Funded by the National Science Foundation and directed by the Center's Senior Research Associate, Dr. Vivian Weil, the March 5-6 Conference in Chicago brought together over 150 participants from the United States and Canada. They included academic engineers, philosophers, specialists in behavioral sciences, law, and management, and practicing engineers.

In prepared papers, speakers and commentators discussed the rights and responsibilities of engineers, individually and collectively. In the light of limited legal protection for those who speak out about alleged problems, speakers and members of the audience debated such issues as the demand for moral heroism, the role of government regulation, the foundation of employee loyalty, and the role of cost-benefit calculations in responsible decision making. In a sustained examination of the problem of creating an ethical work environment, speakers considered safety review procedures, particular obstacles to professional independence of engineers, the merits of an ombudsmen division, the power struggles which characterize organizational life, and the issue of elitism in the self-image of the profession.

A focal session featured a panel which probed the responsibilities of the professional societies. To begin the session on teaching, an engineer presented his actual experience as a case study . Panelists who responded analyzed the use of ethical codes and moral theory and considered the attitudes of engineers toward traditional patterns in the workplace. In the workshops which followed, broad-ranging discussions led to the expression of a widely shared interest in developing a clearinghouse for exchanging information on responsibility problems.

This issue of PERSPECTIVES ON THE PROFESSIONS provides a summary of the conference papers.