Professional Ethics

1) Profess” refers to the public declaration where a vow is made for something.

An occupation becomes a profession where certain individuals share the very same occupation and organize to work in a manner which can be best deemed as morally permissible, or for supporting a moral ideal.

The professional standards are set, which go beyond the normal purview of law, public opinion, marketplace and ordinary morality. Such standards become morally binding to the “professed” members of the profession (Illinois Institute of Technology 2018).

Ethics are the values and the norms, which are followed by individuals, and which guide the manner in which any act is done such people (Iphofen 3).In order to keep the professionals in check, and to ensure that they abide by the true spirit of their profession, professional code of ethics are formed.

A code of ethics depicts the manner in which the professionals are required to pursue the common idea in order to do the best at the minimal costs to themselves and to the ones they care about.

Such codes protect the professionals from different pressures, for instance, the pressure faced by professionals to cut corners in order to save money (Illinois Institute of Technology 2018).

The obligations under the codes of ethics for the professionals is towards the employer, customers, clients, other professionals, society, and even the profession.

The professional obligations of a person are taken from the profession, the code, the expectations of the society, tradition, laws, rules of ordinary morality, and contracts.

The professional ethics impart the responsibilities on the individuals in the sphere of tasks during the daily responsibilities, the liability for actions or decision undertaken, capacity for appreciating and controlling the behavior, and the moral responsibility (Illinois Institute of Technology 2018).

2) It has been pointed out that in pursuit of knowledge, in terms of science, there is no need to regard the needs of the society. However, when it comes to the application of this knowledge, there is a need for the needs of the society to be considered, as this knowledge is applied for the individuals from the society.

Particularly in the engineering field, adherence of professional ethics becomes very important and this has been recognized by the National Research Council (Nichols and Weldon 2018).

3) It is important that the engineers initially approach the ethical, environmental, quality, safety, liability and the communication issues in the very first step of designing process, in place of allowing the design to go forward without paying heed to these issues. This would allow the engineers to analyze and address each of the element of the problem from problem statement, and would be able to release the product for the consumer.

Significance

This also allows the engineers to integrate considerations of ethical concerns directly in designing process.

The significance is also raised as the engineering professionals are criticized for a number of occurrences due to their roles impacting different people and even the environment, directly (Harris 110).

The issues which are faced in the engineering profession are focused on issues of code of conduct, law and the regulations.

The issue which is raised from the concept of professional responsibility includes moral responsibility based upon education of engineers, along with the leadership obligation they owe to the society.

An example of a possible issue in engineering profession is not checking the feasibility of the design of a project, in order to save the costs, thereby posing a threat on the safety of the general public or the related stakeholders.

4) The ACEC, which stands for American Council of Engineering Companies, presents the best practices and standards for the engineers, particularly in context of professional ethics.

These are covered under the Professional and Ethical Conduct guidelines.

This code is applicable on consulting engineers and the members of this profession recognize their work to have a direct and significant impact over the quality of life for the individuals.

This requires services provided by the consulting engineers to be honest, impartial, fair, and equal. Further, it has to be dedicated towards protecting the welfare, health and safety (ACEC 2018). 

Another set of standards which have to be followed under the engineering field, and which act as an important guide, are the ones given by the NPSE Code of Ethics for Engineers.

These standards are aligned with the ones given by the ACEC. These standards require the members of the profession to show the highest standards of integrity and honesty.

There is a need for the engineers to work based on standard of professional behavior and to adhere to highest standards of ethical conduct (NPSE 2018).

The best practices in engineering filed, particularly in context of clients, includes being completely honest to the client, be it in terms of cost or the time duration, regarding the completion of project or its delay. There is also a need to maintain high level of confidentiality, particularly when faced with high level confidential information (Harris 122). There is a need for avoiding conflict of interest at all costs. Where the same cannot be avoided, there is a need to disclose about the conflict to the client. For instance, Alice is involved as a designing engineer in company using valves. While recommending product designs for the clients of the company, she specifies the valves made by relatives, even when the valves made by a range of companies are better alternatives. Such situations have to be avoided.

Issues in Engineering Profession

5) There are ethical issues which can be raised in the design process.

This can be explained better through an example.

In a project, there was a challenge of designing a sustainable car which was also a light weight one.

.The light weight aspect made the case less safe.

.This presented a challenge for the engineers.

.The nature of values of safety, as well as, sustainability had to be discussed, along with the relative moral weight of these values. .Even sustainability had moral obligations (Harris 110).

There is also the challenge of designing for human community and the environment. There is a common criticism in context of technology that its dominant nature leads to the fracturing of human experience. However, one cannot deny that technology does present opportunity to stress on sustainability, minimal pollution and the use of renewable sources. An example of this can be cited in the traditional fireplaces being replaced by modern fireplaces to curb pollution.

When the engineering, as being a technical and ethical practice is analyzed, it provides a great opportunity for the promotion of the wellbeing and of the agency of the communities and individuals. The ethical opportunities for engineering are in three key areas: Engineering for peace: where the emphasis is on the practical amelioration of the key reason of conflict, in place of military solutions; Engineering for health: where the focus is on close association with the health care professionals in order promote and restore health; and Engineering for development: where the effective solutions are provided for bringing down poverty levels (Bowen v).

6) A good source which can highlight the challenges and opportunities in the engineering filed, with a particular focus on ethics is the work done by  Bowen, W. Richard in his book called “Engineering Ethics: Challenges and Opportunities” Another good source on how the engineers have to act is to follow the guidelines which are given by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA) from time to time. Reading on good practices by Sefa Targ?t. There is also a need to read the standards given by ACEC and NPSE in detail. Another source is “Ethical Issues Facing Engineers and their Profession” by Jesa Kreiner, Albert Flores, and Sundaram Krishnamurthy, which gives an insight on what exactly the ethics are.

Engineering is a practice which takes place in the domains of societal interests. It has unavoidable and inherent impact over the society. Due to the relationship between engineering and the society, the engineers are required to adhere to certain professionalism levels, and follow certain ethics. The professional codes of conduct govern the conduct of the engineers (Basart and Serra 179). This discussion is focused on presenting different aspects of professional ethics and responsibilities, in context of engineering profession.

References:

ACEC. Professional and Ethical Conduct Guidelines. 2018, https://www.acec.org/about/ethics/ Basart, Josep M., and Montse Serra. “Engineering ethics beyond engineers’ ethics.” Science and Engineering Ethics19.1 (2013): 179-187. Boss, Martha J., and Gayle Nicoll, eds. Electrical Safety: Systems, Sustainability, and Stewardship. CRC Press, 2014. Bowen, W. Richard. Engineering ethics: Challenges and opportunities. Springer Science & Business Media, 2014. Harris, Charles E., et al. Engineering Ethics Concepts and Cases. Cengage Learning, 2009. Illinois Institute of Technology. Professional Ethics. 2018, https://ethics.iit.edu/teaching/professional-ethics Iphofen, Ron. Ethical decision making in social research: A practical guide. Springer, 2016. Kreiner, Jesa et al. Ethical Issues Facing Engineers and their Profession. 2004, https://www.ineer.org/Events/ICEER2004/Proceedings/papers/0203.pdf Kreiner, Jesa, and Chandra Putcha. “Ethical and professional issues facing engineers in global settings.” 4th ASEE/AaeE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education. Australasian Association of Engineering Education, 2005. Nichols SP, and WF Weldon. Professional Responsibility: The Role Of Engineering In Society. 2018, https://www.me.utexas.edu/~srdesign/paper/ NPSE. Code of Ethics. 2018, https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics Richard, BW. Engineering Ethics: Challenges and Opportunities. Springer, 2014. Targ?t, Sefa. What Is Good Engineering Practice? 2004, www.asray.com/_files/content/be74eb562e1d9c98aa937b1091d7f5bce5d641c9.pdf