ABSTRACT

In the May 1998 newsletter of the North Carolina State Board of Registration for

Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, the board chairman, R. Larry

Greene, said:

When I was a young man, acting in an ethical manner seemed to be a

straightforward proposition. An act was either right or wrong, black or

white, morally correct or [not] . . . As an older, perhaps wiser, man I still try to guide my life by those principles, but I have learned over time

that recognizing right, wrong, black and white is not always a simple

proposition . . . Every situation we find ourselves in is different from any other we have ever experienced. As each new scenario is added to a job

situation, the ethical mix changes and the boundary between ethical and

unethical conduct, perhaps already gray in nature, shifts.