Teaching about values and engineering: the American electric utility industry as a case study

Abstract

Engineering students are often forced to take courses in the humanities and social sciences. Even so, they rarely learn how to bridge the gap between the technical and nontechnical world. As a result, they usually fail to understand the significance of values in the every-day functioning of their craft. This paper describes a class module designed for the SUCCEED program at Georgia Tech that seeks to remedy this failure. It employs a case study of the American electric utility industry to demonstrate how power company managers-usually trained as engineers-adopted a value system based on growth in electricity consumption and big new technology. For decades, the public and utility regulators shared that value system, but when the energy crisis struck in the 1970s, the public and regulators adopted low-growth and environmentally-conscious values that conflicted with those held by managers. Ultimately, managers lost control over the industry. Today's turmoil in the utility industry can be explained partly by the changing value systems. Telling the story in the course module should alert engineering students to the importance of values and the social fabric as they practice their profession.