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The tragic failure of the Challenger does make for an excellent case study on managment process. Prior to reviewing the course material, I was aware there was a technical and mechanical failure which led to the demise of the spacecraft as well as the crew, but I had no idea that the device which failed was a known problem to the engineers, and known by at least some level of management. It is shocking. Although I was unable to obtain the PDF for Engineering Ethics Case Study: The Challenger Disaster, I found the content of The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: A Study in Organizational Ethics particularly interesting of case studies provided.
The role of the corporate communications professional consists of both internal and extrenal components.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States of America. This tropical storm rendered much of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama a flooded wasteland; in particular, Memorial Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana was sequestered by the floods, leaving hundreds of patients, staff, and visitors without vital resources. Electricity was cut off, and the internal temperatures reached over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, as reported by journalist Sheri Fink (2009). Staff attempted to evacuate the hospital, carrying patients one-by-one down many flights of stairs. Several patients died during this evacuation. In the wake of the flood, it was discovered that 45 patients of Memorial Hospital had perished, and that 23 of these deaths were attributed to a lethal dose of Versed or morphine. Dr Anna Pou, a surgeon on duty during the disaster, was accused of euthanizing these patients during
NASA has faced many tragedies during their time; but one can question if two of the tragedies were preventable by changing some critical decisions made by the organization. The investigation board looking at the decisions made for the space shuttle tragedies of the Columbia and Challenger noted that the “loss resulted as much from organizational as from technical failures” (Bolman & Deal, 2008, p. 191). The two space shuttle tragedies were about twenty years apart, they both had technical failures but politics also played a factor in to these two tragedies.
Even though there were many factors contributing to the Challenger disaster, the most important issue was the lack of an effective risk management plan. The factors leading to the Challenger disaster are:
BP was founded in 1908 under the name Anglo-Persian Oil Company. They changed their name to British Petroleum in 1954 and merged with Amoco in 1998. (BP Public Website, 2010) “The Texas City Refinery is BP’s largest and most complex oil refinery... It was owned and operated by Amoco prior to the merger of BP and Amoco.” (Michael P. Broadribb, 2006) Throughout their history, there have been a number of accidents that have been caused by negligence and disregard of safety precautions. Unfortunately many lives have been cut short or seriously injured as a result. My research will focus on the 2005 Texas City Oil Refinery Explosion. I will attempt to look into the ethical implications that surrounded this disaster before and after the event and suggest what BP could have done to prevent the incident then and in the future.
On January 28, 1968 the space shuttle Challenger was deployed from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. One minute and thirteen seconds after liftoff the spaceship ignited in mid air and all seven crew members were killed. The cause of the destruction of the challenger was a certain part of rubber that relieves pressure on the side of the actual rocket booster called an O-ring. When a space shuttle as used as the Challenger is about to be used for another mission there should be an even more careful with checking everything before liftoff. The Challenger could have been avoided and there was way too much evidence that shows NASA had some kind of knowledge about the consequences.
Two tragic incidents, the Challenger Space Shuttle crash of 1986, and the Three Mile Island near meltdown of 1979, have greatly devastated our nation. Both these disasters involved failures of communication among ordinary professional people, working in largely bureaucratic companies. Two memos called the “Smoking Gun Memos,” authored by R. M. Boisjoly, of Morton Thiokol, and D. F. Hallman, of Babcook and Wilcox, will always be associated these two incidents. Unfortunately, neither of these memos were successful in preventing the accidents of the Challenger and the Three Mile Island near meltdown.
The National Society of Professional Engineers Code of Ethics lays out guidelines and standards to which all engineers should abide when making professional decisions and communicating with their peers and the public. Ethics and communications played a large role in the cause of the event and the end result of the mission. The following section will discuss the ethics of the events that transpired prior to the launch, the communication of the crews and the NASA public relations office, and the ethics of the actions taken by the engineers after the incident.
The Political, Social, and Legal Environment of Business. Case Study Analysis: Union Carbide Corporation and Bhopal. A single slip in action may cause lasting sorrow. A slight mistake in operation at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, caused a lot of deaths and injuries. What a tragedy it is.
While the automotive industry is touted as a success story of industrialisation, and the early days of automated assembly brought mobility to millions of people and fast-forwarded our society in ways we had never previously imagined possible, since the beginning, the automotive industry has been rife with ethical challenges. Some of these have been very public ones, typically involving labour practices, worker safety and issues of product safety over cost. However, there is another ethical challenge in the arena, and it is not small. It is the issue of environmental impact. Building cars takes a considerable toll on the environment, while the product itself generates so much waste that environmentalists now measure carbon output of other disputed industries in terms of how
Ethics is the moral behavior that guides our actions; it motivates us in our personal behavior and is relevant in a business setting as well. Many organizations have set forth a set of guidelines known as a “Code of Ethics”. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, being one of these organizations, has set forth their code as a requirement for students and engineer members to adhere to. Heading towards a career in electrical engineering I choose this organization to elaborate on for my ethics project.
What is safety worth, and just how much does safety cost when ensuring the rights of consumers are addressed appropriately? Finding the balance between production profits and Research & Development (R&D) in safety issues can be the difference between profits, profit loss, and Malevolent Disregard (Meel, M. & Saat, M., 2002). Even though profits and root earnings can make or break an organization, when the safety of the consumer is at risk, ethical decisions are required. Business ethics, within the law abiding countries, considers safety a consumer’s basic right. Laws are currently in place to protect both consumers and organizations in determining historical, current, and or future fault of unsafe products. Unfortunately, there are terms to be contended with that are ambiguous, being defined in individual, lengthy, maybe even perceived as non-seneschal. These terms include Malevolent Disregard (MD) and Consumer’s Relative Incompetence (CRI). The gist of ethical meaning in both terms can be misinterpreted and misrepresented, dependent upon the ethics of the leadership involvement (Meel, M. & Saat, M., 2002).
Ethical dilemmas create a challenge between two or more equally alternative problems requiring moral judgment. This creates both an obligation and dilemma for those involved. Living in such a globalized world with cross-cultural borders, races, and ideas; negotiating what is considered morally “right” can sometimes be very difficult. Both religion and laws have a major impact in ethical duties. What an individual may presume as right cannot be guaranteed by the government or political party. The Overcrowded Lifeboat is just one example in which all the ideas above come to play in ethical decisions.
Engineers design, build or maintain applications and systems to solve various societal problems. Their behaviors thus have a non-negligible impact on human development. Oftentimes, however, engineers are faced with the dilemma to choose between compromising their code of ethics and threatening their promising careers. It is important that engineers deem public welfare as a supreme concern and stand their ground so that they will report any observed situations that potentially can harm public safety to their superiors. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) case study is a good example of engineers being responsible with society in that they attempted multiple times to inform their supervisors in management about their concerns with the possible imminent system failure of BART. Even though their voices were ignored and they were fired by the company in the end, they made the passengers realize the probable dangers underneath this regional rail service. Consequently, on October 2nd, 1972, as a result of Automatic Train Control (ATC) failure, a BART train overshot the station at Fremont and wounded several people. In order to prevent these tragic accidents from happening, the BART case needs to be further examined for deeper understanding of the problem. This paper will use deontological ethical framework to address the cause of BART train system failure and recommend feasible plans to avert similar tragedies from occurring in the future to BART employees. Therefore, not only engineers, but also managers and board of directors should be educated about ethics and should be familiar with basic technical knowledge regarding their business.
McLaren, B. (2010, July 22). The ethical responsibility of engineers and the rest of us, too [Web log article]. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-d-mclaren/the-ethical-responsibilit_b_653812.html
Everyone in this world has experienced an ethical dilemma in different situations and this may arise between one or more individuals. Ethical dilemma is a situation where people have to make complex decisions and are influenced based on personal interest, social environment or norms, and religious beliefs (“Strategic Leadership”, n.d.). The leaders and managers in the company should set guidelines to ensure employees are aware and have a better chance to solve and make ethical decisions. Employees are also responsible in understanding their ethical obligations in order to maintain a positive work environment. The purpose of this case study is to identify the dilemma and analyze different decisions to find ways on how a person should act