Who can I turn to? Engineers navigating ethical dilemmas at work

In this paper, we use social support theory to analyze 16 early to mid-career engineers' narratives about their experiences navigating ethical and equitable dilemmas at school and at work. In particular, we highlight six sources of support named by participants as they recounted struggles to balance personal ethical commitments with workplace expectations. The precarious nature of work at this stage, especially for individuals whose experiences, social locations, and values diverge from company norms highlights the importance of social supports as one of many resources introduced into engineering ethics education.