Webinar: Engineering Code Of Ethics - 28 May 2020

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In the IEEEUSA webinar on May 28, 2020, Burt Jennings discusses the importance of the Engineering Code of Ethics, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Jennings, an IP attorney from Texas, highlights the significance of ethical behavior across professions, especially for engineers, who play a crucial role in impacting society. The session dives deep into the IEEE Code of Ethics, the differences between laws and ethics, and offers insights into making ethical decisions. Jennings also touches on the historical Challenger explosion to illustrate ethical dilemmas in engineering, reminding the audience of the importance of ethics in contemporary societal issues, like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

IEEE Code of Ethics is essential across technological fields 🌟.
Burt Jennings provides key insights into ethics amid COVID-19 and in historical contexts 🦠.
Challenger explosion discussed as a historical lesson in engineering ethics 🚀.
The session emphasizes the difference between laws and ethics in professional settings ⚖️.
Ethical considerations transcend engineering and affect professions globally 🌐.

Key Takeaways

The IEEE Code of Ethics is vital for engineers as it ensures responsible conduct in a technologically driven society 🌐.
Understanding the difference between legal obligations and ethical responsibilities is crucial for professionals ⚖️.
Burt Jennings shared insights on both ethical decision-making and historical ethical challenges, such as the Challenger explosion 🔍.
Ethics, unlike law, guide personal conduct and are integral in professions beyond engineering, like medicine and law 🏛️.
In light of COVID-19, ethical considerations are at the forefront of engineering practices worldwide 🌍.

Overview

In this eye-opening webinar hosted by IEEEUSA, Burt Jennings, an IP attorney from Texas, dives into the core principles of engineering ethics. With the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jennings articulates the pressing need for rigorous ethical standards in engineering, given the profession's profound impact on society. He outlines how ethics differ from laws, often filling gaps where legal codes cannot quite reach.

Throughout the session, Jennings navigates the intricacies of the IEEE Code of Ethics, guiding participants through the moral terrain that engineers must traverse daily. The webinar also highlights crucial examples, including the infamous Challenger disaster, to underscore the real-world importance and consequences of ethical decision-making. Jennings uses these examples to showcase how ethical lapses can have catastrophic consequences, not just for individuals, but for society at large.

The webinar concludes on a reflective note, tying the ethical challenges of the past with those faced today amidst the global pandemic. Jennings emphasizes the role of engineers and other professionals in fostering a responsible and ethically sound future. Participants leave with a reinforced understanding of their ethical duties and how these principles should guide their professional actions in a fast-evolving world.

Chapters

00:00 - 02:00: Introduction In the introduction chapter, the speaker Christopher Sanderson is introduced. He holds the position of IEEE R5 Houston Section Chair and IEEE R5 South Area Chair. The chapter sets the stage for a webinar and acknowledges the attendees for joining the session.
02:00 - 03:30: Guest Speaker Introduction The chapter titled 'Guest Speaker Introduction' discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the IEEE community. The speaker expresses concern and support for members, their families, and others affected by the epidemic. Additionally, the speaker takes the opportunity to thank a group or organization named 'itube usa,' though the context or reason for this gratitude is not provided in the transcript.
03:30 - 06:00: Ethics Introduction The chapter titled 'Ethics Introduction' begins with an introduction to a webinar by Chris, who is welcoming participants and introducing the guest speaker, Mr. Burt Jennings. Unfortunately, there is a brief disruption due to lightning that causes Burt's system to shut down temporarily, causing a slight delay in starting the course.
06:00 - 10:00: Law and Ethics The conversation begins with a light-hearted comment on the weather, specifically in Texas where Bert is located. The remark highlights the unpredictable nature of Texas weather, implying that it changes frequently. The conversation then shifts to discussing the impact of recent bad weather, which resulted in a power outage. Despite this challenge, one of the individuals is continuing to operate on a laptop, indicating adaptability in the face of unforeseen events. The dialogue proceeds with gratitude expressed towards a person named Chris for their introduction, although part of it was missed due to the prior mentioned circumstances.
10:00 - 18:00: IEEE Code of Ethics The chapter begins with Bert Jennings introducing himself, stating that he is an IP attorney based in Houston, Texas, working for Lyon Del Busell. He shares his roots from Mississippi, specifically Moss Point and Pascagoula, known for the Ingalls Shipbuilding, which builds ships for the Navy. His upbringing in this area sparked his interest in engineering, leading him to further pursue education at Morehouse College.
18:00 - 20:00: Making Ethical Decisions The chapter begins with the speaker introducing themselves and providing some background information, including their computer science and computer engineering degrees. They express excitement about discussing the topic of ethics, highlighting its importance in professional settings. The speaker aims to offer insights and considerations for ethical decision-making in day-to-day professional activities.
20:00 - 36:00: Business Practices and Conflicts of Interest The chapter titled 'Business Practices and Conflicts of Interest' focuses on the ethical standards within various professions, including engineering, medicine, and law. It discusses the presence of codes of ethics in these fields, which serve to define acceptable conduct. The chapter highlights the Professional Engineering (PE) Code of Ethics, which is available on the National Society for Professional Engineers' website.
36:00 - 45:00: Company Assets and Information The chapter titled 'Company Assets and Information' offers an introduction to the topic of law and ethics in a professional setting. It emphasizes the importance of applying pre-reading materials and understanding code to real-life situations using good common sense, aiming to achieve acceptable professional actions. The discussion includes a general exploration of law and ethics and specifically delves into the IEEE code of ethics.
45:00 - 52:00: Personal Reflections on Challenger Accident The chapter begins with an apology for having to go through slides, emphasizing the necessity to cover the material thoroughly. It outlines the structure of the discussion which includes examples, applications of ethics codes, personal reflections, impacts, and a conclusion. The introduction to ethics sets the stage by defining moral philosophy as a discipline that involves systematizing, defining, defending, and recommending ethical concepts.
52:00 - 56:00: Current Challenges and Conclusion This chapter discusses the role of ethics in defining human morality, focusing on concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, and vice and virtue. It highlights how justice, time, and crime also play into these definitions. The chapter emphasizes that many moral and ethical decisions and actions derive from ethical theories rooted in Western cultural traditions.

Webinar: Engineering Code Of Ethics - 28 May 2020 Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 [Applause] [Music] i'd like to thank everybody for joining us this afternoon for today's webinar my name is christopher sanderson and i am the ieee r5 houston section chair as well as the ieee r5 south area chair today's webinar came about
00:30 - 01:00 really with the covet 19 pandemic which created a very unique challenge for all those that were impacted by the epidemic in the ieee family i would like to express my concern and support of all the members of the ieee community our members our families and all the others affected by this outbreak i also like to thank the opportunity or take this opportunity to say thank you to itube usa for
01:00 - 01:30 partnering with us on this particular webinar with that being said i would like to introduce our guest speaker for today mr burt jennings chris thank you for that introduction uh just when we were getting started it started lightning over here and unfortunately um my system shut so if you would if everybody would bear with me for just a moment i'll get the course opened up and we'll get started
01:30 - 02:00 well bert i i know that you're in texas because uh if you don't like the weather just wait a little while it'll change yeah we had bad weather here last night and the power went out so i am operating off my laptop um uh i have the i'm operating off the battery now so hopefully we won't have any more problems well you should be fine we appreciate your help all right here we go so uh thank you all uh thank you chris for the wonderful introduction i missed part of it but uh
02:00 - 02:30 i am bert jennings i'm hailing from houston texas i am an i.p attorney and uh i work for lyon del busell uh i hail from the great state of mississippi uh and moss point mississippi to be exact in pascagoula uh where we have the great ingalls ship building english ship building we build ships for the navy and that's what brought me up and got me interested in engineering after going to morehouse college and
02:30 - 03:00 getting a degree in computer science i went on to clark atlanta and uh received a master's of science in computer engineering so um just a little bit about me as we go forward uh i'll share a little bit more when we get to the personal reflections so i am elated to give you some thoughts on ethics and the importance of what and what we do my goal is to give you some food for thought as we go about our day-to-day jobs whatever your profession is because i
03:00 - 03:30 understand we don't just have engineers on this call most if not all professions have some form of code of ethics to attempt to define what is acceptable conduct within their respective fields doctors lawyers project managers and yes even engineers have codes of ethics professional engineering professional engineering pe's code of ethics can be found at the national society for professional engineers which is nspe.org you go to their website and there that's also where a lot of the
03:30 - 04:00 pre-reading materials as far as the examples came from with an understanding of the code it is hoped that the professional will be able to apply them to situations and circumstances and with good with the use of good common sense to be able to arrive at some acceptable professional actions so what we'll talk about today i just gave an introduction what we'll talk about today i'm going to give a general discussion on law and ethics i'm going to we're going to go through the ieee code of ethics
04:00 - 04:30 and i'm going to apologize up front we're going to do a little reading of slides there uh it's important that we uh get that down we're going to have a discussion uh on some examples and where they appear uh where the code of exits have been applied uh and then there's going to be some personal reflections and impacts and then we will conclude all right so starting the introduction into ethics ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing or defining and defending and recommending concepts
04:30 - 05:00 of what's right and wrong conduct ethics seeks to resolve questions of human morality by defining concepts such as good and evil right and wrong vice and virtue justice and time justice and crime sorry we get many of our moral and ethical theories uh many of our actions under the code of ethics are based on some moral and ethical theories based on western cultural traditions
05:00 - 05:30 this slide is meant to depict socrates and aristotle when it comes to socratic and aristotelian thought that's the basis for what engineers apply when it comes to the code of ethics uh aristotle's ethics or the study of character is built around the premise that people should achieve an excellent character or what he called a virtuous character as a precondition for attaining happiness and well-being socrates thought that knowledge is
05:30 - 06:00 virtue and virtue leads to happiness it makes sense to think that moral people know what morality is if you know right from wrong then you might be able to choose to do what is what you know to be right so socrates advi uh identifies knowledge and virtue if knowledge can be learned so can virtue the socrates states virtue can be taught he believed that the unexamined life is not worth living one must seek knowledge and wisdom before private
06:00 - 06:30 interest there goes into ethics before private interest in this manner knowledge is sought as a means of ethical action as a means of and to ethical action okay so the law is described as a set of rules and regulations created by the government to govern a society law is universally accepted and recognized and enforced and it creates it's created with the purpose of maintaining social order peace and justice in our
06:30 - 07:00 society and to promote protection to the general public and safeguard our interests its aim is equal treatment of all law is generally made after considering ethical principles and ethical values the social mores of our society the law is made by the legislative branch by congress and is interpreted by our judicial branches our judicial branch the judges and the courts every person in the country is bound to follow the law
07:00 - 07:30 it clearly defines what a person must or what a person must not do so in the case of breach of law it may result in confinement uh confinement punishment or financial penalty or sometimes both courts look for predictable outcomes when settling disputes and determining punishment by basing their decisions on the law and previous outcomes judicial precedent and social practice as well so the system is far from perfect though
07:30 - 08:00 sometimes ethics and morals and what is just plain right dictate a different outcome that may be different from the law or judicial precedence thus one should follow the law with an anticipation of ethics what is right and what is wrong in a particular circumstance so you should always consider what is right and what is wrong no matter what the law says by ethics we mean that branch of moral philosophy that guides people about what is good and what is
08:00 - 08:30 bad it is a collection of fundamental concepts and principles of an ideal human character ethics are the code of conduct agreed and adopted by the people it's a set of standards on how a person should live and interact with other people in a society as a whole the principles help us in making decisions regarding what is right and what is wrong it informs us of how to act in a particular situation and make judgments to make better choices for ourselves ultimately if all works well
08:30 - 09:00 ethics make their way into the laws promulgated and passed by congress law and ethics are different though it delimits that line that fine line between what uh between will and should what a person must do versus what a person should do the formal is the former is universally accepted while the latter is ideal human conduct agreed upon by most people confusing you bet it's confusing it's absolutely confusing uh there is always the attempt
09:00 - 09:30 an attempt to align both law and ethics so that they do not contradict each other however this alignment is not always perfect what else would our legislators do how else would they make their money they strive to conform our laws to our ethics to recap the difference between law and ethics law is defined as a systematic body of rules that governs a society and actions of its individual members ethics means the science of a standard
09:30 - 10:00 human conduct laws consist of a set of rules and regulations whereas ethics comprises guidelines and principles that inform people on how to live or how to behave in a particular situation or in a particular profession the law is created by the government which may be local regional national or international on the other hand ethics are governed by an individual legal or professional groups and norms such as workplace ethics or such as environmental ethics and so on
10:00 - 10:30 breach of the law may result in punishment or penalty or both which is not in the case of a breach of ethics which involves loss of trust and confidence loss of reputation or even embarrassment law is binding on its citizens and its people ethics have no such binding on the people in the end remember what is legal may not be ethical and what is ethical may not be legal so now what we're going to do is uh and again my apologies because we're going to do a little slide reading
10:30 - 11:00 here oftentimes in professional ethics seminars that is the only time we get to examine or revisit the oath uh and code of ethics that we signed up for when we when we signed up for membership in the society this code can be viewed as the constitution just like we have a constitution of our united states this is the constitution of the professional society so when joining ieee many of you are members of ieee you may have had to recite the following or you may have
11:00 - 11:30 had to sign an acknowledgement in your membership application stating the following we the members of ieee in recognition of the importance of our technology in affecting the quality of life throughout the world and in accepting uh and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession its members and communities we serve do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree as follows and then
11:30 - 12:00 it falls into what we see here on the screen the preamble engineers affect the quality of life of all people in our complex technological society in pursuit of their profession therefore it is vital that engineers conduct their work in an ethical manner so that they merit the confidence of colleagues employers clients and the public this ieee code of ethics is a standard of professional conduct for engineers so article 1 of our code of ethics engineers shall maintain high standards
12:00 - 12:30 of diligence creativity and productivity and shall accept responsibility for their actions be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates from available data undertake engineering tasks and accept responsibility only if qualified by training or experience or after full disclosure to their employers or clients of pertinent qualifications maintain their professional skills at a level of the state of the art and recognize the importance of current
12:30 - 13:00 events in their work and finally advance the integrity and prestige of the engineering profession by practicing in a dignified manner and for adequate compensation i always like to afford adequate compensation um this represents this article and represents a duty to the profession a duty to the job article two article two engineers shall in their work treat all colleagues and co-workers
13:00 - 13:30 uh fairly regardless of race religion sex age or national origin rep report publish and disseminate freely information to others subject to legal and proprietary restraints encourage colleagues and co-workers to act in accord with this code and support them when they do so seek accept and offer honest criticism of work and properly credit the contribution of others
13:30 - 14:00 support and participate in activities of their professional societies exist colleagues finally exist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development i refer to this article as the duty to other professionals the duty to other colleagues uh it's important to note that to treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race uh religion gender disability age and national origin in the law these are what we call
14:00 - 14:30 protected classes through judicial interpretation also included in those classes of color color is different than race but color ethnicity pregnancy gender identity or expression sexual orientation marital status citizen status and veteran status these are all things that have been judicially created based on an interpretation of the protected classes
14:30 - 15:00 uh also important on this in this article is to seek and accept or offer honest criticism of technical work including to acknowledge and correct errors that's also included in uh in in number four and finally uh in number six uh in assisting colleagues and co-workers in their professional development this includes supporting them in the fall and following this code of ethics and i think that's actually mentioned uh in article three is i mean
15:00 - 15:30 in vignette three as well okay go into article three article three is what i refer to as engineers duties to employers and clients article 3 engineers shall in their relation with employers and clients act as faithful agents and trustees for their employers or clients in professional and business matters providing uh provided such actions conform with other parts of this code again when
15:30 - 16:00 we if you want to take that apart the duty to society and the duty to safety may actually trump this but in most instances in in all instances when that's uh when you can do both you should act faithfully uh and show a duty towards your employer or your client number two keep information on business affairs and technical processes of the employer or client in confidence while employed and later
16:00 - 16:30 until such information is properly released provided such actions conform with other parts of this code again again just because you leave the employ of someone does not mean that that information that you attained while you were with that employer uh is freely available for you to use you must maintain your duty of confidentiality to that employer to that that past employer in most instances you might be going to work for a competitor and if you are it's important that you you you
16:30 - 17:00 recognize that inform the employer client professional societies or public agencies or private agencies of which they are members or to which they may make presentations of any circumstance that can lead to a conflict of interest conflict of interest that's most that's most important we'll talk about that a little bit further in the presentation uh article 3 is a long one engineers shall continue in their relations with their employers and their clients to neither give nor accept directly or
17:00 - 17:30 indirectly any gift payment or service or more than of more than nominal value to or from those having business relationships with their employers or clients and as we'll state later on in the presentation when in doubt disclose assist and advise their employers and clients in anticipating the possible consequences direct and indirect immediate or remote of the projects works or plans for which they have
17:30 - 18:00 knowledge and finally article five there are only five articles um uh one thing i wanted to add and let's let's go back a slide one thing i wanted to add here is um you know when we think about that last uh vignette um i think about j robert oppenheimer uh to the uh he was the creator of the atomic bomb uh when he had his first successful death uh detonation in on july 16th of 1945 he instantly realized his ethical dilemma uh he
18:00 - 18:30 remarked uh from the uh bhagavad-gita oh man i'm mispronouncing that um but what he said was i uh now i become the destroyer now i become death the destroyer of worlds of course when this bomb detonated he instantly realized what could happen with that bomb and that bomb was used on hiroshima and nagasaki instantly killing thousands it did end the war but he felt that
18:30 - 19:00 ethical dilemma uh when he actually created it it's like pandora's box he couldn't put it back all right so let's go to uh four again this is the duty to uh the community uh to the society to the public engineer shell and fulfillment of their responsibilities to the community protect the safety health and welfare of the public and speak out against abuses in these areas affecting public interest contribute professional advice is appropriate to civic
19:00 - 19:30 charitable and other non-profit organizations and seek to extend public knowledge and appreciation of the engineering profession and its achievements most notably in article 4 we have to make sure that in our work we adhere to safety health and welfare of the public all right so when making an ethical decision uh basically you just have to answer some questions um you have to say am i following the
19:30 - 20:00 applicable laws and regulations uh is the action legal is it ethical if that's yes am i following the company's policies and values have i considered all the options and if that's yes have i considered the implications of my decision would i feel comfortable if my decision were made public if you answer no to any of these questions then you should not you you should not act um and if there is if you are faced with an
20:00 - 20:30 ethical dilemma uh within your company uh you should go to your manager or human resources or your legal department or in most instances companies have what we call a company uh an ethics hotline uh go ahead make the call on the ethics hotline a lot of the times it's uh um anonymous all right so we're gonna fall into business practices and when we talk about business practices we are um uh talking about different transactions that can happen uh as you represent your company and the
20:30 - 21:00 ethical uh considerations that you must have there okay in accordance with article 3 of the code in avoiding conflicts of interest you should always act in the best interest of your employer you should always act in the best interest of your employer and not permit outside interest to interfere with your job duties that includes family members that includes financial and personal interests conflicts of interest can also call into question your judgment and the company's products and services
21:00 - 21:30 by knowing how to recognize and disclose and avoid potential conflicts we protect our reputation in the reputation of our company and our ability to do business effectively as a policy again no private gain or benefit for yourself or any family members so application conflicts of interest and application avoid situations that could comprise or appear uh compromise i'm sorry that could
21:30 - 22:00 compromise or appear to compromise your judgment put the company's interest in any business transaction ahead of your personal interest or gain and disclose any potential conflicts in writing to your manager human resources or to the legal department to resolve the conflict keep in mind that not all conflicts are prohibited sometimes you can have a conflict as long as those conflicts uh are are disclosed uh they can be permissible if they are disclosed and approved it's
22:00 - 22:30 not always clear whether an activity creates a conflict of interest however it is the responsibility of every employee uh to disclose any potential conflict of interest so in other words an application when in doubt disclose employees should recognize any potential conflicts uh or questions about how to handle a situation uh and where the conflict uh and where the conflict may exist and
22:30 - 23:00 disclose that to your the legal department or to your manager or to the human resources department and i'll say something here if you disclose it to your manager and you don't get any kind of approval or anything then you may need to look to disclose it to the legal department or to human resources because uh you want to get approval in and in most instances i say in all instances you want to get that approval in writing by way of examples of conflicts of interest avoid hiring
23:00 - 23:30 supervising or promoting persons with whom you have a close relationship or influence their compensation benefits or opportunities if they work at the company avoid participating in transactions between the company and businesses that are owned by or that employ someone with whom you have a close relationship and loans by the company to or guarantees by the company of obligations of any director officer any employees their family members are expressly prohibited um and another note here is it may be a
23:30 - 24:00 conflict of interest if you know someone with whom you have a close relationship uh that owns one percent of a uh customer supplier or competitor so again it's important when in doubt to disclose let's briefly talk about uh receiving gifts uh and entertainment accepting gifts and entertainment may be a conflict of interest and appear to limit your ability to make an objective business decision uh that would be in the best interest of the company
24:00 - 24:30 if you are offered a gift of entertainment or entertainment ensure that it is not intended or might be seen to influence business decisions so it doesn't have to necessarily be intended if it would be seen to influence your business decision then you should not accept it it is not cash or the equivalent of cash it does not exceed the company's monetary limit if it does politely decline and explain the company's policy uh there is a legitimate business interest
24:30 - 25:00 for accepting the gift or entertainment it remains one-off or irregular in nature uh in all cases you should report it to your manager in exceptional situations where a gift must be accepted uh to avoid causing serious offense in some cultures it would be offensive to return a gift or not accept a gift or a circumstance genuinely precludes you from returning it you should consult your manager human
25:00 - 25:30 resources legal department for guidance on how to properly handle and or dispose of the gift a bit on fair dealing in business transactions deal deal fairly with the company's customers suppliers partners service providers competitors employees and anyone else with whom you have contact in the course of performing a job do not take unfair advantage of anyone through manipulation concealment abuse of privilege and privileged information misrepresentation of facts
25:30 - 26:00 or any other unfair dealing practice uh you got to be honest and accurate in advertising and marketing claims and avoid exaggerations misrepresentations and ambiguity uh take special care when making comparative claims not to disparage or unfairly criticize a competitor's products or services that that can be commonplace in in many of our businesses but take special care not to do that for you may find yourself on the other end of a
26:00 - 26:30 tortuous interference of business contract claim or something like that do not gather competitive intelligence and unlawful or unethical ways it's okay to gather competitive intelligence but you should not use unlawful or unethical ways under anti-competitive conduct competition and anti-trust laws prohibit making agreements with competitors uh customers suppliers or other third parties that limit competition
26:30 - 27:00 abide by all competition and anti-trust laws that apply avoiding situations that put you at risk of even appearing to violate these laws um you can't enter into arrangements where you're going to set a price in a particular market with a competitor that's un that's that's anti-competitive and that is actionable under the law uh it um you can hurt the company's reputation and you risk substantial fines and even criminal prosecution if you do this
27:00 - 27:30 so in application what should you look at in application of anti-competitive conduct do not engage in discussions with competitors to fix prices that's what i was just talking about divide sales opportunities of territories agree not to solicit each other's customers boycott or refuse to sell a particular product to a certain customer supplier or vendor rid rig bids you should not rig bids
27:30 - 28:00 it should not be a sham bid share confidential information about pricing profits costs sales terms credit terms customers discounts promotions or any other information that might be sensitive information you should not share that information competition and antitrust laws are complex and vary for country to country consult the legal department before taking any action that might be considered anti-competitive you should seek the legal department's advice before you sell the low cost or use pricing such as
28:00 - 28:30 deep discounts or licensing terms to keep out unduly or unduly enter hinder competitors tie the sale or discount of any product or service to another product or service microsoft had an issue with that when they were trying to tie the operating system and with the actual machine enter an exclusive dealing or lock-in agreement uh
28:30 - 29:00 treat customer suppliers or distributors inequitably for the same products restrict a distribu distributor or agree to a restriction on who to sell to and what and at what price you're gonna sell it to them impose or accept any non-compete or other similar restriction uh in our company anything that that's non-compete has to go to the legal department for further review under anti-bribery and anti-corruption
29:00 - 29:30 do not tolerate bribery or corruption in any form in the private or public sector paying bribes or engaging in other corrupt activity can result in the company being prohibited from bidding on contracts especially when it comes to government contracts and personal and company fines or even imprisonment you can go to prison for bribery uh bribery corruption and illegal payments all have deeply damaging impacts on
29:30 - 30:00 society they can harm economies destabilize governments and undermine public trust in application anti-bribery and anti-corruption do not accept offer or accept bribes or kickbacks do not make facilitating or grease payments even if they are common in the country where requested i've been practicing law a long time in facilitating payments were not always objectionable or not always illegal but because of international reach now
30:00 - 30:30 uh uk bribery act which we'll briefly touch in a minute makes it makes facilitating payments expressly illegal report it if you're offered a bribe report it to your manager or the legal department uh if you're offered or asked or asked to make a facilitating payment offer or accept only reasonable hospitality or business expenses and record all payments and receipts honestly and accurately you want to make sure that you keep a record of anything that is paid carry out
30:30 - 31:00 risk based due diligence before engaging any business partner you want to know that you're doing business with a good partner uh before you sign the contract and before you engage them to be your agent communicate your company's anti-bribery policy to your business partner and watch out for red flags or signs that corrupt acts are likely to occur if you learn that a business partner may have violated our standards may have violated the standards of your company consult with your legal department for
31:00 - 31:30 how to mitigate or terminate the business relationship the company expects all business partners to meet the standards uh understanding that companies can be held that the company can be held liable for for their actions uh which reflect directly on the company take all reasonable steps to ensure business partners do not hire or do not engage in illegal or unethical conduct or actions and act when acting on behalf of the company so examples bribes can take many forms
31:30 - 32:00 and it is important to actually review and know what could potentially be a bribe because it might not in fact look like a bribe when it when it is offered to you anything of value being offered or given in exchange for favorable treatment cash equivalents of cash such as shares loans unreasonable gifts entertainment or hospitality such as events trips or meals where there is no clear
32:00 - 32:30 business purpose charitable donations you may make a charitable donation uh in the uh name of or someone may make a charitable donation in the name of your company that is looked at as a bribe as well uh job offers paid or unpaid interns or favor for others we really need to know but you really need to be aware that bribes can take many different forms again do not accept or give anything of
32:30 - 33:00 value if it would appear to be improper or appear to improperly obligate someone to act a certain way or if it would embarrass a part if it was made public before offering a gift make sure the gift policy of your intended recipients will not be violated uh consult with the legal department before offering the gifts meals services entertainment or anything of value to or from a government official you know it's important to to realize this because
33:00 - 33:30 it is part of doing business that certain things are offered and and they can be offered but there is a fine line and i would say in all instances before you offer anything or before you accept anything you should consult with your legal department under the u.s foreign corrupt practices act a government official includes because remember government official is a special category it includes any director officer employee agent or representative including anyone elected nominated
33:30 - 34:00 appointed to be a director officer employer agent or representative of any governmental entity which includes state-owned businesses such it could be a state-owned hospital and international organizations or anyone otherwise acting in the official capacity on behalf of a government entity any political party political party official or political party employee any candidate for public office uh or political office uh
34:00 - 34:30 any royal or ruling family member any agent or representative of any of the aforementioned so make sure that you consider who you are about to exchange with and make sure that they're not a government official again when in doubt talk to the legal department and do some and have them do some investigation as to who you're actually talking with acceptable gifts and entertainment generally include promotional items with company logos
34:30 - 35:00 meals and entertainment of modest not excessive value when business is conducted tickets to a local sporting event a cultural event gifts of nominal value that are customarily given on on national holidays prizes randomly given or received through raffles contest or industry events and what i will tell you here is to check with your company's policies because uh they may be more restrictive than this and they may not allow you
35:00 - 35:30 to accept any gifts whatsoever so that is very important uh this slide is meant to to convey to you that anti-bribery and anti-corruption now has international reach there is a saying uh under the u.s foreign corrupt practices act and that it follows the flag um meaning anybody who is a u.s citizen no matter what country they're doing business in if they're a u.s citizen they are flying the u.s flag
35:30 - 36:00 and they must adhere to the u.s foreign corrupt practices act the organization of economic cooperative and development cooperation and development the oecd was established after world war ii to promote policies uh and to promote uh and to improve economic and social well-being of people around the world including many of the world's most advanced countries so if you're doing business there they
36:00 - 36:30 probably have some sort of act underneath their law that subscribes or ascribes to the economic the oecd standard and then i also put here the uk anti-bribery act uh safe from sapin ii anti-corruption act in france that was just passed in 2016 and the clean company act uh which is in brazil i think that was just passed in 2018. so some of these laws are are very new
36:30 - 37:00 and they uh place upon you a high burden of what you can and can't do in those countries regardless as to what the customs have been in the past if you aren't sure of whether you should offer or accept a gift ask yourself what is the intention behind the gift would you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed if anyone else found out about it is the gift being offered outside of the workplace so that others will not know about it does the recipient have a policy that
37:00 - 37:30 would prohibit it does it feel right or or does something feel off as you can see these are ethical questions that you're asking yourself but those ethical questions will lead to you following the law okay uh hypothetical question um we engage a local agent with good connections to help us secure a government engineering procurement and construction contract he wants to give a bottle of expensive liquor to a government official who signed off on the contract and
37:30 - 38:00 insists that it is customary to do so could we get in trouble for that could you get in trouble for that and the answer yes the company can be held responsible for the actions of the agent that is hired you must tell the agent from the start not to give gifts to any public official more importantly before engaging this person it is important to conduct due diligence on the agent and get a contractual assurance that no improper payments will be made uh on behalf of the company okay real
38:00 - 38:30 quickly we're going to talk about company assets and information so in the company assets and information we must protect the company assets and ensure their efficient use use the company assets only for legitimate business purposes although incidental personal use may be permitted you need to check with your company about that do not use company assets or information for personal gain do not take for yourself or your family members any opportunity that are discovered through use of company assets information
38:30 - 39:00 and do not compete with the company based on the information that you receive don't compete with the company at all if you are employed with them uh company assets include physical assets such as computers phones mobile devices machines and vehicles intangible assets such as confidential or proprietary information ideas and inventions uh theft carelessness and waste have a direct impact on the company's profitability and are prohibited all right so when we use the
39:00 - 39:30 term confidential information what do we mean it includes all non-public information regardless of its source that might be used to the company's comp competitors uh by the company's competitors or harmful to the company or its customers suppliers or partners if it is disclosed proprietary information includes intellectual properties such as trade secrets which are also confidential by their very nature patents trademarks and copyrights as well as
39:30 - 40:00 business and marketing plans engineering and manufacturing ideas uh i'm going to include patent applications here because patent applications are actually confidential until they are published designs databases records of any non-public financial data or reports protect company information we must protect the company's confidential information and proprietary information maintain the confidentiality of information entrusted to you by the company or
40:00 - 40:30 any of the companies customers suppliers or partners so remember you could be receiving confidential information from your customers suppliers or partners and that has to be protected just as you would protect your own company's confidential information do not share the confidential information with anyone including individuals within the company unless they have a legitimate need to know and you are authorized to actually disclose it to them as part of your job you may learn uh or have access to non-public
40:30 - 41:00 information regarding the company's business operations and customers if this information is not public it should be treated as confidential improper handling can cause damage to business relationships it can hinder performance and be illegal and lead to civil and criminal penalties if it is uh disclosed trade secrets and other intellectual property i.p including trademarks service marks copyrights patents patent applications know-how ideas show how there's a long litany of
41:00 - 41:30 list of what things are examples of of company information business strategy operating plans and outlooks company logos com the company name itself is a trademark and a logo may be a trademark designs uh product designs new products branding uh marketing studies all of this stuff pricing information all of this stuff is considered company information that is sensitive non-public information about company operations processes
41:30 - 42:00 how they do business i t systems you don't want to engage in in giving away the architecture of the i.t system because that can lead or aid into hacking software data contracts legal information our employees and customers and business partners a listing of our customers our employees or our business partners are also company information uh data that the company has a legal or contractual obligation to protect such as credit card data uh
42:00 - 42:30 health care records under hipaa and personal personally identifiable information in europe in the uk there is a law that is specific to personally identifiable information and we must follow that law so put copyright notices on all company materials information and services and other products intended for public distribution um and you can easily find how to how to create a copyright notice if you're
42:30 - 43:00 going to be doing drawings construction drawings usually there's a stamp that's placed at the bottom of construction or engineering drawings and that is includes a copyright notice and how they can use that information respect the intellectual property of third parties including competitors and do not use um uh do not use in any way that violates the laws or the values or or the company's values a report any unauthorized usage of any of this information to the legal
43:00 - 43:30 department so data protection and privacy just a little word on that we have to understand how data is classified at the company uh there's uh it can be highly confidential it can just be confidential uh each company has its own uh um schematic or likert scale of of of the level of confidentiality that information needs to be kept collect use retain and transfer data and information about individuals in accordance with the company policy
43:30 - 44:00 and applicable data protection and privacy laws and regulations if you're going to be transmitting this has been encrypted uh you may be able to only use storage devices that are company approved but in all instances obtain proper authorization before sharing the information this area data protection is rapidly changing so i would also suggest that you contact your uh company's legal department on um their latest in data protection and privacy
44:00 - 44:30 all right a hypothetical real quick hypothetical i recently joined the company from a competitor and have knowledge about some of the competitive processes some of the information is confidential but some i believe is not if i am uh the manager or if i'm asked by my manager may i share this information what is the answer the answer is no you still have a duty to that previous employer on that information if your information is confidential you have a personal legal obligation to your former employer to protect it from
44:30 - 45:00 disclosure just as you would if you left the company to work left your company to work for another competitor uh sharing such information could put your company uh at legal risk so um i was once uh in a situation where we had an employee employee that left and went to another company and had uh engineering design and construction drawings on how to construct a plant that he had gotten from our company and we had to
45:00 - 45:30 go through a whole process to make sure that he understood that while first off that he had to give us those plans back and second off he really could not use uh those plans to further his work even if he did create them himself while he was at our company so remember the information that you create while you're at the company generally belongs to the company uh what you learn while you're doing that and there's a fine line what you learn while you're doing that you can use
45:30 - 46:00 general knowledge okay so that was uh rather long but what we're going to do now is i want to uh in this last segment i want to share some personal reflections and impacts of the challenger accident we've got about nine minutes left um uh with the new spacex uh and they attempted to launch uh and we're not able to launch uh yesterday uh this really hit home for me uh i was in college when i watched the challenger's ill-fated launch
46:00 - 46:30 and i thought this was important to share with you and the ethical concerns and considerations that some of the old uh some of the old engineers had to deal with okay so on january uh 28 1986 seven lives were lost as communications between engineers and scientists and executives fail in the face of public pressure to proceed uh with launch despite dangerously cold conditions in the months that followed the accident a president's presidential commission went through every piece of data and identified or to identify
46:30 - 47:00 the cause or root cause of the disaster the commission ultimately flagged at the root cause of the disaster was serious flaw in the decision-making process leading up to launch several cases uh studies also uh uh concluded that a cognitive bias referred to as group think was present group think was present in the decision-making process which led to the challenger
47:00 - 47:30 explosion so what does group think a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group when members strive for uh unanimity overriding their uh motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action this term was coined by uh doc the psychologist dr irving janus the precursors to that a cohesive group um usually a group that's been working together for quite some time insulation from experts uh the decision
47:30 - 48:00 makers want to be insulated from the experts and usually there's a a management structure there where the experts never get to talk to the decision makers and leader preferences there's usually someone that's on that that's in the group that leads the group and has all of the experience and um everybody just wants to go with what he says while those sent while while the symptoms support the group think was involved in a disaster understanding the precursors can help us to avoid groupthink in future decisions
48:00 - 48:30 illusions of invulnerability these are some symptoms rationalization inherent morality stereotyped views of others pressure on dissent self-censorship you might just not want to say what you're thinking illusions of unanimity and mind guarding you want to guard what you know uh and and not share it with others so now what i'm going to do with the last few minutes i have is i'm going to share uh an article uh that um was 30 years after the
48:30 - 49:00 explosion it was it was um actually written in january 28 uh 2016 and it was heard on a program all things considered npr so i'm going to click on this link and hopefully you will be able to hear uh this brief three-minute presentation if there's a a um if there is a um advertisement i apologize up front thirty years ago today seven astronauts died when the space shuttle challenger exploded
49:00 - 49:30 the nation watched in shock the shuttle program stalled as investigations began but rocket engineers with nasa contractor morton thiagold knew exactly what had happened the night before the launch they had tried to stop it soon afterwards two of them anonymously described the fatal decision to npr one of those engineers has died the other just decided to let npr name him he spoke with npr's howard berkus back in 1986 and again today bob ebling is 89 now and
49:30 - 50:00 was despondent on that february night 30 years ago when we sat at his kitchen table in brigham city utah ebbling and four colleagues had tried to stop the challenger launch they presented data to morton thiacol engineers and nasa officials and argued that it would be too cold to launch the rubber seals on the shuttle's booster rockets wouldn't seal the engineers were overruled and that night tearful and angry he told his wife darlene it's going to blow up and i did my best
50:00 - 50:30 to let the world know i was one of the few that really was close to the situation the situation went on for hours as ebling and other thial engineers presented data repeatedly it was unequivocally clear to them but nasa ruled the launch they had their mind set on going up and proving to the world they were right and they know
50:30 - 51:00 what they were doing but they didn't a presidential commission found flaws in the space agency's decision-making process but it's never been clear why nasa was so determined to launch the space agency desperately tried to launch the shuttle routinely and reliably president reagan was set to give the state of the union address that night and reportedly plan to promote the challenger flight whatever the reason ebling says it didn't justify the clear risk had they listened to me and wait for the
51:00 - 51:30 weather to change it might have been a completely different outcome there was more than enough people there to say let's give it another day or two but no one did ebling retired soon after challenger he suffered deep depression and has never been able to lift the burden of guilt he still feels as he told me in 1986 he should have and could have done more sitting in a big easy chair in his living room
51:30 - 52:00 his eyes watery and his face grave ebbling concludes he was inadequate he just didn't argue the data well enough he says he's prayed about this for the last 30 years and i think that was one of the mistakes that god made he shouldn't have picked me for that job i don't know but next time i talk to him i'm gonna ask him why me you picked a loser
52:00 - 52:30 i remind ebling what his late colleague and friend roger beaujolais once said beaujolais was the other thiaco engineer who spoke with npr anonymously 30 years ago they were talking to the right people beaujolais once told me they were talking to the people who had the power to stop that launch and they did all they could maybe eblink says to me with a weak wave as i leave maybe roger's right howard berkus npr news so what we have now is
52:30 - 53:00 we have a pandemic that is going on and how uh we are all affected especially as engineers uh by the decisions that we have to make as we open up this economy uh we are being pressured um not only are dr burke and dr fauci being pressured uh to to not well they are looking at science but
53:00 - 53:30 they are certainly being pressured not to go against uh the political wave uh that we have going on in this country but uh we as engineers are asked to do a little bit of social engineering we're asked to open up our businesses and and arrange our offices so that uh we can practice safe distancing uh we're being asked to as some engineers and scientists are being asked to speed the development of detection devices to detect the virus and
53:30 - 54:00 some of those devices aren't working because they were developed too fast and not enough testing went into it vaccinations i mean you know we we talk about uh some of the drugs that are being tested and being used uh and quite frankly doctors are being asked to subscribe to oh this is good uh for um challenging uh the virus or for for getting people better it's just all over the place with this colvid19
54:00 - 54:30 and you best believe that ethics is at the heart of everything we're doing right now today what we build what we create what we execute um uh it affects our lives it affects uh the li our lives it affects uh the public safety uh it affects our loved ones so indeed today uh this is very important as we have uh as we're over a hundred thousand deaths now in any event uh i'm going to end there
54:30 - 55:00 uh we're at two o'clock i'm going to end there i don't know if we have time for questions if you uh have to go i certainly can appreciate it my information is there if you have any questions go ahead and reach out to me in linkedin uh just do a search on burkejennings.com i think i'm the only bert jennings in linkedin currently uh if you have any ip or patent legal services type questions you can hit me up at jennings law group i try to fashion myself as an attorney
55:00 - 55:30 that can give you a quick answer if you work for a company that does not have an iep attorney that's working for it i shall certainly try to do that special thanks to our tripoli houston section officer christopher sanderson who without him i would not be doing this uh tripoli usa and lando basel for providing me the opportunity to give this presentation and special thanks to daryl and jonathan as well awesome so yes folks unfortunately we're short on time and will not be able to
55:30 - 56:00 get to questions today but burt has given his contact information so feel free to reach out to bert afterwards and he will get to them as soon as he's able to thank you so much burt and chris for joining us today and thank you everyone for tuning in and we hope you all have a great day