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Advice from the Texas Instruments Ethics Office

Author(s): Skooglund, Carl and Glenn Coleman

Ethical Responsibilities, Raising Issues, and Getting Help
Responsibilities, Rights and Obligations vis a vis the Company
Responsibilities, Rights and Obligations vis a vis Co-worker
Professional Ethics for Engineers
Intellectual Property

Ethical Responsibilities, Raising Issues, and Getting Help

Help on Ethical Decisions: Guidelines to determine ethical implications of decisions.

See also Perceptions on the importance for the working community of raising issues of apparent wrong doing by others, not only to stop wrong doing but also to dispel suspicion.

Responsibilities, Rights and Obligations vis a vis the Company

Computer Games as an Example, Raising Issues About Apparent Wrongdoing: Ethical implications of using computer equipment to play computer games.
Company Resources Used for Personal Benefit: Ethical implications of misuse of company assets such as copy machines and computer equipment for personal use.
Ethical Issues in Company Travel: Ethical issues of travel, expenditures allowed for business purposes and personal travel.

Responsibilities, Rights and Obligations vis a vis Co-workers

Diversity and Opportunity: Ethical decision-making in employment and personnel, equal opportunity, fairness and conflict of interest.
Favoritism in the Workplace: Perception of favoritism, being treated fairly, and the importance of a valuing environment.
Gossiping at Work: Communication and the perception of ill-truths, rumors and the effects in the workplace.
Individual Privacy: Ethical issues of reasonable rights to privacy, monitoring of email, offensive communications, copying and sharing email information.
Responsibilities as a Team Leader: Discussion of the responsibilities of a leader that include: employee motivation, meeting expectations and creation of safe atmosphere of trust and mutual respect.

Professional Ethics for Engineers

Entertainment, Gifts-Avoiding Bribes and Conflict of Interest: Ethical issues as they apply to gifts, entertainment and courtesy expenses.
Signing Off on Engineering Documents: Proper use of professional titles and ethical implications of misuse.
Mischarging Time -- Financial Fraud: Protection of company assets from theft, that include losses in time, equipment, productivity, improper use of expense accounts and work relationships.

Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property - Copyrights and Patents: Ethical implications of illegal copying of software, copyright restrictions on written articles, and reverse engineering.
Software Piracy vs. Legal Copying: Guidelines to protect against software piracy, ethical use of copied software, unlicensed software and use of questionable graphics.
Software, Bringing Your Own to Work: Ethical considerations and guidelines to use of personal software on company computers.
Benchmarking and Reverse Engineering: Ethical issues of competitive benchmarking, how information is requested without misrepresentation or deceite, reverse engineering to reveal design and function, consideration of legalities, violation of patent rights.

This pages contains a selection of advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation.

The advice is that of either TI Ethics Director Carl Skooglund or Glenn Coleman, Manager of Ethics Communication and Education. The articles were distributed among TI employees via TNEWS.

Computer Games (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation on use of computers for personal instead of workplace usage.
Diversity and Opportunity (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation on diversity in the workforce.
Information Security (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation regarding ethical leadership, software ownership, use of fax machines, email and effects they have on protection of data.
Intellectual Property-Copyrights and Patents (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation on Intellectual property, copyrights and patents.
Responsibilities as a Team Leader (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation regarding ethical leadership, professionalism, gossip, manager and employee relations.
Signing Off on Engineering Documents (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation on signing off on engineering documents.
Software Piracy v. Legal Copying (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation regarding, unlawful software duplication, distribution, software ownership and piracy.
Benchmarking and Reverse Engineering (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation on benchmarking and reverse engineering.
Company Resources Used for Personal Benefit (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation on company resources used for personal benefit.
Entertainment, Gifts, and Bribes (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation on bribes and gifts.
Favoritism in the Workplace (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation on favoritism in the workplace and workplace relationships.
Help on Ethical Decisions (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation regarding responsibility, accountability, sensitivity, conflict of interest, ethical leadership, trust and respect.
Importance of Ethical Behavior in the Workplace (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation regarding issues of lying, deception, responsibility, accountability, improper use of company computer resources.
Individual Privacy (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation on individual privacy including, email, forwading messages and reading fax communications.
Responsibilities as a Team Member (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation regarding responsibilities as a team member,leadership responsibilities, workplace relationships as a manager and employee.
Bringing Your Own Software to Work (Advice from the Texas Instruments Ethics Office)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation
Ethical Issues in Company Travel (Advice from the Texas Instruments Ethics Office)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation.
Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation: Gossiping at Work

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation.
Mischarging Time - Financial Fraud (Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation)

Advice from The Ethics Office at Texas Instruments Corporation