IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v34y2020i6p985-1003.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘This Happens All the Time’: Organizations, Rationalization and Ethical Dilemmas in Engineering

Author

Listed:
  • Tracey L Adams

Abstract

Given their positions of public trust, regulated professions are legally required to uphold ethical standards, and ensure that professional practice protects the public. Nonetheless, there is ample evidence that professionals do not always behave ethically. One proposed solution is greater organizational surveillance; however, research from a neo-Weberian perspective encourages scepticism about such arguments. Organizations may not only fail to stop professionals from violating ethical codes, but rationalizing organizations might actively encourage such violations in the name of efficiency. This article explores the impact of organizations and rationalization on professional misconduct through a mixed-methods study of professional engineers in Ontario, Canada. Findings suggest engineers are impacted by rationalization, and that those with less decision-making authority experience pressures discouraging practice in the public interest.

Suggested Citation

  • Tracey L Adams, 2020. "‘This Happens All the Time’: Organizations, Rationalization and Ethical Dilemmas in Engineering," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 985-1003, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:34:y:2020:i:6:p:985-1003
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017020902968
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017020902968
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017020902968?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julia Evetts, 2002. "New Directions in State and International Professional Occupations: Discretionary Decision-making and Acquired Regulation," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(2), pages 341-353, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cheraghi-Sohi, Sudeh & Calnan, Michael, 2013. "Discretion or discretions? Delineating professional discretion: The case of English medical practice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 52-59.
    2. Rachel Aleks, 2019. "What Professionals Want: Union and Employer Tactics in Representation Elections of Professional Workers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(3), pages 693-717, May.
    3. Crawford Spence & Chris Carter & Ataur Belal & Javier Husillos & Claire Dambrin & Pablo Archel, 2016. "Tracking habitus across a transnational professional field," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(1), pages 3-20, February.
    4. Eeva Kesküla & Krista Loogma, 2017. "The value of and values in the work of teachers in Estonia," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(2), pages 248-264, April.
    5. Julie Janssens & Natascha Van Mechelen, 2017. "Who is to Blame? An Overview of the Factors Contributing to the Non-Take-Up of Social Rights," Working Papers 1708, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    6. Musselin, Christine, 2013. "How peer review empowers the academic profession and university managers: Changes in relationships between the state, universities and the professoriate," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 1165-1173.
    7. Armstrong, Natalie & Hilton, Paul, 2014. "Doing diagnosis: Whether and how clinicians use a diagnostic tool of uncertain clinical utility," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 208-214.
    8. Ricardo A. Ayala & Raf Vanderstraeten & Piet Bracke, 2014. "Prompting professional prerogatives: New insights to reopen an old debate about nursing," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 506-513, December.
    9. Märt Masso, 2013. "Determinants of employee work schedule and method control," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 34(3), pages 451-469, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:34:y:2020:i:6:p:985-1003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.