Work in progress - evaluating the decision making process that individuals and teams of engineering students employ when solving ethical dilemmas

Little empirical research has been focused on team based ethical decision making specific to engineering. With ABET's criterion 3-f, engineering educators must now have a sound understanding of students' knowledge about and approaches to solving ethical dilemmas. The research objectives of this funded research are: to investigate how groups of engineering students differ than individual engineering students when resolving problems involving ethical issues, to evaluate and describe approaches to solve problems ethical in nature, and to assess those variables that potentially affect the quality of the resolution and the quality of the decision process. Adopting two primary models from the literature: Jones' synthesis of ethical decision making model and the Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins (HPR) model, the conceptual individual/team ethical decision making model was used in an experimental study involving both individuals and teams of engineering students solving ethical dilemmas. This work-in-progress paper describes the model and experiment that is currently underway.