Amine Elhafsi
504040226
5/15/2014
Ethical Case Study Post-Mortem Report
On Friday, July 17, 1981, the Hyatt Regency Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri hosted a dance party, which was held in the hotel’s atrium lobby. One of the atrium lobby’s defining features was the presence of elevated walkways that were suspended from the ceiling. About 1,600 people attended the event, mostly occupying the lobby floor; however many guests were either standing or dancing on the suspended walkways as well. Tragically, at approximately 7:05 P.M. a loud crack was heard as two of the walkways collapsed onto the lobby floor below killing 114 people and injuring 216 more. Investigations following this event revealed that the walkways were not designed in a way that was structurally sound, rendering them prone to catastrophic failure. In order to make efforts to avoid such tragedies in the future, it is necessary to evaluate the engineers whose work led to the collapse of the walkways. A consideration of their ethical behavior through the framework of virtue ethics may provide insight into what virtues engineers, and aspiring engineering students, must possess so that their work is done properly with the safety of the general public in mind. To this end, it is useful to first provide some background information on the structure of the suspended walkways and to pinpoint the specific cause of their collapse.
Planning and designing of the Hyatt Regency Kansas City had started in early 1976. When the initial concept for the hotel had emerged later that year, the construction was designed to consist of a 35-story guest room tower and a four-story function block, separated by the atrium (Chronology Article). The hotel tower and function block were meant...
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...rine Whitbeck, Source 11).
Figure 1: Schematic of walkway suspension designs
The failure tragically occurred on the night of the dance party, with the added weight of all of the partygoers proving too much for the supporting bolts to handle. At 7:05 P.M. one of the upper walkway’s supporting bolts failed causing the rest of the connections to break and “unzip” (Chronology). The upper walkway crashed onto the lower walkway causing both to fall onto the lobby floor below. Numerous key factors are often cited as having left the construction project vulnerable to such fatal design flaws.
The chain of command for the Hyatt construction was a.
In the aftermath of the collapse of the walkways, investigations revealed that a breakdown in communication between Jack D. Gillum and Associates and Havens Steels Company was largely responsible for the fatal design flaw.
December 1st, 1958 tragedy comes to Chicago, the catholic school Our Lady of Angels is a blase a fire has started in the basement of the north wing of the school at the bottom of the stairwell and is roaring through the north wing in a matter of minuets despite the best efforts of the Chicago fire department the north wing is nearly a total loss resulting in the death of 90 people died in the blaze and 5 more were critically injured resulting in deaths. Through my research I have sought to find the role that the construction of the building has played in the precipitation of this tragedy.
The reasons for the collapse are to be found in the acts and omissions of those entrusted with building a bridge of a new and highly sophisticated design.
The movie gives several theories for the failure of the Pruitt-Igoe complex that led to its destruction. The list also include mistake in the general notion of public housing or a slip of the modernist theory of architecture itself.
The attacks of September 11 were some of the worst ever experienced in the history of the United States. These attacks generated a widespread feeling of insecurity and uncertainty throughout America, compelling the government to revise safety measures and protocol pertaining to the wellbeing of the United States. However, some aspects of security under modification, such as building codes, are being questioned by many. The collapse of the twin towers, due to the impact from the airplanes, spurred a movement focused on strengthening the integrity of skyscrapers and other high-rise buildings throughout the United States. Though the terrorist attacks proved to be a tremendous tragedy, the application of measures this great is not seen as a proven necessity. The circumstances of the incident proved to be so extraordinary that dramatic modifications to the structure of building should not take place because of such an event. Therefore, the building codes of skyscrapers should not be changed due to the terrorist attacks of September 11.
It grew out of three phenomena. Firstly, dissatisfaction with the continued use of free forms and mix decorative elements used in the building from different architectural styles that bore little or no relation to the functions of the building. Secondly, to serve the rapidly in...
In the end, negligence, ignorance, and greed all contributed to the structural failure of the Sampoong Superstore. An engineer’s responsibility is to figure out all the ways a structure could fail and make sure that it does not fail in that way. If just one of the engineers from either of the contractors were to have reported the management for their malpractices, then no one would have died. If the building was not able to handle the fifth floor, the engineers from the in-house construction company could have refused to allow the construction of the fifth floor. Engineers make mistakes, but they do their best to either prevent them or to take them into account in their calculations. The Sampoong Superstore store was originally within healthy safety margins, but mistake upon mistake eventually led up to the collapse. This clearly shows that engineers are not always at fault and that structural failures can occur due to ethical failures. The best anyone can do to prevent such failures is proper inspection and maintenance of the structure. If everyone simply followed the code of ethics while understanding the principles of statics, many of the structural failures could have been
The same firm investigated the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11 and also investigated the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis.[5]r. In this investigation the concrete barriers used as anchors for the guy lines were not fixed in place; they resisted loading only by friction with the ground and through their own weight—about 4,200 pounds (1,900 kg).[7] Just before the collapse, wind loading caused several of the barriers to slide or pivot from their original positions, allowing the top of the truss structure to lean toward the crowd. The subsequent bending forces within the support columns were too large, and the structure collapsed under its own weight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_State_Fair_stage_collapseThis this type of crisis the final decision should have be my by Indiana State Fair Directed Cynthia Hoye. Due to the weather report Hoye mind should have been more on the safety of the fans. By this concert being at Indiana State Fair it was there responsibility to make sure the everyone anything would be alright doing this this major storm that was announce all that
Novelist John D. MacDonald said “Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will.”
Investigators and prosecutors are constantly faced with several ethical dilemmas while executing their duties, which usually put them at a position whereby they have to make critical decisions in order to avoid a lot of public scrutiny. Some of these dilemmas include administrative discretion and nepotism. First, investigators and administrators have to maintain the highest levels of discretion while making decisions regarding particular cases (Padfield & Gelsthorpe, 2012). The question that many people, therefore, ask is whether these decisions are justified or not. Because they have to ensure success and maintain their reputation, these people when faced with dilemmas have to choose between two equally unfavorable options. As Pollock (2011) emphasizes, this task is very challenging. According to the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration & Management (CAPAM) (2010), the rules and regulations give investigators and prosecutors the opportunity to use their own discretion to make a decision regarding a problem at hand. However, despite the choice made, the problem is that it may be accepted only by a small section of the society. Because exercising discretion is often made on the basis of personal judgment, the society might take this as a corrupt practice. Some people might believe that the choice was made based on personal preference, affiliation to a particular group, or even personal aggrandizement (CAPAM, 2010). Another ethical dilemma that investigators and prosecutors face is nepotism. This concept is described by CAPAM (2010) as a practice where individuals make decisions to the favor of close relatives, friends, and other close people, which usually downgrade the quality of public service. In other words, when ...
The word “Ethics” is derived from the Ancient Greek word “Ethos” which means character. Ethics is often thought of as a guide as to how people should behave and conduct themselves throughout their day to day lives. This can apply to individuals, society as a whole, or to certain groups within society such as members of a particular profession. J.J.C Smart, an Australian philosopher, described ethics as the study of how it is most rational to behave1. Ethics provides a set of moral principles that are regarded as being beneficial for individuals and society. These principles are derived from many sources including politics, religion, and cultures etc. These principles are not necessarily about declaring which actions are right and wrong, but providing a framework to help inform our judgements. Ethics provides tools
Errors that caused this mishap include human error, environmental factors, miscommunication among people, and malfunction in the balloon and its other parts. Human error refers to the fact that the pre-flight assessment only covered ascent and over flight launch phases, but not the actual launch phase. While there was a hazard safety zone envisioned, there was no clear clarification on whether or not the area was a set or constantly changing range, making the zone for danger unpredictable. Miscommunication occurred when the Launch Director saw the crowd of spectators and asked for any workers to move the people out of the way. An off-duty crew member in the crowd of spectators towards the South, heard the command and moved them up north. A deputy site director with spectators
Everyone in this world has experienced an ethical dilemma in different situations and this may arise between one or more individuals. Ethical dilemma is a situation where people have to make complex decisions and are influenced based on personal interest, social environment or norms, and religious beliefs (“Strategic Leadership”, n.d.). The leaders and managers in the company should set guidelines to ensure employees are aware and have a better chance to solve and make ethical decisions. Employees are also responsible in understanding their ethical obligations in order to maintain a positive work environment. The purpose of this case study is to identify the dilemma and analyze different decisions to find ways on how a person should act
That is if the GP tests the demo on a patient and the results of the system do not match his diagnoses it could really be a problem as a wrong diagnoses would not only make the GP aware of the fact that the build quality of system is poor but also the end product would not be of the top most quality. Which could further lead to damaging company’s image.
Ethics and moral values-based problems in the workplace are difficult to handle when workers have to choose between what’s right and what’s wrong according to their own ethics. Advancing rational managers who implement office ethics rules is generally well-set for the probable conflicts of attention that arise due to the variety of judgment, ethics and nation in the workforce. At the same time, handling ethical cases in the office involves a stable and cautious tactic to matters which can hypothetically be hazardous. According to Lattal and Clark (2007), there are performances that each of us can do to give to a “stronger ethical workplace”, that means person representative behaviors deemed ethical. Employees’ Critic managers Primarily by Three Aspects – the complete personality of their managers as skilled through individual dealings; how eldest bosses handle emergencies; and the rules and actions adopted by senior managers to accomplish the corporation.
Ethics are defined as a system of values and beliefs which investigate human’s actions are rightness and wrongness (Trevino & Nelson, 2011). In particular circumstance as the result of awareness differences of ethics, humanity may reply the same action in many different ways and may cause psychological conflicts. In other words, a situation in which there is no obvious right or wrong solution, these kinds of conflicts are called ethical dilemmas. Conflicts may occur in human living environment (Ghillyer, 2010). In this case, Alan and John both work as procurement officers responsible for souring suppliers but only one positions will be available between them, Jenny is unsure whether she should do John a favour to give him a job, because he has formed a friendship with Jenny and other situation and involved in ethical dilemmas. Firstly, two ethical theories were mentioned. Again use two relevant of solving ethical dilemmas in addition with the suitable theory.