Henry's daughters

Ethics Case Study Paper

EGR 104 Critical Inquiry in Engineering

1. List the ethical issues you observed in Henry’s Daughters.

• Bribing government officials.

• Plagiarism (Copying an idea or concept being implemented by another group.)

• Sexual Harassment/Inappropriate workplace interactions

• Conflict of Interest

• Sharing of Proprietary Information

• Favoritism shone towards teams and family members.

• Sexist Comments

• Confidentiality Breaches

• Inappropriate use of Intellectual Property

• Dishonest Business Methods and Communication

2. From your personal perspective, prioritize these ethical issues from most critical to least critical.

1. Conflict of Interest

2. Sexual Harassment/Inappropriate workplace interaction

3. Bribery

4. Sharing of proprietary information

5. Plagiarism

6. Inappropriate use of Intellectual Property

7. Confidentiality breaches

8. Favoritism shown toward teams and family members

9. Dishonest business methods and communication

10. Sexist comments

3. Discuss the movie from these three other perspectives:

a. Henry’s Perspective: Assume you are Henry.

i. What specific ethical issues do you face?

One ethical canon that Henry blatantly violated was that Engineers should avoid deceptive acts. From the very presentation he was buying off political and municipal leaders. Henry should have considered a legality test of his actions. As is true of most corrupt organizations the truth eventually came to light, and Henry had to face the consequences of his actions. It seemed that Henry was pretty deep in a rut when it came to his actions, and I’m not sure if there was anyone that could have helped him out of his problems. Maybe if he went on TV with Dr. Phil he could have confessed all his wrongdoings and turned his life around. Being motivated by money to perform corrupt behaviors such as using government funds to pose a fake competition that will lead to financial gain and bribing a government official for his cooperation.

ii. Which of these specific ethical issues is the most important?

Financial and legal consequences can result in the loss of assets, licenses, and even jail time. Also, they’re allowing a huge gap for making mistakes due to this dishonesty environment.

iii. What are some things that you should consider?

First thing could be coming forward and mentioning the involvement of his daughters in his business. Also the fact that an engineering license could be revoked due to these actions although Jail time could be faced as a consequence of these decisions. Also Consulting a lawyer for future business decisions to stay out of legal trouble is considerable.

iv. From whom or where should you seek guidance?

· The NSPE code of Ethics.

· Close friends who do follow this code.

· Family members other than both daughters.

b. Laura’s Perspective: Assume you are Laura.

i. What specific ethical issues do you face?

· Living with a family member who is in competing business.

· Sharing proprietary information regarding the projects with family members who are key stakeholders involved with the project.

· Manipulation from father into sharing information about company decisions and team information.

· Deciding between right and wrong – side with father and politicians of a corrupt business, side with sister and leak confidential information, or do the right thing and stay out of all of it. Also, Laura had a very large conflict of interest with both design teams. She knew that her father was heavily supporting one team, and her sister was an active part of the other. She should have removed herself from the decision making position she was in and let an unbiased party handle the team selection process.

ii. What decisions would you change if you were Laura?

Would not have listened to father and shared information about the teams

Not sharing any information regarding the projects with family and not showing Julie software that the other group was developing.

Would have been honest about the corruption seen in the business

iii. what decisions would you change if you were Laura?

Not sharing any information regarding the projects with family and not showing Julie software that the other group was developing.

iv. From whom or where could you seek guidance?

· The NSPE code of Ethics

· Fellow co-workers who were not involved in the complex family dynamics

· Family who was not a part of the business

· Possibly a lawyer if needed

C. Julie’s Perspective: Assume you are Julie.

i. What specific ethical issues do you face?

· The involvement of father in overall career.

· Treatment from fellow coworkers and boss.

· Stealing information and tactics from competing team.

· Using the other group’s idea for software as her own, even if she created her own version.

· Someone from within the company plagiarizing individual work with no credit given.

ii. which of these specific ethical issues is the most important?

Created entirely new software that performed a different function or used a different algorithm to create a similar product instead of just copying the existing software.

iii. What decisions would you change if you were Julie?

· Would have stood up against unfair and inappropriate behavior of coworkers and boss.

· Would not have looked at the competing team’s proprietary information, even if a family member offered to share it.

· Consult an Intellectual Property lawyer or even fellow teammates to discuss a better way of approaching this problem.

iv. From whom or where could you seek guidance?

· The NSPE code of Ethics

· Friends who are not involved in the team, family or company to eliminate bias

d. Responsibility Perspective: If you were in charge and had the authority and the funding to make any changes you wanted to make in your organization policies:

i. What specific steps would you take to improve the organization culture?

· Ensure there were no conflicts of interest, and if family members worked together, eliminate circumstances in which there may be unethical decisions may be made

· Enforce a strict system to ensure there is no bribery or sharing of proprietary information

· Ensure all conflicts of interest are explicitly expressed

· Avoid having family in competing positions

ii. Who would you involve in this process?

An outside, unbiased source that would be free from conflicts of interest, bribery and corruption

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