Fase 2: Caracterización de procesos

Ethical dilemmas arise every day in the application of technology and its effects on human and nonhuman processes and the advancement or decline of society.

Technology can harm people by inducing stress, triggering injuries, and demor-alizing them. Conversely, technology can stimulate personal development and organizational growth. How technology is applied and the consequences of the application often call for ethical decisions. Some have equated the definition of quality and ethics with “do the right thing.”

A case in point is the ongoing need for guidelines governing ethical behavior in the application of computers, e-commerce, e-business, and other new technolo-gies. Some of the issues demanding critical attention are:

1. Misusing employers’ computers for personal gain or pleasure

2. Destroying others’ property (for example, injecting a virus, wiping out files, and so on)

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3. Using or condoning the use of computers for fraudulent activities 4. Violating individual and company rights to privacy and

confidentiality

5. Omitting safeguards that protect users 6. Infringing on copyrights and trademarks

7. Failing to maintain a sufficient level of accuracy and completeness implied when data is collected and stored in computer databases 8. Failing to make critical information known to appropriate decision

makers in time to prevent a negative outcome

9. Failing to capture, manage, and make available critical knowledge to those who need it

10. Failing to upgrade computer technology

11. Managing retrieval of data files from old or different software programs/versions

12. Dealing with global employees, businesses, and markets

13. Dealing with legal requirements (including safety and environmental regulations) of different governmental groups across geographic boundaries

14. Ensuring the usage quality of the new technology itself, and ensuring that people are trained to use the new technology

Another area of concern to the engineer is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Both federal-level agencies and state-level agencies mon-itor organizations to ensure compliance with the respective rules and regulations.

Some of the more common sets of rules and regulations are:

OSHA, Labor (Randall’s Practical Guide to ISO 9000 provides a more comprehensive list)

29 CFR 1910.95 Occupational Noise Exposure (Ear Protection) 29 CFR 1910.120 Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency

Response

29 CFR 1910.132 Personnel Protective Equipment 29 CFR 1910.133 Eye and Face Protection

29 CFR 1910.147 The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) 29 CFR 1910.1200 Hazard Communication

Engineers also are finding themselves involved with issues usually handled by management, such as interviewing potential new employees for the organization.

Without the proper training, engineers could be putting themselves and their employers at great risk for lawsuits by asking inappropriate questions. Some items that the interviewers must be aware of include:

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• Ask only job-related questions

• Do not ask about age, race, national origin, marital status, or religion

• Focus on the competencies and skills for the job in question

• Avoid any small talk that is not related to the job

In conclusion, the ASQ code of ethics emphasizes that we are professionals and must act accordingly. Federal law and employer rules create additional require-ments for compliance. You must understand all of the above, and more as it is presented to you.

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Chapter 4

D. Leadership Principles and Techniques

Describe and apply various principles and techniques for developing and organizing teams and leading quality initiatives.

(Analyze)

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Leadership is an essential part of any quality initiative. The leader’s role is to estab-lish and communicate a vision and to provide the tools, knowledge, and motivation necessary for those individuals or teams who will collaborate to bring the vision to life. This can apply to an entire organization as well as each specific depart-ment or work group. For example, the leader of the quality engineering function is responsible for helping shape the policies for the quality technologies that will be deployed throughout the organization and for ensuring that department person-nel are sufficiently qualified to support the use of the technologies.

A leader may or may not hold an officially designated position. Often someone in a work group will emerge as a leader because of their knowledge, skills, experi-ence, and/or abilities. Further, teams often include facilitators, another leadership role. The facilitator’s purpose is to provide support to the team’s effort, while at the same time allowing the team to maintain ownership of its decisions.

A good leader always tries to understand where the other person is coming from, what makes them act the way they do—in other words, what motivates them. Good leaders recognize and apply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This is the assertion that people are driven by their needs and wants and that all human needs can be roughly placed in a hierarchy. Higher-level needs are not really rele-vant until lower-level needs are satisfied, but once a need is met, it no longer moti-vates behavior. The five levels are (1) physiological (hunger, thirst, sleep), (2) safety and security (protection from the elements and predators), (3) socialization, (4) ego, and (5) self-actualization. Many people never get their ego needs fully satis-fied, so do not experience self-actualization needs, but all the great thinkers and leaders of the ages are in fact self-actualized. When trying to lead recalcitrant fol-lowers, it often helps to think about what need-level they are working on.

Leadership of the quality engineering function involves defining and carrying out projects that support the organization’s strategic plan, as well as providing

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the resources for and overseeing day-to-day quality engineering activities. While some of these activities may be performed by an individual, in today’s complex environment more are conducted in a team setting. Examples would include working with an advanced quality planning team to analyze repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) of a new measurement system or working with a software engineer to implement a new automated statistical process control (SPC) online package.