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Professional Ethics Project:

The Impact the IEEE’s Code of Ethics Can Have

Malik Ali

Department of Philosophy, Sinclair Community College

PHI 2205: Intro to Philosophy

Professor Sims

April 30, 2022

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Throughout modern American history, more and more major corporations have been on

the rise starting from around the 1980s. These major corporations would end up hiring thousands

of employees in order to meet their needs. Unfortunately, when there are so many people to

manage, there are bound to be a few that are not as benevolent as they seem. According to an

article written on the International Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Erik M. Hanson regarding the

philosopher Immanuel Kant:

The presence of moral evil in human beings can be explained by their possession of an

innate propensity to subordinate the moral law to inclination.

This subordination of moral law of some is what led to a noticeable increase in corruption and

further wrongdoings in these large corporations. This increase in malpractice could not stand for

long so there had to be a system devised that would be able to effectively limit it. An article

published by Penn State University states:

Wide-ranging in content, these early codes promised fair business practices and

responsible treatment of employees. Although designed primarily to address or head off

public concerns about government and corporate misdeeds, they also had the effect of

standardizing corporate and government behavior in an ethical direction.

These newly created ethical codes served many purposes and provided many improvements to

the corporate side of America, like creating provisions for the treatment of employees, guidance

for peer-to-peer relationships, treatment of whistle-blowers, the definition and prevention of

bribery and conflicts of interest, and regulations for political bias in the workplace, but as time

went on, were eventually molded into a guideline that shapes the building of a society

characterized by civility, kindness, and acceptance, as well as providing a commitment to the

poor, the voiceless, the alienated, the ignored, the forgotten and the oppressed.
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An example of a modern-day code of ethics that can shape such things is the Institute of

Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Code of Ethics. Electrical Engineers are usually

thought of as only dealing with electricity and while that may be true, have a greater impact on

everyday life than most people might think. Everything and anything that has a circuit board or

piece of hardware in it that is powered by electricity has had some type of connection to an

electrical engineer. This immense gravity of an electrical engineer’s job is why such a code of

ethics was devised in order to maintain an engineer’s ethical and professional conduct.

First, IEEE devises their code of ethics into three parts; general values, quality of life

values, and the third part is to ensure that each person abiding by the code of ethics actually

implement it into their practices. For the general values, IEEE start things off by stating:

to hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public, to strive to comply with

ethical design and sustainable development practices, to protect the privacy of others, and

to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment.

The definition of kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate, which is

exactly what IEEE strive to do in their code of ethics. To ensure that each design have

sustainable development practices, protect the privacy of others, and to disclose potentially

harmful factors are all being extremely considerate. Codes of ethics like the IEEE’s truly

demonstrate how essential transparency is in the grand scheme of a society and its development.

In addition to their first code being helpful to develop a productive, kind, and civil

society, IEEE has plenty of more that all strive to achieve different things to help benefit the

people who will eventually encounter the engineer’s work. Not only did IEEE create their own

new codes, but they also borrowed some of the original codes that were aforementioned. These
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codes include avoiding unlawful conduct, rejecting bribery, avoiding conflicts of interest, etc.

Although they do not seem too interesting, one can argue that these specific ethical guidelines

are some of the most important while shaping a society. If unlawful conduct was avoided more

often, not only would corporations’ benefit, but the average citizen would as well. Imagine a

society that was strictly abiding by ethical guidelines like IEEE’s. The crime rate would be zero

and everyone would most likely be in a somewhat happier state

Second, IEEE has ensured that they provide a commitment to the poor, the voiceless, the

alienated, the ignored, the forgotten and the oppressed in their second part of their code. To start

it off, IEEE’s Code of Ethics’ second part states:

To treat all persons fairly and with respect, to not engage in harassment or discrimination,

and to avoid injuring others.

In the second part of the code of ethics, IEEE want to drive home the fact that if you’re an

electrical engineer who is using the code as a guideline, you will be absolutely inclusive and will

not show any harassing or discriminatory acts. As one may know, nowadays there are plenty of

factors in everyday life that may make a person in one of these groups feel insignificant or even

insecure. An interesting thing that could come form this provision in the code of ethics is

different interpretation of the prevention of harassment and discrimination. In recent times, the

‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill was passed in Florida which prohibits the teaching of sexual orientation or

gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. One may say that the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill is

actively discriminating against LGBTQ+ rights and is a complete unjust use of power from

Florida legislature. Another might say that kids in kindergarten through third grade have no clue

what gender identity and sexual orientation is, therefore, there is no discrimination to be created.

While these two sides definitely come into harsh contact with one another and more often than
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not get into heated arguments, one can still see the benefits of a society abiding by a code of

ethics has.

In conclusion, code of ethics and the IEEE code of ethics can play crucial roles in the

formation of a civil and kind society while committing to giving a voice to the poor, voiceless,

alienated, ignored, forgotten, and the oppressed. While today’s society does not completely abide

by a specific code of ethics, people do follow general values from codes all the time, like not

committing unlawful conduct or taking bribes. A code of ethics should be seen as a good

guideline for most people and a necessary guideline for professionals in a job or members of a

major corporation. Without codes of ethics, society would be a lawless and infested mess with

little to no freedoms for the average person. IEEE made an especially good code with regards to

how serious they must take their job and the precautions that are needed to be in place in order

for everything to run smoothly and everyone to be safe.

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References

IEEE code of Ethics. IEEE. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2022, from

https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html

Immanuel Kant: Radical Evil. Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30,

2022, from https://iep.utm.edu/rad-evil/

WPSU - Penn State Public Media. (n.d.). A (Brief) History of Codes of Ethics. Public Relations

Ethics. Retrieved April 30, 2022, from https://pagecentertraining.psu.edu/public-relations-

ethics/professional-codes-of-ethics/lesson-1-some-title-goes-here/a-brief-history-of-codes-

of-ethics/