National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST)

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

(SEECS)
Department of Humanities

HU-222: Professional Ethics

Course Code: HU222 Semester: 8th
Credit Hours: 2+0 Prerequisite Codes: Nil
Instructor: Waseem Ahmad Class: BEE(8-B/D)
Office: Telephone: 0331-5076187
Lecture Days: Tuesday & Wednesday E-mail: [email protected]
Class Room: CR-8-10-13-9 Consulting Hours: Wednesday 1300-1400 hours
Knowledge Humanities Updates on LMS:
Group:

Course Description:
Ethics is both an academic “subject” and a thoughtful way of doing things.  Theoretical Ethics is concerned with
determining what is right (with regard to principles and actions) and what is good (what ends or ideals are
worth pursuing and what values are worth holding). Whereas Applied Ethics is the art of figuring out how to
make things better rather than worse with regard to concrete or actual situations.  Since Professional Ethics is a
type of applied ethics, the course shall be concerned with principles applied and actions taken in the workplace
and the boardroom.  At the same time, since professional practice is inseparable from the rest of human life,
Professional Ethics shall also take account of the well-being of human society and the natural environment.

Course Objectives
The outcome of this course is to grasp ideals and principles as they have been spelled out in a variety of
traditional ethical systems and to apply these conceptual structures and guidelines to major problems and
dilemmas of doing business and living in society.  Some specific outcomes will be:

 To grasp important historical approaches to ethics.

 To examine assumptions, goals, principles, and actions as they affect the workplace and society as a
whole.
 To gauge the impact of individual and corporate decisions on human life, society, and the
environment.

Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs):

Students taking this course will learn to PLO BT Level*
1. Defining ethics and other values to evaluate common beliefs in professional business 10 C-1

2. Identify nature of business, deliberate on alternative models for conducting 6 C-2

professional/ business activity
3. Apply moral reasoning to the specific situations and to defend the conclusions of that 8 C-3
reasoning
4. Adopt and appreciate the role of ethics in profession/ business and social life   12 C-4

* BT= Bloom’s Taxonomy, C=Cognitive domain, P=Psychomotor domain, A= Affective

domain

Mapping of CLOs to Program Learning Outcomes

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 National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST)
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
(SEECS)
Department of Humanities

PLOs/CLOs CLO1 CLO2 CLO3 CLO4

PLO 1 (Engineering Knowledge)
PLO 2 (Problem Analysis)
PLO 3 (Design/Development of Solutions)
PLO 4 (Investigation)
PLO 5 (Modern tool usage)
PLO 6 (The Engineer and Society) √
PLO 7 (Environment and Sustainability)
PLO 8 (Ethics) √
PLO 9 (Individual and Team Work)
PLO 10 (Communication) √
PLO 11 (Project Management)
PLO 12 (Lifelong Learning) √

Mapping of CLOs to Assessment Modules and Weightages (In accordance with NUST statutes)
To be filled in at the end of the course.
Assessments/CLOs
Quizzes: 10%
Assignments: 10%
OHT-1: 15%
OHT-2: 15%
End Semester Exam:50%
Total : 100 %

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 National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST)
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
(SEECS)
Department of Humanities

Books:
Textbook: 1. Manuel G. Velasquez, Pearson Education, Inc., Business Ethics – Concepts and Cases,
New Jersey, 7th Edition
Reference 1. Business Ethics
Books: Marianne M. Jennings
2. Business Ethics
Joseph W. Weiss
3. Engineering Ethics
Concepts and Cases 
Charles E Harris et al
4. Ethical Business
Linda Ferrell &O.C Ferrell
5. Inner Excellence
Jim Murphy
6. A Guide to Ethics
Steven Luper
7. Ethics for life
Judith A Boss
8. Moral Intelligence
Doug Lennick & Fred Kiel, PhD
9. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephan R. Covey
10. Winning Attitudes
Mr. Aslam Bazmi
Main Topics to be Covered:
The course spans over a number of different topics as under:
Ethics and its Importance Ethical Decision-Making
Types of Ethics and Moral Theories Ethical Dilemmas and Approaches to Cope with
Core Ethical Values Moral Issues
Essential Virtues Professional/ Business Ethics and Environment
Employer-Employee Relationship Professional / Business Ethics and Stakeholders
Ethical Leadership Case Studies
Dealing with Ethically Deficient People Professional/ Business Ethics and Social
Responsibility

Week 1 Chapter 1: Ethics & Business

1.1 The Nature of Business Ethics
 Morality & Ethics
 Levels of Ethics
 Business Ethics (Why organizations need to be Ethical?)
 Objections to Business Ethics
Week 2 1.2 Ethical Issues in Business
 Technical and Business Ethics
 Globalization and Business Ethics
 Business and Ethical Relativism
 Corporate social Responsibility (CSR) (Traditional vs Contemporary views)
 Stockholder & Stakeholder/Shareholder approach

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 National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST)
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
(SEECS)
Department of Humanities

 Leadership and Organizational skills/culture

 Firm's responsibility
 Employee's obligation to firm
Week 3 1.3 Moral Reasoning
 Moral Development (Pre-conventional, Conventional, Post Conventional
Stages)
 Kohlberg’s theory
 Moral Reasoning
 Analyzing Moral reasoning
 Challenges involved in ethical decision making
 Moral Behavior and its Impediments
Week 4 1.4 Moral Responsibility and Blame
 Responsibility and blame
 Responsibility for cooperating with Evil
 Reasons for unethical behavior
 Risk management
 Individual Decision making - Moral Responsibility of cross functional area
professionals
Week 5 Chapter 2: Ethical Principles in Business
2.1 Utilitarianism: Weighing social costs and benefits
 Traditional Utilitarianism & Deontological approach
 Measurement Problems with Utilitarianism
 Rights and Justice Problems with Utilitarianism
Week 6 OHT-1

Week 7 2.2 Rights and Duties

 The Concept of Rights
 Negative and Positive Rights
 Contractual Rights and Duties
 Kant’s theory of Moral Rights
 Kantian Right and its problems
 The Libertarian Objection: Nozick
Week 8 2.3 Justice and Fairness
 Distributive Justice (Egalitarian, Capitalist Justice, Socialism, Libertarianism,
Justice as Fairness by John Rawls
 Retributive Justice
 Compensatory Justice
Week 9 2.4 The Ethics of Care
 Partiality and Care
 Objections to Ethics of Care
 Discrimination and respect for diversity
 Sexual Harassment
Week 10 2.5 Integrating Utility, Rights, Justice and Caring
2.6 Virtue Ethics
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 National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST)
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
(SEECS)
Department of Humanities

 The Nature of Virtue & Moral Virtue

 Theories of Moral Virtue
 Challenges to Virtual Theory
 Virtues and Principles
Week 11 2.7 Unconscious Moral Decisions
 Unconscious Decision making
 Cultural Influences and Intuition
Week 12 OHT-2

Week 13 Chapter 3: The Business System: Government, Markets and International Trade
 Free Markets and Rights: John Locke
 Free Markets and Utility: Adam Smith
Week 14  Free Trade and Utility: David Ricardo
 Marx and Justice: Criticizing Free Markets and Free Trade
 The Mixed Economy
Week 15 Chapter 4: Ethics in the Marketplace
 Perfect Competition
 Monopoly Competition
Week 16  Oligopolistic Competition
 Oligopolies and Public Policy
 Project presentations
Week 17  Project Presentations

Week 18 End Semester Exam

Grading Policy:
Quiz Policy: The quizzes will be unannounced and normally last for ten minutes. The question framed is to
test the concepts involved in last few lectures. Number of quizzes that will be used for
evaluation is at the instructor’s discretion.
Assignment Policy: In order to develop comprehensive understanding of the subject, assignments will be given.
Late assignments will not be accepted / graded. All assignments will count towards the total
(No ‘best-of’ policy). The students are advised to do the assignment themselves. Copying of
assignments is highly discouraged and violations will be dealt with severely by referring any
occurrences to the disciplinary committee. The questions in the assignment are meant to be
challenging to give students confidence and extensive knowledge about the subject matter
and enable them to prepare for the exams.
Plagiarism: SEECS maintains a zero tolerance policy towards plagiarism. While collaboration in this course
is highly encouraged, you must ensure that you do not claim other people’s work/ ideas as
your own. Plagiarism occurs when the words, ideas, assertions, theories, figures, images,
programming codes of others are presented as your own work. You must cite and
acknowledge all sources of information in your assignments. Failing to comply with the SEECS
plagiarism policy will lead to strict penalties including zero marks in assignments and referral
to the academic coordination office for disciplinary action.
PLO Description

(i) Engineering Knowledge: An ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, engineering

fundamentals and an engineering specialization to the solution of complex engineering problems.

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 National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST)
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
(SEECS)
Department of Humanities

(ii) Problem Analysis: An ability to identify, formulate, research literature, and analyse complex
engineering problems reaching substantiated conclusions using first principles of mathematics, natural
sciences and engineering sciences.

(iii) Design/Development of Solutions: An ability to design solutions for complex engineering

problems and design systems, components or processes that meet specified needs with appropriate
consideration for public health and safety, cultural, societal, and environmental considerations.

(iv) Investigation: An ability to investigate complex engineering problems in a methodical way

including literature survey, design and conduct of experiments, analysis and interpretation of
experimental data, and synthesis of information to derive valid conclusions.

(v) Modern Tool Usage: An ability to create, select and apply appropriate techniques, resources, and
modern engineering and IT tools, including prediction and modelling, to complex engineering
activities, with an understanding of the limitations.

(vi) The Engineer and Society: An ability to apply reasoning informed by contextual knowledge to
assess societal, health, safety, legal and cultural issues and the consequent responsibilities relevant to
professional engineering practice and solution to complex engineering problems.

(vii) Environment and Sustainability: An ability to understand the impact of professional engineering
solutions in societal and environmental contexts and demonstrate knowledge of and need for
sustainable development.

(viii) Ethics: Apply ethical principles and commit to professional ethics and responsibilities and norms
of engineering practice.

(ix) Individual and Team Work: An ability to work effectively, as an individual or in a team, on
multifaceted and /or multidisciplinary settings.

(x) Communication: An ability to communicate effectively, orally as well as in writing, on complex

engineering activities with the engineering community and with society at large, such as being able to
comprehend and write effective reports and design documentation, make effective presentations, and
give and receive clear instructions.

(xi) Project Management: An ability to demonstrate management skills and apply engineering
principles to one’s own work, as a member and/or leader in a team, to manage projects in a
multidisciplinary environment.

(xii) Lifelong Learning: An ability to recognize importance of, and pursue lifelong learning in the
broader context of innovation and technological developments.

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