2. Ethics
• Definition of Ethics:
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the principles of conduct of an
individual or group. It works as a guiding principle as to decide what is good or bad. They
are the standards which govern the life of a person. Ethics is also known as moral
philosophy.
Some ethical principles are:
• Truthfulness
• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Respect
• Fairness
• Integrity
3. Morals
• Definition of Moral:
Morals are the social, cultural and religious beliefs or values of an individual or
group which tells us what is right or wrong. They are the rules and standards made by the
society or culture which is to be followed by us while deciding what is right.
Some moral principles are:
• Do not cheat
• Be loyal
• Be patient
• Always tell the truth
• Be generous
• Morals refer to the beliefs what is not objectively right, but what is considered right for
any situation, so it can be said that what is morally correct may not be objectively correct.
4. Key Differences Between Morals and Ethics
• Morals deal with what is ‘right or wrong’. Ethics deals with what is ‘good or evil’.
• Morals are general guidelines framed by the society E.g. We should speak truth. Conversely, ethics
are a response to a particular situation, E.g. Is it ethical to state the truth in a particular situation?
• The term morals is derived from a Greek word ‘mos’ which refers to custom and the customs are
determined by group of individuals or some authority. On the other hand, ethics is originated from
Greek word ‘ethikos’ which refers to character and character is an attribute.
• Morals are dictated by society, culture or religion while Ethics are chosen by the person himself
which governs his life.
5. • Morals are concerned with principles of right and wrong. On the contrary, ethics stresses on right
and wrong conduct.
• As morals are framed and designed by the group, there is no option to think and choose; the
individual can either accept or reject. Conversely, the people are free to think and choose the
principles of his life in ethics.
• Morals may vary from society to society and cultu
• re to culture. As opposed to Ethics, which remains same regardless of any culture, religion or
society.
• Morals do not have any applicability to business, whereas Ethics is widely applicable in the
business known as business ethics.
• Morals are expressed in the form of statements, but Ethics are not expressed in the form of
statements.
6. Values
• Values are the foundation of an individual person’s ability to judge between right and
wrong. Values include a deep-rooted system of beliefs that guide a person’s decisions.
They form a personal, individual foundation that influences a particular person’s behavior.
• Examples of values everywhere in daily life. For example, if your value system is
founded upon honesty, you would probably choose to study for a difficult test rather than
cheating for a passing grade. However, if you value achievement and success over
honesty, you may decide to cheat on the exam instead. This relates to which value is
“worth more” to the individual.
7. Other examples of values include:
• a person who values integrity admits that they stole a piece of candy
• someone who values friendship drops everything to help a friend
• people who value a healthy lifestyle make sure they have time to work out in the morning
• a person who values success works late nights to achieve a promotion
• someone who values commitment may be more willing to go to marriage therapy than to file for
divorce
• These values form personality types. They also help to make decisions that affect the course of
lives. When these values are shared by others in community, they are known as morals.
8. Integrity
• According to author C.S. Lewis, “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one
is looking.” Integrity is a foundational moral quality and the bedrock upon which good
character is built.
• Acting with integrity means understanding, accepting, and choosing to live in accordance
with one’s principles, which will include honesty, fairness, and decency. A person of
integrity will consistently demonstrate good character by being free of corruption.
• Integrity in the workplace comes in many forms, but above all refers to having upstanding
character traits and work ethics including sound judgement, honesty, dependability, and
loyalty. Having a high degree of integrity at work means that: You are trustworthy and
reliable.
• A person with integrity behaves ethically and does the right thing, even behind closed
doors. For instance, informing a cashier that they gave you too much change and
going back to the store to pay for something you forgot to pay for are two examples of
showing integrity in everyday circumstances.
9. Trustworthiness
• Trustworthiness is the ability to keep promises, to be honest, reliable and principled while
never inappropriately betraying a confidence.
• Trustworthiness relies on the integrity and character of the person
• Trustworthy is someone who is honest who can be entrusted with your secrets or with
anything else of importance. An example of trustworthy is the person who babysits your
kids or who you tell your secrets to. Deserving of trust, reliable
• Trustworthiness is one of the most important qualities in life. It is the quality on which
all relationships are built. We are designed to be in relationship with others, and being
able to TRUST each other means that we can do more together of trust, reliable.
10. Professional and Individual Rights
The basic rights of engineers include the right to live freely and pursue their
legitimate interests as any human being, along with the right to be against racial or
sexual discrimination, receiving one’s salary according to the work, choosing of
political activities, etc., as other employees. Besides all of them, engineers have
some special rights as professionals.
• Professional Rights
• The rights that engineers have as professionals are called Professional Rights.
These professional rights include −
• The basic right of professional conscience.
• The right of conscientious refusal.
• The right of professional recognition.
11. 1. Right of Professional Conscience
• This is a basic right which explains that the decisions taken while carrying on
with the duty, where they are taken in moral and ethical manner, cannot be
opposed. The right of professional conscience is the moral right to exercise
professional judgement in pursuing professional responsibilities. It requires
autonomous moral judgement in trying to uncover the most morally reasonable
courses of action, and the correct courses of action are not always obvious.
• There are two general ways to justify the basic right of professional
conscience.
• The exercise of moral reflection and conscience that justifies professional
duties is necessary, with respect to that duty.
• The general duties to respect persons and rule-utilitarianism would accent the
public good of allowing engineers to pursue their professional duties.
12. 2. Right of Conscientious Refusal
• The right of conscientious refusal is the right to refuse to engage in unethical
behavior. This can be done solely because it feels unethical to the doer. This
action might bring conflicts within the authority-based relationships.
• The two main situations to be considered here are −
• When it is already stated that certain act is unethical in a widely shared
agreement among all the employees.
• When there occurs disagreement among considerable number of people
whether the act is unethical.
• Hence it is understood that engineers and other professionals have a moral
right to refuse the unethical acts such as bribery, forging documents, altering
test results, lying, padding payrolls or coercing employees into acting by
threatening, etc.
13. 3. Right to Recognition
• An engineer has a right to the recognition of one’s work and accomplishments.
An engineer also has right to speak about the work one does by maintaining
confidentiality and can receive external recognition. The right for internal
recognition which includes patents, promotions, raises etc. along with a fair
remuneration, are also a part of it.
• The fulfillment of right to recognition motivates the employee to be a trustful
member of the organization, which also benefits the employer. This makes the
employee morally bound which enhances the ethical nature to be abide by the
professional ethics.
14. Employee Rights
An employee right can be any right, moral or legal, that involves the status
of being an employee. They involve some professional rights also, such as the right
to be paid according to the salary mentioned in one’s contract. Privacy and equal
opportunity can be considered essential rights too.
1. Privacy
• The right to privacy refers to the right of having a private life, off the job. It is
the right to control the access to and the use of information about oneself.
2. Equal Opportunity – Non-discrimination
• The demeaning of a person based on trivial factors such as one’s sex, race,
skin color, age or political or religious outlook can be understood as
Discrimination. Such a discrimination should never be allowed at any
workplace; this is where everyone has to be treated equally. These things
internally affect the person’s self-identity and self-respect which is pernicious
within the work environment, where the work itself should represent a
person’s self-image.
15. 3. Equal Opportunity – Sexual Harassment
In today’s world, there is an increase in the number of sexual harassment
cases across the world. This is quiet an unfortunate scenario. There were a number
of cases where the charges were levied since last two decades, which kept on
growing. A definition of Sexual harassment is, “The unwanted imposition of sexual
requirements in the context of a relationship of unequal power”. Sexual harassment
is a display of power and aggression through sexual means. It takes two forms, quid
pro quo and hostile work environment.
4. Equal opportunity – Affirmative Action
Affirmative action refers to the preference given to a person or a group who
was denied equal importance in the past. For example, the women and the minority
communities were not given equal treatment and were ill-treated in the past. So to
compensate that, amendments were made in recent laws to provide them special
quota for reservations in education, employment and social sectors.
16. 5. Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property right is a type of property right which allows
the creators or owners of patents trademarks or copyrighted works to
benefit from their own work or investment. These rights enable the right
person to benefit from the protection of moral and material interests
resulting from the authorship of scientific, literary or artistic
productions.
