PROFESSIONAL

ETHICS
APJ ABDUL KALAM TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
THIRD SEMESTER B.TECH
Course Code: HUT 200

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MODULE 1

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• Module 1 – Human Values. Morals, values and Ethics – Integrity-
Academic integrity-Work Ethics- Service Learning- Civic Virtue Respect
for others- Living peacefully- Caring and Sharing- Honestly- courage-
Cooperation commitment Empathy-Self Confidence -Social
Expectations.

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The objectives of this course on Professional Ethics
and Human Values are:
• (a) to understand the moral values that ought to guide the
Engineering profession.

• (b) resolve the moral issues in the profession, and

• (c) justify the moral judgment concerning the profession. It is

intended to develop a set of beliefs, attitudes, and habits that
engineers should display concerning morality

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Contd….
• Alternatively, the objectives of the study on Professional Ethics may be
listed as:
• (A) Improvement of the cognitive skills (skills of the intellect in thinking
clearly) are following…
• 1. Moral awareness (proficiency in recognizing moral problems in
engineering)
• 2. Cogent moral reasoning (comprehending, assessing different views) 3.
Moral coherence (forming consistent viewpoints based on facts)
• 4. Moral imagination (searching beyond obvious the alternative responses
to issues and being receptive to creative solutions)
• 5. Moral communication, to express and support one’s views to others.
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Contd…..
• (B) To act in morally desirable ways, towards moral commitment and
responsible conduct …are the following..
• 6. Moral reasonableness i.e., willing and able to be morally responsible.
• 7. Respect for persons, which means showing concern for the well-being of
others, besides oneself.
• 8. Tolerance of diversity i.e., respect for ethnic and religious differences,
and acceptance of reasonable differences in moral perspectives.
• 9. Moral hope i.e., believe in using rational dialogue for resolving moral
conflicts.
• 10. Integrity, which means moral integrity, and integrating one’s
professional life and personal convictions.
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MORALS
• Morals are the welfare principles enunciated by the wise people,
based on their experience and wisdom. They were edited, changed or
modified or evolved to suit the geography of the region, rulers
(dynasty), and in accordance with development of knowledge in
science and technology and with time. Morality is concerned with
principles and practices of morals such as:
• (a) What ought or ought not to be done in a given situation?
• (b) What is right or wrong about the handling of a situation?
• (c) What is good or bad about the people, policies, and ideals
involved?
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Morality is different from Ethics in the
following ways:
MORALS ETHICS
More general and prescriptive based on customs and Specific and descriptive. It is a critical reflection on
traditions morals
More concerned with the results of wrong action, More concerned with the results of a right action,
when done. when not done.
. Thrust is on judgment and punishment, in the name Thrust is on influence, education, training through
of God or by laws. codes, guidelines, and correction
In case of conflict between the two, morality is given Less serious, hence second priority only. Less common.
top priority, because the damage is more. It is more But relevant today, because of complex interactions in
common and basic. the modern society.
Example: Character flaw, corruption, extortion, and Example: Notions or beliefs about manners, tastes,
crime. customs, and towards laws.

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VALUES
• Humans have the unique ability to define their identity, choose their
values and establish their beliefs. All three of these directly influence
a person’s behavior. People have gone to great lengths to
demonstrate the validity of their beliefs, including war and sacrificing
their own life! Conversely, people are not motivated to support or
validate the beliefs of another, when those beliefs are contrary to
their own. People will act congruent with their personal values or
what they deem to be important.

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• A value is defined as a principle that promotes well-being or prevents
harm.” Another definition is: Values are our guidelines for our
success—our paradigm about what is acceptable.” Personal values are
defined as: “Emotional beliefs in principles regarded as particularly
favorable or important for the individual.” Our values associate
emotions to our experiences and guide our choices, decisions and
actions.

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Evolution of Human Values The human values
evolve because of the following factors
• 1. The impact of norms of the society on the fulfillment of the
individual’s needs or desires.
• 2. Developed or modified by one’s own awareness, choice, and
judgment in fulfilling the needs.
• 3. By the teachings and practice of Preceptors (Gurus) or Saviors or
religious leaders.
• 4. Fostered or modified by social leaders, rulers of kingdom, and by
law (government)

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INTEGRITY Guard your integrity as a sacred thing”
Emerson

• Integrity is a character trait that reflects a person degree of honesty

and adherence to moral principle.

Model Question
• Exemplify a comprehensive review about integrity ?

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• Professional Integrity

• Political Integrity

• Academic Integrity

• Integrity in daily transactions

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Professional Integrity
• Willingness to do right things in ones profession.

• Eg1: Govt Employ who make decision out of favouritism/nepotism

• Eg2:Doctors who prescribe drugs to patients in order to favour drug

companies.

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Political Integrity
• Politicians are holders of elected office and expected to have high
integrity.

• Politician who have tall claims about certain belief and act in a way
that contradicts those belief.

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Academic Integrity
• People in academic community are expected to stick to truthful
information because each contribution helps human progress.

• Researcher : plagiarism, who manipulate data.

• Student: copying the assignment
• Author: not acknowledge his sources/ references

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Integrity in daily transaction
• Eg: A cab driver who returns a wallet forgotten by traveller
• A customer who points out the bill amount is lesser than actual
price.
• A person who pay tax without manipulating his income statement.

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Work Ethics
• Industry and Society are the two systems which interact with each other and are
interdependent.
• Society requires industry/business system which provides manufacturing,
distribution and consumption activities. It needs investment, labor, supply (raw
materials), production (industries, business organizations), marketing and
distribution (transport), and consumption (public, customer).
• A lot of transactions (and interactions) between these sub-systems involving
people are needed for the welfare of the society.

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Work Ethics

• To work (job), is not for monetary considerations only. Work is good

for the body and mind.

• It promotes self-respect, self-esteem, good for the family, and

obligation to the society and allow the world to prosper.

• Work lays a moral and meaningful foundation for life.

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The ‘work ethics’ is aimed at ensuring
• economy(get job, create wealth, earn salary)
• productivity (wealth, profit)
• safety (in workplace)
• health and hygiene (working conditions)
• privacy (raise family)
• security (permanence against contractual, pension, and retirement
benefits)
• cultural and social development (leisure, hobby, and happiness),
welfare (social work),
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SERVICE LEARNING

• It is a non-profit activities included as part of teaching learning

activity.

• Academics-------- INTERNSHIP

• Healthcare system- create programs to make awareness reg:

malnourishment

• It involves identifying the concerns of the society addressing them

using technical knowledge and finally reflecting on the experience.
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• Through service learning students can able to

• Understand the relevance and context in which service is provided.

• develop civics skills and social awareness
• Address the concern of the society

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Civic virtues

• Civic virtues are the moral duties and rights, as a citizen

1. To pay taxes to the local government and state, in time.
2. To keep the surroundings clean and green.
3. Not to pollute the water, land, and air by following hygiene and
proper garbage disposal. For example, not to burn wood, tyres, plastic
materials, spit in the open, even not to smoke in the open, and not to
cause nuisance to the public, are some of the civic (duties) virtues.
4. To follow the road safety rules.

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• rights
1. To vote the local or state government.
2. To contest in the elections to the local or state government.
3. To seek a public welfare facility such as a school, hospital or a community
hall or transport or communication facility, for the residents.
4. To establish a green and safe environment, pollution free, corruption free,
and to follow ethical principles. People are said to have the right to breathe
in fresh air, by not allowing smoking in public.
5. People have inalienable right to accept or reject a project in their area.
One has the right to seek legal remedy, in this respect, through public
interest petition.
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RESPECT FOR OTHERS
• This is a basic requirement for nurturing friendship, and team work.

1. Recognize and accept the existence of other persons as human

beings, because they have a right to live, just as you have.

2. Respect others’ ideas (decisions), words, and labor (actions).

Appreciate colleagues and subordinates on their positive actions.
Criticize constructively and encourage them.

3. Show ‘goodwill’ on others. Love others. Allow others to grow.

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To live peacefully

One should adopt the following means to live peacefully, in the world:
1. Order in one’s life
2. Pure thoughts in one’s soul
3. Creativity in one’s head
4. Beauty in one’s heart
5. Good health/body
6. Charity
7.Not hurting and torturing others either physically, verbally, or
mentally.

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• The following are the factors that promote living, with internal and external
peace:
• 1. Conducive environment (safe, ventilated, illuminated and comfortable).
• 2. Secured job and motivated with ‘recognition and reward’.
• 3. Absence of threat or tension by pressure due to limitations of money or
time.
• 4. Absence of unnecessary interference or disturbance, except as
guidelines.
• 5. Healthy labor relations and family situations.
• 6. Service to the needy (physically and mentally-challenged) with love and
sympathy
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CARING

• Caring is feeling for others.

• in the context of professional ethics , It is a process which exhibits the
interest in, and support for, the welfare of others with fairness,
impartiality and justice in all activities, among the employees.
• It includes showing respect to the feelings of others, and also
respecting and preserving the interests of all others concerned.

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• Caring is reflected in activities such as friendship, membership in social
clubs and professional societies, and through various transactions in the
family, fraternity, community, country and in international councils.
• In the present-day context, caring for the environment (including the fauna
and flora) has become a necessity for our very survival. If we do not care
for the environment, the environment will scare us.

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Sharing

• Primarily, caring influences ‘sharing’. Sharing is a process that

describes the transfer of knowledge (teaching, learning, and
information), experience (training), commodities (material
possession) and facilities with others.
• The transfer should be genuine, legal, positive, voluntary, and
without any expectation in return.
• Through this process of sharing, experience, expertise, wisdom and
other benefits reach more people faster. Sharing is voluntary and it
can not be driven by force, but motivated successfully through ethical
principles. In short, sharing is ‘charity’
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HONESTY
• Honesty is a virtue, and it is exhibited in two aspects namely,
• (a) Truthfulness and (b) Trustworthiness
• Truthfulness is to face the responsibilities upon telling truth. One
should keep one’s word or promise. By admitting one’s mistake
committed (one needs courage to do that!), it is easy to fix them.

• Reliable engineering judgment, maintenance of truth, and

communicating the truth: only when it does ‘good’ to others, are
some of the reflections of truthfulness.

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Honesty is mirrored in many ways. The common reflections are…

(a)Beliefs (intellectual honesty).

(b) Communication (writing and speech).

(e)Decisions (ideas, discretion).

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• As against this, some of the actions of an engineer that leads to
dishonesty are

• Lying
• Deliberate deception
• With holding the information
• Not seeking the truth
• Not maintaining confidentiality

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COURAGE
• Courage is the tendency to accept and face risks and difficult tasks in
rational ways. Self-confidence is the basic requirement to nurture
courage.
• Courage is classified into three types, based on the types of risks,
namely
• (a) Physical courage,
• (b) Social courage,
• (c) Intellectual courage

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• In physical courage, the thrust is on the adequacy of the physical
strength, including the muscle power .
• The social courage involves the decisions and actions to change the
order, based on the conviction for or against certain social behaviors.
This requires leadership abilities, including empathy and sacrifice, to
mobilize and motivate the followers, for the social cause.
• The intellectual courage is inculcated in people through acquired
knowledge, experience, games, tactics, education, and training. In
professional ethics, courage is applicable to the employers,
employees, public, and the press.
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COOPERATION
• It is a team-spirit present with every individual engaged in
engineering.
• Co-operation is activity between two persons or sectors that aims at
integration of operations (synergy), while not sacrificing the
autonomy of either party.
• Further, working together ensures, coherence, i.e., blending of
different skills required, towards common goals. Willingness to
understand others, think and act together and putting this into
practice.

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• Cooperation promotes collinearity, coherence (blend), co-ordination
(activities linked in sequence or priority) and the synergy (maximizing the
output, by reinforcement).
• It helps in minimizing the input resources (including time) and maximizes
the outputs, which include quantity, quality, effectiveness, and efficiency.
• According to professional ethics, cooperation should exist or be developed,
and maintained, at several levels; between the employers and employees,
between the superiors and subordinates, among the colleagues, between
the producers and the suppliers (spare parts), and between the
organisation and its customers.
•

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• The absence of cooperation leads to lack of communication,
misinformation, void in communication, and make it delay between supply,
production, marketing, and consumption.
• This is likely to demoralize and frustrate the employees, leading to collapse
of the industry over time and an economic loss to the society.

The impediments to successful cooperation are:

1. Clash of ego of individuals.
2. Lack of leadership and motivation.
3. Conflicts of interests, based on region, religion, language, and caste.
4. Ignorance and lack of interest.

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COMMITMENT
• Commitment means alignment to goals and adherence to ethical
principles during the activities.
• It is the driving force to realize success
• one must believe in one’s action performed and the expected end
results (confidence).
• It means one should have the conviction without an any doubt that
one will succeed. Holding sustained interest and firmness, in
whatever ethical means one follows, with the fervent attitude and
hope that one will achieve the goals, is commitment.

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• . This is a basic requirement for any profession.
• For example, a design engineer shall exhibit a sense of commitment,
to make his product or project designed a beneficial contribution to
the society. Only when the teacher (Guru) is committed to his job, the
students will succeed in life and contribute ‘good’ to the society.
• The commitment of top management will naturally lead to committed
employees.

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EMPATHY
• Empathy is social radar.
• Sensing what others feel about, without their open talk, is the essence of
empathy.
• Empathy begins with showing concern, and then obtaining and
understanding the feelings of others, from others’ point of view. It is also
defined as the ability to put one’s self into the psychological frame or
reference or point of view of another, to know what the other person feels.
• It includes the imaginative projection into other’s feelings and
understanding of other’s background such as parentage, physical and
mental state, economic situation, and association. This is an essential
ingredient for good human relations and transactions.

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• Understanding others: It means sensing others feelings and
perspectives, and taking active interest in their welfare.
• Service orientation: It is anticipation, recognition and meeting the
needs of the clients or customers.
• Developing others: This means identification of their needs and
bolstering their abilities
• . In developing others, the one should inculcate in him the ‘listening
skill’ first. Communication = 22% reading and writing + 23% speaking
+ 55% listening

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SELF-CONFIDENCE
• Certainty in one’s own capabilities, values, and goals, is self-confidence.
These people are usually positive thinking, flexible and willing to change.
• They respect others so much as they respect themselves. Self-confidence
is positive attitude, wherein the individual has some positive and realistic
view of himself, with respect to the situations in which one gets involved.
• The people with self-confidence exhibit courage to get into action and
unshakable faith in their abilities, whatever may be their positions.
• They are not influenced by threats or challenges and are prepared to face
them and the natural or unexpected consequences. The self-confidence in
a person develops a sense of partnership, respect, and accountability, and
this helps the organization to obtain maximum ideas, efforts, and
guidelines from its employees.
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• The people with self-confidence have the following characteristics:
• 1. A self-assured standing,
• 2. Willing to listen to learn from others and adopt (flexibility),
• 3. Frank to speak the truth, and
• 4. respect others’ efforts and give due credit.

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• . The factors that shape self-confidence in a person are:
• 1. Heredity (attitudes of parents) and family environment (elders),
• 2. Friendship (influence of friends/colleagues),
• 3. Influence of superiors/role models, and
• 4. Training in the organization ( e.g., training by Technical Evangelists
at Infosys Technologies).

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• The following methodologies are effective in developing self-
confidence in a person:
• 1. Encouraging SWOT analysis. By evaluating their strength and
weakness, they can anticipate and be prepared to face the results.
• 2. Training to evaluate risks and face them (self-acceptance).
• 3. Self-talk . It is conditioning the mind for preparing the self to act,
without any doubt on his capabilities.
• 4. Study and group discussion, on the history of leaders and
innovators

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