Instructor

Eng. Mohammed Alsaeed Othman

References:
1. Charles B. Fleddermann (2012), Engineering Ethics, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall
• Chapter 2
2. Mike W. Martin and Roland Schinzinger (2010), Introduction to Engineering
Ethics, 2nd Edition, MacGraw-Hill Higher Education
• Chapter 1.2 & 2.2

Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed

Alsaeed
1. Meanings of Responsibility
2. What is Engineering?
3. What is Profession?
4. Engineering as a Profession
5. Ethical Corporations
6. Senses of Corporate Responsibility
7. Code of Ethics
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• We h ave to d i st i n g u i s h b et we e n fo u r t y p e o f
responsibilities:
1. Moral responsibility, in particular as it bears on professional
responsibility.
2. Causal responsibility consists simply in being a cause of
some event.
3. Job responsibility consists of one’s assigned tasks at the
place of employment.
4. Legal responsibility is whatever the law requires—including
legal obligations and accountability for meeting them.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• If we say that an engineer is professional or moral
responsible when he met:
• Responsibilities (obligations);
• Responsible (accountable) for doing;
• Acted responsibly (conscientiously); and
• Admirable (praiseworthy).

Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed

Alsaeed
• Job:
• Any work for hire can be considered a job, regardless of
the skill level involved and the responsibility granted.
• Engineering is certainly a job—engineers are paid for their
services—but the skills and responsibilities involved in
engineering make it more than just a job.
• Occupation:
• Implies employment through which someone makes a
living.
• Engineering, then, is also an occupation.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• In a broad sense
• Is any occupation that provides a means by which to earn
a living.
• In the sense intended here,
• Are those forms of work involving advanced expertise,
self-regulation, and concerted service to the public good

Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed

Alsaeed
1. Advanced expertise:
• Work that requires sophisticated skills, the use of judgment, and the exercise of
discretion. Also, the work is not routine and is not capable of being mechanized.
2. Self Regulation:
• Membership in the profession requires extensive formal education, not simply
practical training or apprenticeship.
• The public allows special societies or organizations that are controlled by members
of the profession to set standards for admission to the profession, to set standards of
conduct for members, and to enforce these standards.
3. Public good:
• Significant public good results from the practice of the profession

Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed

Alsaeed
• Concerted efforts to maintain high standards of moral
responsibility, together with a sophisticated level of required
skill and the requisite autonomy to do so, warrants the
recognition traditionally associated with the word profession.
• Professions, as structured groups of professionals, have
collective responsibilities to promote responsible conduct by
their members.
• A code of ethics for members of the profession
• Professions and professionals also need to think in terms of
preventive ethics—that is, ethical reflection and action aimed
at preventing moral harm and unnecessary ethical problems.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• Corporate control underlies the primary ethical
dilemmas confronted by engineers.
• “The engineer ’s problem has centered on a conflict
between professional independence and bureaucratic
loyalty,” and
• “the role of the engineer represents a patchwork of
compromises between professional ideals and business
demands.”

Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed

Alsaeed
• Corporate influence is by no means unique to
engineering.
• Corporations make possible the goods generated by
engineering, as well as giving rise to some of the
ethical dilemmas they face.
• Most corporations at least strive to be morally
responsible.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• Raised attention to product quality, the well-being of
workers, the wider community, and the environment.
• The movement is reflected in what is called “stakeholder
theory”:
• corporations have responsibilities to all groups that have a
vital stake in the corporation, including employees, customers,
dealers, suppliers, local communities, and the general public.
• Many critics to it.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• Just as individuals have responsibilities (obligations)
• Just as individuals are (accountable) for meeting their
obligations
• Just as individuals manifest the virtue of responsibility
when they regularly meet their obligations
• In contexts where it is clear that accountability for
wrongdoing is at issue, “responsible” becomes a synonym
for blameworthy, and in contexts where it is clear that right
conduct is at issue, “responsible” is a synonym for
praiseworthy
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• All these moral meanings are distinct from causal
responsibility, which consists simply in being a cause
of some event.
•The meanings are also distinct from legal
responsibility, which is simply what the law requires.
• Engineering firms can be held legally responsible for
harm that was so unlikely and unforeseeable that little
or no moral responsibility is involved.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• Codes of ethics state the moral responsibilities of
e n g i n e e rs a s s e e n b y t h e p r o fe s s i o n a n d a s
represented by a professional society.

• These codes express the rights, duties, and obligations

of the members of the profession.

Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed

Alsaeed
• Primary, a code of ethics provides a framework for ethical
judgment for a professional.
• Codes serve as a starting point for ethical decision making.
• A code can also express the commitment to ethical conduct
shared by members of a profession.
• Codes reiterate principles and standards that are already
accepted as responsible engineering practice.
• A code defines the roles and responsibilities of professionals
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• It is not a recipe for ethical behavior
• it is only a framework for arriving at good ethical choices.
• A code of ethics is never a substitute for sound judgment.
• A code of ethics is not a legal document.
• One can’t be arrested for violating its provisions, although
expulsion from the professional society might result from
code violations.
• A code of ethics doesn’t create new moral or ethical
principles.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• Codes of ethics play at least eight essential roles:
1. Serving and protecting the public,
2. Providing guidance,
3. Offering inspiration,
4. Establishing shared standards,
5. Supporting responsible professionals,
6. Contributing to education,
7. Deterring wrongdoing,
8. Strengthening a profession’s image.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• A code of ethics spells out the ways in which moral
and ethical principles apply to professional practice.

• A code helps the engineer to apply moral principles to

the unique situations encountered in professional
practice.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• A code of ethics helps create an environment within a profession where
ethical behavior is the norm.
• It also serves as a guide or reminder of how to act in specific situations.
• A code of ethics can also be used to bolster an individual’s position with
regard to a certain activity:
• The code provides a little backup for an individual who is being pressured by a
superior to behave unethically.
• A code of ethics can also bolster the individual’s position by indicating that
there is a collective sense of correct behavior; there is strength in numbers.
• A code of ethics can indicate to others that the profession is seriously
concerned about responsible, professional conduct.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• Relatively few practicing engineers are members of
professional societies and so don’t necessarily feel
compelled to abide by their codes.
• The engineering codes often have internal conflicts,
but don’t give a method for resolving the conflict.
• Codes can be coercive: They foster ethical behavior
with a stick rather than carrot.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• A sound professional code will stand up to three tests:
1. It will be clear and coherent;
2. It will organize basic moral values applicable to the profession
in a systematic and comprehensive way, highlighting what is
most important;
3. It will provide helpful and reasonable guidance that is
compatible with our most carefully considered moral
convictions (judgments, intuitions) about concrete situations.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• The worst abuse of engineering codes is to restrict
honest moral effort on the part of individual engineers
to preserve the profession’s public image and protect
the status quo.
• On rare occasions, abuses have discouraged moral
conduct and caused serious harm to those seeking to
serve the public.
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed
• Codes of the Engineering Societies:
• Can Codes and Professional Societies Protect Employees?
• How resolving internal conflicts in codes?
• Does a profession’s code of ethics create the obligations
that are incumbent on members of the profession, so that
engineers’ obligations are entirely relative to their code of
ethics? Or does the code simply record the obligations
that already exist?
Engineering Ethics - Topic 02 - Professionalism and Codes of Ethics - Mohammed
Alsaeed