Engineering Ethics

Lecture 2
Codes of Engineering Ethics
 Professionalism and Codes of Ethics

Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to
• Determine whether engineering is a
profession
• Understand what codes of ethics are
• Examine some codes of ethics of
professional engineering societies.
 Intel Pentium Chip
Late in 1994, reports began to appear in the news media that the latest generation
of Pentium microprocessors, the heart and soul of personal computers, was flawed.
These reports appeared not only in trade journals and magazines aimed at computer
specialists, but also in The New York Times and other daily newspapers. The stories
reported that computers equipped with these chips were unable to correctly perform
some relatively simple multiplication and division operations.
At first, Intel, the manufacturer of the Pentium microprocessor, denied that there
was a problem. Later, it argued that although there was a problem, the error would be
significant only in sophisticated applications, and most people wouldn’t even notice that an
error had occurred.
It was also reported that Intel had been aware of the problem and already was working to fix
it.
As a result of this publicity, many people who had purchased Pentium-based computers
asked to have the defective chip replaced. Until the public outcry had reached huge
proportions, Intel refused to replace the chips.
Finally, when it was clear that this situation was a public relations disaster for them, Intel
agreed to replace the defective chips when customers requested.
 Did Intel do anything unethical?
we need to develop a framework for understanding
ethical problems.
One part of this framework will be the codes of
ethics that have been established by professional
engineering organizations.
These codes help guide engineers in the course
of their professional duties and give them insight
into ethical problems such as the Intel one
 Introduction

• When confronted by an ethical problem, what

resources are available to an engineer to help
find a solution?
• Various professional societies approve codes
of ethics that serve to guide practitioners of
the profession in making decisions about how
to conduct themselves and how to resolve
ethical issues that might confront them.
 Are codes of ethics applicable to
engineering ?
• We must first consider what professions are
and how they function and then decide if this
definition applies to engineering.
• To determine whether engineering is a
profession, the nature of professions must first
be examined.
 What is a Profession?

• Any work for hire can be considered a job or

an occupation, regardless of the skill level
involved and the responsibility granted.
• Engineering is certainly a job—engineers are
paid for their services—but the skills and
responsibilities involved in engineering make it
more than just a job.
• Example: “professional carpenter,”
• What is a Profession?
Attributes of a profession include:
• Work that requires sophisticated skills, the use of
judgment, and the exercise of discretion.
• The work is not routine and can not be mechanized.
• Membership in the profession requires extensive formal
education, not simply practical training or apprenticeship .
• Members of the profession have special societies or
organizations to set standards for admission, conduct for
members.
• Significant public good results from the practice of the
profession
 Engineering as a Profession

• Engineering requires extensive and sophisticated skills.

• Engineers spend four years in college just to get a start
in engineering.
• The essence of engineering design is judgment: how to
use the available materials, components, and devices
to reach a specified objective.
• Discretion is also required in engineering: Engineers
are required to keep their employers’ and/or clients’
intellectual property and business information
confidential.
 Differences between Engineering and Other
Professions

• Lawyers and most physicians are typically self-employed in

private practice and independent business. Relatively few are
employed by large organizations such as corporations.
• Most engineers are not self-employed, but more often are a small
part of larger companies involving many different occupations,
including accountants, marketing specialists, and extensive
numbers of less skilled manufacturing employees.
• Training for engineers is different than for physicians and
lawyers. One can be employed as an engineer after four years of
undergraduate education, unlike law and medicine, for which
training in the profession doesn’t begin until after the
undergraduate program has been completed.
 Codes of Ethics

• What Is a Code of Ethics?

These codes express the rights, duties, and
obligations of the members of the profession
• Provides a framework for ethical judgment for a
professional.
• It can also express the commitment to ethical
conduct shared by members of a profession.
• It defines the roles and responsibilities of
professionals.
 Importance of codes
Codes of ethics play at least eight essential roles:
• serving and protecting the public,
• providing guidance,
• offering inspiration,
• establishing shared standards,
• supporting responsible professionals,
• contributing to education and mutual understanding,
• deterring wrongdoing, and
• strengthening a profession’s image
 Abuse of codes
When codes are not taken seriously within a profession, they
amount to a kind of window dressing that ultimately increases public cynicism about the profession.
Worse, codes occasionally stifle dissent within the profession and are abused in otherways.

(i) Probably the worst abuse of engineering codes is to restrict

honest moral effort on the part of individual engineers to preserve the profession’s public image and
protect the status quo.Preoccupation with keeping a shiny public image may silence
healthy dialogue and criticism. And an excessive interest in
protecting the status quo may lead to a distrust of the engineering profession on the part of both
government and the public.

(ii) On rare occasions, abuses have discouraged moral conductand caused serious harm to those
seeking to serve the public.

(iii) Moreover, codes have sometimes placed unwarranted “restraints of commerce” on business
dealings to benefit those within the profession. Obviously there is disagreement about which, if any,
entries function in these ways
 Limitation of Codes
(i)Codes are no substitute for individual responsibility in grappling with concrete dilemmas. Most
codes are restricted to general wording, and hence inevitably contain substantial areas and
Codes of Ethics of vagueness. Thus, they may not be able to straightforwardly address all
situations.

(ii) Other uncertainties can arise when different entries in codes come into conflict with each
other. Usually codes provide little guidance as to which entry should have priority in those cases.

(iii) A further limitation of codes results from their proliferation. Andrew Oldenquist (a
philosopher) and Edward Slowter (an engineer and former NSPE president) point out how the
existence of separate codes for different professional engineering societies can give members
the feeling that ethical conduct is more relative and variable than it actually is. But Oldenquist
and Slowter have also demonstrated the substantial agreement to be found among the various
engineering codes, and they call for the adoption of a unified code.
 Limitation of Codes
(iii) Most important, despite their authority in guiding professional conduct, codes
are not always the complete and final word.Codes can be flawed, both by omission and
commission. Until recently, for example, most codes omitted explicit mention of
responsibilities concerning the environment.
(iv) codes invariably emphasize responsibilities but say nothing
about the rights of professionals (or employees) to pursue their
endeavors responsibly.
(v) Codes, after all,represent a compromise between differing judgments, sometimes
developed amidst heated committee disagreements. As such, they have a great
“signpost” value in suggesting paths through
what can be a bewildering terrain of moral decisions. But they
should never be treated as sacred canon in silencing healthy
moral debate, including debate about how to improve them.
 Limitation of Codes
vi) Inequality: Codes of conduct are often drafted, in part, to ensure that all
members of an organization are treated equally. However, often those in upper-
level management and creative positions are given a "bye" on certain codes, like
those restricting how the worker talks about the company or to what degree
employees are allowed to have personal relationships outside of work. According
to CNN Money contributor Eleanor Bloxham, if companies are going to have
codes of conduct they should reconsider any code that cannot be applied
equally.
Vii) Unenforceability
Some codes of conduct, perhaps because of employee misconduct in the past,
take a micromanagement approach, dictating detailed minutia like the kinds of
material that can be worn in the office or the exact length of personal phone
calls. According to Leadership Skills for Life, it is important for codes of conduct
to be detailed because some questions, like whether or not taking a company
pen home is ethical, will render many answers.
 Limitation of Codes
(viii)Unethical Corporate Behavior: In some cases, codes of conduct may
facilitate unethical corporate behavior. Codes of conduct that limit
employees' ability to speak out against the corporation can keep them
quiet for fear of job loss or legal retribution even if the company is
engaging in an unethical practice. Further, codes of conduct can be used
to set ethical-looking rules that managers are instructed not to follow
so if any misconduct occurs it is the individual employee, not the
corporation that will be blamed.
(ix) Lack of Stability:Although many codes of conduct are developed out
of corporate values, mission statements and even past incidents of
company impropriety, there is rarely anything holding corporations to
their own codes of conduct. In other words, they are not stable, and
owners or boards of directors can revise them to include the company's
current needs and desires -- be they ethical or not -- at any time.
 Ethical Relativism
• Ethical relativism is the theory that holds that morality is
relative to the norms of one's culture. That is, whether an
action is right or wrong depends on the moral norms of the
society in which it is practiced. The same action may be morally
right in one society but be morally wrong in another.
• For the ethical relativist, there are no universal moral standards
-- standards that can be universally applied to all peoples at all
times.
• The only moral standards against which a society's practices can
be judged are its own.
• If ethical relativism is correct, there can be no common
framework for resolving moral disputes or for reaching
agreement on ethical matters among members of different
societies.
 Ethical Relativism
• Most ethicists reject the theory of ethical relativism. Some claim that while the moral
practices of societies may differ, the fundamental moral principles underlying these
practices do not.
• For example, in some societies, killing one's parents after they reached a certain age
was common practice, stemming from the belief that people were better off in the
afterlife if they entered it while still physically active and vigorous. While such a practice
would be condemned in our society, we would agree with these societies on the
underlying moral principle -- the duty to care for parents. Societies, then, may differ in
their application of fundamental moral principles but agree on the principles.
• Also, it is argued, it may be the case that some moral beliefs are culturally relative
whereas others are not. Certain practices, such as customs regarding dress and decency,
may depend on local custom whereas other practices, such as slavery, torture, or
political repression, may be governed by universal moral standards and judged wrong
despite the many other differences that exist among cultures. Simply because some
practices are relative does not mean that all practices are relative.
• But even if the theory of ethical relativism is rejected, it must be acknowledged that the
concept raises important issues. Ethical relativism reminds us that different societies
have different moral beliefs and that our beliefs are deeply influenced by culture. It also
encourages us to explore the reasons underlying beliefs that differ from our own, while
challenging us to examine our reasons for the beliefs and values we hold.
 Codes of the Engineering Societies

• Engineering societies began to be organized in

the late 19th century. Many of them created
codes of ethics to guide practicing engineers
on how to conduct business
• Now, most codes emphasize commitments to
safety, public health, and even environmental
protection as the most important duties of the
engineer.
 The code of the IEEE
(The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers )

• It is short and deals in generalities. It is more

likely to be read by members of the society
than is a longer code. It is truly functions as a
framework for ethical decision making. The
code doesn’t mention a duty to one’s
employer. However, it does explicitly mention
a duty to protect the environment.
 We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies
affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal
obligation to our profession, its members, and the communities we serve, do hereby
commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:

1. to accept responsibility in making decisions consistent with the

safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly
factors that might endanger the public or the environment;
2. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever
possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do
exist;
3. to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on
available data;
4. to reject bribery in all its forms;
5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate
application, and potential consequences;
 6 . to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake
technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full
disclosure of pertinent limitations;
7. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge
and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others;
8. to treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender,
disability, age, or national origin;
9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or
malicious action;
10. to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to
support them in following this code of ethics.
Approved by the IEEE Board of Directors, February 2006
The code of the NSPE (National Society of Professional Engineers).

• It has the advantage of being more explicit

and it covers more ground. It is useful for
application to specific cases. It is less likely to
be read by most engineers.
• The code has a preamble that succinctly
presents the duties of the engineer. It then,
mention the engineer’s duty to his or her
employer.
 Code of Ethics for Engineers

Preamble
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,
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.
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. Rules of Practice
1. Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and
welfare of the public.
2. Engineers shall perform services only in the areas of their
competence.
3. Engineers shall issue public statements only in an objective
and truthful manner.
4. Engineers shall act for each employer or client as faithful
agents or trustees
5. Engineers shall avoid deceptive acts.
• III. Professional Obligations
1. Engineers shall be guided in all their relations by the highest standards of honesty and
integrity.
2. Engineers shall at all times strive to serve the public interest.
3. Engineers shall avoid all conduct or practice that deceives the public
4. Engineers shall not disclose, without consent, confidential information concerning the
business affairs or technical processes of any present or former client or employer, or public
body on which they serve.
5. Engineers shall not be influenced in their professional duties by conflicting interests.
6. Engineers shall not attempt to obtain employment or advancement or professional
engagements by untruthfully criticizing other engineers, or by other improper or
questionable methods.
7. Engineers shall not attempt to injure, maliciously or falsely, directly or indirectly, the
professional reputation, prospects, practice, or employment of other engineers. Engineers
who believe others are guilty of unethical or illegal practice shall present such information to
the proper authority for action.
8. Engineers shall accept personal responsibility for their professional activities,
provided, however, that engineers may seek indemnification for services arising
out of their practice for other than gross negligence, where the engineer’s
interests cannot otherwise be protected.
9. Engineers shall give credit for engineering work to those to whom credit is due
and will recognize the proprietary interests of others.
 Other Types of Codes of Ethics

• Other different organizations have adapted code of ethics. For

example, codes for the ethical use of computers have been
developed.
• Student organizations in universities have framed student codes of
ethics.
• Many corporate also have developed code of ethics. Corporate
codes frequently spell out in detail the company policies on
business practices, relationships with suppliers, relationships with
government agencies, compliance with government regulations,
health and safety issues, issues related to environmental
protection, equal employment opportunity and affirmative action,
sexual harassment, and diversity and racial/ethnic tolerance