The Professional Autonomy of Engineers

9320166戴维斯工程师有时声称，他们的员工身份剥夺了他们成为真正专业人士所必需的自主权。本研究的目的是提供一个框架来回答工程师是否以及何时在工作场所有足够的自主权来作为专业人士。为了提供这个框架，本研究将把最近对道德自治的哲学分析带到专业自治的问题上，将从早期关于工作场所中工程师自治的工作中提取相关材料，以检查那里的专业自治条件，并将概述实证研究计划，这些研究可能建立在这些结果的基础上，以回答有关工程师实际专业自治的问题。这项研究的目的是开发一个关于职业和自主权的职位，它可以通过三个测试：它必须与在大型组织中工作相一致；它必须是经验可检验的，并且在评估不同类型的工作组织是否会阻碍或增强专业自主权时必须有用。本研究涉及工程社会学、职业哲学和工程伦理三个领域。一个更成熟的专业自主概念可能有助于解决工程和科学伦理中的其他实际问题。目前适用于工作场所的道德自主概念既不能帮助我们理解职业约束的道德含义，也不能帮助我们理解企业组织和职业责任的总体一致性。因为提议的项目将帮助我们在上下文中理解工程师，它也应该有助于全面理解工程师的工作。结果将通过演讲和文章传播。＊＊＊

9320166 Davis Engineers sometimes claim that their status as employees denies them the autonomy necessary to be true professionals. The purpose of this research is to provide a framework for answering the question whether and when engineers have enough autonomy in the workplace to act as professionals. To provide this framework, the research will bring recent philosophical analysis of moral autonomy to bear on the question of professional autonomy, will draw relevant material from earlier work on the autonomy of engineers in the workplace to examine the conditions for professional autonomy there, and will sketch programs of empirical research that might build on these results to answer questions about the actual professional autonomy of engineers. The research aims to develop a position on professions and autonomy that can pass three tests: It must be consistent with working in a large organization; it must be empirically testable: and it must be useful in evaluating whether different kinds of work organization will impede or enhance professional autonomy. This research contributes to three fields, the sociology of engineering, the philosophy of professions, and engineering ethics. A better developed conception of professional autonomy may help with other practical questions in the ethics of engineering and science. Current conceptions of moral autonomy applied to the workplace do not help us to understand either the moral implications of professional constraints or the general consistency of corporate organization and professional responsibility. Because the proposed project would help us to understand engineers in context, it should contribute as well to overall understanding of what engineers do. Results will be disseminated through presentations and articles. ***