March 2020

Lecture 2
Engineering Management II
Professional Ethics
1.0 Introduction
Ethics deals with what we believe to be good or bad and with the moral obligations that these beliefs
imply.
Ethics is a set of moral values and principles which form the standards guiding the code of conduct of
individuals, organizations and professions.
Ethics is the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession:
medical ethics.
2.0 Professional Ethics and Personal Ethics
Personal ethics refers to the ethics that a person identifies with in respect to people and situations
that they deal with in everyday life. Professional ethics refers to the ethics that a person must adhere
to in respect of their interactions and business dealings in their professional life.
Personal and professional ethics are different from, but not exclusive of, each other. There is always
overlap between professional and personal ethics. However, professional ethics is more restrictive
than Personal ethics.
3.0 Engineering Ethics
Engineering ethics can be defined as the rules and standards governing the conduct of engineers in
their roles as professionals. Engineering ethics increases the skill of moral judgment and develops the
moral autonomy of the engineer. In addition it improves the skills necessary to think critically about
the ethical aspects and consequences of engineering design and work.
Engineering ethics sets the standards for professional practice.
The objectives of engineering ethics are:
 To complement the technical knowledge derived from engineering education with the
development of moral values and the capacity for sound moral judgment.
 To complement the technical perspective with ethical analysis that leads to more responsible
decision making
 To develop ethical decision making in engineering that will attend to the exigency of universal
moral principles and not only to the force of legislation, the law, or fear of punishment.
 To increase knowledge about the duties, obligations and moral responsibilities of engineers
in the practice of their professional labour.
 To promote the knowledge and development of professional virtues in order to produce
excellent engineers that is committed to, and contributes to, social progress and social justice.
4.0 Core Issues and Challenges in Engineering Ethics
Core issues and challenges in engineering ethics are:
 The importance of honesty in engineering, the various forms of dishonesty, and how a conflict
of interest can compromise an engineer’s judgment.
 Issues of risk in engineering such as how risk should be defined and how much risk is
acceptable.
 Engineer-manager conflicts within the context of a company or organization, the tensions that
can result from the engineer-manager relationship and how these conflicts might be resolved.
 Some impediments to responsible action to be considered. To explore and apply these
challenges in the context of contemporary issues.
 Their impact on society and the government agencies, law enforcement, public behaviour,
social maturity, political parties, etc.

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L. Ogutu March 2020 Engineering Management II
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Some of the typical ethical issues that engineers encounter are: safety, acceptable risk, compliance,
confidentiality, environmental health, data integrity, conflict of interest, honesty/dishonesty, societal
impact, fairness, accounting for uncertainty, etc.
5.0 Why engineering ethics are taught:
Students are taught engineering ethics to:
 Stimulate the ethical imagination of students. Too often, the educators agreed, young
professionals get caught by surprise when faced with an ethical problem in their professional
practice.
 Help students recognize ethical issues. Although a conflict of interest may be lurking around
the corner, it may not announce itself to the involved parties until matters have gone too far.
 Help students analyse key ethical concepts and principles those are relevant to the particular
profession or practice. Concepts come to mind—public health and safety, quality, usefulness,
efficiency, cost/risk/benefit analysis, environmental harm, truthfulness, trustworthiness,
loyalty.
 Help students deal with ethical disagreement, ambiguity, and vagueness. The trick is to
acknowledge that some disagreement and uncertainty can be expected and should be
tolerated, but to refuse to accept the view, “Everyone’s opinion is as good as anyone else’s
when it comes to ethics.”
 Encourage students to take ethical responsibility seriously. In one sense, this should not be
difficult for engineering students, once they reflect on the obvious fact that engineering is not
just a technical or theoretical enterprise. Inherent in the exercise of engineering expertise is
the provision of useful, if not essential, services to clients, employers, customers, and the
public.
 Instil reliable judgment and trustworthiness. So, if we examine what engineers do, and not
simply the technical content of engineering textbooks, it is easy to see that ethical
responsibility should be a central concern of the engineering profession and practice.
 Help engineers to guide their decisions to ensure they act responsibly. With knowledge &
skills, engineers have the capability to do services to the public. With this capability, engineers
have a tremendous responsibility to clients, individuals and society.
6.0 Code of Ethics
Codes of ethics state the moral responsibilities of engineers as seen by the profession and as
represented by a professional society. Because they express the profession’s collective commitment
to ethics, codes are enormously important, not only in stressing engineers’ responsibilities but also in
supporting the freedom needed to meet them.

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L. Ogutu March 2020 Engineering Management II