Being loyal and being ethical [Essay]

I recently came across an essay by Ovaska (2019) in which the following question was posed: should an engineer be loyal or ethical? As it happens, I had just wrapped up a section dealing with Aristotle’s moral theory in the ethics course I teach for engineering majors. Perhaps this is the reason the question confused me. “Surely,” I thought, “being loyal
is
being ethical.” Aware of the fact that dilemmas relating to loyalty often surface in professional contexts, I decided I ought to attempt to clarify the issue. Before I do that, though, let me explain why somebody might take loyalty to be at odds with morality.