Eric is a licensed electrical engineer working for State University on construction and renovation projects. Betty Jones is an immediate manager to Eric, followed by administrator John Smith who has no technical background. Often Smith makes decision on project cost without consulting engineers and passes on to the higher officials. In some cases when the estimated cost exceeds his estimates, he pressures engineers to cut corners. Eric is currently working on the renovation of a warehouse to convert some storage space into office space. Among the details specified by Eric, installations of emergency exit lights are mandated by the building code. As a part to meet the actual cost to an unrealistic estimate, Smith insists to eliminate emergency lights. Eric objects strongly, but Smith is not willing to give a hearing. Also Eric is not certain that Betty will be willing to stand up for him in this disagreement. Looking at different aspects, it seems that Eric should report to higher authorities about omission of emergency lights from the building and propose to increase the budget cost.
             Eric shoulders the responsibility of using his technical know-how to serve the society. This enforces the importance of ethics in his profession. On the other hand, Eric is just like other human who is also driven by material interests, personal preferences, and needs of life. A conflict between the two ideologies puts an engineer into dilemma while making decisions. If emergency lights are excluded it could be dangerous to people who are currently using the office space. In the case of an emergency situation, they would aid in freeing the building and saving the occupants lives. Absence of emergency lights in the events like tornado, fire, transformer failure could seriously injure people or in fatalities. As a engineer, Jim is expected to "hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public." [1]. Thus by reporting to the higher officials of th...