Presentation

Professional Ethics

Chapter#5
Trust and Reliability

Honesty, Integrity, and Reliability

The Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing but the
Truth…
Reliability:
Degree to which results of a measurement calculation or a
specification can be dependent to be accurate. This is
called reliability.
Sustainability:
The ability to be maintain at a certain the rate of level.
Forms of Dishonesty
·Lying
A lie is a statement believed to be false or seriously
misleading, made with the intention to deceive.
.Deliberate Deception
Implying knowledge that one doesn’t possess to impress
Misrepresenting value by excessive praise, with no counter
balance of concerns.
Forms of Dishonesty
·Withholding Information
Failing to convey information that the audience would
reasonably expect
Intending to deceive by withholding the information.
·Failure to Seek out the Truth
The honest engineer is one who is committed to
finding the truth, not simply avoiding dishonesty.
Why is Dishonesty Wrong?
·Respect for Persons
Actions are wrong if they violate the moral agency of
individuals.
Engineers should ensure that employers, clients, and the
general public make decisions regarding technology with
understanding, particularly the understanding of their
consequences.
Why is Dishonesty Wrong?
·Utilitarian
Actions should promote human happiness and well-being
Engineers contribute by providing designs for the creation
of things upon which society depends.
Dishonesty in our work undermines the public
understanding and decision making processes.
Dishonesty on Campus
·Cheating on exams
·Copying another’s work as one’s own
· Misrepresenting data in reports and projects
If you do this in school, why not do it in the workplace to
get ahead?
Dishonesty in Engineering Research and Testing
·Forging
Inventing some or all of the research data that are
reported, and even reporting experiments to obtain those
data that were never performed.
Dishonesty in Engineering Research and Testing
·Plagiarism
Use of the intellectual property of others without proper
permission or credit
Written works
Internet
Multiple Authorship
Intellectual Property
Property that results from mental labor
Protection:
Trade secrets – methods used in business to gain an advantage
over competitors.
Patents-documents issued by the government excluding others
from using for 20 years.
Trademarks – expressions associated with goods or services.
Copyrights – rights to creative products. Protect the Activate
Win expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves.
Confidentiality in Client-Professional
Relations
.Guard proprietary information

.Do not abuse

- Break confidentiality when not warranted
- Not break confidentiality when the higher obligation to
the public requires it.
Informing the Public
Professional Irresponsibility in handling technical
information may be described as a failure to inform those
whose decisions are impaired by the absence of the
information.

This is a serious impairment of the public's moral agency.

Conflicts of Interest
What is it?
A conflict of interest exists for a professional if he or she is
subject to “influence, loyalties, temptations, or other
interests” that might make the professional's judgment less
likely to benefit the client or customer than he/she has a
right to expect
Critical to the reputation of the profession
Conflicts of Interest
· Not just any conflict of interests, but related to the
profession
·Interests of the client or customer must be legitimate
·3 situations:
-Actual
-Potential
-Apparent
·Must always be disclosed