Making Ethical Engineering Management Decisions in a Competitive Environment

This paper illustrates the complexities of making engineering management decisions in a competitive environment. Engineering managers, who have the responsibility of making trade-off decisions to meet design and performance requirements while completing the project within a given cost and time frame, must accomplish all of this without jeopardizing the safety of the users. Specific case studies are examined, particularly pertaining to the 1986 space shuttle Challenger tragedy. Recommendations to aid engineering managers in making ethical decisions in a competitive environment are also presented.