CPE680 – LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

FOR ENGINEERS
ASSIGNMENT 3: CHALLENGER THE UNTOLD STORY

NAME : NUR FATIN SHAFIQAH BINTI MOHD FAZLI

MATRIC NUMBER : 2015431132
GROUP : EH2206C
SUBMIT TO : IR. DR. SYED SHATIR ASGHRAR BIN SYED HASSAN
DATE SUBMITTED : 14/5/2018
1. Define whistle-blower. Do you regard Boisjoly (a character in the documentary) as
a disloyal employee or a heroic whistle-blower? Why?
A whistleblower is a person, who could be an employee of a company, or a government
agency, disclosing information to the public or some higher authority about any
wrongdoing, which could be in the form of fraud, corruption and others misconduct
whether it is in the planning stages, currently on going stages or a past act. There are
two types of whistleblowing which are internal and external whistleblowing. Internal
whistleblowing is when the whistleblower reports the wrongdoing to another person
within the same organization while external whistleblowing is when the whistleblower
reports the wrongdoing to a person of another organization such as media.
Based on the documentary of Challenger the Untold Story, I regard Boisjoly as a heroic
whistle-blower. Roger Boisjoly was an American mechanical engineer, fluid dynamicist,
aerodynamicist and also a booster rocket engineer at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol in
Utah when he getting involved with permanent decision to launch the Space Shuttle
Challenger. While he was reviewing about the booster rockets that would lift Challenger
into space, he found the data were very disturbing and there was design fault that would
lead to explosion. So, he reported the error to his company and NASA, telling that the
rocket is not ready to be launched because it will be too dangerous to launch and it need
to be repair or replacement. However, his reports were totally ignored even after he
persuaded his manager. He cannot do anything and he have no rights to stop launching
the space shuttle since he is only working as an engineer where all the decisions should
be made by the manager. As a result, from the launched, the spacecraft exploded and it
has killed all seven crew members that have joined the mission. After the Challenger
disaster, Boisjoly have been in guilt feeling and depression. Based on my point of view,
he have done his job properly when he discovering the faulty design of the space shuttle
and he already did his best to stop the space shuttle from launching eventhough his
warnings were totally ignored.

2. Did Morton Thiokol treat Boisjoly fairly? Why, or why not? Explain.
No, Morton Thiokal did not treat Boisjoly fairly. Morton had put all the blamed to Boisjoly.
This is because, when Boisjoly returned to work at Morton Thiokol Wasatch Operations
after the explosion accident, Boisjoly found out that he was exclude from getting involve
with the company and he was removed from the redesign of the rocket booster by the
management of the company. Not long after that, he knew the reason on why he had
been isolated from NASA which is, it is the orders from Edward Garrison who is the
President of Aerospace Operations Morton Thiokol. He was very depressed and he felt
that his work environment is not safe for him anymore. So, he took sick leave and
resigned from Morton Thiokol.

3. Which specific parts of an engineering code of ethics (please refer to the BEM
Code of Professional Conducts) applicable to the situations faced by Morton
Thiokol engineers?
There are specific parts of an engineering code of ethics that is applicable to the
situation faced by Morton Thiokol engineers such as for this case, engineers cannot
depend solely on private conscience when choosing how to practice their profession, no
matter how good that private conscience, and engineers should take into account what
an organization of engineers has to say about what engineers should do. Based on code
of professional ethics, it actually provides a guide to what engineers may reasonably
expect of one another. There are engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and
welfare of the public. Engineers also shall issue public statements only in an objective
and truthful manner and act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.
Engineers shall be guided in all their relations by the highest standards of honesty and
integrity. Engineers also shall accept personal responsibility for their professional
activities provided.

4. Describe three different responsibilities (obligation, blame and role) and three
basic attitudes towards responsibility (minimalist view, reasonable care ad
good works) by using examples based on the videos shown.
There are three different types of responsibilities such as obligation, blame and role
responsibility. Obligation responsibility refer to the positive obligation of an engineer to
do his or her own work to standard and to do the extra bit when needed. Blame
responsibility refer to the responsibility of an engineer when it comes to harmful action
and how an engineer should take responsibility for his or her action while role
responsibility refers to the role an engineer has in a project and how he or she has both
an obligation responsibility and has a share of blame responsibility depend on his or her
role in the project.
From the video, we could clearly see that Robert Boisjoly has showed his obligation
responsibility. With the resources that he had, he did his own work to standard to the
best of his ability. He also kept investigate and studying to do more tests on the sealing
of the joint. He also kept finding any opportunities to tell his manager and give warning
about the space shuttle and he kept mentioning that it was not ready to be launched.
Even at teleconference, he was against his manager in order to stop the rocket from
being launched. Eventhough he need to follow his manager’s instruction, he kept on
fighting for the seven civilian’s lives.
After the accident, Robert Boisjoly accepted his part of the blame responsibility. He was
very depressed at the moment and he felt the guilt of being an engineer who are unable
to stop the space shuttle from launching even he knows that it is going to explode. It
means that he takes the blame for their lives.
He also has role responsibility where his role in the shuttle is by getting involve with
examine the O-Rings and he accepted his responsibility by warning his manager about
this parts of the shuttle that were not in a good condition and might cause explosion and
he tried really hard to stop launching the rocket.

5. Aboard the shuttle for this flight was the first teacher in space. Should civilians
be allowed on what is basically an experimental launch vehicle
From my opinion, civilians should not be allowed to get involve in an experimental launch
vehicle. Since it is the first time for the space shuttle to be launch, the possibility of
accident to be happen will be higher if it involves civilians since they do not have any
practical experience involving the vehicle. Civilians also do not have enough knowledge
about the space. They were supposed to attend classes and program to learn more
things including survive on the space and also knowledge about the space ship. Besides,
NASA also have their indirect causes which means they need to pay compensation to
the civilian’s family if anything bad happened to the civilians.