The Ethical Engineer

7. Employee-Employer Relations

7 Employee-Employer Relations Engineers rarely work alone; engineering operations generally require a team of engineers, support personnel , and business expertise (management, accounting, and sales). Thus, virtually all engineers are employed or employ others, and virtually all engineers have superiors or subordinates. As an engineer, you must make employment decisions. This chapter will help you make those decisions fairly and ethically. Types of Work Relationships Bruce F. Gordon and Ian C. Ross identify three kinds of work relationships. In an artisan-master relationship, the employee does what the employer wants. In a professional status relationship, the employee gives the employer what the employer ought to have. Finally, in a protege-patron relationship, the employee gives the employer what the employee wants (for example, researchers who determine their own research programs).) Gordon and Ross suggest that a modern research organization may employ different 192 Copyrighted Material Employee-Employer Relations 193 individuals in all three categories. I would suggest, instead, that all engineers belong, to a greater or lesser extent, in all three categories. All engineers are bound by company rules and policies and must be guided, to some extent, by the company's needs. In this sense all engineers are "artisans ." But engineers also have a duty to use their brains, to be innovative, and to speak up on the company's behalf, and most companies welcome suggestions from engineers. Indeed, because engineers must take some responsibility for what goes on in the company, they have a duty not to follow orders mindlessly, without thinking about what ought to happen (see "Principles of Accountability" in Chapter 4). In this sense, all engineers have "professional status." Finally, every engineer is an artist engaged in the great social task of advancing human welfare and so, within the limits set for him, should be giving the employer what he, the engineer, wants to give, namely, his best ideas and effort. In this sense, the engineer is an artist sponsored by the company in a "protege-patron relationship." Balancing these three elements of the work relationship is not always easy. You might want to ask yourself the following questions when trying to strike a proper balance. First, what is the nature of the work I am asked to do? Some tasks leave more room for freedom than others. For example, an engineer in a research and development department with the primary idea for a new product has more room for "artistic freedom" than does an engineer writing specifications for a cooling system. Second, what is at stake if I give my firm or company what it ought to have instead of what it asks of me? For example, an engineer responsible for the safety of a nuclear Copyrighted Material 194 CHAPTER SEVEN reactor has a duty to give the employer what the employer ought to have, rather than what the employer wants, since an unsafe nuclear reactor creates an unacceptable risk to the public. By contrast, while a manufacturing engineer who sees a more efficient way to do what he is asked to do should certainly point out his idea to his supervisor, if the supervisor insists it should be done another way, the manufacturing engineer should do what the supervisor wants, since what is at stake here is not the public's safety but the employer's money. In the case of consulting engineering, it is ultimately the firm rather than the individual engineer who is responsible for seeing to the best interests of the client, and it is ultimately the client rather than the firm who is responsible for the successful use of the project. Thus, when safety and ethics are not involved, the firm must ultimately give way to the client, and the individual engineer employed by a consulting firm must ultimately give way to the firm. Third, what particular understanding do I have with my company or fmn? A company may give some researchers a freer hand than others, and some companies are less comfortable with "giving researchers their head" than others. In all three kinds of employment relations, fair treatment and a community atmosphere are crucial for employee motivation. Supervisors and employers can do much to help generate this kind of work environment. Leadership and Healthy Work Environments Books on leadership and management fill shelf after shelf in libraries and bookstores. Within these books you will find many theories of good management. Two views of Copyrighted Material Employee...