How do Engineers Experience Ethics in Practice?: A Phenomenographic Investigation of Engineers in the Health Products Industry

Ethics is an essential aspect of professional development in engineering and required for accreditation in engineering programs. Educators need to understand how engineers experience ethics in their engineering practice to align ethics education with work experiences. We addressed the research question, “What are the qualitatively different ways engineers experience ethical engineering practice in the health products industry?” We used phenomenography to collect and analyze 43 interviews with practicing engineers working in orthopedics, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. This methodology assumes (1) there are qualitatively different ways of experiencing a phenomenon (ethical engineering practice) and (2) ways of experiencing are structurally related. This research identified six categories of ways of experiencing ethical engineering practice: Doing Right, Ensuring Integrity in Processes, Upholding Professional Responsibility, Understanding and Reconciling Perspectives, Negotiating and Using Judgment, and Stewarding Culture. The structural relationships among the categories were comprised of two dimensions of variation: Understanding the System and Understanding Role and Responsibility. The findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of the varied ways to experience ethical engineering in industry practice and thus have potential to inform ethics education in engineering programs and in workforce training.