These cases present situations that raise ethical questions common in engineering practice and research. They are based on original cases brought to the BER (Board of Ethical Review) of the NSPE (National Society of Professional Engineers) for review. The NSPE BER reviews cases with the specific purpose of making an ethical judgment on the actions of (only) the engineers in the cases, based solely on the NSPE Code of Ethics. The Online Ethics Center is presenting new versions of these cases that are more suitable for group and class discussion. These rewritten cases are deliberately open ended to encourage exchange regarding how one should respond to the situation rather than simply judgments about what someone already did. The discussion cases vary in the extent of their resemblance to the corresponding NSPE case. Each rewritten case has a link to the original NSPE version.
More extensive collections of the original NSPE Board of Ethical Review cases and judgments are available in two places:
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Knowledge of Damaging Information
(Public Safety and Public Welfare) An engineer has a conflict between honoring an agreement with a former employer and reporting a hazard to protect the public interest.
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Gifts to Foreign Officials
(International Engineering Ethics) This case provides guidelines on what gift-giving practices are acceptable.
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Promotional Letter Emphasizing Negative Attributes of Other Firms
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) This case raises questions about what information is appropriate to include in a promotional letter.
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Competition from Former Employees
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) A group of engineers leave their employer to start their own firm. As the new firm contacts clients from its former employer, each firm casts doubt on the capability of the other firm to provide competent services.
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Contingency Payment for Industrial Design
(Conflicting Interests and Conflict of Interest) Payment for work on a contingency or commission basis is considered by some to undermine the professional standing of engineers, and, in some circumstances, to create a conflict of interest. Others view it as creating an incentive for an engineer to deliver the best services of which she is capable.
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The Use of Work from an Unpaid Consultation
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) This case covers the pursuit of a contract and use of a study authored by a competing firm. It raises questions about the limits that are required in order to keep competition for a contract fair.
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Maintaining Professional Standards: Writing a Letter of Recommendation
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) The Board of Ethical Review (BER) discusses the nature of the obligation to write letters of recommendation and the value of professional-society membership in one engineer's respect for another.
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Related Work Done by a Private Party Following Public Employment
The situation of engineers leaving public employ and then working in the same area in the private sector is a delicate issue. The engineer has had access to government knowledge that a private client may desire. This case raises questions about the ethical permissibility of such employment.
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Employment of Former Convicted Engineer
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) A local company wants to hire a convicted engineer who is in prison for illegally receiving funds from the governmental program.
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Binary Service to Same Client
(Conflicting Interests and Conflict of Interest) Two Engineers co-own both an engineering firm and a consulting firm called Elecricity Services. Their engineering firm is awarded an assignment by the board of directors of the water plant on the basis of reports and recommendations provided by their other comany, Electricity Services.
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Contribution to Public Works Promotion Committee
(Public Safety and Public Welfare) A promotion committee is organized to finance a variety of public works projects by issuing bonds to the public. They don't know, however, if they should allow engineering firms to contribute funds to the promotion fund.
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Changes in Statement of Qualifications for a Public Project
This case describes possible methods of making amends for a firm's deficit in a particular area of expertise that a client needs to complete his project.
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Commission Payment Under a Marketing Agreement
(Conflicting Interests and Conflict of Interest) An engineer, experienced in providing services to the international community, wants to draw on that experience to provide international marketing services to U.S. engineering firms in return for a commission on the services those firms gain as a result of his marketing help.
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Advertising: Calendars & Pencils
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) Two examples of advertising or gifts to potential and current clients are judged under the Code of Ethics.
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Services on Same Project
(Conflicting Interests and Conflict of Interest) A city engineer selects an engineering firm for a city project assignment based on its technical proposals. However, other firms view the selection of the firm as biased.
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Protesting a Low Fee Proposal
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) Three competing firms submit price proposals with significant price differences. The lowest price proposal is challenged on the grounds that competent engineering services could not be provided within this budget.
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An Engineer's Agreement with Two Firms Competing for the Same Contract
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) An engineer agrees to a joint venture for the same project with two competing firms. He does not inform either firm that he has discussed a joint venture with the other firm.
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Do Engineers Have a Right to Protest Shoddy Work and Cost Overruns?
(Public Safety and Public Welfare) An engineer who is employed by a government contractor objects to a subcontractor's poor performance and is ignored and silenced by management.
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Raising an Issue of Participation in a Professional Society
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) An engineer actively participates in professional and technical societies. This participation accords with the policy of the engineer's employer, but the engineer's immediate supervisor tries to block or prevent some of these activities.
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Intellectual Property of Engineers in Private Practice
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) An engineer submits a proposal to a county council, a member of which makes this proposal available to another engineer developing a proposal for a different county project. The second engineer uses the first engineer's information and data without the first engineer's consent.
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Engineer's Dispute with Client over Design
(Public Safety and Public Welfare) A client believes an engineer's designs are too costly, but the engineer fears that anything less may endanger the public.
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Safety Considerations and Request for Additional Engineering Personnel
(Public Safety and Public Welfare) An engineer is concerned for worker safety during construction but yields to his client's objections to the cost of an on-site representative.
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Joint Authorship of a Paper
(Research Ethics)This case addresses issues of fair authorship credit in research practice.
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Data Selection, Legitimate or Illegitimate?
(Research Ethics) A graduate student intentionally omits some of his research data.
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Engineer's Disclosure of Potential Conflict of Interest
(Conflicting Interests and Conflict of Interest) An engineer discloses a potential conflict between his interests and those of his client.
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Accepting a Complimentary Seminar Registration
A pipe company invites engineers to a complimentary educational seminar on the use of its products. This could be compared to perks and gifts given to physicians by drug companies.
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Conflict of Interest in a Feasibility Study
An engineer is in a position to decide the outcome of a feasibility study to her personal advantage.
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Signing Off on Drawings
An example of why signing off on one's drawings is essential to responsible engineering.
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Whistleblowing City Engineer
An engineer privately informs other city officials of an environmental threat, a problem her supervisor has ordered her not to disclose.
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Public Criticism of Safety
A case in which an engineer agrees to take a job for the local newspaper, which misrepresents the engineer's professional opinion.
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Code Violations with Safety Implications
An engineer discovers deficiencies in a building's structural integrity, and it would breach client confidentiality to report them to a third party.
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Responsibility for Public Safety and the Obligation of Client Confidentiality
Tenants sue their building's owner, and the owner employs an engineer who finds structural defects not mentioned in the tenants' lawsuit. Issues of public safety versus client confidentiality.
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Furnishing Limited Advice
Is it ethical for an engineer to work for a local government agency and for a consulting firm that deals with this agency?
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Withdrawal of an Offer of Employment
A firm agrees to hire a recent graduate, then rescinds the offer several days after the student has informed other firms that he is no longer available for hire.
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Engineering Student Serving As Consultant to University
A graduate student holds consulting jobs for the university in which he is enrolled. Does this situation create a conflict of interest?
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Credit for Engineering Work Design Competition
(Research Ethics) An engineer fails to credit another engineer for design work when he enters a competition for bridge design.
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Clean-Air Standards and a Government Engineer
(Public Safety and Public Welfare) An engineer refuses to draw up a permit for a building she believes violates environmental standards. Several days later, she learns that her department issued a permit anyway.
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Suspected Hazardous Waste
(Public Safety and Public Welfare) A supervisor instructs a student engineer to withhold information from a client about the suspected nature of waste on the client's property to protect what the supervisor takes to be the client's interest.
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Improper Credit Given for Research Data
(Research Ethics) This case raises the question of how best to remedy an honest mistake in crediting the proper source of research information.
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Affirmative Action in Subcontracting
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) A disadvantaged firm suddenly charges higher fees to the firm by which it is retained, soon after the parent firm receives much flattering publicity regarding the parent firm's use of the disadvantaged firm.
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Copycat
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) An consultant's attempt to encourage competition conflicts with his duty to honor the patent of another engineer.
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Misrepresentation of a Business Relationship
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) An engineer brings another engineer to a business meeting without first discussing business conditions with her.
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Comments by One Engineer Concerning Another
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) An engineer is not happy with the recommendation she receives from the Secretary of the Professional Engineer's society of another state. Questions arise as to who, if anyone, should be told of her dissatisfaction.
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Refusing to Sign/Seal Construction Documents
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) An engineer moves from one firm to a competitor firm and questions about what obligations the engineer has with respect to unfinished work left behind are raised.
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Software Design Testing
(Software Design Testing ) An engineer, hired by a software company, believes that the company's new software design is safe under existing standards. However, the new software may not meet the new standards that he knows are about to be released--standards that performing more tests could cost both the company and the public significantly. Issues of conflicting obligations to the company and the general public also arise.
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Serving as Design Engineer and General Contractor
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) An engineer is thinking about placing a bid on a contract for a job for which, in his job at another firm, he prepared the plans.
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Specifying Equipment of Company Owned by Enginneer
Lisa is asked to write specifications for a water expansion system. While she is competent to do so, Lisa also owns a company that manufactures and sells such systems. Does this constitute a conflict of interest? If so, how should it be handled?
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Application of Code of Ethics to Non-U.S. Engineers
(International Engineering Ethics) An engineer and member of international NSPE wonders whether he should engage in a practice which is legally acceptable in his country but against the code of ethics of NSPE.
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Use of CD-ROM for Highway Design
(Public Safety and Public Welfare) A chemical engineer thinks about offering services in facilities design and construction, which he would perform with the help of a computer program.
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Serving Plaintiffs and Defendants
(Conflicting Interests and Conflict of Interest) An expert in her field, an engineer is approached by lawyers for manufacturer XYZ to tesitfy on behalf of XYZ. Later, a plaintiff asks her to testify in an unrelated lawsuit against manufacturer XYZ. Does accepting the second job create a conflict of interest for her?
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Code Enforcement
(Public Safety and Public Welfare) An engineer is in the position of having to trade one safety concern for another.
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Use of Slogans in Political Campaigns and Advertisements
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) Questions arise concerning whether certain slogans are deceptive and misleading or cause dishonor to the engineering profession.
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Expert Witness Services
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade) An engineer agrees to provide his services as a witness for free as a favor to his attorney friend. The client dismisses his friend as counsel and now the engineer wants to charge for his services.
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Competence to Certify Arms Storage Rooms
(Ethical Engineering/Fair Trade)An Engineer with no expertise in arms storage is asked by his superior in the army to certify such a room.