Professor Dr.D.

Jayakumar

UNIT IV - SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS

Safety:
A thing is safe, if were its risks fully known and their risks could be judged
acceptable in the light of settled value principles. More fully, a thing is safe with respect
to a given person or group at a given time if, were they fully aware of its risks and
expressing their most settled values, they would judge those risks to be acceptable.
If people know the risks, and were biasing their judgments on their most settled
values. safety is relative term ‘fairly safe’ or highly safe. A comparison gives us this. Air
travel is fairly safe with less number of accidents. But this is highly safe if there were no
accident in the past year. Hence the perception safe is based only on past experience
and data.

SAFETY

PRODUCTS PROCESS AT DISASTER

SERVICES
WORK PLACE

PRODUCTS DESIGN MANUFACTURIN

Safety for engineers means safety operation of system and the prevention
of either human caused or process caused disasters.

Product Safety:
Engineers will have to design the product to reduce accidents and ease of
operation for the consumers.
Ex: The electrical appliances should be inter locked,
ex: isolator with earth switch. Products should be tested before marketing, If
marketed with out proper testing for safety cause accidents. No compromise in safety
quality standard.

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Services:
Engineers to educate and train the consumers of handling of the product
including pre sales and post sales services. During repair, original spares to be used
and avoid spurious spares.

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Process at work place:
Shop floors are to be kept clean and not oily and slippery. The process should be
designed in such a way that mal-functions are avoided; short term and long term safety
should be considered.

Disasters:
Engineers should plan for disaster management. Proper training and education to
users in the event of disaster is a must. In the Titanic disaster there were insufficient
boats to save all. The captain was not been trained to handle the disaster management.

Risks:
Absolute safety is what every one wants. But it is neither attainable nor affordable.
A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be acceptable. Risk is key element in
engineering design. Risk is said to be the potential that some thing unwanted and
harmful may occur. Bodily harm, loss of property , environmental degradation are side
effects of risks. Risk can be viewed as danger. Hence safety means free from injury,
damage or risk.
Safety and risk are subjective. It depends on many factors. Risks can be classified
as personal risk and public risk.
Personal risk is the risk taken by individuals.
Public risk is the risk to the society.
Ex: Nuclear disasters.
Personal risk can be classified into voluntary and involuntary risk.
Voluntary risk is knowingly taking a risk.
Ex: purchasing a plot near a factory which is emitting toxic wastes. If a person is
living near an industry prior to industry may not accept the level of pollution. This is
involuntary risk.
A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer apprehensive
about it.
Doubtfulness depends mainly on how people take the risk or how people perceive
it. Some feel pride in taking risk. Ex: Car race, driving motor at neck brake speed. They
know fully well the risk. Such thing may cause short term and long term disabilities.

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Short term and long term Consequences:
Some feel that short lived illness or disability seems safer than the result in
permanent disability. Ex: Fracture of leg compared with break in spinal cord.
Expected probability:
Many feel that one in hundred thousand chances of a severe injury to be
acceptable risk whereas fifty : fifty chances of fairly minor injury as not acceptable.
Ex: Swimming in beach, where there are lot of jelly fish would be unacceptable to
many whereas, the risk of shark attack is low enough that it does not deter anyone from
swimming.
Reversible effect:
Something will be seeing less risky if the bad effects are reversible. This is similar
to short term and long term risk.
Threshold level of risk:
Something that is risky only at fairly high exposure will seen safer than something with a
uniform exposure to risk. Low levels of nuclear radiations have beneficial effects on
human health. Only at high levels, severe health problems occur.
Delayed and Immediate Risk:
An activity which considered as risky, whose harm is delayed for very many years
may seems to be less risky. Eating high fat foods would lead to heart problem; people
ignored it and finally were victims of the disease after many years. The reason is the risk
is not immediate and taken lightly.

Assessment of safety and risk:

Absolute safety is not attainable and any improvement in safety in analyzing
product is by an increase in the cost of that product. Hence manufacturers and users
should understand the cost to reduce the risk.
)

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P = Primary cost of product including safety measures
S= Secondary cost including warranty, loss of customer goodwill, litigation costs, cost of
downtimes.
T= Total cost.
Minimum cost occurs at ‘M’ after which incremental saving in primary cost is
offset by an equal increment in secondary cost. Hence highest acceptable risk (H) may
fall below risk at low cost ‘M’
. This must be selected as design or operation point.
Uncertainties in design : Regarding application, designs that do quite well under
static loads may fail under dynamic loading
Ex. Napoleon’s army marching on a bridge with uniform steps shook the bridge
violently.
Uncertainties regarding materials: They may not perform as expected so
engineers use factor of safety in the design.
Engineer and safety:
As safety is the prime consideration of engineer , criteria to be followed by
engineers for safe design are
How to ensure safety in design?
1. Design must comply with applicable law, legal standards for safety to be
followed.

2. Design product must meet the standard of accepted engineering practice.

3. You cannot create a design that is less safe than what every one else in the
profession understands to be acceptable.

4. Alternative designs that are potentially safer must be explored. This requires
fair amount of creativity in seeking alternative solutions.

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 5. Foresee potential misuse of the product by the customers and design to avoid
them.

6. The product must, while prototype and finished shall be rigorously tested.
Testing is not for checking the specification but to meet whether the product is
safe.

In short Steps involved in safe design:

1. Define the problem. (Determine the needs and requirements)
2. Generate several solutions
3. Analyze each solution to determine pros and cons of each
4. Test the solution
5. Select the best.
6. Implement the chosen solution.

Effect of information on risk assessment:

The manner in which information necessary for decision making is presented can
greatly influence how risks are perceived.
Ex. use of car belts. Previously no one used it. When they were informed on the
statistics of fatal lists, they use now.

The manner in which an information about danger is presented can lead to a

striking reversal of preferences about how to deal with danger.
Ex: An experiment was conducted on two groups of 150 people each on the
strategies available for combating a disease
First group was given the following description.
Imagine an unusual dis- ease is going to outbreak and is expected to kill 600
people.
Two alternative programs are available to combat it.
If program A is adopted – 200 people will be saved.
If program B is adopted there is 1/3probability that 600 people will be saved and
2/3 probability that no people will be saved. Which of the two program do you favor?
72% people selected program A.
Only 28% selected B.
Saving 200 people lead many of them to feel averse of taking a risk on possibility of
saving 600 people.

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 The second group was given the same problem but worded differently.
If program C is adopted 400 people will die
If program D is adopted 1/3 probability that no body will die. 2/3 probability ,that
600 people will die. Which of the two will you choose?
22% choose program C which is same as A in previously.
78% choose program D which is identical to program B.

Conclusions:
1. Options perceived as yielding firm gains will tend to be preferred over those from
which gains are perceived as risky
2. Options emphasizing firm looses will tend to be avoided in favor of those whose
chances of success are perceived as probable.

Risk – Benefit analysis.

Risk –benefit value function curve

The curve is more steeply drops on loss portion than it rises on the gain portion.
Threshold is human habits of ignoring small hazards i.e. no value is attached to a first
small amount of loss. Similarly there is a small threshold on gain side to accommodate
for normal human inertia. Threshold is important since different people have different
tolerance.

This is a tool to asses whether the project can be proceeded or not. The risks and
benefits of a project are assigned money values and the most favorable ratio between
risk and benefit is sought. There are difficulties in assigning money value to human
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lives.

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 Therefore it is not possible to quantify the risks and fix a price tag for it. However
this is used widely. The risk and benefits are based on the perception of probable gain
and probable loss. Starr who had studied in detail on this, says risk is proportional
to the cube of the incremental wages. Doubling wages tend to convince a worker to take
eight times risk.
Risk analysis involves
- Define all the possible alternatives
- Specifies the objectives & measure the effects
- Identify the consequences of the actions taken
- Quantify the alternatives based on the best available information.
- Analyze the alternatives to arrive at the best choice for cost /risk.

Engineer’s first obligation is to public safety. Some risk is unavoidable. Engineering

professionals must learn how to convince their managers that minimizing risk is worth
at little bit high cost.
How to avoid risk?
Large number of Techniques are available to reduce the risk. A few is:
- Applying inherent safety concepts in the design itself.
- Creating redundancy in instrumental protection systems.
- Regular inspection & testing of safety systems to ensure reliability.
- Training operating personal & regular audits to ensure workability of the systems
& procedures.
- Developing well considered emergency plan together with regular drills to ensure
preparedness.

Engineers should think that reducing risk is not an impossible task even though it
costs a bit high. A positive perspective should be taken from the design stage itself, so
that the risks are reduced.

Responsibility of Professional Engineers: People with character accept responsibility.

Accepting responsibility involves taking calculated and not foolish risks and being
accountable.
There are internal and external responsibilities i.e., responsibility to employers
and to the outside world.

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 Technical excellences combined with ethics yields success to project. In any
project large number of professionals join together as teams and works for the success of
the project. Team play involves affection and respect for one another and a helping
attitude. All the members of a team may not have same capability .A team consists of
different types of people. Team play involves virtues of Collegiality, loyalty, respect for
authority and collective bargaining.
Collegiality: This is an important virtue. (Desirable feature of character). It is tendency
to support and co-operate with the colleagues. This is an essential characteristic
needed for a professional engineer. The central element of collegiality is respect,
commitment, connectedness and co-operation.
Respect is valuing one’s merits for his professional expertise and devotion to the
social goods promoted by the profession.

This means acknowledging the worth of the other engineers employed in the
production of useful and safe products. An engineer is said to have collegiality if he does
not harm the reputation, prospects, practice or employment of other engineer.
Commitment: This is sharing the devotion to moral ideals in the profession.
There is competition among professionals working for rival project-making corporations.
There should be a sense that other engineers share a concern for the overall good of the
users of their product. This is similar to members of competing teams in sports.
Connectedness: This is an awareness of being a part of a co-operative
undertaking created by the shared commitments and expertise. This sense of unity with
other engineers evokes co-operation and mutual support.
Now whether collegiality, a valuable character is to be encouraged among
engineers or not?
Viewed from the perspective of society, collegiality is an instrumental value. It is
good as a means to promoting professional aims. Collegiality supports personal efforts to
act responsibility in concert with colleagues. Hence it strengthens one’s motivation to
live up to professional standards.
Viewed from the perspective of professionals, collegiality is valuable. It is part of
what defines the professional community as composed of many individuals jointly
perusing the public good.

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Collegiality can be misused and distorted. Collegiality can not be used as shield for
irresponsible conduct. Cut throat competition in any profession lowers the meaning of
collegiality.
LOYALTY:
Loyalty is a virtue, an engineer should posses. This paves way for fulfilling the
obligations of the engineers to his employers. It also calls for obeying rules of the
authority with in the organization.
There are moral issues involved in the relationship between engineers and
employers. Loyalty to one’s employer is being considered as more important than loyalty
to the public. Engineers oftentimes have to choose between the two. Which he is to
choose?
Loyalty is more than ‘obligation’ or ‘duty’ which are more specific. Obligation and duty
are more functional responsibility oriented. Their base is legal and positional. By
contrast loyalty is more a function of attitude, emotions and a sense of identity.
People may hate the job that they do and not like their employer, but they still perform
their duty as long as they are employee. Loyalty is important to an employer and it
would be expected from all employees when they work for him.
The court had given definition of loyalty as ‘we have to read into every contract of
employment and it is an implied duty that an employee is to act solely for the benefit for
his/her employer in all matters within the scope of employment.
Asking an individual to perform an illegal activity for a firm would not be to the
firm’s long term advantage since any illegal action would ultimately harm the firm.
Loyalty has two senses.
1. Agency loyalty 2.Identification loyalty.
Agency loyalty is an act of being loyal to the employer in fulfilling the obligations
contractually to him. Obligations or duties are clearly specified in terms of tasks to be
carried out for which one is paid. In a nutshell we can say that agency loyalty is
essentially a matter of actions whatever may be its motive. There is no room for
emotions, attitudes of one self.

Identification loyalty: By contract has more to do with attitudes, emotions and sense of
personal identity and actions. It can also be understood as agency loyalty that is
motivated by identification with the group to which one is loyal.
one identifies himself with a group if two conditions satisfy.

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 1. Some of his own goals are met.
2. Receive a share of benefit and burden (Personal goals and fairness)
Professionals who grudgingly and half heartedly perform their duties are not loyal
in the sense, though they may adequately carry out their duties and hence branded as
ones having agency loyalty.
Hence by considering both types of loyalty, it can be said that loyalty is a desirable
character attribute. Codes of ethics, also says engineers ought to be loyal to their
employers or they should act as their employer’s faithful agents or trustees.
A company that regards its workers as mere tools for maximizing profits, can
require only agency loyalty but will probably not foster identification loyalty. Employees
can be expected to be loyal to companies only when the company shows strong
commitments to them as well.
Both agency and identification loyalty can be shown towards corporations as a
whole or towards smaller divisions within corporations. For ex, an engineer might
identify closely with a group of committed professional while working on a particular
project, but feel less identification with the more impersonal vast conglomerate
comprising a large international firm. Conversely an engineer might identify with the
corporation but not with a particular team to which she is assigned. Sometimes
inappropriate or misguided loyalty to a project team or supervisor can harm
corporation, as well as the general public. We will see this thro a case study of Ford.

Case study:
The 1970 Clean Air Act requires car manufacturers to con duct 50000 mile
durability test on new engines using only one tune-up. Test results on emissions must
be reported to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).which decides whether
engines meet current pollution standards. In May 1972 top mangers of Ford Motor
Company were eagerly awaiting government approval of the test results they had
submitted on the engines for 1973 Ford Cars. They had every reason to be confident of
the results they had submitted to EPA, which were based upon tests conducted by their
own employees, their only concern was about meeting tight production schedules once
the EPA’s approval was received.
Their confidence was shattered however, when then Ford president Lee received a
memo from a specialist to the computer division. The computer specialist had been
examining the computer tapes from the test to review the effectiveness of his division in

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support of engine development. His memo identified numerous irregularities in the test
records, showing unauthorized maintenance of which EPA was not notified. The memo
also stated that when the specialist sought an explanation of the irregularities from the
engine division he was urged to burn the computer tapes and forget the matter.
Investigating the matter, management quickly verified the information contained in
the memo. Evidently four supervisory technical employees who had condu cted the
original tests had ordered or engaged in over 300 acts of illegal maintenance on the
test engines. Spark plugs and points had been replaced frequently, carburetors
cleaned and ignition timing repeatedly reset. These adjustments lowered the levels of
pollution emitted.

Within three days the Chairman revealed to EPA officials all he had learned about
the tests and withdrew Ford’s application for certification of four major types of engines.
In spite of its full co-operation with EPA investigators, the company was fined $7
million in criminal and civil fines for conducting improper tests and issuing false reports
to the government. Because of the record size of the fines, Ford received damaging
publicity in front page news paper articles. It was also hurt by the cost of new tests that
had to be conducted on an around the clock emergency basis and by having to delay
production schedule.
Ford test scandal tells what motivated the supervisors and other engineers &
technicians involved as only a self interested concern – a desire to make they look good
by ensuring their engines would pass the qualifying tests. It is equally possible that they
were acting as loyal employees. Ford had been late in obtaining some government
approvals the previous year, & perhaps the individuals believed, how ever mistakenly,
that they were serving the companies best interests by avoid such difficulties this year.
In any case management was not punitive, no one who had participated in the rigging
the tests was fired and the four supervisors were merely transferred to new positions.
Professionalism and Loyalty:
There is a relationship between professional responsibility and loyalty to employers and
organizations.
1. Commitment to the public is the effective way to serve an organization, instead
of merely, though may be willingly following the direction of the organization.
2. Loyalty to the organizations or employers should not be the same as obeying the
immediate boss.

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 3. Obligation to the public and employer should be in the same direction of
achieving the desired goal. They should not oppose each other.
By the study of misguided loyalty of Ford case it can be seen that acting on
professional commitments to the public can be a more effective way to serve a
company than a mere willingness to follow the company orders. Ford would have
been benefited much more from the engineers committed to professional standards than
it did by the misguided loyalty shown to it by its employees.
Second, it is clear from the example that loyalty to companies or their current
owners should not be equated with merely obeying one’s immediate supervisor. It
would have shown a greater loyalty to Ford to act in a way consistent with the mission of
the company and concerns of higher management, rather than in a manner consistent
with the aims of an immediate supervisor.
The third, the case illustrate how an engineer might have professional
obligations to both an employer and to the public that reinforce rather than
contradict each other.
Thus there need no general contrast between the moral status of employees and
professional
To conclude agency and identification loyalty are virtues depending on the specific
groups, organization, or cause involved and on circumstances in which they are
displayed. Loyalty has its limits and needs to be balanced with other virtues. It
needs to be balanced against the virtues of responsible concern for the good of the
public. Loyalty is a dependant virtue, depends on the values of the projects and
commitments to which it contributes.
Conflict between commitments.
1. A police man’s wife is on her deathbed. He is by her side when he gets a call to
handle a crime emergency where 10 lives are at stake. What should he do?
2. A surgeon is on his way to attend his only daughte r’s graduation once in a life
time event, which he has promised to attend. Minutes before the start of the
ceremony he gets an emergency call to operate on an accident victim to save his
life. What will he choose?

Choosing one option does not mean a lack of commitment to the other. The process of
choosing between the two commitments involves priorities, responsibilities and duties.
Value based priority help us to choose one commitment over the other. The issue is to

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whom do we owe our loyalty? Is it to individuals or the organization? The answer is
neither. We owe loyalty to values. When value system are conflicting, people find it
difficult to co –exist in the work place.
Respect for Authority:
Employed engineers have obligations to respect the authority of their employers.
Authority is required to run any organization smoothly and to achieve the set goal. But
salaried engineers think what is the nature of this authority and how for should it be
recognized. Authority is a way to identify the areas of personal responsibility and
accountability so far as the salaried engineers are concerned.
Institutional Authority:
This is the Authority with in the organization. It is the right of the employers &
managers to exercise power on their subordinate employees to achieve the institutional
goals. Institutional right is acquired, exercised & defined within institutions. It may be
defined as right given to a person to exercise power based on the resources of the
institutions.
Managerial tasks are to allocate money or other resources, to make policy
decisions or the recommendations or to oversee projects and issue directions to sub-
ordinates on a particular topic. In order to meet those duties, the organization assigns
requisite authority to the managers.
Institutional rights (authorities) and duties are two sides of the same coin. They
deal with the same activity & functions.
Projects engineers have the institutional duties to ensure that the projects are
successfully completed & they are given the institutional rights (authority) necessary to
carry out the duty.
But in practice there is not always a perfect match between the authority granted
and the qualifications needed to exercise it. In -competence is found in all large
institutions. To avoid such institutional problem expert authority comes in. The expert
authority signifies the possession of special knowledge, skill or competence to carry out
the given job.
Ex: Doctors are authorities on health.
The Civil Engineers are authorities on structures /transportation.

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 One of the key competences for management is leadership ability. It is possible for
engineers to have expert authority in matters in which they have little or no
institutional authority to make decisions.
Ex. The engineers can design or give suggestions on the construction of nuclear
plants but hey can not decide where the plant can be installed. It is to be decided by the
elected representative of the people. Hence the engineers may have expert authority but
they can not decide in matters where they do not have institutional authority.
In large companies the staff engineers, advisors and consultants carry expert authority
while institutional authority is vested in line managers.
Institutional authority and power are to be clearly understood. Ex. A manager who
lacks the skills of leadership may be unable to inspire encourage employees to produce
the result. People who are effective acquire power-power goes beyond the authority
attached to the positions they hold. Ex. Charismatic leaders have influence outside their
domains of authority. Highly respected engineers of proven integrity may have power
within an organization exceeding their explicit institutional rights.
An employer has the institutional authority to direct the engineers to do a
thing which is not morally justifiable. The Engineers may have the duty institutionally
to obey the order of the employer. In such cases, institutional rights and duties can not
be and should not be applied in the same sense with rights and duties that are moral ly
justified.
Institutional authority is morally justified only when the institutional goals are
morally justified and acceptable and the authority does not transgress into the domain of
the moral and ethical duties of engineers.

Zone of Acceptance: When the employees obey the rules and regulations framed by
the employer, they accept the authority of their employer with in the frame work of
institutional authority. When the employees simply accept and obey the orders of the
boss without analyzing is not totally acceptable. The subordinate should also analyze the
instructions so as to verify whether it is morally acceptable. This analysis would help
them to find out what is their zone of acceptance of the authority of the employer.
Paramount obligations of engineers:
Code of ethics clearly indicates that an engineer’s paramount obligation is to
protect the public health, safety and welfare. This takes priority over their obligations of
loyalty and faithful and sincere service to their employers. But is it feasible in the

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professional life? Employers have high powers to hire or fire engineers who do not meet
their expectations. Moral dilemma occurs to engineers whether to which obligation i.e.,
whether the obligation to the public or to employer is to be given precedence over the
others. The obligation to the public is the priority naturally.

Collective Bargaining.
This is a process which is used by companies to solve inter personal problems
between them and the employees. It adopts a negotiation process. The guide lines of
negotiations are:
1. Attack problems and not people.
2. Build trust.
3. Begin with interest, not positions.
4. Listen.
5. Brainstorm develope multiple options.
6. Agree on how something will be measured.
Collective bargaining means we think about union. Can a professional engineer
become a member in a union?
To answer this we must know what kind of union and union activities are at issue. Often
employees feel that employers are exploiting and cheating them. Unions are formed to
take care of the interests of the employees. Unionism and professionalism are
incompetent. Professionalism holds the interest of the society and of employer.
Unionism is a collective bargaining agent that places economic interest of members.
Unions should be viewed as conduits for expressions of collective will. They have lot of
bargaining power due to size. Unions can often prevent unethical acts of employers. They
give job security and protection against ill treatment.
Whether unions and collective bargaining practices are ethical or unethical ?
Ex, A small scale company have 120 persons and growth rate was more than 100%. As
the eyes of the management were on growth rate they missed the feelings of the pulse of
the dissatisfaction of employees. The employees thought that the growth was in the
interest of all. Diploma engineers formed a union and external leader came in. They
demanded a lot of amenities that the company could ill afford.
Lot of time was expended on bargaining. The employees went on go slow strike
production suffered, and the company performance went down. The company had to be
sold and the new buyer closed the factory. All of them lost their jobs and livelihood. The
union did not realize that what they were doing was against their own inte rest. By the
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time they realized it was too late. For seeking short term gains, they lost long term
benefits.
Codes of the professional societies specify engineers shall not actively participate
in strikes, pickets or other collective coercive actions. Most employers are allergic with
the word ’union’. They feel unionism is an impediment to the smooth functioning of
industry.
When collective bargaining exists, loyalty to employers and public cannot exist.
Engineers view that unions are the limited institutions performing limited functions.
The effects of collective bargaining whether it is good or bad can be assessed on issue
basis only and not as general rule. Unions have misused their power and acted with
public in an irresponsible manner. In those cases, the sympathy from public had been
lost.
Ex. 1) Transport union strike.
2) Secretariat staff strike.
Arguments in favor of UNIONS:
1. Unions play a leading role in getting higher salaries to the
workers; thereby their standard of living is increased. Non-
member of a particular union also gets the increased salary and
benefits.
1. Unions help in creation of greater sense of
participation among the employees in the affairs of the
company like decision-making
3. Unions give job security and protection against unreasonable
treatment to employees.
4. Unions can resist obeying unethical orders to
perform unethical acts.
5. Unions help to provide a grievance procedure for the
complaints of the employees and thereby a stable environment
is maintained.
6. Unions help to avoid extreme political interference
which exploits the employees in many a times.

Arguments against Union:

1. Unions are the main cause for inflationary condition of a country.

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 2. Unions can cause destruction to the economy of a nation by placing
misrepresenting influences on the efficient uses of labor force.
3. Unions encourage an opponent decision-making rather than co- operating
decision-making.
4. Unions remove the individual negotiations between employer and employee as
part of the collective bargaining group.
5. Unions discourage initiative among workers by stressing job
security and making promotion by mere seniority only.
6. Unions prevent the management to reward an individual worker
for his personal achievement because they insist on salary
negotiation only according to job description and seniority.
7. Unions encourage a dissatisfied and tensed relationship between
employer and workers.

The external responsibilities of professional engineers i.e. to the society are

confidentiality, conflict of interest & occupational crime.
CONFIDENTIALITY:
Confidential information is information deeme d desirable to keep secret. This
implies that a communication is kept secret and will remain private. Codes of ethics
require their members to maintain total confidentiality of any privileged information they
are in possession. A piece of information /communication that is conveyed to some one
else with the expectancy that it will remain private is privileged. This type of
information has no access to all and only to some who are on special assignments. In
case of engineers, design and drawings, process charts etc are to be kept confidence.
Also the information about yet to be released products, design of such products are
confidential information.
One may ask keep secret with whom? In Govt. agencies and private
companies, engineers and other employees are expected to withhold confidential
information from unauthorized people both inside and outside the organization.
A doctor has to keep the patients personal data as confidential information.
Lawyers should keep their client’s information as confidential likewise engineers shall
keep their companies information as confidential.
Proprietary information: It is the information that a company owns or is the
proprietary of. This can be taken as ‘Trade Secret’ i.e. any information not made known
to the public. It is the information the employer prefers to keep as secret.
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Trade Secret:
It is a type of secret given a limited legal protection against employee or contractor
abuse or misuse. An employer can sue an employee for divulging the trade secrets or
even planning to do so.
These secrets may be about designs, list of clients, process methods, facilities
available, and quality control methods.

Patents:
This is different from trade secrets. Patents legally protects some specific products
from being manufactured by other companies without proper permission of the
patent holder. The patent holder possesses legally protected monopoly power under
GATT 1995 agreement (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade). The period of patent
right is 20 years.
Justification and limit of confidentiality:
What are the moral limits or restrictions on the confidentiality obligations of
employees? The obligation of confidentiality can be justified at two levels.
The obligation to hold the confidential information is focused first on the moral
considerations. This is first level of confidentiality-obligation which is to appeal the
three ordinary moral consideration. They are
Respect for autonomy
Respect for promises
Regard for public well being.

Respect for autonomy means respect the freedom and self determination of individuals
and institutions to exercise control over private information about their companies.
Just as patients should be allowed to maintain substantial control over personal
information, the employers should have some control over the private information about
their companies.
Respect for promise:
Promises are given to others only to respect and carried out. They are not to be
flouted. Employees should not disclose the promises made with their employer.
Employees often make promises in the form of signing contracts not to divulge
certain information considered sensitive by the employers. These promises should be
respected.

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Regard for social wellbeing:
This is essential in identifying confidentiality relationships with in the professional
areas.
A patient gets confidence in a doctor if the doctor does not disclose the personal
information to others. This will enable patient to discuss freely with the doctor on their
personal problems. Clients feel free to talk when there is a trust of confidentiality is
created. This is analogy to the economic benefits of competitiveness with in a free
market are promoted when companies can maintain some degree of confidentiality
concerning their products.
Ex: Developing new products requires investing resources in acquiring new
knowledge. The motivation to make those investments might diminish if that knowledge
were immediately dispersed to competitors, who could then quickly make better
products at lesser cost, since they did not have to make comparable investment in
R& D.
The second level of confidentiality obligation- will be to appeal to major ethical
theories. Advocate of every theory would probably agree that employers have some
moral & institutional rights to decide what information about their organization can be
released publicly.
Different ethical theory will justify the rights differently & will also differ in the
limits they place on them.
These can be broadly stated as
Right based theories
Duty based theories
Utilitarian theories
Right based theory simply justifies employee’s confidentiality obligations by
appealing to basic human rights. NO employer has a right to safe guard proprietary
information by preventing engineers from whistle blowing in cases were public
knowledge of such information ( Say the composition of toxic wastes indicative of a
products ingredients) would save human lives & there by protect the rights of people to
live.
Duty based theories insists to the employers & employees to keep up the trust
placed in them, in case of an agreement between them. These theories may also appeal

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to general duties not to abuse the property of others. Utilitarian theories justify the
rules of confidentiality only when such rule benefits the public.
The stress is on how the investors get profit & how the society is benefited. The
theory focuses on each & every situation when an employer decides on some matters to
be treated as confidential information.
Changing of Jobs :
Employees when switchover to the other job, they sell the information they had
relating to the erstwhile employer for a price. In some cases the employees are placed in
the same type of job in which they were with the previous employer. This puts them in
dilemma. In the sense, that they have to use the knowledge gained by them earlier, but
the new employer is happier. To restrict future employment, certain employers provide
positive benefits
Ex. Companies offer pension plan to employees in exchange for an agreement not
to work for a competitor on certain kinds of projects for a certain member of years after
leaving the company. Some other companies offer a special post employment annual
consulting fees for several years on the conditions that he or she not work for a direct
competitor during that period.
The relationship between employer and employee in regard to confidentiality
continues beyond the formal period of employment. Unless employer gives consent,
former employees are barred indefinitely from revealing trade secrets. This provides the
way in which the professional integrity of engineers involves much more than mere
loyalty to one’s employer.
Conflict of interest:
Conflict of interest occur when employees have interests that, if pursued could
keep them away from meeting their obligations to serve the interests of the employer
or client for whom they work , such conflicts are to be avoided so as to prevent one from
fully meeting these obligations. Professional conflicts of interest occur to an engineer in a
situation in which he works in a company and also acts as consultant to the
competitor’s firm. If he continuous the same, he may not be in a position to meet the
obligation to his employers or client. He would be more loyal to the competitor’s firm if he
invests in that company. So the threats posed by such acts by engineers led to giving
prominence in the code of ethics, in management policy statements and in the law.
There are three types of conflicts of interest.
-Actual conflict of interest
-Potential conflict of interest
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 -Apparent conflict of interest.
Actual conflict of interest is based on weak judgment and service. Conflicting interest
means a person has two or more desires that can not all be satisfied in the given
circumstances.
Ex:A student may have interest in excelling on four final exams. She knows
however that there is time to study adequately for only three of them and so she must
choose which interest not to pursue.
Conflicting interest means a person has two or more desires that cannot all
be satisfied given the circumstances.

Potential conflicts of interest are based on the difference between gifts and
bribes. In the event of a friend of the engineer turning as a supplier to his firm, the
judgment might becomes conflicted in order to maintain his friendship. This type of
conflicts arises when the engineer accept large gifts from suppliers.
Bribe is a large amount of money or substantial amount of goods offered with
the aim of gaining the contract. Kickback is another word for bribe. Pre arranged
payment done in exchange for contracts actually granted later are termed as kickbacks.
Bribes are illegal and immoral.
Gift is a small amount of money given for the services rendered in the normal
conduct of business.
Gift is a bribe if you cannot eat, drink or smoke it in a day. If you think that your
acceptance of a particular gift would have grave or a merely embarrassing consequences
for your company if made public, then the gift should be considered as bribe.
Engineers’ code of ethics is clear on accepting gifts/bribes.
Engineers shall not accept gratitude’s directly or individually from contractors, their
agents or other parties dealing with clients or employers in connection with works for
which they are responsible.

Apparent conflict of interest:

This happens when the engineer is paid based on the cost of the design and there
is no incentive offered to him if he cuts down the cost. Naturally the engineer would try
to inflate the cost to get more commission. The engineer will be branded as distrustful,
though he could have reduced the cost using his professional capability and judgment.
Conflicts of interest arises due to

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 1. Financial investment
2. Insider Trading
3. Bribe
4. Gifts
5. Kickbacks.
Conflicts of interest will arise because of financial investment in a competitors’
business.
Ex: If you are an engineer and CEO of firm and another firm which had bid for a
large project of your company. You have financial stake in that company which has bid
for it. The tendency will be to award the bid to the company when you have stakes. This
will be regarded as unethical decision.
Insider Trading: This involves using privileged information unfairly when you are
working for a company. You could have access to the confidential informati on which
other would not be ale to get it. If such information relates to the financial performance
of the company and you use it to trade in the shares of the company, this would be
considered as insider trading.
MOONLIGHTING:
Working in one firm and in spare time working for another company is called
moonlighting. This violates the right to pursue onc’s legitimate self interest. This type of
work makes one exhausted and the result is his inability to meet his professional
obligation at both places. It also ends up with poor job performance.
Resolving conflict problems:
S is working in a chemical factory. A compound emitted from the stack of the plant
has been linked by several side effects to respiratory problems that can be severe in a
small percentage of the population. The Pollution control board, has not banned the
compound Its elimination will be expensive and it may force the elimination of the
product line. This will lead to loss of a number of jobs in the community i.e., heavily
dependent on the plant for employment.
An added dimension is that the product line could become very successful in
future, thus adding jobs in the community. S’s supervisor instructs him not to bring up
the issue in hearing of the Pollution board officials, because the supervisor felt that by
the time the PCB takes the final decision, they can modify the process and eliminate the
emission itself. The health problem is not fatal in any case. How should S respond? S is
now in a dilemma of conflict problem. First code of ethics say that engineer should hold

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paramount safety and health and welfare of the public in the performance of their
professional carrier. On the other hand it also tells engineers shall act in professional
matters for each employer as faithful agents or trustees. Further to the obligation to
the public also puts S, in two different directions. One obligation, to protect the physical
health of the community and the second obligation, to be concerned with economic
health of the community.If public were enquired, they will support management since it
gives many employment. Conflicts between competing obligations both of which appear
to be valued are common features of life.
How to approach to such conflicts, which are not between good and bad but between
good and good.

Creative midway should be adopted. The engineer should respect corporate

hierarchy and protest in a private and a non confrontal way. The engineer should do
every thing possible to avoid embarrassing their employer and give the employer an
opportunity to correct the problem, in so far as consideration of the well being of the
public permits. Another limitation is the employee is not to protest about minor risks to
the health and safety of the public. If there is a mechanism where by the emplo yees
could register ethical concerns this could be eliminated.
Avoiding conflicts of interest:

The following ways can help in avoiding conflicts of interest.

1. follow the guidance from the company’s policy.

2. Consult colleagues /sub ordinates or manager for a second

opinion. This creates an opinion of being frank.

3. Use ethical problem solving technique.

4. Take refuge in code of ethics.

Occupational Crimes:
These are illegal acts made possible thro one’s lawful employment. It can be
treated as secretive violation of laws regulating work activities. If the occupational
crimes are committed by office workers, professionals and managers, they are called
white collar crimes.
Most of the occupational crimes are special instant of conflict of interest. It leads
to the failure of meeting the professional obligations. The white collar crime meets with
less severe penalty. There are three types of occupational crimes.

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 Industrial espionage,
Price fixing
Endangering of lives:
Industrial espionage: Espionage is secret gathering of information, in other words
spying. Keeping something secret is a right but acquisition of others secret to your
advantage is espionage which is not right and unethical. Espionage is made in a covert
manner. The espionage agent is called spy. There is large extent of industrial espionage
thro out the world. Ex: Santa Clara in California is known as silicon valley. Lot of young
and enterprising engineers work there. Due to competitions among various
manufacturers of computer parts, high industrial espionage is there. The reason is
1. The development of computer chip is a competitive area and also is fast moving
one. Within two years, the product get outdated, due to continuous development of
technology. Profitable technology suddenly becomes a loss proposition with the
introduction of modified version of various parts. Ex: VCD player, DVD player and now
Blue Ray players
2. Computer chips are expensive. Large savings can be made by adopting “reverse
Engineering”. This means breaking the competitor’s device physically, mentally or by
tests and re constructing to produce an identical or better device that can be offered at a
lower price because of low development cost. By obtaining thro illegal ways the
competitors design drawings, large savings are achieved.
3. Computer chips being small in size can be easily taken away secretly and
chances of being caught are little.
4. Some agents buy secrets and sell them to competitions. They get the products
from employee themselves.

Case study:
Peter was an expert in semiconductor application. He worked for a number of
computer chip companies, before he started his own consulting company. He had a lot of
acquaintance and contacts. Hence he was able to buy and sell the secrets of the
company.
James, a skilled electronics technician worked for Peter under ‘moon lighting’
method. He worked in a company called National Semi Conductor corporation
(NSC).Peter financed James to build a house . Peter asked James that he need not repay

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the finance, but wanted him to steal some documents from NSC. James gladly agreed
and did so.
Peter sold this document to Intel Co-operation. As Peter got contacts with Intel he
managed to steel some documents from them and sold it to NSC. By this exchange of
documents, employees were in high demand and employee cost was high.
After some time NSC and Intel spread the “drag net”, and finally Peter was trapped
and punished in an court of law. But the penalty was only a fine of a small amount
which he could easily part with.
While collar crimes meet with less sever penalties.
Prices Fixing:
This is known as “Cartelizing”. Competitors come together and decide on the
prices to be charged. The price fixation leads to restraint of free competetion and trade.
It leads to unfair practices. To grab high valued order, major companies form a cartel
and fix with in themselves the proposed price to be quoted. They would also preplan the
share of the order to be executed by them individually between them, in the name of the
successful bidder.
In US there is a law called Sherman Anti Trust Act 1980 which for bids companies
jointly setting price. But by companies violate these laws.
Top managers of Westinghouse and G.E. joined together and allotted with in
themselves, the share of the order. They also decided to quote a particular price and grab
the order and share the same accordingly to the agreed plan. They called thus plan as
‘Phase of the moon’. But they were caught and sued. But being a ‘white callar crime’,
they were only fined and let off.
Their agreement in the court was that they helped the public by stabilizing the prices
and hence theirs was not unlawful. They argued that criminal action meant damaging
some one and they did not do it. They were working on a survival basis in order to try to
make enough to keep their plant and employers with job.
Endangering of lives:
Employers expose their employees to safety hazards. They escape criminal
penalties, Victims sue them for damages under civil law and get compensations.
Companies very well aware of this and hence they resort to payments of compensation,
not to take preventive measures which are expensive. They disregard the value of
individual’s life.

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 In U.S. millions of asbestos workers were affected with a type of lung cancer called
asbestosis and more than one million workers lost their lives. The victims were asking
the companies for monetary benefits as compensation and no one preferred for asking
criminal justice. Companies make use of this attitude and close the cases by paying
compensation amount. Some company went to declare them as insolvent and get
immunity from making payment. In the court the companies argue when asked why they
have not got informed consent they said ‘as long as they feel well, happy at home and at
work and his physical conditions remains good, nothing should be said.
Another case: Film Recovery System was a small corporation that recycles silver from
used photo graphic and x-ray plates. Used plates were soaked in a cyanide solution to
leach out their silver content. Other companies use this process safely by protecting
workers against inhaling cyanide gas and against making skin contact with liquid; they
provided them rubber gloves, boots and apron as well as respirators and proper
ventilation. None of these precautions were taken by Silver Recovery System Company.
Workers were given paper masks, cloth gloves and ventilation was terrible and
respirators were not provided. Workers were not complaining but in one incident autopsy
of an employee revealed cyanide poisoning. Charges were brought against the executive
of the company. During the trial, it was proved that the president, the plant manager,
plant foreman all knew of the dangers of cyanide. They also knew the hazards conditions
on their plant. Each was fined dollar ten thousand and jail term pf 25 years.
Professional rights:
Engineers have several types of moral rights which some times overlap.
Categories are
Human rights
Employee rights
Contractual rights
Professional rights
Engineers possess the fundamental rights to live in a state of freeness to pursue freely
their legitimate interest. They have human rights to pursue their work and not to be
unfairly discriminative. Professional rights are vested to the engineers by virtue of
their being professionals. Fundamental professional rights are
Right to form a professional judgment and to express it freely.
Right to refuse and refrain from participating in unethical activities.
Right to disagree on issues relating to the profession

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 Right to warn and caution the public about dangers
Right to obtain a fair remuneration for the professional services
Right to talk on the job he holds.
Right to engage in the activities of professional society.
Basic right of professional consciences:
Engineers, using professional responsibility involves in exercising both technical
judgment and reasoned moral convictions. This basic right is referred as the right of
professional conscience.
In practice the duties of engineers are not clearly defined. In engineering
profession decisions to be taken by engineers are morally complex in nature. The basic
professional right of the engineer is termed as ‘Negative’ Right, as it asks other to stay
away without interference.
But engineers while taking a decision on a project they need an atmosphere of
trust and the management has to ensure this. In such situation the basic right of the
engineer is considered as ‘Positive right’.
Institutional recognition of rights: Moral rights of engineers have to be
recognized and respected by the organization to which they belong.
Specific rights: In some specific instance it is difficult to apply professional rights.
Right of conscientious refusal. This is to refuse to engage in unethical behavior
and to refuse to do so, solely because of one views it as unethical. This situation arises
when a discussion being held among a group of engineers and there exists a chance to
disagree on the nature of action to be taken in an issue by a member of group.
As per this right no employee can be forced to do something by his employer,
which is unethical in the opinion of the employee. To correct the data already existing,
forging the document, altering test results, taking bribes, telling lies intentionally
fall under this category.
In case an engineer has to work in an environmentally unfriendly & dangerous
situation, he has the right to refuse, which is in all most all cases the employer does not
understand.
Engineers have a right to professional recognition for their work &
accomplishments. Part of this involves fair monetary remuneration & part non monetary
forms of recognition.
If a patent leads to millions of dollars of revenue for a company, it is unfair to give
the discoverer a nominal bonus & a thank you letter. It is not possible to pin point what

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a reasonable salary is or what a fair remuneration for patent discovering, because it
depends on both the resources of a company & the bargaining position of engineers. Non
monetary forms of recognition are also important.

Foundation of professional rights:

The principles of professional rights can be justified as rights ethics, duty ethics
& utilitarianism.
Right ethics insists the moral rights as of the fundamental grounds of morality. The
public have human rights to be warned of any safety hazards due to technology
improvement. Public right recognizes of engineers in an indirect way.
Duty ethics: This view, rights are not the ultimate moral appeal instead they are
mirror-image correlates of more basic. If an engineer has the right to do his work, it is
because others have obligations to permit him to carryout his work without any
interference. There by the engineer may not be able to meet their obligation to the
public.
No employer has the right to threaten are engineer under him with loss of job, if he
refuses to work on projects causing dangers to public.
Utilitarianism
This suggests that we should produce the good things for the general or
more people being given equal opportunity to every one. This theory has two parts
Act utilitarian: This says that we have to focus only on individual actions and not
on general rules. We have to see that we do not break the promises, do not deceive
others and do not give or get bribes.
Rule utilitarian (BRANDT) takes efforts to setup the best rule or policy to follow
their obligations to public at large.
Individuals actions are considered right only when they conform to moral rules.
These moral rules, like refusing bribes etc., are termed as moral codes, accordin g to
Brandt.

Employee rights:
By being an employee, he has got certain rights, of either moral or legal in nature.
This right is called employee right.
He has right to disobey his employer in the event of forcing him to do unethical
activities that would endanger the safety of public.
Another right, is the right of not to be discriminated against social causes.
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 Another employee right called contracted employee rights, which ensures the
right to receive salary & right to receive company’s benefits as eligible like increments
etc.
Another form of employee right is ‘Non-contractual employee rights’ which exist
even if they are not recognized by the existing practices of the company.

Choice of outside activity:

Employees have right of engaging in outside activity of their choice. This will not
attract any punishment from the employers. This is a part of human rights to pursue the
legitimate interests without any interference.
But the employee should not damage the interest of their employer outside
the office hours. Outside activities should not spoil the normal duties or pose any
impediment to their normal obligations to their employer.
Privacy:
Right to have outside activity is a matter of right to the employees. This right is
also termed as ‘Privacy’. This right is a limited one.
Ex. Prospective employees will be asked to undergo some tests that include
questions on their criminal records, or a lie detector test, before hiring them. These tests
are prone to be misused by certain employers.

This act of misuse is termed as unwanted transgression into the domain of

privacy of job seekers. In the interest of the organization conducting and collecting
such data by employer can not be totally denied.
Fixing surveillance camera in the factory, shops is the right of the employer.
Frisking the employees at the entrance by the watch and ward staff can not be
considered as an encroachment into the privacy of the employees.
Right to due process:
With out institutional recognition, the moral rights of conscience, free speech,
out side activity and privacy would be of little help to employees. Institutional
recognition includes formal encouragement of the rights, company policy statement, or
employment contracts. It also requires creation of an institutional procedure for
protecting those who exercise the rights.
A right to fair procedures, safeguarding the exercise of other rights is the right to
due process.

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The right to due process extends to fair procedures in firing, demotion and disciplinary
actions.
Implementing the right to due process involves two general procedures.
First written explanation are owed to employees who are discharged, demoted or
transferred to less enriching workings or in other ways penalized.
Second an appeal procedure should be established that is available to all
employees who believe their rights have been violated. The procedures shall be part of
organizations, effective, equitable and efficient. It must be easy to use and work quickly.
For Govt. already a set procedure is available. But private companies, each has got its
own procedures.

Intellectual Property Rights:

Intellectual property is a class of property created out of human intellect. Any

property whether it is movable or immovable has legal protection to prevent it from being
stolen. Intellectual property also means anything that results due to intellectual
activity of an individual or a group of individuals. The creations of the brain are the
intellectual property.
These could be novel working ideas, and skills, improvements and unique
solutions to problems in any aspect of human efforts.
IPR rights are the legal and statutory provisions available to individuals to protect
the ownership of their creations and the resulting, commercial benefits. IPR has got wide
range of social and economical impacts.
There are various forms of IPR. Trade related intellectual property rights are often
called as TRIPS.
WTO recognizes seven forms of IPR. They are
Patents,
Trade mark,
Geographical indications,
Industrial design,
Copy rights,
Integrated Circuits,
Trade secrets.

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 Patent: These are legal rights granted for new inventions using scientific and
technical knowledge. The period is 20 years. It gives exclusives privilege of making,
selling and using the invention and also authorizing others to do so thro’ out the
country.
Ex: A new drug for the treatment of AIDS , A new cellular phone

CONDITIOS FOR PATENTING:1

Any creation becomes eligible for a patent if the following conditions are satisfied.
1. It must be inventive and unique. Inventive means that it makes a feature that
is not obvious to a person skilled in the art. An invention can be an unforeseen technical
effect produced by a new combination of known elements.
2. It must be Novel- (Fresh, different, Original, Unsusal, imaginative, inventive, un
conventional, innovative, ground-breaking)
3. It must have a commercial value

For applying patent, the following documents are needed.

-Problem of invention
-Current report of the problem to address
-Solution or procedure to the problem
-Extent of novelty or inventive
-Application or uses
-Details of inventor
-Resources of funding
Types of patent:
Three types are there. 1. Utility patents 2. Design patent 3. Plant patents

Utility patents can be granted to any one who discovers/invents any new and useful
process, machines, manufacture or composition of matter. The utility duration will be
20 years.
Process refers to industrial and manufacturing methods.
Manufacture refers to the articles or goods manufactured

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 Composition of matter relates to chemical composition and includes mixture of
ingredients as well as new chemical compounds.

Design patents can be granted to anyone who invents a new and original
ornamental pattern for an article of manufacture. It protects the ornamental design or
appearance of the article. This has validity 14 years from the date of applying for the
patent with complete documents.
Plant Patent: can be granted to any one who invents or discovers and reproduces
a variety of plant. Validity period is 20 years. Patents law varies from country to country.
International or world patent are yet to come.
Copy right:
Copy right law prevents others from
-Copying the work,
-Publishing and selling copies commercially
-Renting and demonstrating the work in public.

Trade Mark: is a visual symbol in the form of a word or label applied to the product.
This gives details to the buyer on the origin of manufacture of goods. Ex: Philips in
electronic goods, Sony, Pioneer.
Geographical indications:
These indications identify the origin of the goods with respect to the country where
they are manufactured ex: Kancheepuram silk, Dindigul lock.
Trade secrets:
Any trade information kept confidential can be said to be Trade secret. In
engineering profession, certain formulae programming, processing and data collection
can be treated as trade secret. Trade secrets are not registered. Protection for such trade
secrets cannot be given on a time frame because at any point of time the secrecy is liable
to be lost.
Engineers have responsibility to use the trade secrets without disclosing to
others. If the information is intentionally or un intentionally leaked out, the rights owner
can sue in a court for remedy.
Need for protection of IPR:
When IPR is protected, we can expect technology development and creativity.
It will give stimuli to research.

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 IPR protection is based on the following needs.
- To prevent plagiarism (i.e., using the original work as
his own
-To prevent others to use it.
-To prevent using it for financial gains.
-To support income generation
-To fulfill as an obligation to the sponsor

IPR is considered important because it gives

-The inventors’ exclusive rights of dealing
-Permit avoidance of competitors
-Permit entry to technical market
-generate a steady income by issuing license.
IPR protection gives protection against piracy.
In India we have the following act to IPR
-The Patents Act 1970
-The copy rights act 1957
-Trade and Merchandise Mart Act 1958
-The Design Act 1911.

Discrimination:
This is to make unfair difference in one’s treatment. Giving preference to gender, race,
religion falls under this. Morally unjustified treatment to people can be called as
discrimination.
Ex:
1) Vacancy exists for a very high post in a private company. Just because the best
suitable person does not belong to the majority community of people working there he
was denied promotion to that post.
The reason put forth is that if that person is posted, the other sub-ordinate world
not extend co-operation to him and in the process the company would suffer. So the
management promoted a person of lesser capability, just because he belongs to the
majority community working there.
2) More number of woman engineers are appointed in the sales division of a
company but they were paid lesser than male engineers.
In India we have laws to prevent such discrimination.
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 i.e., Factories Act, Labor Act, Wages Act.
The equal employment opportunity act in USA protects the weaker, minorities and
woman from discrimination by gender, race, color or religion
Preferential treatment:
Weak preferential treatment gives benefit or preference to the members of
traditionally discriminated against groups over equally qualified applicants who are the
members of the other group
Ex: Hiring a woman or a member of minority over an equally qualified white male
people.
Strong preferential treatment by contrast exist in giving preference to woman or
minorities over better qualified white males.

There are far and against arguments on this.

The far argument will be that preference can be given to the under privileged now, as all
along they were not treated by the society equally. To compensate this they can be given
preferred.
The against argument is that equal opportunity concept is defeated by extending
preferences. This is a violation of rights of other people.

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