Most veteran Oil & Gas Journal editors have heard so many industry talks that memory blurs them after only a few years. That's why one such talk last spring stands out for me.
Professional engineers in the Houston Chapter of the Gas Processors Association had reminded its program committee months earlier of their need, for Texas certification purposes, to obtain at least an hour/year of formal training in ethics.
Ethics?
Given how headlines at the time centered on massive breaches of business ethics among US financial institutions, that topic certainly seemed timely. And the resulting talk was one of the most informative in my years with OGJ.
Presenting it was Daryl Koehn, who at one time worked as a senior product manager for investment vehicles at First National Bank of Chicago. Armed now with a PhD in ethics from the University of Chicago, she directs the Center for Business Ethics Studies at the Cameron School of Business at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. She also holds the Cullen Chair in Business Ethics.
Being the product of a liberal arts education, however, I was scratching my head a bit as to why engineers had to complete ethics training to be certified. So, last month I visited her to find out.
Professionalism
For Prof. Koehn, it starts with the concept of "professionalism," a word that derives from Latin for "to affirm openly" with an implication ("pro") of "happening before."
In taking an oath as a professional, an engineer acknowledges a promise to abide by certain guidelines that ensure ethical completion of tasks.
Like what? Well, explained Prof. Koehn, an engineer has an ethical obligation to resist clients' demands that violate his ethical oath to, for example, employ safe building practices.
In designing a new refinery, a process engineer must bear in mind his or her higher responsibilities to the safety of other people and, we have now come to think, the environment. He must oppose shortcuts that might save money or time but—in his or her professional judgment—may risk lives.
It's not just a nod to "sound practices," Prof. Koehn told me. It's an obligation imposed by the engineer's professed oath. It's the "public dimension," a covenant implicit in the status of being a professional.
Moreover, such ethical considerations pervade not only all professions but all societies. Ethical considerations, she said, are what make us human: the "values of ethical behavior transcend cultural values."
In other words, an engineer is first a human being, with all the ethical responsibilities implicit in that fact. No one, especially an engineer, can simply "do his job." To live ethically, to work ethically, she would say, that engineer must at all times be aware of the ethical implications of that job.
And media?
Equally as professionals, journalists have ethical guidelines. Foremost among them is to let facts tell the story and to prevent one's prejudices or opinions from dictating what facts are relevant.
Trade publications, such as OGJ, that serve specific industries—they're known as "business-to-business" communications—have additional ethical worries: Editors must resist commercial efforts to influence what material is selected or what topics are covered.
But, as for engineers, periods of contracting markets and intensified competition bring temptation with them. For far too many publications, that slope is simply far too slippery.
OGJ is different.
OGJ's coverage of a topic or acceptance of an article is based solely on the topic's news or technical value, as dictated by an editor's understanding of what OGJ's readers expect.
OGJ editors take their responsibility to readers as seriously as any professionals anywhere, and the magazine's management fully supports them.
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