The way people work in teams is changing. The changes are affecting what work teams look like and how those teams function. In years past people worked for the same organizations for many years, perhaps even their whole careers (see Sullivan, 1999 for review). Because their colleagues also stayed in the same organizations for many years, they were likely to work on teams that had relatively stable memberships. This has changed. People now switch employers more frequently and they change roles within organizations more often (Miles & Snow, 1996; Rousseau & Wade-Benzoni, 1995). They are also more likely to work as independent contractors rather than as employees of the company and seek to develop a “boundaryless career” defined as “a sequence of job opportunities that go beyond the boundaries of a single employment setting” (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1996, p. 116).

The study of cyberethics represents an evolution of computer ethics. When the computer first appeared it was seen as a “revolutionary machine,” because of the scale of its activities and its capability to “solve” certain problems with the help of sophisticated software. Attention was soon focused on the disruptive potential of databases, vexing questions about software ownership, and the “hacker ethic.” Traditional moral concepts and values such as responsibility, privacy, and freedom had to be creatively adapted to this new reality (Johnson & Nissenbaum, 1995).

Engineers who operate under constraints and obligations established by codes of ethics or professional responsibility maintained by professional organizations of which they are members and by state government authorities view these constraints and obligations, at times, as limitations or barriers. It is important to recognize, however, that these codes can also work to the benefit of the engineers governed by their terms. The codes of ethics of professional organizations and state authorities can serve a defensive and empowering function for engineers by providing a basis for preserving legal rights of the engineers and by reducing their risk of personal liability based on misconduct. Engineers should understand thoroughly the ethical obligations established by these codes and should identify the provisions of the codes that they can apply in their daily practice to help establish and document their personal defenses against potential future claims of misconduct.

Examinations of whether particular actions or intentions are ethical or not must grapple with the questions of what the applicable ethical standards are, how people may act in particular situations and why. These are difficult questions and the subject of much inquiry. There are many schools of thought and disciplines for answers, from religious traditions to philosophical to psychology.

This chapter presents an interview with Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet. The chapter discusses his personal views on ethics, data and privacy, net neutrality, public policy, self-driving cars, genetic codes, and reflections on the future.

The global engineering/construction industry is huge. In 2017, it was estimated to be an $8.8 trillion industry (Market Research Hub, 2016). The US construction industry in 2017 was estimated at $1.2 trillion (Wilcox, 2018). Because the industry is comprised of a myriad of projects to build new facilities or to repair or upgrade existing ones, it is often the location for bribery, fraud, and corruption. Government leaders in Panama, Brazil, and Spain have been removed from office for receiving bribes and kickbacks from projects in their countries. Engineering firms in the United States and Canada have been sanctioned for giving bribes to secure projects. These are the facts.

In an era of corporate mistrust, creating sustainable ethical corporations goes beyond implementing governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) strategy. It requires an ongoing intensified spotlight to make the highest ethical standards the norm, and ruthless intolerance of anything less. Corporations are at a tipping point seeking to build sustainable businesses while striving to avoid a front-page scandal. They are placing greater scrutiny on values as business enabler, leadership accountability, and building ethical decision-making as an integrated business process. The next generation of ethical systems is at our corporate doorstep. As Albert Einstein famously said, “we cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Today’s workplace has an unprecedented four generations working alongside each other. Globalization and the flattened twenty-first-century economy have pivotally shifted the norms of communication, information sharing, and collaboration. Greater visibility through mass media and social media has revealed new consumer and corporate behaviors. With greater transparency at our fingertips, trust has become the new currency, evidenced in the backlash as trust in public officials and corporate leaders steadily declines. The Edelman Trust Barometer has been studying trust across four institutions since 2012: businesses, government, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and media. Their 2017 report reveals that trust has declined broadly across all four institutions and that trust is in crisis around the world.

Large-scale aggregate analyses of anonymized data can yield valuable results and insights that address public health challenges and provide new avenues for scientific discovery. These methods can extend our knowledge and provide new tools for enhancing health and well-being. However, they raise questions about how to best address potential threats to privacy while reaping benefits for individuals and for society as a whole. The use of machine learning to make leaps across informational and social contexts to infer health conditions and risks from nonmedical data provides representative scenarios for reflections on directions with balancing innovation and regulation.

Medicine has a dichotomous personality, some of it is science and some of it is art. The science of medicine focuses on the technical skills and proficiency; whereas the art of medicine examines the ethical decision-making, professionalism, and relationships we foster to provide care to patients, comfort to families, and compassion to colleagues. It is often referred to as bedside manner, but it extends beyond that. It is communication, honesty, and respect.