Pearl Angelie Villanueva Mahusay

 Ethical Issues Facing Engineers and their Profession by (Name of Student) Course Professor University City where it is located Date Ethical Issues Facing Engineers and their Profession The professional society’s preparation to assume the core responsibility fundamental to professional ethics is crucial, especially in the engineering industry. Without sufficient training in professional ethics, people may not be expected to trust those who appear as “professionals”; whether the expertise and power they possess will be used for the common good. Since many of our difficulties may not be resolved without professional assistance, there are those who acquire broad knowledge that have chosen to become abusive. People must have the assurance that professionals will not take advantage of their technical expertise to ignore what the majority have valued or undermine any significant societal interests. Thus, the instilling professional ethics must be considered a critical part in the career of every professional. Put more strongly, practicing professional ethics must be equally important as the performing technical works, since continuous scandals of the unethical activities from a wide variety of professional industry have been clearly executed. Ethical Issues in Engineering The engineering codes of ethics assures a place of safety to people. This states that engineers must be held responsible of the safety, health and welfare of the public. There may be an implicit recognition that the designs and products developed by humans carry a certain degree of risk with it, but the relationship between this risk and safety must be too obvious not to notice. If there are designs, products, techniques and materials that are used in some unsafe manner, professionals expose both people and the society to a huge risk (Kreiner, J., Flores, A., & Krishnamurthy, S. 2004, 206). Engineers are the known to be responsible for the safety of the general public. These professionals ensure that engineering decisions are consistent with the safety, health and welfare in terms of accepted engineering approaches, which conforms to the codes, standards and verified practices. Thus, engineers are to be held responsible for any disclosures that might be subjected to the public or environmental dangers. In order to perform their professional functions properly, engineers must maintain and improve their overall competency and continue to engage in learning. Furthermore, engineers must provide professional service only in the areas in which they possess the requisite knowledge and expertise. Conflict of interest happens when an engineer’s loyalty and obligations may be compromised due to self-interest or other commitments that results to biased judgments risk (Kreiner, et.al. 2004, 206; Harris, C. E., Pritchard, M. S., & Rabins, M. J. 2009, 51). This is a situation in which a proper conduct may be questioned and requires that, say, the engineer avoids being put in the position of making decisions that may be challenged later on. For example, John is works as a design engineer at a medium company that utilizes valves in their projects. Upon his submission of the product design recommendation report to the company’s clients, he usually chooses valves produced by a relative, even when valves from other companies might be more suitable. Should his company’s clients discover this scheme, they may complain that John is involved in a conflict of interest. Here, conflict of interest existed because the engineer in a professional role has interests that tend to create a professional’s judgment less likely to benefit the client than he is justified in expecting (Pritchard, M. S., & Rabins, M. J. 2009, 131). From the example, John’s interest in maintaining a good relationship with his relative outweighed giving a just professional judgment to his company’s clients by serving his personal interest in his relative rather than the interests of his clients as he ought to do as an employee. Whistle blowing is another ethical issue that happens when an engineer who is aware of such illegal and harmful mode of behavior decides to share information to the public. This may either take place when the information is reported to the appropriate authorities within the city, country or state, or released to the media or a combination of both. The engineer engaged in whistle blowing has a serious conflict of interest and has an obligation not only to the employer but also in protecting the people within a society (Kreiner, J., et.al. 2004, 207). Since it must be clear that the protection of the public is of utmost importance and be held as such, the consequences of this issue is extreme. Either the engineer may lose the job and destroy a career or finding a new job may prove to be difficult as employers may be unwilling to hire a potential whistleblower. The impact of this action may cause a damages and financial disaster to the engineer involved. The engineer who choses to engage in whistle-blowing may receive blacklisted from his colleagues in the company and, furthermore, in his profession. Thus, the person must carefully consider possible consequences of whistle-blowing so that the gratification of doing the right thing should be the motivation in doing otherwise. Concern for the environment also plays a huge part in practicing ethical conduct for engineers. Humanity must stop being nature’s adversary. It should become its ally and guardian. Aside from the destruction of complete ecosystems, careless practices of such profession may pollute the earth that cause global warming and damages to a variety of life species. Engineers must also be aware of such effect on the ozone layer that protects plants and animals from the ultraviolet light (Kreiner, J., et.al. 2004, 207). As the concept of sustainable development suggests that people must improve their standard of living while protecting the environment, engineers must put an emphasis on the conservation of resources through nonpolluting technologies, which are a required to reach such height and reduction on fossil fuel dependence. Since engineers are the only profession that can make use of renewable energy sources effectively, they must develop energy efficient resources such as solar, wind and biofuels to minimize waste and inefficiency. Conclusion It has been proved that the engineering ethics is highly essential in the engineering profession. The roadmap of engineering behavior highlights the values and traditions possessed by the profession in leading society to creating crucial decisions and confronting challenges necessary to better such standard of living. The engineering profession may have a difficult and responsible task that challenges the assurance of future practitioners to be both educated and equipped with the skills upon ethical problems confrontations. It must scrutinize the code of ethics with critical thinking, competence and technical ability that are practiced in the engineering profession. This challenge can only be met through conscious effort to acquire a broad understanding of ethical issues and exercising the greatest dedication and commitment to professional integrity. References Harris, C. E., Pritchard, M. S., & Rabins, M. J., 2009. Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases, Fourth Edition. Wadsworth, CA, USA. Kreiner, J., Flores, A., & Krishnamurthy, S., 2004. Ethical Issues Facing Engineers and their Profession. [Online] (updated 2004) Available at: < http://www.ineer.org/Events/ICEER2004/Proceedings/papers/0203.pdf> [Accessed 28 May 2019]