SAWomEng
is an organisation that supports and provides mentorship for women who are
planning to study, are currently studying or have recently graduated
engineering degrees - a cause that I have huge respect for. One of their
initiatives is a leadership seminar series, with the current topic being
Ethical Leadership in Engineering. Ethics, leadership and engineering are three
concepts that I have grappled with - with mixed success - over my career to
date, and it is heartening to see them addressed in a forum with the
transformative potential of SAWomEng.
Sustainable
design often gets lumped together with ethical engineering, and, while I see
the connection to some degree, my expertise in design does not automatically
translate into expertise in ethics. This lack of experience in the philosophy
of ethics notwithstanding, I was invited to sit on the panel for the Durban and
Cape Town legs of the seminar series. What an opportunity to challenge and be
challenged on some of the most difficult decisions that face professionals in
their careers!
Let
me be clear here. I am not an expert on business ethics (or any other kind for
that matter). I'm not really even an expert in engineering. And despite my career
aspirations, it would be somewhat misleading to call me a "leader"
either. But for all this, I'm still going to share my experience of the Durban
workshop in the hope that it will raise awareness of some of the ethical
challenges that face the current and future leaders of our profession.
So...
Ethics. Leadership. Engineering.
I
must start by stating that ethics is not a fuzzy, soft, do-goodie subject. It
is a philosophical field of enquiry in its own right and there is an
established academic and professional community who specialise in it. My first
piece of advice for any leader in business is to invest in formal training in
business ethics from people who really do understand the topic.
That
being said, I'll add my own thoughts on some of the ethical challenges facing
modern engineers, which might apply beyond the field too. There are so many
areas in modern workplaces where one’s values are challenged. The purpose of
this post is not to explore scenarios (which range from corporate governance to
HR to whistle-blowing and more), but rather to show how the institutional
structures which engineers depend on are not sufficient to navigate the areas
where a sound understanding of ethics are needed.
At
present, ethics in engineering is governed by professional codes of practice
and references to national or international standards and norms. These codes of
practice govern appropriate behaviour between professionals, and provide a
sound basis for normal day-to-day work. One example of the type of guidance
they give is appropriate circumstances under which a professional engineer can
review and comment on the work of another professional engineer. While this is
essential in governing work between peers, it doesn’t provide much in the way
of guidance for difficult ethical decisions. When a colleague has been treated
unfairly by management, the Engineering Council of South Africa’s (ECSA) code
of conduct has little guidance on how to react.
Corporate
governance guidelines are another set of rules by which people in business
judge ethical behaviour. The growth of public companies required business
leaders to be bound to certain levels of disclosure and behaviour as they were
responsible for the investments of others. In South Africa, the King Reports
are the benchmark for corporate governance and their focus is on integrated
reporting and disclosure. These are important for investors and analysts, but
again do not provide clear guidance on personal decision-making along ethical
lines. It is possible to comply entirely with corporate governance
requirements, and yet still act in an unethical manner.
A
third often-referenced guide for ethical decision-making is the company “vision
and values”. My employers have values of ‘sharing and supporting’, ‘pride and passion’,
‘trust’, ‘innovation’ and ‘sustainability’; which are typical of the sort of
values espoused in corporate reports and are all good and well in their own
right. However, they are also not especially useful as a reference point when
faced with difficult decisions. What does “pride and passion” mean when dealing
with a case of reporting internal corruption?
There
are two specific areas where each of these guidelines falls short in my
opinion:
·
The
first is at a human level, looking at how disempowered people within an
organisation are treated and standing up for them when they are at a
disadvantage.
·
The
second is looking at the world (as was highlighted by my co-panelist Dr Shamim
Bodhanya), looking at how the business responds to social, environmental and gender justice issues.
On
each, ethical leadership requires action on the basis of a set of values that
go beyond the rules and regulations which govern current business behaviour. Broadly,
my feeling on ethical decision-making is closely linked with one’s willingness
to ‘speak the truth to power’ – a phrase that has come to define the current term
of Thuli Madonsela as South Africa’s Public Protector.
Ethical
leadership and decicion-making requires a personal set of boundaries for
acceptable behaviour, and the courage to speak up when those boundaries are
crossed. Most importantly, it requires those boundaries to be set up before an incident arises, as the
pressures to conform when faced with difficult decisions are often large - and
the consequences can be career-defining.
When
asked about where to look for useful guidelines on ethical leadership, I was
rather stumped. There is no universally accepted ‘rule book’ for ethics, and
individual decisions are always going to be heavily influenced by the cultural
context of the individuals involved.
My
only advice is to spend time in quiet reflection on the type of person you want
to be; for the faithful to use their faith as a guide; and for everyone to
spend time in community – I believe that one's ethics are best understood as
being developed in collaboration with/interactions with others. A simple test
for ethical decision-making could be: “Would I want my grandmother/mother/spouse/friend
to find out about this?” If the answer is no, then there’s your guide.
If
you’re in Cape Town on Saturday the 19th of November 2011, please
come and join us at UCT for the final workshop – I would certainly value a
lively discussion and debate on what ethical leadership in engineering means in
South Africa at this time.
More
details can be found here: http://www.sawomeng.org.za/events/sawomeng%40network+leadership+workshop.htm
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