ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIST

IN SOCIETY
(CLB 40002)

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
CODE OF ENGINEERING ETHICS
PREPARED BY:
NUR RABIYATUL ADAWIYAH BINTI AMRAN
(55222121107)
COURSE:
BACHELOR OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY (PROCESS) WITH HONOURS
LECTURER:
ZAINAL ABIDIN MOHD YUSOF
SUBMISSION DATE:
29 OCTOBER 2021

This report is written in partial fulfilment of the requirements in CLB 40002. The
contents represent the opinion of the group members and not the MICET, UniKL
1.0 INTRODUCTION

Ethics is the characteristics of moral and involves the moral choices made by
individual to interact with other persons while, engineers need to aware of ethics
while making choices during their professional practice in engineering. Engineering
ethics defined as the rules and standard the conduct of engineers in their roles as
professionals. Engineers should follow their professional ethics code to avoid legal
problem such as being sued due to unethical practices during their profession also
gains trust of public when they know the engineers have an ethics code. The purpose
of The Institute’s Code of Ethics is to promote an ethical culture in the profession of
internal auditing. Internal auditing is an independent and consulting activity designed
to improve and add value of organization’s operation. It helps to achieve objectives by
having a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of
risk management, control and governance processes. A code of ethics is necessary for
the profession of internal auditing as its objectives about governance, risk
management and control.

1.1 CODE OF ENGINEERING ETHICS

The Board of Directors of the American Institute of Chemistry Engineering

(AIChE) adopts this Code of Ethics in which it expects the professional conduct of its
members to be compliant, and to which each applicant signs by signing their
membership application. Members of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering
shall uphold and promote the integrity, honor, and dignity of the engineering
profession by being honest and fair and serving loyalty of their employers, their
customers, and the public to improve the efficiency and prestige of the engineering
profession and use their knowledge and skill to enhance human well-being.

The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) had emphasis on

ethics among engineers dates back to the end of 19th century where the first reference
to a Society Code of Ethics is found in May 1953 issue of The American Engineer. In
1946, the Board approved the Canons of Ethics for Engineer and ever since that, the
Canons of Ethics has evolved into what now refer to as NSPE’s Code of Ethics for
Engineers.

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 The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Code of Ethics adopted
in1914 where the ethics is the model for professional conduct for ASCE members.
The ASCE members conduct themselves with integrity and professionalism, protect
and advance the health, safety, and welfare of the public though the practice of Civil
Engineering. The members regardless their membership grade or job description
commit to all following ethical responsibilities. There is no priority of responsibilities
within stakeholder with exception that takes precedence over all other responsibilities.

1.2 COMMON CODE OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING ETHICS

i. Engineer Shall Hold Paramount Safety, Health and Welfare of The Public
in The Performance of Their Professional Duties

As an engineers, we should always aware about the safety, health and welfare of
the public. Engineers are responsible when it comes to anything happen to public
during their professional duties. From ASCE guideline, professional engineer shall
inform their clients or employers of possible consequences when the safety, health
and welfare of public are endangered, or the principles of sustainable development
ignored. Moreover, from NSPE guideline, engineers shall not authorize any
individual or company that suspect engaged in fraudulent or unethical to use their
name or participate in business venture. Based on these guidelines, its strictly
shows that engineers are most responsible person when it comes to any
engineering activities.

ii. Engineer Shall Perform Services Only in Areas of Their Competence

Engineers should take this code of ethics as the most important rule to obey since
different responsible and professional duties need difference engineers. For
example, civil engineer cannot do the chemical engineer duties since he is not
competence neither expertise in the field himself. If this happen, the engineers
might lead to big problem and serious issue in future and also risk the safety of
public as mention in first code of ethic earlier.

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 iii. Engineers Should Conduct Themselves in Fair, Honorable and Respectful
Manner

Engineers should strive for transparency in the procurement and execution of

project. They must not engage in business of professional practices of a
fraudulent, dishonest or unethical nature. Furthermore, any compensation and
financial shall not been accepted by responsible engineer unless the circumstances
are disclosed and agreed by all interested parties. This code of ethics helps
engineers to promote themselves as good and dedicated engineers therefor, the
public and client will recognize and have trust on their professional duties.

2.0 CODE OF ENGINEERING ETHICS IN DAILY TASK

Based on the code of ethics above, it shows that engineers play a big role and
carried bunch of responsibilities during their professional duties. This ethical code
helps them to maintain their carrier and help getting recognize by public and client. A
wastewater treatment plant can be the most dangerous place in production industry
where there is chemical reaction carried out in plant and the waste substance that
produces can be toxic for living. So, chemical engineers should identify and list out
hazard issue before performing their duties therefore they followed the first code of
ethic stated which is ensure safety, health and welfare of public also environment. A
failure in following the code of engineering ethics can caused bad reputation for
engineer and the industry, for example the building that collapse in Malaysia such as
Highland Tower at Ulu Klang, Selangor in 1993. The failure of retaining walls under
heavy rains causing landslide lead building collapse was the contributing factor. This
proven the lack of knowledge and ignorance study for the land structure can lead to
bad accident. This shows the importance of engineer to perform their service in their
area of competency and performing their work dedicatedly in order to gain client trust
and recognize.

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3.0 OTHER RESOURCES TO GUIDE ENGINEERS IN SOLVING ISSUES

In Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET), engineers

shall continue their professional development throughout their career and shall
provide opportunities for the professional development of junior engineer under
their supervision. For instance, engineer should take special license and certificate
to enhance their knowledge and increase credibility of their profession. This helps
them to gains trust from the client as they see the certificate of the engineers.
Furthermore, it also helps engineers to solve any arising issue as they were
exposed to more problem-solving soft skill. In addition, the engineers should
cooperate with junior engineers and train them to come up with thoughtful idea.
Then, discussion among engineers to have thought of issue arise with the different
ideas brought up will provide good solution. This will help to enhance the
confident of junior engineers in deciding and making decision for future duties.

4.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

As a conclusion, from the code of ethics been discuss it shows that engineers
shall aware with the code of ethics in order to be responsible engineers as their big
roles in their profession. The biggest role of an engineer is to always priorities the
safety and health of public. The engineer also needs to take full responsible in the
professional duties in order to avoid any accident and bad review from clients. It will
cause a disaster when an engineer did not follow the code of ethic and also disobey
the rules of engineering. The profession is not about money, but it all about the sake
of pleasure and comfort of client and public. As recommended, the code of ethics
should revise every time any arising issue occurred to stay relevant throughout the
century for good sake of engineering profession so the engineers will take full
responsibility of their own work.

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5.0 REFERENCES

1. AIChE Diversity Statement (2015, November). AIChE Code of Ethics Retrieved from
https://www.aiche.org/sites/default/files/docs/pages/code_of_ethics_diversity_statemen
t_-_nov.pdf
2. National Society of Professional Engineers Code of Ethics for Engineers.
NSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers Retrieved from
https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics
3. American Society of Civil Engineers Code of Ethics (Updated July, 2017).
ASCE Code of Ethics Retrieved from https://www.asce.org/-/media/asce-
images-and-files/career-and-growth/ethics/documents/asce-code-ethics-july-
2017.pdf
4. Landslide of Highland Towers 1993: A Case Study of Malaysia (2017).
Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sadaf-
Qasim/publication/317661643_Landslide_of_Highland_Towers_1993_a_case
_study_of_Malaysia/links/59e86c0ca6fdccfe7f8b4d5b/Landslide-of-Highland-
Towers-1993-a-case-study-of-Malaysia.pdf
5. Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology Code of Ethics
Engineers. ABET Code of Ethics Engineers Retrieved from
http://sites.bsyse.wsu.edu/pitts/be120/Handouts/codes/abet.htm