Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
enabling him to access English language materials and thereby improve the quality
of his work on ICT and automation. In order to obtain sufficient income from trans-
lation, Leading Designer 4 had to translate about 500 pages or 100,000 words a
month of technical, scientific and business material. As a result, he also significantly
increased his general knowledge in these areas with associated benefits both to his
design work and to himself.
Thus, the resulting benefits in terms of independence and increased knowledge
were very significant and outweighed the disadvantages of having to learn another
profession and the opportunity costs of the time involved. However, it should be
noted that this type of solution is not possible for everyone.
6.6
Ethical Aspects of Leading Designer 4's Conduct
As discussed above, the behaviour of the various PoPs was generally both unethical
and hypocritical. While Leading Designer 4's behaviour was ethical, it focused more
on the professional ethics of how work is carried out than consideration of the appli-
cations, for instance, in the case of the Żarnowiec nuclear power plant. However, he
recognised the likely consequences of the inappropriate design approaches used and
resigned from the project in accordance with utilitarian ethics.
A significant ethical aspect of his work was his concern for the education and
training of his younger colleagues and his relationships with them, in accordance
with the ethics of care. The design team approach under a leading designer could
easily become exploitative and hierarchical. However, he ensured this did not hap-
pen by, for instance, using designs obtained by his younger colleagues in order to
motivate them and give them ownership of the work.
He also recognised and valued the contribution of resources by the citizens of
Poland to enable him to obtain the software and hardware he required to design,
develop and implement his projects. In the end, the benefits obtained were worth
several times this investment, but at the start of the projects, it was not apparent that
they would even repay the investment, never mind bring additional benefits.
Therefore, in accordance with principles of justice, Leading Designer 4 recognised
that the benefits achieved by his projects did not cancel his debt of gratitude to the
citizens of Poland.
There are many reasons why people behave unethically, including the tempta-
tions of personal benefits from such behaviour, pressure from colleagues and supe-
riors and/or threats of reprisals in organisations in which unethical behaviour is
prevalent. Leading Designer 4 resisted the pressures by prudently ensuring that he
was financially independent in the sense of being able to obtain a sufficient income
outside the ICT and automation domain, thereby making it much easier to resist
pressure. He resisted the temptations of money, power and glory through recogni-
tion of his real values and being able to carry out the engineering and design work
he loved was what was important to him, not these other benefits. In this way, he
acted in accordance with virtue ethics by behaving in a way that improved his
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