A presentation by Shivam Shukla

CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION

• WHY ENGINEERS NEED ETHICS

• PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

• WHO DECIDES

• ETHICS RELATING TO ENGINEERS

• BRANCHES OF ETHICS

• ETHICAL THEORIES

• WHISTLE BLOWING

• CONCLUTION

• System of moral principles

• Principles of right and wrong

• Principles of conduct governing behavior of an individual or a group

• Standards rules and guidelines.

• Socially accepted conducts.

• ETHICS IS IN ESSENCE PRACTICAL RATHER THYAN BEING PHILOSPHICAL

WHY ENGINEERS NEED ETHICS

Why engineers need ethics ?

• Because engineering is not just a way of making just a living . It is profession, a calling’ in which individuals are personally committed to using their skills and abilities to achieve a high social goal .

• Engineering is not just a way of making money . It is a moral commitment

• In decision making, rules do not encompass every situation

• No set of rules or policies can anticipate every ethical problem

• Engineers should be sensitive to ethical questions

• Engineers make decisions crucial to society at large

Professional Ethics

• Distinguished from common morality and personal ethics

• Common morality- set of moral believes shared by almost everyone

• Personal ethics- Set of moral beliefs that a person holds

• A set of standards adopted by professionals in so far as they view themselves acting as a professionals

• An example of role morality because professionals have both an obligation not harm their clients or employers and an obligation to contribute to their well being

MORALITY VS ETHICS

Who Decides?

• Standards adopted by Professional CommunityNSPE(National society of professional engineers ), ASME etc. May conflict with personal ethics

Ethics as Relating to Engineering

Engineering often is based on Preventative Ethicswhich is based on two dimensions:

1. Engineers must be able to think ahead to anticipate possible consequences of their professional actions.

2. Engineers must be able to think effectively about those consequences and decide what is the ‘ethically’ correct manner to handle the situation.

Branches of Ethics

• Applied ethics -

1)Analysis of specific controversial moral issues like euthanasia, whistle blowing

2) Addresses the problem of knowing what is right, wrong good or bad

• Normative ethics –

1) Ideal litmus test of reasonable behavior

2) The golden rule of doing to other as we want them do to us

• Meta ethics –

1) Does not concern with what is right or wrong but instead it questions about the nature of morality. Eg -ISIS

2) It questions whether morals as we know exits in the world naturally or invention of man. Eg –sati pratha

• Descriptive ethics –

1)Referred as comparative ethics because it compares ethical systems

2)Comparing the ethics of one society against other

Ethical theories

• Virtue ethics :- ethics grounded in virtue and moral character

• Deontology : duty or principle behind the action.

• Utilitarianism : The consequence of action

Indian ethics

• Considered as the most ethical society of the world .

• Example –VASUDHEV KUTUMBKAM

VASUDHEV KUTUMBKAM

Ethical dilemmas or value conflict

Ethical dilemmas or value conflict

• A value is quality characteristics or standard considered meritorious important or desirable

• Value issues common to ethical dilemmas include dishonesty, selfishness, inefficiency

• Value conflict is a qualitative conflict also termed as ethical dilemmas and crisis of conscience

Case study(citi corp center in manhattan )

• Sky scrapper has to be built

• Welding quality and weld material chosen was inappropriate

• An engineer came to know that the practice is not safe told his senior manger but was ignored

• After sometime removed from the job

• Wrote letter to the senator and got succeeded in the safe design

VALUE CONFLICT

WHISTLE BLOWING

• Disobedience by protest

• The most controversial topic in engineering ethics

What is whistle blowing ?

• According to American heritage dictionary , a whistler blower is a person who reveals a wrong doing within a organization to the public or to those in positions of authority

Types of whistle blowing

• Internal whistle blowing

• External whistle blowing

• Open whistle blowing

• Anonymous whistle blowing

When the whistle blow is permissible

• The harm to the public by the product is serious

• The employee reported to his seniors earlier

• Getting no results from higher authorities

Conclusions

• Ethics determines role morality active and passive responsibility of an engineer

• Deals with the ethical dilemmas like value conflict and conflict of interest

• Guides an engineer in case of decision making

• Exchequer for an employee during gifts , bribes or kick bags

Thank you