Why professional ethics important to engineer and discuss how to promote ethical practices

amongst engineer.
Ethics is the study of the characteristics of morals, and involves the moral choices made by
individuals as they interact with other persons. Engineers need to be aware of ethics as they
make choices during their professional practice of engineering. Engineering ethics will be
defined as the rules and standards governing the conduct of engineers in their roles as
professionals.
Engineering has always been related to business, but now more than ever. Engineers are
increasingly involved in startup companies in which they make business decisions as well as
engineering decisions. Even in large firms, highly integrated product development cycles
bring engineers into closer contact with marketing and other business people than in years
past. Engineers must now think about ethical issues that were once the province of business
managers. In addition, the rapid growth of biotechnology and e-commerce has created a new
ethical and scape in which engineers must operate.
An issue of great concern to engineers is how to balance quality and safety against cost.
Engineers want to design a high-quality product, but business managers want to keep the cost
down. This raises business, legal and ethical issues. The business issues centre around what
firms must do to compete in the marketplace. The legal and ethical issues concern what they
should do. Engineers who are asked to cut corners should first understand the company's
legal obligations to its customers. According to common law, a product must be fit for the
purpose for which it is sold. If a new ballpoint pen does not write, the merchant must refund
the customer's money. This is known as failure of consideration.
Legal considerations alone may not address the engineer's dilemma. They may leave it
unclear what the engineer should do when the firm acts illegally, or when the firm's behaviour
is within the law but odious on other grounds. It is useful here to recall the distinction of
professional obligations from other obligations. In the area of quality and safety, an
engineers professional obligation is fairly well defined. It is to live up to the expectations the
profession has created. The public expects a building, for example, to be totally safe from
collapse except in the case of extraordinary disaster. A firms bid must cover the cost of this
kind of safety. The U.S. public expects a product to be absolutely safe in normal use. This is
reflected in the strict liability theory. The European public expects the product to meet
specifications. This expectation varies across cultures. Volvos are built like tanks because
Scandinavian culture emphasizes protective and systemic safety (as reflected by elaborate
social welfare systems), whereas Ferraris emphasize maneuverability because Italians prefer
to be safe by taking individual action (as reflected by dysfunctional social systems).
The Civil Engineers work is defined by boundaries. Nowadays the two most important of
these boundaries are:
(i)
the working boundary, as an employee or self-employed professional practitioner,
and;
(ii)
the job boundary, where the scope, scale and overall physical and temporal
boundaries of the work in hand are set. In the working context, the professional,
however engaged, has a duty to comply with the ethical and conduct standards set
by the Institution (ICE, 2004; 2008) and have regard for the wider standards
expected notably by the Engineering Council. A challenging requirement is that
for the professional to only perform services in areas of current competence
(Royal Academy of Engineering, 2011); especially where there is innovation that
inherently brings new risks and uncertainties into the work.

There is a third boundary that related to the information made available to the client and how
it may be constrained or presented in a particular way and to whom. In an open system the
information about the scheme, both locally and in a wider context would be made available to
the paying client and to society as a whole. Professionals have a difficult task in deciding
what information and how best to make this available in a way that can best be understood in
an increasingly complex world where non-experts are struggling with the rapidly increasing
body of knowledge held by increasingly polarised experts who in turn, frequently disagree
about the best course of action. This is a paradox, given humanitys growing ability to
manipulate and change natural systems and requires professionals who can recognise these
challenges and rise above often too locally focussed stakeholder interests.
There are several ways that can be done to promote ethical practices amongst engineer.
There ways are listed below:
Train Employees
You can't expect your staff to act ethically in accordance with your company's code of ethics
if they don't know what that code is or why it's important. Hold regular sessions on ethics and
how to approach ethical dilemmas among staff. The more training and resources you provide,
and the greater emphasis you place on being ethical and acting accordingly, the more your
staff understands exactly what you expect in the office.
Reward Ethical Behaviour
Far too often, companies simply expect ethical behaviour; however, if you want to promote
this as a prominent behaviour among staff, then you need to show and prove, so to speak.
Provide rewards for solid ethical behaviour; for example, if you have an employee that goes
above and beyond to put her personal interests aside to always do what is best for her clients,
that is considered ethical behaviour and she should be rewarded and held up as an example
for others to strive to do the same. The more you reward employees for sound ethical
decisions, the more likely the masses will follow suit.

Lead by Example
Expect more of your management team; employees generally follow company examples set
forth for them by management employees. Hold your managers to a higher ethical standard
so that they are credible when they communicate expectations to their staffers to do the same.
Challenge management staff to hold regular discussions with employees to work through
potential ethical issues that may come up and find ways to brainstorm through them as a
team. If everyone is on the same page, it is more likely that the team as a whole will adopt the
same types of ethical behaviours.

Consider Work-Life Balance

According to the Accounting Web website, a 2007 Ethics and Workplace survey by Deloitte
& Touche states that 91 percent of employees surveyed said they are most likely to make
good ethical decisions at work when they have a better sense of work-life balance. Pay

attention to signs of burnout or discontent among staff, and take steps to address these types
of issues when they present themselves.