Unit 2 Introduction to Ethical Concept

Lectures on Ethical Concept
for
Open Educational Resource
on
Human Values and Professional Ethics (BM226)
by
Dr. Piyush Charan
Assistant Professor
Department of Electronics and Communication Engg.
Integral University, Lucknow

Contents of this Unit
 Definition of industrial ethics and values
 Ethical rules of the industrial worker
 Values and Value Judgments
 Moral Rights and Moral rules
 Moral character and responsibilities
 Privacy and Confidentiality
 Intellectual Property and the Law
 Ethics as Law.
Nov 26, 2020 2Dr. Piyush Charan, Dept. of ECE, Integral University, Lucknow

Ethics-Definition
• Ethics is the word that refers to morals,
values, and beliefs of the individuals, family
or the society.
• Firstly, it is an activity and process of
inquiry.
• Secondly, it is different from non-moral
problems, when dealing with issues and
controversies.
• Thirdly, ethics refers to a particular set of
beliefs, attitudes, and habits of individuals or
family or groups concerned with morals.
• Finally, it is used to mean ‘morally correct’.
Nov 26, 2020 Dr. Piyush Charan, Dept. of ECE, Integral University, Lucknow 3

Ethics as Philosophy
 Ethics, also known as moral
philosophy, is a branch of
philosophy that involves
systematizing, defending, and
recommending concepts of
right and wrong conduct.

Why do we need Ethics Education?

Professional Ethics
• Professional ethics concerns the moral issues
that arise because of the specialist knowledge
that professionals attain, and how the use of
this knowledge should be governed when
providing a service to the public.
• Anyone who promises to deliver and delivers
as promised without giving up his/her own
values is a professional.
• Professional ethics is about the code of
conduct on moral issues pursued by persons
sharing the same skill, trade or occupation.

Industrial/Workplace Ethics
Care
Integrity
Fairness
Self-Respect
Self-Restraint
Responsibility
Mutual Assistance
Respect for others
Tolerance of Diversity
 Meaning:
 Industrial/Workplace Ethics,
refers to applying ethical
principles in work related
situations.
 It refers to taking the right
decisions concerning the
workplace or industry.
 Values and ethics are important
in the workplace to help keep
order, ensuring that a company
runs smoothly and remains
profitable.

Elements of Industrial Ethics
• Creating an Environment free
from discrimination,
exploitation and harassment.
• Treating Employees with
dignity and respect.
• No abusive behavior.
• Creating a clear
understanding of what is
right and what is wrong.

Principles of Industrial Ethics
• Respect Autonomy It is assumed that individuals have the right to
decide how they live their lives, as long as their actions do not
interfere with the welfare of others. Therefore, one has the right to
act as a free agent, and has freedom of thought and choice.
• Do No Harm The obligation to avoid inflicting either physical or
psychological harm on others may be a primary ethical principle.
• Benefit Others There is an obligation to improve and enhance the
welfare of others, even where such may inconvenience or limit the
freedom of the person offering the assistance.

Principles of Industrial Ethics
contd…
• Be Just To be just in dealing with others assumes equal
treatment of all, to afford each individual his or her due
portion, and in general, to observe the golden rule.
• Be Faithful One should keep promises, tell the truth,
be loyal, and maintain respect and civility in human
discourse. Only in so far as we sustain faithfulness can
we expect to be seen as truly trustworthy

Significance of Industrial Ethics
• The application of moral principles, standards
of behavior, or set of values regarding proper
conduct in the workplace as individuals and in
a group setting.
• Ethics allow you to distinguish the difference
between right and wrong.

Values and Value Judgments
• Values
– 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.
• “Values are the scales we use to weigh our choices for our actions,
whether to move towards or away from something.”

Value Judgments
• Factual Claim v/s Value Judgments
– Factual Claims are non-evaluative
– These claims don’t have any value to it.
– They are statements that are so factual that they do not
carry any significant value to it.
• For Example
– Sun rises in the East
– Penguins are birds.
– H₂O is Water.

Value Judgments
• Value Judgments on the other hand, is a claim
that a particular human action or object has
some degree of importance, worth, or
desirability.
– Ice cream tastes great!
– It’s morally wrong to kill innocent people for fun.

Value Judgments
• Judgments are opinions based on values, beliefs, or philosophical
concepts.
• (Judgments also include opinions based on personal preferences, but
those are excluded from argument)
• Judgments concern right and wrong, good and bad, better or worse,
should and should not.
• Examples:
– No more than 20 students should be enrolled in any English class.
– Cigarette advertising should be eliminated, and the federal government
should develop an antismoking campaign.

Types of Value Judgments
• There are two types of Value Judgments, viz.,
– Personal taste or value: statements that assert one’s
personal tastes or values.
• I like ice cream.
• Running is important to me.
– Moral judgments: asserting that human actions are
good, bad, right, or wrong.
• Killing for fun is morally wrong.
• Truth telling is good.

Subjective statement v/s Objective
statement
• Subjective: the truth of such statements depend solely on a
person’s subjective state (e.g., her feelings, preferences,
beliefs, etc.)
– Example:
• Ice cream is the best!
• Objective: the truth of such statements do not depend on
anyone’s beliefs, preferences, desires, etc., but on the nature
of reality.
– Example:
• Ice cream typically has sugar.

What do you think?
• “Moral claims like ‘Truth telling is
good’ are just expressions of personal
taste much like the claim ‘Vanilla ice
cream is the best!’ There is nothing
objectively right or wrong about these
claims.” The preceding claim is
– A. True
– B. False

Moral value judgments
• Moral value judgments often employ two types of
statements:
• prescriptive: offer advice.
– Example: You shouldn’t do that.
• normative: establish standards for correct moral
behavior.
– Example: Killing is always wrong.

Moral Values and Moral Rights
• Moral Values are the worthy
principles that one follows to
distinguish the right from the
wrong. These virtues are
considered worthy in building up
the character of an individual.
• It refers to the good virtues such
as honesty, integrity, truthfulness,
helpfulness, love, respectfulness,
hard-work, etc.

Moral Rights
• Along with the concepts of benefit and harm, one of
concepts most commonly used in discussions of
ethics is that of a moral right.
• A right is a justified claim, entitlement or assertion of
what a rights-holder is due.
• For a person to have the moral right to have, get, or
do something, there must be a moral basis or
justification for the claim.
• These bases or justifications are different for different
categories of rights.
• We shall see that "human rights" is a name given to
those rights that all people have because they are
people. Rights possessed by only some are called
"special rights."

Moral Rights contd…
• Moral rights, along with moral obligations and moral responsibilities, constrain
how far a person may go in seeking to improve an outcome.
– For example, suppose you find yourself in some sort of emergency where you can act to save one
person's life or to save four (other) people's lives. (Other things being equal) you ought to save the
four people, rather than one. However, the greater value of four lives as compared with one would not
allow you to violate another's right to life in order to save four others.
• Thus it would not be morally permissible to kill one person in order to harvest that
person's organs and transplant them into four people who each need one of the
organs to survive.
• In contrast, although both human life and great art have value, art does not have
moral rights. Therefore, it would be justified to destroy one great painting to save
four others--for example, by using the first to wrap the other four.

Types of Moral Rights
• Right of integrity - right that work not mutilated
or distorted.
• Right of paternity - right to be acknowledged as
the author of a work.
• Right of disclosure - right to decide when and in
what form work will be presented to public.
• Under French law - PERPETUAL,
INALIENABLE, and UNWAIVABLE

Moral Rights in India
• Indian Position on Moral Rights
– In the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, the provision related to moral rights has
been given. Indian copyright does not directly provides moral rights to the
author but it provides a special right to the author, that are moral rights. These
rights are independent and parallel of the author’s economic rights. This
provision is based on Article 6 bis of Bern Convention.
• The language of Section 57 is of wide aptitude and includes not just literary
works but also visual and audio manifestations. The moral rights are as
follows:
– Paternity right (right to claim authorship of the work)
– The integrity right (the right to protect his honor and reputation)
– A general right (not to have a work falsely attributed to him)

Moral Rules
• Rules of ethical conduct (or Moral Rules) specify the acts or course of action that are
required or forbidden.
– For example, a manuscript submitted for publication should be one that has not been
previously published, except for versions written for very different audiences.
• General exhortations such as "Be honest" or "Treat every person as an end and not as a
means," might be called moral rules in a broad sense of "moral rules," but they are so
general that they are commonly called basic considerations or "ethical principles" and
that is how we shall refer them.
• To summarize: a moral rule has a specific form, an ethical principle is a general moral
consideration.
• Therefore, the terms "moral rule" and "ethical principle" may apply to the same ethical
consideration.

Moral Character
• In contrast to moral rights, moral rules, and moral
obligations, traits of moral character,
or virtues and vices, such as honesty, kindness,
cowardice and responsibility, are characteristics of
people, rather than acts or the consequences of those
acts.
• As Alasdair MacIntyre has argued traits of moral
character are essential in the development of complex
cooperative activities. Social practices achieve ends and
produce results for which their practitioners may
receive what MacIntyre call "external" rewards: pay,
fame or career advancement.

Moral/Ethical Responsibility
• For someone to practice moral responsibility means that the person must exercise
judgment and care to achieve or maintain a desirable state of affairs.
• Generally, we speak of people reaching "an age of responsibility" or "age of
discretion," indicating that although children may follow moral rules, something
more is required in terms of cognitive ability or matured judgment to exercise
responsibility appropriately.
• Moral responsibilities of a moral agent may derive from their causal
responsibilities. However, if a person has caused a mistake, there is reason to think
that the person has some moral responsibility for rectifying the resulting situation.
• If you break something, you have some responsibility for fixing it or for cleaning it
up and replacing it.
• Moral responsibilities derive either from one's interpersonal relationship to a person
whose welfare is in question, or from the special knowledge one possesses such as
professional knowledge that is crucial to an aspect of another's well-being.

Professional Responsibility
• Professional responsibility is the most common type of moral
responsibility that arises from the special knowledge a person possesses.
• Mastery of a special body of advanced knowledge, particularly knowledge
which bears directly on the well-being of others, distinguishes professions
from other occupations.
• In modern times it is simply not possible for a person to master all the
knowledge that is relevant even to her own well-being.
• Because society looks to members of a given profession to master and
develop knowledge in a particular area, the members of a profession bear
special moral responsibilities in the use of the special knowledge vested in
them.

Moral v/s Official Responsibility
Official Moral/Ethical
It is my duty to teach you and do all
works assigned to me fro the
management of the university.
Because this is part of my contract
and mentioned in my Job Description.
But it is my moral duty to take care
of my students’ personal and
emotional issues so that their learning
is not hindered.
However, it is not part of my job and
I am not paid extra for doing that. But
ethics says it should be done.

Privacy v/s Confidentiality

IPR
• What do you mean by IPR??
• Its “INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS”.
• Intellectual property right means rights to the
intellectual property.
Nov 26, 2020 31Dr. Piyush Charan, Dept. of ECE, Integral University,
Lucknow

IPR

Definition of IP
Intellectual property (IP) is the name given to
property arising out of human intellectual effort.
33Nov 26, 2020 33Dr. Piyush Charan, Dept. of ECE, Integral University, Lucknow

The output of human
intellectual effort often
manifests itself as new or
original knowledge or
creative expression which
adds a desirable quality to a
marketable product or
service.

IPR
 What is IP?
 A property generated by the intellectual, capability
of an individual or a group of individuals
The IP system is the best available tool for creating and
maintaining exclusivity over creative and innovative
output in the market place.
What is IPR?
 The legal rights on the above generated property

Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind:
► Inventions,
► literary,
► Artistic works,
► Designs used in commerce,
► Symbols,
► Names,
► Images.

Characteristics of IP
► A key characteristic of any property is that the owner
of property has the exclusive authority to determine
how that property is used.

Nov 26, 2020 38
Physical Property
(Tangible or Material)
Intellectual Property
(Intangible or Immaterial)
Dr. Piyush Charan, Dept. of ECE, Integral University, Lucknow

39
Physical Property
In both the case the
owner has exclusive
right to determine
how it is used.
Nov 26, 2020 Dr. Piyush Charan, Dept. of ECE, Integral University, Lucknow

40
Physical Property
Can only be used by one
or a limited number of
people at a given time.
Can be used by various
people at the same time
(including the owner or
creator).

41
Physical Property
Has economic value as
long as it exists or as long
as there is demand for it.
Has economic value only
for the duration specified
in the laws and as long as
there is demand for it.

42
Physical Property
Possibility of theft and
disputes concerning
ownership is rather
limited.
Greater possibility of theft
and disputes concerning
ownership.

43
Physical Property
Theft occurs only if the
possession of the
property changes hands.
Theft occurs if the property
is copied, imitated,
adapted, translated, used,
displayed, etc. without
permission of the owner or
creator.

44
Physical Property
In both the cases
Expenditure or
income from the
property may be
subject to taxation.

45
Physical Property
Both the properties
May be valued and
reflected on account
books and balance
sheets.

46
Physical Property
Both the properties
May be securitized
and used as
collateral for
borrowing money

47
Physical Property
Both the
properties May
be insured.

2 types of property:
 Physical Property
• The owner has exclusive rights to determine
how to use it.
• Can be used by one or a limited no of people
at a given time.
• It has economic value as long as there is a
demand for it.
• Possibility of theft and disputes concerning
ownership is limited.
• Expenditure and income from the property
may be subject to taxation
• May be insured
 Intellectual Property
• The owner has exclusive rights to determine
how to use it
• Can be used by various people at the same
time (incl. owner/creator)
• It has economic value only for the duration
specified in law & demand
• Greater possibility of theft and disputes
concerning ownership.
• Expenditure and income from the property
may be subject to taxation
• May be insured

• Intellectual property, very broadly, means the legal rights which
result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary
and artistic fields.
• Countries have laws to protect intellectual property for two main
reasons.
– One is to give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of
creators in their creations and the rights of the public in access to those
creations.
– The second is to promote, as a deliberate act of Government policy,
creativity and the dissemination and application of its results and to
encourage fair trading which would contribute to economic and social
development.

• IPs are an intangible assets
• Intellectual property law aims at safeguarding
creators and other producers of intellectual goods and
services by granting them certain time-limited rights
to control the use made of those productions

• IP systems are manmade systems.
• The amount of variation is huge.
• In IP, the operative words are earlier, before, prior, ahead,
previous, etc.
– One who created, invented, implemented, etc first, the
IP right would be with him/her.

• Intellectual property refers to
creation of the mind: Inventions, literary, and artistic work, and
symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.
• IP is divided in two categories:
– Industrial property: patents, trademarks, industrial design,
and geographical indication.
– Copyright: literary works such as novels, poems, and plays,
films, musical composition, artistic work as drawing,
painting, photographs and sculptures and architectural
designs.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY COPYRIGHT
PATENTS
TRADEMARKS
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION
TRADE SECRETS
LITERARY WORKS
ARTISTICS WORKS

Types of IP Rights
• Trademarks (Brands)
• Geographical Indications
• Industrial Designs
• Patents and Utility Models
• Copyright and Related Rights
• Trade Secrets

Patents
• A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which
is a product or a process that provides a new and non-obvious
way of doing something, or offers a new and non-obvious
technical solution to a problem.

Example: Ring-pull Cans
The inventor licensed the system to Coca-Cola at 1/10 of a penny per can.
During the period of validity of the patent the inventor obtained 148,000
UK pounds a day on royalties.
Patents

Trade Mark
• A trademark is a sign or any combination of signs,
capable of distinguishing a product or service from
other products or services on the market.

Industrial Designs
• An industrial design (or simply a design) is the
appearance of the whole or part of a product
resulting from features of, in particular, the lines,
contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials
of the product itself and/or its ornamentation.

Trade Secrets
• Trade secrets or confidential business information are
any information that can be used in the operation of a
business and that is sufficiently valuable and secret to
afford economic advantage over others
Nov 26, 2020 59
Dr. Piyush Charan, Dept. of ECE, Integral
University, Lucknow

Geographic Indications
• A geographical indication is a sign used on goods
that have a specific geographical origin and
possess qualities or reputation that are due to their
place of origin.

Copyright
• Copyright describes a bundle of rights given to creators in relation to their
literary and artistic works. It protects items such as paintings, drawings,
sculptures, photographs ,architecture, instruction manuals, software, databases,
technical documentation, advertisements ,maps ,literary works, music, films or
songs.
Music Films Literary

There are three kinds of “related rights”:
Rights
of performers
• Actors
• Musicians
• Singers
• Dancers
… or generally people
who perform in
their
performances;
Rights of producers of
sound recordings
(also called
phonograms) in their
recordings (cassette
recordings, compact
discs, etc.);
Rights of
broadcasting
organizations in their
radio and television
programs and in
Internet broadcasts
such as ‘podcasts’.
What are Related Rights?

Different ways to protect IP:
Innovative products and processes Protected by Patents & Utility Models.
Creative designs, including textile designs Protected by Industrial Designs.
Brands Protected by Trade Mark Protection
Denominations for goods of a given quality or
reputation attributable to the Geographical
origin
Protected by Geographical Indication
Undisclosed information of commercial value Protected by Trade Secrets.
Cultural, artistic & literary works including in
most countries, computer software and
compilation of data
Protected by Copyright, & Related Rights

One product many IP rights:
• The are many products which individually has many IP rights
like:
• CD Player
1. Technical features - Patent
2. Embedded computer programme
– copyright
3. Aesthetic design
– Industrial design
4. Brand – trademark
5. confidential information
– Trade secrete

One product many IP rights:
• The are many products which individually has
many IP rights like:
– Godrej Ezee:
• Patent, trade secrete
• Shape of bottle
• Design of bottle
• Brand
• Label
Nov 26, 2020 65
Dr. Piyush Charan, Dept. of ECE, Integral
University, Lucknow

Characteristics :
1. IP does have commercial value like physical property,
expenditure or income from IP may be subject to taxation.
2. The owner of the property has the exclusive authority to
determine how that property is used.
3. IP has value only for the duration for which law allows.
4. Intellectual output can potentially be used or enjoyed by an
unlimited number of people.
5. Fees charged to use to IP asset is called Licensing of IPRs.
6. There are more chances of theft and disputes concerning
ownership and use of IP.

Limitations:
1. Rights exist for a limited period.
2. Rights are restricted geographically.
3. Rights are limited by subject matter.
4. Rights are potentially limited by competition
and free movement required.

Law and Ethics
• Law and ethics are different, largely because
law imposes sanctions and ethics imposes
other consequences for unethical behavior.

Law
• Law is a system composed of rules that regulates
the actions of people.
• Based upon social morals and ethics, the
government creates laws, which are embodied and
published in written form.
• Law is enforced by those acting on the
government's behalf, who impose penalties when
a law is violated.

Ethics
• Ethics is the study of good and bad conduct and examines how
people should behave. Ethics is about actions and decisions that
shape a person's own moral code.
• When making a decision, an individual consults their own ethical
guidelines created from their moral values.
• Ethics have a universal application and can be applied to any
situation or location.
• Unethical behavior does not necessarily result in punishment, but it
can result in adverse consequences.
– For example, someone who engages in unethical behavior may be
socially ostracized.

Law v/s Ethics contd..

Good Workplace Ethics
 Staying productive
 Be accountable for your actions
 Take initiative
 Think critically to be able to solve problems
 Blowing the whistle
 Be punctual
 Stay positive
 Stay professional
 Take pride in your work
 Immediately attempting to correct an issue
 Set the example

How to Encourage Good Ethics at
Workplace
 Fair consequences
 Fair treatment
 Recognition
 Communication (be clear and consistent)
 Have office policies
 Transparency
 Trainings
 Have plans of action
 Constructive feedback

Benefits of Good Ethics at
Workplace
Loyalty
Desirable work environment
Produce results
Build good references
Good office morale
Growth and expansion
Recognition

Poor Ethics
Illegal practices
Stealing
Ignoring procedures and policies
Abusing confidentiality agreements
Falsifying information
Making decisions for your own personal gain
Lack of communication
Withholding information

Poor Ethics contd..
 Poor customer services
 Gossiping
 Abusing computer privileges
 Ignoring problems
 Blackmail
 Lying
 Bribes
 Taking on roles that are not under your job title
 Being unpunctual; poor attendance

Rationalization by the Wrongdoer
• Attempt by wrongdoer to justifying why they
acted a certain way:
– Everybody does it.
– It’s not part of my job description.
– Nobody is going to notice.
– I don’t get paid enough.
– Unrealistic expectations of what the job entails.

Sexual Harassment
It is a form of unethical behavior in the workplace
Sexual Harassment is based on the victims perception,
not the intent.
The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.
The harasser can be anyone in the work environment.
The victim does not have to be the person harassed but
could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.
The harasser’s conduct must be unwelcome.

Sexual Harassment
• Sexual Harassment consists of :
– Unwelcome sexual advances
– Request for sexual favors
– Verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature
• It can effect:
– The victims work performance and work
– The victims employment status
– The creation of a hostile, intimidating, offensive work
environment

Examples of Sexual Harassment
• Sexual comments
• Undue attention
• Verbal and physical sexual advances
• Inappropriate body language
• Visual displays
• Explicit sexual behavior
• Sexual bribery

Consequences of Poor Ethics
• Stricter rules
• Fewer privileges
• An undesirable work environment
• Stunts growth and productivity
• Causes a domino affect among other colleagues
• Potential job loss
• Potential closing of the organization

How to Make Ethical Decisions
• Review the goal
• Look at your options
• Determine the consequences
• Make the correct decision
 Be objective
 Set the example
 Avoid conforming to the
norm

The Golden Rule
 Confucius: What you do not want done to yourself, do not do unto others.
 Aristotle: We should behave to other as we wish others to behave to us.
 Judaism: What you dislike for yourself, do not do to anyone.
 Hinduism: Do nothing to thy neighbor which though wouldst not have him
do to thee thereafter.
 Islam: No one of you is a believe unless he loves for his brother what we
loves for himself.
 Buddhism: Hurt not others with that which pains thyself.
 Christianity: Do unto other as you would have them do unto you.
 Social Justice: Do unto others as they would like to have done unto them.

Dr. Piyush Charan
Assistant Professor,
Department of ECE,
Integral University, Lucknow
Email: er.piyush.charan@gmail.com, piyush@iul.ac.in

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