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Responsible Dissent

15 January, 2016 - 09:08
Available under Creative Commons-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/05c97be4-3ad0-47f2-b5a7-a75d0ad90ab7@3.72

Sources

  • Computing Cases is the primary source for the material below on responsible dissent. It is based on the materials for responsibly carrying out dissent and disagreement that was formerly posted at the IEEE website. The IEEE has since taken this material down.
  • The Online Ethics Center has also posted the IEEE material on responsible dissent. The origin of this material as well as a thorough discussion of its content can be found in Carolyn Whitbek, Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research: 2nd Edition, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Chapter 7, "Workplace Rights and Responsibilities, pp. 227-269.
  • Much of this material (IEEE Guidelines and a discussion of Dissenting Professional Opinion Guidelines) can be found in Chapter 7 ("Averting the Conflict at the Source")in the following: Stephen H., Unger, Controlling Technology: Ethics and the Responsible Engineer: 2nd Edition, New York: John Wiley and Sons, INC.

Ethical Dissent

  1. Establish a clear technical foundation.
  2. Keep your arguments on a high professional plane, as impersonal and objective as possible, avoiding extraneous issues and emotional outbursts.
  3. Try to catch problems early, and keep the argument at the lowest managerial level possible.
  4. Before going out on a limb, make sure that the issue is sufficiently important.
  5. Use (and help establish) organizational dispute resolution mechanisms.
  6. Keep records and collect paper.
  7. These items originate with the IEEE which has dropped them from their website. They can be accessed through the link above with the Online Ethics Center; the list there is more complete. The above is quoted from the Computing Cases website.

Before Going Public

  1. Make sure of your motivation.
  2. Count your costs.
  3. Obtain all the necessary background materials and evidence.
  4. Organize to protect your own interests.
  5. Choose the right avenue for your disclosure.
  6. Make your disclosure in the right spirit.
  7. These items come from the IEEE (see onlineethics link) and from the manuscript of Good Computing by Chuck Huff, William Frey, and Jose Cruz.

Places to Go

  1. Government Agencies
  2. Judicial Systems
  3. Legislators
  4. Advocacy Groups
  5. News Media
  6. In Puerto Rico, laws 14 and 426 have been passed to protect those who would blow the whistle on government corruption. The Ofcina de Etica Gubernamental de Puerto Rico has a whistle blower's hotline. See link above.

When to Blow the Whistle.

  1. Serious and Considerable Harm
  2. Notification of immediate supervisor.
  3. Exhaustion of internal channels of communication/appeal.
  4. Documented Evidence.
  5. Likelihood of successful resolution.

References

  1. Richard T. De George, "Ethical Responsibilities of Engineers in Large Organizations: The Pinto Case," in Ethical Issues in Engineering, ed. Deborah G. Johnson (1991) New Jersey: Prentice-Hall: 175-186.
  2. Carolyn Whitbeck (1998) Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research. U.K. Cambridge University Press: 55-72 and 176-181.
  3. Charles Harris, Michael Pritchard and Michael Rabins (2005) Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases, 3rd Ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth: 203-206.
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