The Evolving Face of Ethics in Technical and Professional Communication: Challenger to Columbia

• Published in: IEEE transactions on professional communication Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 306 - 319
• Main Author: Dombrowski, P.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.12.2007; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Accident investigation; Accident investigations; Accidents; Challenger; Columbia; Communication; Context; Corporate culture; Cultural differences; Culture; Disasters; Ethics; Exact sciences and technology; Fault diagnosis; Global communication; Human; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Judgments; language; Legal aspects : intellectual property, producer responsability; Legal aspects : intellectual property, producer responsability. Ethics; Library and information science. General aspects; NASA; organizational culture; philosophy; Professional communication; Professional ethics; Reflection; rhetoric; Sciences and techniques of general use; shuttle; Space shuttle; Space technology; Studies; Technical communication; Values; United States > US; Information communication technology; NASA; values; Challenger; language; organizational culture; philosophy; Ethics; shuttle; Columbia; Technical communication; rhetoric; Professional communication
• ISSN: 0361-1434; 1558-1500
• DOI: 10.1109/TPC.2007.908729

Our view of ethics in professional and technical communication has evolved, paralleling developments throughout society. Earlier views on ethics and values have grown into a broad perspective of complex gradations with people at many levels affecting eventual practical outcomes. This newer perspective includes not only persons but social forces and organizations. The organizational culture of NASA, for example, was specifically identified by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) as one of the causes of faulty communication leading to a terribly tragic event. The Challenger investigations of 20 years earlier, on the other hand, focused primarily on physical events, secondarily on professional judgments, and only little on the social and cultural context of the disaster. We learn by failures but also by self-examination. As we see how ethics and values impact technical events, we understand that technological progress is ultimately a human endeavor in which reflection and judgment is as important as measurement and observation.