Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
that sense, the leading designers were not replaceable. At that time, working on
large-scale ICT and automation projects for Elwro was very popular with graduates
of many universities. This meant that PoPs could propose several competent candi-
dates to replace each dismissed leading designer. However, these recent graduates
lacked the experience of the leading designers and would require a number of years
to acquire it. The use of less experienced leading designers resulted in several
project failures. Since many leading designers were removed before they were able
to fully train their successors, there are both a loss of tacit knowledge and a reduc-
tion in the total experience and expertise available (Wojsznis 2013, private
communication).
The PoPs also set a bad example to the rest of the management of Elwro, who
came to devalue hard professional work and specialised knowledge. As a result,
bad rather than good management practices became the norm. They promoted
inexperienced leading designers who did not yet have the experience or expertise
to successfully lead important projects and interfered in the work of the technical
staff. During the subsequent difficult period of free competition, these managers
were unable to select the attractive and competitive products required for the
survival of Elwro in the changed commercial and political conditions or to
choose an appropriate partner from the many big corporations interested in
establishing a joint venture with Elwro. In the end, Elwro was sold to a very big
corporation and soon after was liquidated. This resulted in the loss of many jobs
and the only benefit, of dubious value gained by the corporation was the remove
of competition in Poland.
The PoP actions were unethical in terms of most theories of ethics (see Chap.
2
)
and would probably also be considered unethical by most ordinary people. In terms
of deontological ethics, which considers the intention and innate virtue of a course
of actions, the PoP actions were motivated by pure self-interest, and the PoPs were
willing to sacrifice other people in order to benefit themselves. In terms of utilitari-
anism, which considers the consequences of action, these were purely negative,
with significant disadvantage resulting to the leading designers, potential users of
the systems they were developing, Elwro and the country as a whole. The actions of
the PoPs to further their own self-interests at the expense of everyone else would
hardly build good character and were therefore contrary to virtue ethics. Their
actions violated the fundamental moral rights of the leading designers to recogni-
tion for their work and therefore were counter to rights ethics. The PoPs showed no
interest in maintaining relationships, particularly those between the leading design-
ers and their teams, and their actions were therefore counter to the ethics of care.
They also acted counter to the principles of beneficence, justice and autonomy and
consequently to normative ethics. For instance, their actions did not respect the
autonomy of leading designers to carry out their work, justice with regard to recog-
nition and the award of benefits or beneficence in terms of concern for the impacts
on the people of Poland.
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