Incident at Morales An
Engineering Ethics Story
Oct. 2003
Developed by the National Institute of Engineering
Ethics,
Incident at Morales is a
36-minute fictional drama (video), commissioned by the
National Institute for Engineering Ethics, about a young engineer confronting
ethical dilemmas while working on a new chemical plant in
Fred Martinez, a licensed
professional engineer who has recently signed on to work for Phaust Chemicals, a US division of a French multinational
corporation, is tasked to design a new plant in Morales Mexico. His challenge is to reformulate a new
paint-stripping product to meet new environmental regulations and to compete
with a rival's product. He believes he has fulfilled his ethical responsibility
to design a safe and efficient plant, but he and his colleagues are told by corporate
headquarters to both cut budgets and get the plant on line faster. Fred identifies environmental and technical
problems that could put the safety of workers and residents in jeopardy. In the
climax of the video, the viewer sees the impact of his decisions.
Incident at Morales presents
the ethical dilemmas faced in the commercial world for audiences of students
and professionals who confront these situations daily and somehow must make the
right choices. The video and DVD will be
used in engineering schools nationwide
Incident at Morales, brought
to you by the producers of Gilbane Gold, is another
breakthrough video that vividly covers a wide range of ethical dilemmas facing
engineers today. The video and study
guide provide a number of opportunities for viewers to consider the resolution
of difficult ethical issues including international responsibilities,
consequences of technical and financial decisions, and environmental concerns.
Incident at Morales involves
a variety of ethical issues faced by the engineers at a company (Phaust Chemicals) that wants to develop a new chemical
product. In order to gain a competitive
edge, they need build a plant quickly.
Potential technical and
ethical issues arise from choices of design, including valves, piping,
chemicals, etc. The process to develop
the product is designed to be automated and controlled by computer
software. The process also involves high
temperatures and pressures and requires the use of chemicals that need special
handling.
Because of environmental
considerations related to the chemicals used in the process, the company (Phaust) decides to construct their plant in
_________________
The National Institute for Engineering Ethics wants
viewers to be able to:
1. Identify ethical, technical, and economic
issues and problems.
2. Identify affected parties (stakeholders) and
their rights and responsibilities.
3. Identify social and political constraints on
possible solutions
4. Determine what additional information is
needed to make a good decision.
5. Suggest alternative courses of action for the
principal characters.
6. Imagine possible consequences of those
alternative actions.
7. Evaluate those alternatives according to
basic ethical values.
Tests that were considered:
1. Harm test - Do the benefits outweigh the
harms, short term and long term?
2. Reversibility test. Would I think this choice were good if I
traded places?
3. Colleague test. What would professional colleagues say?
4. Legality test. Would this choice violate a law or policy of
my employer or of the government?
5. Publicity test. How would this choice look on the front page
of the newspaper?
6. Common practice test. What if everyone behaved in this way?
7. Wise relative test. What would my wise old aunt or uncle do?
Basic Ethical Concepts
1. Ethical considerations are an integral part
of making engineering decisions.
2. The professional obligations of engineers go
beyond fulfilling a contract with a client or customer.
3. Code of ethics can provide guidance in the
decision-making process.
4. Ethical obligations do not stop at the
5. Wherever engineers practice, they shall hold
paramount the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
6. How an engineer fulfills those obligations
may depend on the social and economic context of engineering practice.
Outline of the "Incident at Morales" Story
1. Phaust (
2. Phaust's learns that competitor Chemitoil
plans to introduce a new paint remover.
3. To remain competitive, Phaust
decides to develop a new paint remover.
4. To save money, Phaust
decides to construct a new plant in
5. Phaust hires a
chemical engineer, Fred Martinez, who had been a consultant to Chemitoil.
6. Chemistre is Phaust's parent company in
7. Chuck, a Phaust
Vice President, encourages Fred to reduce construction costs.
8. Fred confronts several engineering decisions
in which ethical considerations play a major role.
The DVD Version of this Video
will
1. Include interviews with and comments by the
National Institute of Engr Ethics video team members
and others.
2. Raise and discuss the issues, concepts, and
questions that should be considered by the viewers.
Characters
1. Dominique - French corporate liaison to Phaust
2. Fred - Chemical engineer PE hired by Phaust to design a new plant to manufacture a new paint
remover.
3. Wally - Fred's supervisor at Phaust
4. Chuck - Phaust Vice
President of engineering
5. Maria - Fred's wife, an EPA compliance litigator
6. Hal - Market analyst at Phaust
7. Jen - Research chemist at Phaust
8. Peter - Project manager of the construction
firm that builds the new plant at Morales
9. Jake - Plant manager for the SwissChem plant in Big Springs, Texas
10. Manuel - Plant manager for the new Phaust plant in Morales, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Suggested Assignment
1. List the ethical issues you observe in the
"Incident at Morales" video.
2. Prioritize these ethical issues from most
critical to least critical.
3. Discuss the video from the following 3
perspectives:
a.
Fred's (Phaust engineer)
1) What
specific ethical issues does Fred face?
2) What are
some things that Fred should consider?
3) From whom or
where should Fred seek guidance?
b.
Wally's (Fred's supervisor)
1) What
specific ethical issues does Wally face?
2) What do you
think Wally's motivation was for having "One Rule"?
3) What do you
think about Wally's "One Rule"?
4) What
decisions would you change if you were Wally?
c.
Responsibility Perspective
If you were in charge and had the authority and the
funding to make
any changes you wanted to making in company policies:
1) What
specific steps would you take to improve the Phaust
company culture?
2) Who would
you involve in this process?
3) How and when
would you communicate the company policies to:
Your employees.
Your clients.
The public.
Synopsis:
Phaust Chemical manufactures "Old Stripper", a
paint remover that dominates the market.
On learning that Phaust's competition, Chemitoil, plans to introduce a new paint remover that may
capture the market, executives at Phaust decide to
develop a competing product. So save
money in the manufacturing of the product, Phaust
decides to construct a new chemical plant in Mexico and hires chemical engineer
Fred Martinez, a former design engineer for the consulting company Chemitoil, to design the new plant. Problems arise when Chemitoil,
Phaust's parent company in France, slashes budgets
20% across the board. In response, the
vice president of engineering at Phaust Chuck
strongly encourages Fred to reduce construction costs. Fred confronts several engineering decisions
in with ethical considerations play a major role:
1. Whether to use expensive controls
manufactured by Lutz and Lutz, which has an inside connection at Phaust.
2. Whether to line the evaporation ponds to
prevent seepage of hazardous substances in the wastewater effluents into the
groundwater,
although
local regulations may not require this level of environmental protection.
3. Whether to purchase pipes and connectors made
with stainless steel or high pressure alloy.
When samples of Chemitoil's new paint remover "EasyStrip"
becomes available, it is clear that to be competitive with "EasyStrip",
Phaust must change
the formulation of its new paint remover, which requires higher temperatures
and pressures than originally anticipated.
Some unexpected problems
arise:
1. Leakage occurs in one of the connections.
2. The automatic control system fails so the
plant manager offers to control the process manually.
After the new plant goes into
full operation, an accident occurs, and the plant manager is killed while
manually controlling the process.
Ethical Issues
The ethical issues in Incident at Morales includes:
1. Ethical responsibilities and obligations do
not stop at the US border.
2. Ethics is an integral and explicit component
of ordinary technical and business decision-making in engineering practice.
3. Engineers impact people and should be more
concerned about people than objects.
4. Technically competent, ethically sensitive,
reasonable people may have different perspectives and can disagree when faced
with complex ethical issues.
5. Negotiations resolve some of the conflicts in
the video, but some ethical conflicts remain unresolved.
Ethical problems are sometimes resolved by
rational methods and compromise.
6. Market stresses arise from competition with
other companies and from pressures to advance a design and construction
schedule.
7. It is sometimes necessary to make decisions
under pressure with incomplete data, insufficient time, and insufficient
information.
8. Guidance to help resolve ethical problems is
available in the form of code of ethics and actual case studies from
professional
and technical
societies and engineering licensing boards.
Purpose:
The video is designed to make
the viewers become more aware of:
1. Ethical considerations are an integral part
of making engineering decisions.
2. A code of ethics will provide guidelines in
the decision-making process.
3. The obligation of a code of ethics do not stop at the US border.
4. The obligations of engineers go beyond
fulfilling a contract with a client or customer.
"No man can always be right. So the struggle is to do one's best. To keep the brain and
conscience clear. Never be swayed
by unworthy motives or inconsequential reasons, but to strive to unearth the
basic factors involved. And then to do
one's duty."
By Dwight D.
Abbreviated List of Questions:
Segment One
1. What is Chuck's primary motivation for hiring
a professional engineer?
2. Dominique asks whether it is ethical to hire
an engineer who has recently worked for a competitor and Chuck
replies that while employed as a
contractor at Chemitoil, Fred was not required to
sign a non-disclosure agreement.
a.
What issues are involved in hiring an engineer from a competitor?
b.
Does Fred have any obligations of confidentiality to Chemitoil even if he has not signed a non-disclosure
agreement.
3. On Fred's first day, Wally says: "We are fast at Phaust".
How might engineering decisions be
affected by a corporate culture that emphasizes speed?
4. Wally tells Fred he has one rule: whether news is good or bad, Fred must tell
Wally first.
a.
What is the potential impact of Wally's "One Rule"?
b.
How should Fred respond?
5. If the Phaust legal
department had approved it, why would "StripTeasy"
be an
inappropriate name for a new paint
stripper?
6. The team meeting is marked by tension.
a. Do
ethical obligations suffer when the team is dysfunctional?
b. Is
some degree of disagreement appropriate?
c.
When does the conflict become counterproductive?
7. Chuck alludes to inflating the budget as a
hedge against potential budget cuts.
a.
What is the difference between inflating a budget and providing
contingency funds as a line item.
b.
What happens to a project when engineers are faced with budget
cuts across the board?
Segment Two
1. Chuck's brother-in-law is the US
representative for Lutz and Lutz. What
ethical questions does the procurement process raise
when the in-law of a corporate officer works for the
supplier? How does this situation look
from the viewpoint of other potential suppliers?
2. While touring the SuisseChem
plant, should Jake, Fred, and Peter wear additional protective gear?
3. Jake tells Fred "You gotta
do what you gotta do".
Should this advice
instead be "You
gotta do what you ought to do"?
4. At SuisseChem,
personnel in operation work with engineering personnel in designing chemical
plants,
but
at Phaust, operations and engineering are clearly
separate.
What are the
implications of separating engineering from operations?
5. Is it proper for Fred to share his concerns
with his wife Maria, especially because her
employer is a government
environmental regulatory agency (US EPA)?
6. Fred says that the new plant is outside
Maria's jurisdiction because it is in Mexico. Do engineers
professional
responsibilities for the environment and for safety change when they cross
national borders?
Segment Three
1. Was Wally justified in confronting Fred about
the environmental meeting? What were
Wally's motives?
2. What Wally confronted Fred, Fred said that he
was looking through some ethics manuals where he
would have found a corporate or
professional code of ethics. What would
these codes say about this situation?
3. Did Fred act responsibly in both:
a.
lining the evaporation ponds
b.
specifying cheaper controls
4. While talking with Peter, Fred is inspired to
make the couplings a maintenance issue, specifying that
the couplings should be replaced
regularly. Is it appropriate to convert
a design decision into
maintenance procedures without
including operations people in the decision process?
5. Although the chemical process was supposed to
be automated, Fred allowed Manuel to
volunteer to control the process
manually. Is this reasonable?
6. How should a company such as Phaust encourage their engineers to exhibit honorable
behavior and minimize ethical
problems in the future.
7. How should a governmental (city, county,
state, or federal) agency encourage their engineers
to
exhibit honorable behavior and minimize ethical problems in the future? This "Incident at Morales"
ethics
case is not about ethics issues regarding engineers employed by governmental
agencies but
ethics issues have and do exist for
these engineers.