ETHICS IN ENGINEERING

ABSTRACT:

Engineering is an important and learned profession. As members of this profession,

engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity.
Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people.
Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, integrity, impartiality,
fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety,
and welfare. Engineers must perform under a standard of professional behavior that
requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct.It is argued that, as society
becomes increasingly dependent on technology, it is more and more incumbent on the
masters of technology to assume the responsibility for protecting the public from
technology gone awry. It is pointed out that a comparison of the actual events of the
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster with the IEEE Code of Ethics reveals that this Code is
not widely implemented in the engineering workplace. It is further noted that, although
the TQM (total quality management) movement helps by creating a corporate atmosphere
of openness, it is up to the engineering schools to empower their graduates with the skills
and the determination to live up to the IEEE Code of Ethics. Some proposals for
engineering ethics education, including (1) establishing an engineering oath modeled on
the Hippocratic oath and (2) increasing requirements for courses in ethical engineering
and effective communications, and provide on-the-job training for practicing engineers

INTRODUCTION

Engineering Ethics is the field of applied ethics which examines and sets standards for
engineers' obligations to the public, their clients, employers and the profession.The
application of engineering ethics provides a consensus on the morality of engineering
decisions and defines guidelines for moral conduct by all engineering professionals. Such
guidelines are partially based on ethical codes developed by engineering societies, most
notably the National Society of Professional Engineers, so as to maintain the aura of
professionalism throughout the engineering discipline. Codes of ethics also may
encourage engineers to behave in a manner that benefits both the profession and society.
Above all else, engineering professionals are in service to society, and so it is implicit in
both the ethical codes and engineering ethics, that the public good should be placed
above the personal interest of engineers.
I. Fundamental Canons
Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:

1. Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.

2. Perform services only in areas of their competence.

3. Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.

4. Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.

5. Avoid deceptive acts.

6. Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance

the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession.

II. Professional Obligations

I. Engineers shall be guided in all their relations by the highest standards

of honesty and integrity.

a. Engineers shall acknowledge their errors and shall not distort or alter the facts.

b. Engineers shall advise their clients or employers when they believe a project will not
be successful.

c. Engineers shall not accept outside employment to the detriment of their regular work
or interest. Before accepting any outside engineering employment, they will notify their
employers.

d. Engineers shall not attempt to attract an engineer from another employer by false or
misleading pretenses.

e. Engineers shall not promote their own interest at the expense of the dignity and
integrity of the profession.

II. Engineers shall at all times strive to serve the public interest.

a. Engineers are encouraged to participate in civic affairs; career guidance for youths; and
work for the advancement of the safety, health, and well-being of their community.
b. Engineers shall not complete, sign, or seal plans and/or specifications that are not in
conformity with applicable engineering standards. If the client or employer insists on
such unprofessional conduct, they shall notify the proper authorities and withdraw from
further service on the project.

c. Engineers are encouraged to extend public knowledge and appreciation of engineering

and its achievements.

d. Engineers are encouraged to adhere to the principles of sustainable development in

order to protect the environment for future generations.

PROFESSIONALISM IN ENGINEERING PRACTICE:

Professionals with an engineering and technology orientation form are an important ethic
group of knowledgeable workers in the innovation in general. Their learning interaction
and tacit knowledge transfer are influence by individual and collective thinking styles,
mental dispositions and cognitive science. The cognitive styles of engineering and
technical knowledgeable workers are significant issues for systems of innovation. This
paper is a discussing base on the known knowledge in the following topics: professionals
with engineering and technology orientation and future engineering education.

The professionalism spirit revolves around moral ideas, motives, attitudes and emotions
to which a profession is dedicated. The difficulty of assigning priority rankings among
conflicting values in specific situations arise problems. To act ethically often requires a
high degree of courage which governs confrontations with danger and risk. Moral virtues
are tendencies to find the golden mean between two extremes of too much (excess) and
too little (deficiency).

“To undertake a great work, and especially a work of a novel type , means carrying out
an experiment .it means taking up a struggle with the forces of nature without the
assurance of emerging as a victor after the first attack”

Louis Marie Henri Navier (1785-1836), a founder of structural analysis.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILTY:

Professional responsibility encompasses a wide variety of more specific virtues that

acquire importance in particular situations. There are four major classifications based on
this, they are:
1. Self direction virtues
2. Public-spirited values
3. Team-work virtues
4. Proficiency virtues
SELF DIRECTION VIRTUES: It centers on practical wisdom. Some of the virtues are
self-understanding, autonomy, responsibility, humility, a proper moral judgment,
courage, self discipline, perseverance, fidelity to commitments ,self respect and integrity.

PUBLIC-SPIRITED VIRTUES: It focuses on wider public affected by one’s work.

Engineering codes of professional conduct also call for beneficence, a sense of commuity
and generosity.

TEAM-WORK VIRTUES: This is to enable professionals to work successfully with

other people. They include collegiality, cooperativeness, effective communication and
respect for legitimate authority.

PROFICIENCY VIRTUES: These virtues are the concerned with the mastery of the
technical skills which characterize good engineering practice. The most general
proficiency is competence, followed by, diligence and creativity.

Some general values cut across the four categories and most of the virtues are
interconnected.

ENGINEERS AS SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION

Experimentation is commonly connected with design process. Each engineering project

taken as a totality may itself be viewed as an experiment. The evolution of a finished
product consists of various tests, simulations and detailed designs. Further tests are run at
the production stage until the finished product evolves.