Module 2 - Engineering Ethics & Professionalism.

Senses of Engineering Ethics - Variety of moral issues-

issues Types of inquiry- Moral dilemmas –Moral
Autonomy – Kohlberg’s theory- Gilligan’s theory- Consensus and Controversy-Profession
Controversy and
Professionalism- Models of professional roles-Theories
roles about right action –Self
Self interest
interest-Customs and
Religion- Uses of Ethical Theories.

Engineering Ethics

 Engineering Ethics is the activity and discipline aimed at

(a)) understanding the moral values that ought to guide engineering profession or practice,
(b) resolving moral issues in engineering, and
(c)) justifying the moral judgments in engineering. It deals with set of moral problems and
issuesconnected with engineering.

Scope of Engineering Ethics

1. Ethics of the workplace which involves the co-workers and employees in an organization.
2. Ethics related to the product (quality and standard) or work(commitment)

Approach of Engineering Ethics

1. Micro-ethics: This deals with decisions and problems of individuals, professionals, and companies.
2. Macro-ethics: This deals with the societal problems on a regional/national level.

Senses of Engineering Ethics

 There are two different senses (meanings) of engineering ethics, namely the Normative and the
Descriptive senses.
a) Normative sense:

(a) Knowing moral values, finding accurate solutions to moral problems and justifying moral judgments
in engineering practices,

(b) Study of decisions, policies, and values that are morally desirable in the engineering practice and
research, and

(c) Using codes of ethics and standards and applying them in their transactions by engineers.

b) Descriptive sense: refers to what specific individual or group of engineers believe and act,
without justifying their beliefs or actions.

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 Ethics Engineering Ethics
Ethics is an activity which concerns with Engineering ethics also aims at knowing
making investigations and knowing about moral values related to engineering,
moral values, finding solutions to moral finding accurate solutions to the moral
issues and justifying moral issues and problems in engineering and justifying
justifying moral judgments. moral judgments of engineering.
Ethics is a means of contrasting moral Engineering Ethics gives a total view of
questions from non-moral
moral problems. the moral problems and how to solve
these issues specifically related to
engineering field.
Ethics is also used as a means of Engineering ethics is also using some
describing the beliefs, attitudes and habits currently accepted codes and standards
related to an individual‟s
individual or group‟s which are to be followed by group of
morality. engineers and engineering societies.

“moral principles” is about the actions Engineering ethics also concerns with
and principles of conduct of the people. discovering moral principles such as
obligation, rights and ideals in
engineering

Variety of moral issues

 Morality
orality means principles concerning right and wrong orgood and bad behavior.
 Moral reasons are required to support an act to be called as morally right act.
 Moral issues (problems) arise in a profession due to the unethical behaviors of employer and
employees.
 The reasons for people including the employer and employees, behaving unethically may be
classified into three categories:
1. Resource Crunch: Due to pressure, through time limits, availability of money or budgetary
constraints.
2. Opportunity:

(a) Double standards or behaviour of the employers towards the employees and the public.
(b) Management projecting their own interests more than that of their employees.
(c) Emphasis on results an
and gains at the expense of the employees.
3. Attitude
Poor attitude of the employees set in due to
• Lack of promotion or career development policies or denied promotions,
• Lack of transparency,
• Absence of recognition and reward system, and
• Poor working environments.
 Giving ethics training for all, recognizing ethical conduct in work place, including ethics in
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 performance appraisal, and encouraging open discussion on ethical issues, are some of the
directions to promote positive attitudes among the employees.
The varieties / types of moral issues are:

1. Organization oriented issues: issues related to lack of collaboration and co-operation between
employees and employer, between co-workers.

2. Clients or customers oriented issues: moral issues between customer and an organization regarding the
quality of products or services.
3. Competitors oriented issues: moral issues between firms in a market regarding price fixation and
unhealthy competition in the market.

4. Law, and government oriented issues: moral issues between Government and an organization
regarding various Law, policies, etc

5. Social and environmental oriented issues: moral issues arise due to unethical practices of an
organization like creating environmental pollution, selling harmful products, etc.

6. Family Oriented issues: as a family member, the family problems of an individual may negatively
affect his/her works and duties.

TYPES OF INQUIRIES

 Inquiry means an investigation.

 Engineering ethics also involves investigations into values, meaning and facts. These
inquiries in the field of Engineering ethics are of three types.

1. Normative Inquiry
 It seeks to identify and justify the morally-desirable norms or standards that should guide
individuals and groups.
 It also has the theoretical goal of justifying particular moral judgments.
 Normative questions are about what ought to be and what is good, based on moral values.

2. Conceptual Inquiry
 It is directed to clarify the meaning of concepts or ideas or principles that are expressed by words
or by questions and statements.
For example,
(a) What is meant by safety?

(b) How is it related to risk?

(c) What is a bribe?

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3. Factual or Descriptive Inquiry
 It is aimed to obtain facts needed for understanding and resolving value issues.

 Researchers conduct factual inquiries using mathematical or statistical techniques.

 The inquiry provide important information on business realities, engineering practice, and the
effectiveness of professional societies in fostering moral conduct, the procedures used in risk
assessment, and psychological profiles of engineers.

MORAL DILEMMA
 Moral dilemmas are situations in which two or more moral obligations, duties, rights, goods,
or ideals come into conflict with each other.
 The crucial feature of a moral dilemma is that all the moral principles cannot be fully respected
in a given situation.
 Also solving one moral principle can create two or more conflicting applications for a
particular situation.

Causes of Moral Dilemmas:

1. The problem of vagueness: One is unable to distinguish between good and bad (right or wrong)
principle. Good means an action that is obligatory. For example, code of ethics specifies that one should
obey the laws and follow standards. Refuse bribe or accept the gift,, and maintain confidentiality.

2. Problem of conflicting reasons: this is a situation where two or more moral obligations, duties,
rights or ideals come into conflict with each other; independently each one is good and correct. But
when theycome together it is very difficult choice to choose the good one.
3. Problem of disagreement
 It is quite obvious that individuals and groups may have different views, suggestions,
interpretations, and solutions on a moral problem in particular situations.
 This disagreement among individuals and groups on interpreting moral issues will create
asituation of another moral dilemma.

Steps to Solve Dilemma

1. Identification of the moral factors and reasons: The clarity to identify the relevant moral values and
issues related to the moral dilemma (conceptual inquiry).

2. Collection of all information, data, and facts (factual inquiry) relevant to the situation.

3. Rank the moral options: here ranking the moral system like obligatory, all right, acceptable, not
acceptable, damaging, and most damaging etc.
4. Generate alternate courses of action to resolve the dilemma. Write down the main options and sub-
options as a matrix to solve the moral dilemmas.

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 5. Discuss with colleagues: and obtain their perspectives, priorities, and suggestions on various alternatives.

6. Decide upon a final course of action

action, based on priority fixed or assumed, select a best option to slove
moral dilemma.
MORAL AUTONOMY
 Moral Autonomy is the philosophy which is selfself-governing or self-determining,
determining, i.e.,acting
independently without the influence or distortion of others.
 The concept of moral autonomy helps in improving self-
self determination.
 Moral Autonomy is concerned with independent attitude of a person related to moral/ethical
issues.
 The moral autonomy is the ability to think critically and independently about moral issues

and apply this moral thinking to situations that arise during the professional engineering
practice.

 The engineering skills related to moral autonomy are listed as follows:

1. Skill in comprehending, clarifying, and critically-assessing moralissues.

2. Ability to form consistent and comprehensive view points based on facts.
3. Creative solutions for practical difficulties,

4. Sensitivity to genuine difficulties and tolerate someuncertainty while making decisions.

5. Using rational dialogue in resolving moral.
6. Maintaining moral integrity.

Moral Development Theories

A. Kohlberg Theory
 This theory of moral development was proposed by famous psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg.

 Kohlberg proposed that people progress in moral reasoning based on their ethical behavior.
behavi

 He postulated this theory based on the thinking of younger children throughout their growingperiod as adults.

 He conveyed that younger children make judgment based on the consequences that might occur and the
older children make judgment based on their intuitions.

 He believed that there are six stages of moral development which are further classified into
three levels. The following illustration shows the different levels.

1. Pre-conventional Level
 This can be understood as the first level of moral thinking, which is generally found at
Elementary school level.

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  The thinker at this stage tends to think and behave based on the direct consequences that might
occur. There are two sub-stages
stages in this.
a) Avoid Punishments
 A thinker at this stage generally thinks and believes that the judgment are to be made as per
the socially acceptable norms as they are said so by some higher official (a teacher or a
parent).

 This is a child-like obedience, in order to avoid punishments.

b) Self–interest

 A thinker at this stage, shows interest in making decisions according to the rewards they
get in exchange.
 In this stage, they tend to follow the rules of authority because they believe that this is
necessary to ensure positive relationships and societal order.

2. Conventional Level

 This level is generally found at the primary and high school level.
 The thinker at this stage tends to think and behave based on the want to please others.
 There aretwo sub-stages in this.
a) Getting people to like them

 At this stage, the ideas of the society are considered.

 The thinking process is based on how to impress others or society and on how to please the
people around.
b) Maintain functioning in society

 A thinker at this stage, considers to follow the rules for the good of the society.

 The moral grounds on how people in the society will consider the job done will be the
priority, because the thinker believes that a social order is maintained by abiding by the
rules.

3. Post-Conventional Level

 This stage is generally found after the high school level.

 The thinker at this stage tends to think and behave based on a sense of justice.
 There are twosub-stages in this.
a) Reject rigidity of laws

 In this level, the thinker has an opinion that the rules have to be changed according to
humanitarianvalues.

 The thinker rejects the rigidity of the existing laws and rules at this stage.
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b) Sense of justice

 This is the pinnacle stage of Moral development where the thinker feels a sense of justice for
the protagonist.
 The thinker has great moral values that he keeps himself free from the external factors that
might influence his thinking process.

B. GILLIGAN’S THEORY

 Carol Gilligan opines that Kohlberg’s theories are biased upon the male thinking process.
According to Gilligan, Kohlberg seemed to have studied only privileged men and boys.

 She believed that women face a lot of psychological challenges and they are not moral
widgets.
 The women’s point of view on moral development involves caring which shows its effect on
human relationships.
 Hence she proposed a theory which has the same three stages of Kohlberg but with different
stages of moral development.

 The moral development in Gilligan’s theory are based on pro-social behaviors such as
Altruism, caring and helping and the traits such as honesty, fairness and respect.

1. Pre-conventional Level

• A person in this stage cares for oneself to ensure survival.

• Though the person’s attitude is selfish,

selfish this is the transition phase, where the person
finds the connection between oneself and others.
2. Conventional Level

• In this stage, the person feels responsible and shows care towards other people.
• Carol Gilligan believes that this moral thinking can be identified in the role of a
mother and a wife. This sometimes leads to the ignorance of the self.
3. Post-conventional Level

• This is the stage, where the principle of care for self as well as others, is accepted.
• However, a section of people may never reach this level.
 According to the Carol Gilligan’s theory of moral development, changes occur due to the
change of self rather than the critical thinking..
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 The theories of moral development by Kohlberg and Gilligan differ in the following respects.

Kohlberg’s Theory Carol Gilligan’s Theory

A. Basic Aspects
1. Is based on the study on men. 1. Is based on the study on men and women
2. Men give importance to moral rule. 2. Women always want to keep up the personal
3. Ethics of rules and rights. relationships with all the persons involved in the
situations
3. Women give attention to circumstances leading to
critical situations rather than rules.
B Characteristic Features
1. Justice 1. Reason
2. Factual 2. Emotional
3. Right or wrong 3. Impact on relationships
4. Logic only 4. Compassion too
5. Logic and rule-based 5. Caring and concern
6. Less of caring 6. More of caring
7. Matter of fact (practical) 7. Abstract
8. Present focus 8. Future focus
9. Strict rules 9. Making exceptions
10. Independence 10. Dependence
11. Rigid 11. Human-oriented
12. Taking a commanding role 12. Shying away from decision-making
making
13. Transactional approach 13. Transformational approach

CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY

Consensus: it means ‘agreement’.
 This is that state where people come into agreement with the judgement given by getting
convinced with the moral reasons.
 This will leave the persons with a feel that justice has been done.
Controversy: it means ‘disagreement
‘disagreement”.
 This is that state where the persons involved in an issue are not satisfied by the verdict and
might feel that it was decided on partial interests.

 This will leave the people with a sense of dissatisfaction that justice was not done.

PROFESSION AND PROFESSIONALISM

Profession:
 Profession means a job or an occupation, which helps a person earn his living.

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The main criterion of a profession

a) Advanced expertise – a profession require theoretical knowledge and practical skills.

b) Self-regulation – a profession require, code of conduct and professional ethics.

c) Public good − Each occupation is intended to serve for the welfare of the public, directly or
indirectly to a certain extent.

Characteristics of a Profession

1. Extensive Training: Entry into the profession requires an extensive period of training of intellectual
(competence) and moral (integrity) character.
2. Knowledge and Skills: theoretical knowledge and practical skills are necessary.
3. Monopoly: The monopoly control is achieved in two ways:

(a) the profession convinces the community that only those who have graduated from the
professional school should be allowed to hold the professional title.

(b) By persuading the community to have a licensing system for those who want to enter the
profession.
4. Autonomy in Workplace: Professionals must have a capacity to independently taking
decisions and solvin g problems.
5. Ethical Standards: a profession must follow some code of conduct.

Professionals
 A person who is paid for getting involved in a particular profession in order to earn living as
well as to satisfy the laws of that profession can be understood as a Professional.

Professionalism:
 Professionalism covers comprehensively all areas of practice of a particular profession.

 It requires skills and responsibilities involved in engineering profession.

 Professionalism impliesa certain set of attitudes.

MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ROLES (PROFESSIONAL ROLES TO BE PLAYED BY AN

ENGINEER)

1. Saviour: The engineer as a saviour, save the society from social problems and lead to prosperity, through
technological development and social planning.
2. Guardian: He guards the interests of the poor and general public.
3. Bureaucratic Servant: an engineer serves the organization and the employers to solve various
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challenging problems.
4. Social Servant: the engineers focused to serve the society by satisfying their needs and wants.
5. Social Enabler and Catalyst: the engineers change the society through technology.
6. Game Player: an engineer act as a game player by taking various strategies to compete with
competitors.

THEORIES ABOUT RIGHT ACTION

The ethics are mainly divided into two categories depending upon the morality of humanity. They
are −
Consequential Ethics: The Consequential ethics are values the outcome of which determines the
morality behind a particularaction. A lie which saves a life, comes under this.
Non-consequential Ethics: The non
non-consequential ethics are values followed where the source of
morality comes from the standard values. The moral law which states that a lie is a lie,

Ethical Theories/Approaches

1. Utilitarian Theory
 The term Utilitarianism was conceived in the 19th century by Jeremy Bentham and John
Stuart Mill.
 They suggested that the standard of right conduct is maximization of good consequences.
 Good consequences mean either ‘utilities’ or the ‘balance of good over evil’.
evil’ This approach
weighs the costs and benefits.
 The ACT UTILITARIAN theory proposed by J.S. Mill (1806-73) focuses on actions, rather
than on general rules. An action is right, if it generates the most overall good for the most
people involved.
 The RULE UTILITARIAN theory, developed by Richard Brandt (1910--97), stressed on the
rules, such as ‘do not steal’, ‘do no harm others’, ‘do not bribe’, as of primary importance.
He suggested that individual actions are right when they are required by set of rurules which
maximizes the public good.
2. Duty Ethics
 The duty ethics theory, proposed by Immanuel Kant.
 He states, that actions are consequences of performance of one’s duties such as, ‘being honest’, ‘not
cause suffering of others’, ‘being fair to others including the meek and week’, ‘being grateful’,
‘keeping promises’ etc.
 As per Kant we have duties to ourselves, as we are rational and autonomous beings.
beings We have a duty
not to commit suicide; a duty to develop our talents and a duty to avoid harmful drugs.
 There are four virtues that come under this law, they are:

1. Prudence: The quality of prudence states that every individual

vidual has a life that should be
b
respected and every individual has duties which should be done without any exception.
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 2.Temperance: it is the voluntary self-restrain from the attractions. The temptations that might lead to
the violation of duties and ethics have to be restrained

3. Fortitude: it means sense of having tolerance.

4. Justice: Truth and fairnessare the aspects one should always bear in mind.
3. Rights-based Ethical Theory

 The Rights based ethical theory was proposed by John Locke.

 According to this theory, the solution to a problem is by realizing that every person has a right
to live. Live and let live is the philosophy behind this theory. The rights of a person
towardslife,health, liberty, possession, etc. are taken care of under this theory.

4. The Virtue Theory

 The theory advocated by Aristotle, stressed on the tendency to act at proper balance between
extremes of conduct, emotion, desire, attitudes to find the golden mean between the extremes of
‘excess’ or ‘deficiency’.
 According to this theory, the solution to a problem is found by analyzing the reason and the
logic.
 A “Mean value of solution” which will be between the extremes of excess anddeficiency.
 For example, the solution to the problem of environment pollution is neither by avoiding
industrialization and civilization, nor by neglecting the environment completely. A mean solution that
will work towards controlling the pollution and protecting the environment will also help.
USES OF ETHICAL THEORIES

1. Ethical theories aid in identifying the moral considerations or reasons that constitute a dilemma.
2. They provide a precise sense of what kinds of information are relevant to solving moraldevelopment.

3. They help to provide a rough guidance in solving moral problems.

4. The theories help us to identify the alternative courses of action, to solve moral dilemmas.

5. These theories strengthen our ability to reach balanced and insightful judgments.

SELF-INTEREST

 Self-interest is being good and acceptable to oneself. It is pursuing what is good for oneself.
 It is very ethical to possess self-interest.
 As per utilitarian theory, this interest should provide for the respect of others also.
 Duty ethics recognizes this aspect as duties to ourselves. Then only one can help others.
 Right ethicist stresses our rights to pursue our own good.
 Virtue ethics also accepts the importanceof self-respect as link to social practices.

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 Ethical Pluralism:
 The claim that there are not just one single good for human beings, but many.
 The varieties of good may lead to conflicts in values
values,, but it does not mean that the values are
subjective.
 Some values are important only for people of a cert
certain
ain group, which are recognized but not held by
other people.
 The list of values may include:Freedom, justice, equality, harmony, solidarity, love, friendship,
fidelity, naturalness, utility, affluence
affluence,etc.

Ethical Relativism: this is the

he doctrine that there are no absolute truths in ethics and that what is morally
right or wrong varies from person to person or from society
s to society.

CUSTOMS AND TRADITION

CUSTOMS TRADITION
It is the collective term to identify thhe ideas and These are the ideas and beliefs that
t are passed down
social behavior of a particular people or a society. from one generation to other genneration.
It is a vast area. Traditions are part of customs.
Custom is created by a group of peoplee over a long Traditions can be created by inddividuals
period of time.
A particular custom can be observeed among a Some traditions are unique to so
ome people.
particular group of people.

RELIGION
 Religions have played major roles in shaping moral views and moral values, over geographical
regions. Christianity has influenced the Western countries, Islam in the Middle-East
Middle countries,
Buddhism and Hinduism in Asia, and Confucianism in China.
 Further, there is a strong psychological link between the moral and religious beliefs of people
following various religions and faiths.
 Religions support moral responsibility. They have set high moral standards.
 Faith in the religions provides trust and this trust inspires people to be moral. The religions insist
on tolerance and moral concern for others.
 Many professionals who possess religious beliefs are motivated to be morally responsible. Each
religion lays stress on certain high moral standards.
 For example,
 Hinduism holds polytheistic (many gods) view, and virtues of devotion and surrender to
high order.
 Christianity believes in one deity and emphasizes on virtues of Love, Faith, and Hope.
 Buddhism is non-theistic
theistic and focuses on compassion and Islam on one deity and adherence
of ishan(piety or pursuit of excellence) and prayer.
 Judaism stresses the virtue of ‘tsedakah’ (righteousness).

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  But many religious sects have adopted poor moral standards, e.g., many religious sects do not
recognize equal rights for women.
 The right to worship is denied for some people.
 People are killed in the name of or to promote religion. Thus, conflicts exist between the ‘secular’
and religious people and between one religion and another.
 Hence, religious views have to be morally scrutinized.

Divine Command Ethics

 As per this principle, the right action is defined by the commands by God.
 It implies that to be moral, a person should believe in God and an action is right only if it is
commanded by God.
 There are some difficulties in this approach, namely,
(a) whether God exists or not is not clear.
(b) How to know what are the God’s commands? and
(c) How to verify the genuineness of the commands?
 Further, religions such as Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity accept the existence of God. But
Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism adopt only faith in a right path and do not believe in God.

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