2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Early-Career Engineers’ Stories of Ethics and Equity in the Workplace: A Thematic Analysis

Presented at Professional Development and Engineering Ethics Education

As new engineers transition from educational settings to professional careers, they face the imperative task of acquiring not only technical expertise but also hands-on experience and practical insights to be effective in their engineering work. This experiential learning encompasses problem-solving, critical thinking, project management, effective communication, collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, adaptability to industry trends, and a profound understanding of real-world constraints and challenges. In today's society, heightened awareness and expectations concerning ethical and equity issues underscore the need to assess the preparedness of early-career engineers to navigate this complex landscape in their professional journeys. To help transitioning engineers develop into ethical and equity minded professionals while adapting successfully to their changing roles and responsibilities, we need to understand how early career engineers experience and perceive issues related to ethics and equity in their workplace. This understanding will allow for development of comprehensive educational curriculum, professional development initiatives, and leadership skills, for personal and professional growth.
This study presents the results from research carried out by interviewing 13 early career engineers from diverse engineering disciplines across North America, delving into their educational backgrounds, current work projects, and challenges related to professional ethics, equity, and inclusion. After conducting semi-structured interviews, the data were analyzed using Thematic Analysis. The analysis presented in this paper focuses specifically on the stories the interviewees talked about their experiences related to ethics and equity. Among the ethics stories, participants shared examples of ethical dilemmas related to oversight of work and quality control, safety, doing work beyond one’s expertise, pay and promotion equity, the ethical environment of the organization, and conflicts of interest involving the desires of different stakeholders. Equity stories fell into two broad themes, stories about inequitable or discriminatory allocation of resources or opportunities and stories about discriminatory comments, uncivil behavior, and uncomfortable situations. Areas recommended for future research include quantitative study of the types of experiences faced by new engineers around ethics and equity.

Authors

Dr. Amir Hedayati Mehdiabadi University of New Mexico [biography]

Amir Hedayati is an Assistant Professor at Organization, Information & Learning Sciences program at College of University Libraries & Learning Sciences at University of New Mexico. He received a Ph.D. in Human Resource Development from University of Illin
Chika Winnifred Agha http://orcid.org/0009-0001-1986-4402 Colorado State University [biography]

Chika Winnifred Agha is a graduate student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Colorado State University, working towards her master's degree. She holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and has acquired expertise in both Civil Engineering and Engineering Education. This unique combination of knowledge has equipped her with a distinctive set of skills. Her research interests primarily revolve around engineering education, with a specific focus on equity, ethics, diversity, and inclusion. She is particularly interested in understanding how these factors impact early career engineers and the transition process of engineering students into the engineering industry.
Dr. Rebecca A Atadero Colorado State University [biography]

Rebecca Atadero is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University, specializing in structural engineering. She conducts research on diversity, equity, inclusion and justice in engineering, and the inspection, management, and repair of existing structures.
Dr. Pinar Omur-Ozbek Colorado State University [biography]

Dr. Pinar Omur-Ozbek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Colorado State University. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at Virginia Tech. Her research evolved from sensory analyses to medical and biomedical field to further study the effects of metal ions on the oral epithelial cells. During conducting sensory analyses she developed the first international odor standard to be adopted and used for Flavor Profile Analysis of drinking water.

Dr. Omur-Ozbek’s teaching interests include environmental engineering concepts, environmental chemistry, water quality analyses, ecological engineering and engineering ethics. Her research interests include drinking water quality and treatment, odorous and toxic algal blooms, impacts of toxins on crops and humans, impacts of wildfires and hydraulic fracking on surface water quality, and affected indoor air quality due to use of contaminated tap water.
Carlotta Duenninger

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