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OM:
What you say is obviously correct. But whether the practicalities and
responsibilities of life as well as feelings of dedication to a purpose
(even though the present result or product is not optimal) and the inertia
of avoiding change may all sway judgement in favor of doing the best one can
under the circumstances. A violation of integrity? Certainly, but it would
violate my integrity to a greater extent if I could not pay for my kid's
college, pay outstanding loans, support charitable organizations or face my
wife. We all have our priorities and each one of us has to decide what is
most important. I certainly respect your opinion, but for me, it would be
more important to maintain the trust I have with my family, and do the best
I can to change an unethical situation, where I am, rather than leave and
let it worsen. It would be obviously different if this were a moral
dilemma.
Best regards,
Don
----- Original Message -----
From: <editorial@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Omega List <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Don Roos <roos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2000 5:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Fwd2: refresh file]
>
> -- Don wrote:
> > Very often, there is a large gray area of individual
> > assessment that lies between an unethical decision
> > and a one based upon poor judgement.
>
>
> There is need for individual judgement, that is certain. The question
becomes what one is to do when one's judgement indicates that an action one
is being asked to take is in violation of one's own principles. I argue
that one *must* practice the virtue of integrity: that is, one must adhere
to one's own principles.
>
> This is a long-settled principle of ethics. I have seen no logic proposed
on this list to indicate that this principle of ethics is incorrect.
>
>
>
> > Also, poor judgement is often rooted in a lack of
> > information. Only a very few individuals would have
> > all the information necessary to make the kind of
> > decision that you are proposing.
>
>
> Again, as above, you may be correct that few people, in the case of Omega,
knew how buggy TS2Ki was before release. (Though, in my own view, it
stretches the imagination to believe this.)
>
> Of course, the key issue remains unchanged: whether an engineer who *does
know* and ships the product anyway, perhaps at the behest of management, is
responsible for his actions.
>
>
>
>
> > And let's face the facts- this is not a matter of
> > life and death- it's a software package and I don't
> > see any conspiracy or coverup that would take this
> > issue into the unethical arena.
>
>
> What if you knew the management philosophy to be: "Don't worry, be
crappy"? Would that make shipment of it unethical?
>
>
> All the best,
>
> The Omega Man
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Get free personalized email at http://four11.iname.com
>
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