Better communication between engineers and managers: Some ways to prevent many ethically hard choices

Science and Engineering Ethics

Volumn 3, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 171-212

  Davis, Michael ^a  

^a ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (United States)

Author keywords

Challenger; Disaster; Ethics; Managers; Organizations; Technology

Indexed keywords

EID: 0344594033     PISSN: 13533452     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s11948-997-0008-4     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. Note the crucial "seem" in this sentence. The issue of probabilities here is more complex than Feynman (or those he interviewed) indicate. For more on that complexity, see Starbuck. Wm. H. and Milliken, F. J., "Challenger: Fine-Tuning the Odds Until Something Breaks", Journal of Management Studies (July 1988): 319-340.
2. Feynman, R. (1988) "An Outsider's Inside View of the Challenger Inquiry." Physics Today (February): 26-37, p. 34.
3. Feynman, 34.
4. Feynman, 34.
5. For a good technical description of the "game" Feynman refers to. see Bell, T.E., "The fatal flaw in Fight 51-L", IEEE Spectrum (February 1987): 36-51. Compare Bella, D. A. "Organizations and Systematic Distortion of Information", Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering 113 (October 1987): 360-370
6. For a good technical description of the "game" Feynman refers to. see Bell, T.E., "The fatal flaw in Fight 51-L", IEEE Spectrum (February 1987): 36-51. Compare Bella, D. A. "Organizations and Systematic Distortion of Information", Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering 113 (October 1987): 360-370
7. Feynman, 34.
8. Jackall. R. (1988) Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 112-119.
9. Shapero, A. (1985) Managing Professional People. Free Press. New York.
10. Raelin, J. A. (1986) The Clash of Cultures: Managers and Professionals, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA; and "The Professional as the Executive's Ethical Aide-de-Camp," Academy of Management Executive 1 (August 1987): 171-182.
11. Raelin, J. A. (1986) The Clash of Cultures: Managers and Professionals, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA; and "The Professional as the Executive's Ethical Aide-de-Camp," Academy of Management Executive 1 (August 1987): 171-182.
12. Raelin, 1987.
13. Davis, M. (1989) "Explaining Wrongdoing". Journal of Social Philosophy 20 : 74-90.
14. Waters, J. A. (1978) "Catch 20.5: Corporate Morality as an Organizational Phenomenon," Organizational Dynamics (Spring): 3-19.
15. Waters, 11.
16. Henderson, H. (1988) "McGregor v. the NRC: Why did the Nuclear Regulatory Commission fire one of its toughest plant inspectors?," Reader (Chicago), Friday, July 22, pp. 1ff.
17. Urquhart, B. (1987) "The Last Disaster of the War," New York Review of Books. September 24, pp. 27-30; and Petzinger. T. (1988) "Hangar Anger: Mechanic's Woes Show How Safety Became a Big Issue for Eastern," Wall street Journal, Thursday, June 9, pp. 1ff.
18. Urquhart, B. (1987) "The Last Disaster of the War," New York Review of Books. September 24, pp. 27-30; and Petzinger. T. (1988) "Hangar Anger: Mechanic's Woes Show How Safety Became a Big Issue for Eastern," Wall street Journal, Thursday, June 9, pp. 1ff.
19. Waters (1978); and Waters (1988) "Integrity Management: Learning and Implementing Ethical Principles in the Workplace," in ed. Suresh Srivastva et al., Executive Integrity, Jossey-Bass, San Fransciso.
20. Raelin (1986), 246-263.
21. See, for example, Argyris, C. and Schön, D. (1988) "Reciprocal Integrity: Creating Conditions That Encourage Personal and Organizational Integrity," in ed. Suresh Srivastva et al., Executive Integrity, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp. 197-222; and Ottoson, G. E. (1982) "Essentials of an Ethical Corporate Climate," in ed. Donald G. Jones, Doing Ethics in Business, Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain, Cambridge, MA, pp. 155-163.
22. See, for example, Argyris, C. and Schön, D. (1988) "Reciprocal Integrity: Creating Conditions That Encourage Personal and Organizational Integrity," in ed. Suresh Srivastva et al., Executive Integrity, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp. 197-222; and Ottoson, G. E. (1982) "Essentials of an Ethical Corporate Climate," in ed. Donald G. Jones, Doing Ethics in Business, Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain, Cambridge, MA, pp. 155-163.
23. The only exception we found is Gordon, B. F. and Ross, I. C. (1962) "Professionals and the Corporation," Research Management 5 (November): 493-505.
24. Perhaps the most noteworthy exceptions are the very tentative studies by Victor, B. and Cullen, J. B. (1988) "The Organizational Bases of Ethics Work Climates," Administrative Science Quarterly 33 (March): 101-125; and Wilkins, A. L. and Ouchi, Wm. G. (1983) "Efficient Cultures: Exploring the Relationship Between Culture and Organizational Performance," Administrative Science Quarterly 28 (September): 468-481.
25. Perhaps the most noteworthy exceptions are the very tentative studies by Victor, B. and Cullen, J. B. (1988) "The Organizational Bases of Ethics Work Climates," Administrative Science Quarterly 33 (March): 101-125; and Wilkins, A. L. and Ouchi, Wm. G. (1983) "Efficient Cultures: Exploring the Relationship Between Culture and Organizational Performance," Administrative Science Quarterly 28 (September): 468-481.
26. Bums, T. and Stalker, G. M. (1966) The Management of Innovation, Tavistock Publications, London. I should like to thank Peter Whalley for pointing this book out.
27. Turner, B. A. (1978) Man-Made Disasters, Wykeham Publications Ltd., London, especially, pp. 17-30, 57-67, 120-125, and 189-199.
28. Smith, M. R. ed. (1985) Military Enterprise and Technological Change, MIT Press. Cambridge, MA., esp. pp. 11-14 and 87-116.
29. This, of course, is not the only way in which to use the terms "staff" and "line" in business. Most frequently, perhaps, these terms are today used to distinguish between the historically oldest functional units of a business (production and sales) and the more recent (personnel, legal. accounting). On this version of the distinction, engineering might be either a staff or line function (depending on the history of the company). Often too, the staff-line distinction is used to contrast those functions which contribute (more or less) directly to the bottom line ("profit centers") with those that contribute only indirectly ("service functions"). On this version, some engineering functions (for example, operations and perhaps research) would be line functions while other engineering functions (for example, quality control or safety) would be a staff function. This diversity in the way the staff-line distinction is today made may itself signal that the original use no longer fits most American businesses.
30. Williams, R. (1990) "Engineering's Image Problem," Issues in Science and Technology 6 (Spring): 84-86.
31. The companies selected had business connections with one of the corporate members of our panel, with one of our two ethics centers, or with our sponsor (or even with some combination of these).
32. We had one interviewer on only three occasions, one for a whole day when there was no other way to schedule the interview and twice for part of an afternoon when one interviewer had to leave early.
33. Williams, 84.
34. For more information about the characteristics of those interviewed, see Appendix III.
35. It is perhaps worth noting that no one mentioned a commonplace of academic criticism, the need for engineers turned managers to learn to live with ambiguity. What explains the silence of our interviewees on this point? One possibility is that, as practitioners, they have already had to get used to ambiguity. Another possibility is that the crucial transition is not between engineering and technical management but between technical and nontechnical management. Here is a question inviting further research.
36. No member of our working group is altogether satisfied with the names we gave to these three kinds of company. Our only defense is that, after far too much discussion, we could not do better.
37. For an apparently analogous case ending in a half billion dollar write-off at General Electric, see O'Boyle, T. F. (1990) "Chilling Tale: GE Refrigerator Woes Illustrate the Hazards in Changing a Product - Firm Pushed Development of Compressor Too Fast, Failed to Test Adequately," Wall street Journal, Monday, May 7, p. 1 ff.
38. See above, p. 196.
39. See above, pp. 198-199.