Ethics And Ethics Of Engineering Ethics

Katz next explains a term Jack Sammons, a legal scholar, uses to explain what a technical professional must do to be ethical. This term is known as rebellious ethics, which is when one rebels “against the expectations and practices of one’s profession” (56). The expectation for engineers being that one must solely focus on efficiency and not let moral interests interfere. Sammons continues to say that to be good at your profession you have to take into consideration the needs of the people your project is meant for. Katz used this to transition from the idea of doubling to the idea of Nazi ideology.

Ethics are of a special importance to practicing professionals. Professions such as lawyers, teachers, doctors and engineers have a bigger responsibility as to making sure there jobs are done right and ethically. Though in order to achieve this goal individuals must understand what ethics really means. Ethics is basically the rules of conduct which is recognized in respect to a particular group, culture, or class of human actions. The decision to behave ethically is a moral one.

In Normative Ethics there are three distinct schools of thought, and each differentiate through moral intentions. Consequentialism relies on the consequences of an action in order to distinguish whether or not something is morally acceptable. Deontology considers the morality of an action by one’s reason for doing a certain deed. Lastly, virtue ethics bases morality off of virtuous character, and how a virtuous person would act given a certain predicament. Ultimately, consequentialism provides the most practical explanation for morality due to the notion of providing the best possible result. Contrarily, deontology and virtue ethics do not always provide an individual with the most sensible course of action, and therefore prove to be

What are ethics? Why is it important? Ethics can be defined as “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation; or “a set of moral principles (Merriam-Webster, 2017)”. The reason ethics is important is because it gives us a basic understanding the difference between concepts and situations that are considered right or wrong. We as humans have learned a set of values and beliefs that tell us what is considered right and wrong, there are times when situations change and the standard of ethics changes, but generally it goes according to our beliefs and what society considers to be right and wrong.

Since my journey here at Bryant began in September, I have changed so much. Coming here, I expected certain things such as my study habits, daily routine and friend group to be altered. One change I was not anticipating making was my approach to ethics. Over the course of the past fifteen weeks, my knowledge of ethics as well as my approach to ethics has changed. I have become more knowledgeable about the different approaches to ethics and have gained insight as to where I stand in my approach to ethics.

First adopted in 1914, the code of ethics for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is the model for professional conduct for all ASCE members. The code of ethics is an excellent model as it is broken down into eight canons for further understanding. The purpose of each canon is to serve as a guide and reminder for professional engineers that they are to have the moral and ethical integrity the profession calls for at all times while holding safety paramount. The ASCE code of ethics is very informative and insightful because although each canon does not go into great depth, the canons leave room for interpretation under different situations.

With the constant discovery of scientific principles and new engineering designs, the responsibility often lies in the hands of engineers to decide what is in the best interest of the public. Millions of people around the world use products and structures developed by engineers, every day. Before accepting work from a client, it is important that engineers have a good understanding of their own personal limitations. If work is accepted that they are “not competent to perform by virtue of [their] training and experience” , there is a clear disregard for public welfare and potential for a serious safety hazard. It is again evident that the

When engineers design a product many things go in to the decision making process when it comes to selecting materials, design, and the manufacturing processes. One concern that has always been in the decision making process is trying to make sure the outcome will always be ethically good, although this isn’t always the case. Try as they might, no person is perfect, and accidents do happen. When engineering disasters happen there are many factors that may be involved, such as human factors, design flaws, extreme conditions, and materials failures. When these things do happen it is important to look at the ethical aspect of each part of the failure and

Industrial Engineers often face the ethical dilemma of attempting to balance costs with quality and safety. Company management pressures Industrial systems engineers to design processes that are cost efficient, time constrained, and produce a high quality output. This puts the engineer in a tricky balancing act in which they are trying to make every stakeholder happy. Taking risks in order to create cost efficient solutions is not specific to only industrial engineers but applies to all disciplines of engineering, making this topic a relevant discussion. However, this conflict is especially true in a manufacturing setting where industrial engineers thrive, machine operators are often overworked, companies make products in high stakes, large batches, and the range of quality acceptance is growing ever smaller. A relevant example is the engineer who was designing a chemical plant in Mexico. In order to achieve the correct viscosity of the paint stripper, the engineer asked the plant operator to babysit the chemical mixture and manually release the valve when necessary. Engineering management’s decision puts the plant worker at a safety risk in order to achieve a tighter quality and standardization of the chemical stripper production process. Ultimately, this resulted in the catastrophic death of the plant worker and the destruction of the plant.

As mentioned above, it is very important for engineers to understand their own responsibilities. In 1960, the Conference of Engineering Societies of Western Europe and the United States of America defined "professional engineer" as follows:1 “A professional engineer is competent by virtue of his/her fundamental education and training to apply the scientific method and outlook to the analysis

There are many ethical dilemmas that an industrial engineer may face throughout their career. One major dilemma would be having to lay someone off because of a change you may have made to a process to make it more efficient. Industrial engineers are always trying to find a more efficient way of doing something, whether it’s in a factory, in an office, or the route of a delivery driver. Sometimes these things aren’t always as simple as they may seem. There are often consequences to these seemingly simple changes. People can and do get laid off because of a change to a process.

Ethics is the moral behavior that guides our actions; it motivates us in our personal behavior and is relevant in a business setting as well. Many organizations have set forth a set of guidelines known as a “Code of Ethics”. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, being one of these organizations, has set forth their code as a requirement for students and engineer members to adhere to. Heading towards a career in electrical engineering I choose this organization to elaborate on for my ethics project.

The following outline will help me write my essay about how engineers are faced with the ethical and moral issues of bribery in the industry. I chose this issue because it is a topic that speaks close to me. I have been put into many situations at work and during internships where I ask myself whether it is a bribe or if it is just networking. This essay will not only discuss the issue of bribery in the industry but help me further understand how to analyze certain scenarios if I am offered something else in the future.

Ethics by definition are defined as a set of moral rules of conduct that are accepted by general public and should be obeyed by everyone. Ethics are essential to the architecture of a modern dynamic society and play a vital part in engineering or any other businesses. Ethics provide guidance to humans to pursue a course of action correctively in specific situations, and prevent us from the ones that would have negative or drastic consequences. Ethics clarifies what is good and bad on the basis of moral principle or values. Regardless of which particular field the engineer is in (e.g. civil, electrical or mechanical), their main liability and responsibility are to ensure the health, safety, and general welfare of the public are protected to the highest level possible. Since almost the work done by engineers can have great impact on almost all aspects of our daily life, any design schemes or implementations that are made by engineers must meet the highest standard to ensure that no damages or potential damages to any resource, people, organization or environment will exist. Many organizations, like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) have established a set of code of ethics to

Several cases have led to an awareness of the importance of ethics within the engineering profession as engineers realize how their technical work has far-reaching impacts on society. The work of engineers can affect public health and safety and can influence business practices and even politics.’’(Fledderman,2004)