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The "Incident at Morales" dramatizes a fictional industrial accident that occurred at a chemical plant in the village of Morales. Produced by the National Institute for Engineering Ethics with a grant from the National Science Foundation, this video raises a series of important ethical problems that engineers and other professionals face when they make decisions and solve problems in the dynamic, competitive context of business. This module provides a theory-building activity where students plan and carry out an imaginary public hearing into who is responsible for the incident. It sets forth summaries of the different senses of the concept of moral responsibility, outlines the different constituencies participating in the public hearing, and provides a time line for preparing for, carrying out, and debriefing on the public hearing. Students learn about moral responsibility by using different responsibility frameworks to prepare public statements, raise questions, and reach blame assessments about the incident at morales. This module is being developed as a part of an NSF-funded project, "Collaborative Development of Ethics Across the Curriculum Resources and Sharing of Best Practices," NSF SES 0551779.

Module introduction

Getting started...

Manuel, plant manager at the Phaust chemical plant in Morales, Mexico, has just died. While he was babysitting the process of manufacturing Phaust's new paint remover (monitoring on site temperature and pressure conditions) an explosion occurred that killed him instantly. The Mexican government has formed an independent commission to investigate this industrial accident.

This commission (headed by your instructor) has ordered key participants to testify on their role in the accident in a public hearing. Your job is to present before this commission from a stakeholder point of view. You will be divided into groups to role play the following stakeholder perspectives:

  • Fred, the chief engineer involved in designing the plant,
  • plant workers,
  • officials from Mexican government regulatory agencies,
  • Phaust management,
  • representatives from the parent French company,
  • officials presiding over an engineering professional society.

You will be assigned roles and given class time to prepare presentations for the commission. Then the class will enact the public hearing by having each group give a presentation from the perspective of its assigned role. Following these presentations, groups will answer questions from the investigating commission. Finally, you will work through debriefing activities to help solidify your practical understanding of the module's chief concepts. Background materials designed to help you with your presentations include sketches of moral responsibility, links to the "Incident at Morales" Case, tasks to help structure your role-playing, and activities to debrief on this exercise. This module is designed to help you learn about moral responsibility by using responsibility frameworks to make day-to-day decisions in a realistic, dynamic, business context.

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Source:  OpenStax, Business ethics. OpenStax CNX. Sep 04, 2013 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col10491/1.11
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