For my case I'm referring to the wiring and
designing of electric cars.
Ethical Responsibilities in Work
Having the position would mean
that I would have to be responsible to design and test my ideas to make sure
that they work and are safe. This is important because people would be using
the cars for their daily commute and it would be very dangerous if the acceleration
or brakes stopped working or did not work at all. I feel like this is even more
important as more car companies besides Tesla are going into all electric
powered vehicles. Such as Honda, Toyota,
and General
Motors and since these cars are battery powered cars; electrical
engineers have a bigger ethical responsibility. As an engineer we also try
to improve humanity's ease of life but we have the ethical
responsibility to make sure that we do not make it dangerous and make sure
that it is safe as we try to do so. I also have the ethical responsibility to
no not steal ideas and designs of other engineers which could lead to them
suing my company or causing harm to my company. Another
ethical responsibility I have would be to make sure that I wire and
implement everything correctly as well. Also since this would be the wiring of
a car, I have to make sure that all the wires have heat-shrinks on them to
make sure that the wires will not get wet from any rain that might drip or any
puddle splashes.
Ethical Responsibilities to the Company and Co-workers
I would also
have an ethical responsibility to my superiors and company. An example is if the
company asks me to analyze a competitors design and modify it a little to call
it our own. This would be unethical to me but as an employee I would have to
follow what I am told. Another thing is sometimes there might be some unsafe
parts in a design that are minuscule that could harm the consumer but
sometimes we would have to leave it there and just have a warning instead
because of the cost of fixing the design. I also have an ethical responsibility
to not accepts bribes to sabotage the company I am working for. I also
would have to document my work, write reports, and work with my colleagues and
research on previous designs if there are any. The products that we design should
also work how they are advertised and that they do not have any issues with
them. I would also need to communicate with
those I interact with for my job, such as co-workers and clients. I would need
to treat my co-workers as equal human beings and not be prejudiced by
any of their differences that don't affect work like race, sex, height,
appearance, or familiarity. Another ethical responsibility that I have would be
about positions in the company. An example would be if another coworker was
more suited for the higher position then I should not try to take that position
and let the better person take that position.
Consequences
Electrical
engineers have the responsibilities to make sure that what they do works
and has backup measures. On March 09, 2017 a power
outage at a hospital killed 3 patients. The backup generators
turned on but they turned on 15 minutes after. The ethical
responsibilities of the person that set up the generators should have been
to make sure that they would turn on very quickly in case of a power
outage since this was a hospital where they would need it most.
I know that you don't have the job but I think a good example of electric wiring would help. This example would help in understanding what you mean. Try to make the connection between what is disigned and how what was disigned works in the real world. I think there is some ethical responsiblity to your fellow co-workers. What happenes if a co-work ask for your advice and he is the same postion as you. There is a open position above your current position. You notice your coworker work is really good and you think his work would get him the promotion. The right response would be the better person getting the job but what do you reall owe your fellow coworkers. Maybe i am being too complex. The hsitory part is really good. Meaning it makes a good example of how the job you have can lead to a persons death.
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job considering the ethical situations of your chosen career. I wish that you had used more paragraphs as you tend to introduce new topics towards the end of a paragraph. Allow your ideas more room to breathe by using additional breaks and paragraphs.
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