Engineering Ethics
Engineering and its System of Moral Principles in Practice
Introduction
Ethics and its moral principles are largely observed in all disciplines and professional community. It embodies the standards of professional practices that are considered acceptable in the society. Engineering is a professional discipline that also puts emphasis on ethical practices and standards of morality. Such principles can be learned within the social interaction, but the most part of it is being in tough in professional schools. It is a crucial learning area in the professional education because it equips the student with proper ideologies that will help them face issues during professional practice. Ethics can be learned in a freestanding course, but theorists argue that the methods can also be introduced in technical courses such as engineering (Harris J.R., et al., 1996, p. 93). To start with, engineers should know the distinct difference between morality and professional ethics.
Morality is often referred to as the term used to define the standards of conduct, the universal understanding of what is right and wrong. Morality is apparent in everyone regardless of professional orientation because morality is part of social behavioral matters. Rationally, the principles of morality constitute the rules that everyone wants to follow. Professional ethics on the other hand are the morality permissible code of conduct specific to every member of a professional community. Engineers have their own set of professional ethics different from doctors and vice versa. The standards of professional ethic answers to the four questions of what, when, why and how. Engineering practices are based on what has been done, when it was done, why it was done and how was it done. These four questions would be able to determine the ethical violations and the level of adherence of an engineer (Harris J.R., et al., 1996, p. 94-96).
Discussion
Engineers have to follow a set of obligations to the society, clients and to their profession. The obligations set for engineers are not primarily to establish limitations, the profession is highly valuable in the society because of its contribution to science and development. The obligations were set to guide to the engineers in practice in terms of carrying out their profession. For example, if engineers do not adhere to the obligations of confidentiality, chances are the clients would have hesitations to trust the engineer because of the possibilities that of breach of trust. In this dilemma, the society would have second thoughts of trusting engineers with commercially-sensitive information. Therefore, the moral obligations of engineers can be understood as the duties performed in accordance to their role in the society (IPENZ, 2007, p. 2).
In terms of moral obligation to the clients, the clients are people that do not have the capacity to assess the level of expertise of the service and they significantly rely on relative strangers for particular engineering services. For this reason, clients take significant risk to hire professionals to take on the expertise job that themselves cannot perform. As an engineer, they are required by their ethical standards to display professionalism, trustworthiness and avoid conflict of interest. Clients are referred to as the end-user and are usually in a vulnerable position in terms of creating a professional relationship with the engineers. Because of this, a further set of obligations is being placed to ensure that the professional bond between the client and the engineers would not be compromised because of unethical practices. There are five main components of engineering core ethics. They are dedicated to covering the standards of practice in consideration for competence, public and workplace safety, community well-being, confidentiality, communication and sustainable management of environmental stewardship (IPENZ, 2007, p. 3-4) .
The five values backed by minimum standards and guidelines focuses on ethical consciousness and adoption of professional morality through the codes of ethics. The first value being observed in the engineering code of ethics is about safeguarding people and the protection of life. Engineers should recognize the need to safeguard and protect the people they serve whether the clients of the public in general. The engineer's work and activities should adhere to these needs and should be addressed at all times. Secondly, engineers should practice professionalism, competence and integrity, this constitutes the ideology of professional undertaking and their level of competence have to be committed with utmost integrity. It is not acceptable in any discipline for a professional to perform unsatisfactory work and abandon activities for any reason. It negates the importance of work integrity as abandoned projects for example would violate the code of conduct on professionalism and public safety.
The third values are about commitment to community well-being. Engineers are expected to contribute largely to the well-being of the community by integrating activities, that constitute endeavors to make consultations to the affected parties when necessary. Meaning, any project that may pose threat to the well-being of the people in the community should be first communicated to the affected individuals to propose alternative solutions. Engineers should also take full responsibility in taking care of the environment and sustainable management. There should be an utmost recognition of the need for sustainable management in utilizing environmental resources. It includes minimizing environmental impacts of engineering activities for the long-term. The last core value is about sustaining adequate engineering knowledge, it is apparent that engineers should adhere to the academic standards in order to practice. They should also seek for development of engineering knowledge by contributing new ideas, skills and knowledge that the society would greatly benefit from (IPENZ, 2007, p. 2).
Ethics are not only bound to morality, but also adheres to the legal aspects of the profession. Engineers should also demonstrate proper moral conduct in practicing the profession, but also show a coherent understanding of the legal implications of their actions. Engineering decisions have to be aligned with the core values of the profession in order to avoid legal and judicial consequences. Not complying to the legal obligations have several negative implications for employer's profitability, company shareholders and jeopardizing financial security. Studying engineering is important to the profession in terms of stimulating the moral imagination, to elicit a sense of responsibility, tolerating ambiguity and disagreement, developing analytical skills and recognizing situations that require ethical solutions (Lipasti , 2010, p. 1). It must be recalled that ethics vary across individuals and culture. There are instances that the engineer has to make a decision by himself, but making decisions must carefully assess the conflicts between legal and ethical circumstances. Engineers may think their actions are ethical, but clients and employers would most of the time choose what is legal. Therefore, engineers have to make decision starting from political, religious, cultural, traditions and judicial perspectives (Lipasti , 2010, p. 2).
IEEE or the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers established their code of ethics based on the aforementioned set of principles. According to their code of ethics, engineers should accept their responsibilities consistent with the public's health, safety and welfare, including disclosures of information and factors that might pose threat to the public. Any perceived conflict of interest should be avoided and in any cases of its existence must be disclosed to the affected parties. Honesty is a great deal of policy that engineers should always observe in practice, this includes realistic assessments and stating claims based only on reliable data. Accepting bribery of any form is a mortal sin under the engineer's code of ethics, not a single engineer should accept bribery for it will constitute multiple violations.
In order to effectively adhere to the code of ethics of engineering, some useful tools and simple rules were proposed to guide engineers in practicing their profession. First is the principle of informed consent, engineers should always assume that people particularly their client will act in their own best interest (Lipasti , 2012, p. 2). Each individual is responsible for his own well-being and full disclosure will enable informed decisions that will prevent any untoward threat to the themselves. Analyzing the utilitarian principles and the rights of every person would help an engineer to better understand the context of the profession's code of conduct. In order to analyze its context, the engineer has to identify everyone that will be affected by his decisions. Effects have to be weighed based on the outcome for the stakeholders and consider the weight of each effect in order to select the best possible outcome. In terms of dealing with problems, intangibles have to be weighed for its effects versus self implications. This way the engineer would be able to make the best decision that will be beneficial to him and to the society.
Engineers spent years of blood and sweat to obtain their licenses and professional title. Not adhering to the code of conducts of the profession would cost them all the hard work they exerted in order to become an engineer. It takes years to learn the discipline and only a moment to lose everything if they defied the rules of morality in this profession. News headlines contain articles of engineering work-gone-wrong and the professionals involve in the failed project would either spend years of their life in jail and lose their professional credibility at the same time. Furthermore, engineering related accidents cost lives and engineers should understand that their piece of work are made to provide innovation and convenience to the people instead of a tool of death. The main context of ethics are simple, do what is right and as a human being and a professional engineer, they should know better in distinguishing the ethical from unethical (The Royal Academy of Engineering , 2011, p. 9-14).
References
Harris J.R., C. E., Davis, M., Pritchard, M. S., & Rabins, M. J. (1996). Engineering Ethics: What? Why? How? And When? Journal of Engineering Education, 93-96.
IPENZ (2007). Engineers and Ethical Obligations. Practice Note 08, 2-4.
Lipasti, M. (2010). Engineering Ethics. ECE/CS 252, Fall 2010 Presentation, 1-2.
Royal Academy of Engineering (2011). Engineering ethics in practice: A guide for engineers (9-14 ed.). London, England: Royal Academy of Engineering.
