This document outlines the syllabus for a course on professional ethics in engineering. It covers 5 units: human values, engineering ethics, engineering as social experimentation, safety responsibilities and rights, and global issues. Unit 1 discusses human values like integrity, work ethic, service learning, and caring. It also introduces concepts like morals, values, and ethics.

1. GE8076 PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN ENGINEERING
Prepared by
Lovelit Jose AP/CSE
Department of Computer science & Engineering
Velammal Engineering College

2.  SYLLABUS PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN ENGINEERING
 UNIT I HUMAN VALUES
 Morals, values and Ethics – Integrity – Work ethic – Service learning – Civic virtue –
Respect for others – Living peacefully – Caring – Sharing – Honesty – Courage – Valuing
time – Cooperation – Commitment – Empathy – Self confidence – Character –
Spirituality – Introduction to Yoga and meditation for professional excellence and stress
management.
 UNIT II ENGINEERING ETHICS
 Senses of -Engineering Ethics‘ – Variety of moral issues – Types of inquiry – Moral
dilemmas – Moral Autonomy – Kohlberg‘s theory – Gilligan‘s theory – Consensus and
Controversy – Models of professional roles - Theories about right action – Self-interest –
Customs and Religion – Uses of Ethical Theories.
 UNIT III ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION
 Engineering as Experimentation – Engineers as responsible Experimenters – Codes of
Ethics – A Balanced Outlook on Law.

3.  UNIT IV SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS
 Safety and Risk – Assessment of Safety and Risk – Risk Benefit Analysis
and Reducing Risk - Respect for Authority – Collective Bargaining –
Confidentiality – Conflicts of Interest – Occupational Crime –
Professional Rights – Employee Rights – Intellectual Property Rights
(IPR) – Discrimination.
 UNIT V GLOBAL ISSUES
 Multinational Corporations – Environmental Ethics – Computer Ethics –
Weapons Development – Engineers as Managers – Consulting Engineers
– Engineers as Expert Witnesses and Advisors – Moral Leadership –Code
of Conduct – Corporate Social Responsibility.

4. UNIT 1
HUMAN VALUES

5. ETHICS
 Rightness and wrongness of human actions .
 Most important beliefs and values of an individual and/or a society .
 Task of understanding moral values, resolve moral issues, and justify moral
judgments.
 Area of study dealing with good or bad with moral duty and obligation.
 Study of codes of conduct, moral judgement and moral characteristics
(person/religion) .

6. Study of ethics helps to understand ethical principles and moral reasoning.
Universally accepted ethical principles:
 Honesty.
 Integrity.
 Fulfilling commitments.
 Abiding by agreements.
 Being fair and open minded.
 Willing to admit mistakes.
 Being varying and compassionate.
 Respect for human dignity.
 Being accountable for one’s decisions and their consequences.
ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

7. .
Ethics- Conclusion
 Ethics help us to distinguish between ethical and non moral problems.
 Morally correct.

8.  Principles of right and wrong behaviour.
 Morality and ethics are interchangeable and closely related, but it has differences
with respect to the study of ethical matters.
 Morality tends to be more general, prescriptive and prevail.
 Matters, tastes, customs and even laws, may be considered ethical beliefs, but they are
not always part of a moral code .
 Being immoral (permanent flaws) is completely different than being unethical.
MORALS

9. .
• Being good to everyone
• Speaking only the truth
• Going against what you know is wrong
• Having chastity
• Avoid cheating
• Being a nice human being etc.
MORALS

10. WAYS TO ACQUIRE MORAL BELIEFS
 Authority.
 Logic.
 Sense experience.
 Emotion.
 Intuition.
 Science.
Moral theories and moral actions - To be human.

11. • Value makes actions, characters, traits and objects of anyone good or
bad .
• Helps to make decisions-----goal, select alternatives, solve tensions.
• Taken from life, environment, from self, society and culture.
• 2 possible forms are,
1) List of values----Integrity, honesty, transparency, respectfulness
towards the job, confidentiality - may change from time to time
and culture-to-culture.
2) What it exactly means.
VALUES

12. VALUES
Human values emerge due to two factors:
• The impingement of society .
• The introduction of his own awareness.
Values helps to,
Respect to others,
Good listening
Sincerity
Admiring good actions of others.
Understand responsibility.
Express views.

13. UNIVERSAL VALUES
▪ Responsibility
▪ Commitment
▪ Integrity
▪ Patriotism
3 principle types of values are,
1)Preference values,
2)Instrumental values
3)Intrinsic value

14. INTEGRITY
• The condition of being free from defects or flaws.
• Integrity is one of the core qualities that any professional
practitioners should possess.
• Refers to honesty and open mindedness either with oneself or
others.
• Set of attributes that can define integrity:
o Durability
o Firmness
o Solidity
o Soundness
o Stability
o Strength
o Wholeness: Completeness, entirely, oneness, totality.

15. INTEGRITY
• Integrity refers to the capacity to communicate the truth in
proper manner so, that it enables the client and others to
make informed-decisions.
• Integrity as well as honesty are very vital for the development
of trust.
• Example: A good test is checking consistency and truth.
• Integrity acts as a link between responsibility in private and
public life. –Consistency among human attitude , emotions
and conduct.

16. .
INTEGRITY
• It prevents the attitude among the individuals that they are
not responsible for wrong doings in their job.
• It creates an enthusiasm among the individuals for achieving
excellent performance in their job.
• Maintaining or practicing integrity needs courage. This
courage is obtained when wisdom and integrity join hands.

17. Integrity of the engineers is very essential in the following fields,
 1.Engineering research and testing.
 2. In the use of intellectual property.
 3. Client professional confidentiality.
 4. Expert testimonials.
 5. Failure to inform the public.

18.  Set of values based on the moral virtues of hard work and diligence.
 A belief in moral benefit of work and its ability to strengthen character.
 Being reliable.
 Having initiative or maintaining social skills.
 Example: Protestant work ethic or East Asian work ethic – Value
attached to hard work.

19. Requirement of employees apart from Jobs and wages are,
 To be treated humanely with dignity.
 Safe and healthy workplace.
 Respects their privacy.
 Provides meaningful work.
 Offers some security during retirement periods.

20. Fundamental social challenges in modern business,
 Achieve ecological balance.
 human element in work .
 Improve economic and social productivity.
 Global pressures .
 Demands and needs .
 Balancing ethics and economics in business decision making.
 Social partnerships to solve society's major problems.

21. Fundamental social challenges in modern business,
 Harnessing human skills and talents for productive work while protecting human dignity
and health at the same time.
 Problems may arise in the work spot because people and machine do work. Some of them
are,
 Recognition as unique individuals and to be treated with personal dignity.
 Safeguard employee's privacy. Sensitive data should not be used wrongly.
 Involvement in the pace of work in the organization.
 Selection of employees to do the exact work.
 Security in the current job and at retirement years.
 Begin to value non-work activities, like leisure, more highly and less willing to consider work as their
central life of interest. Thus the work ethic declines.

22.  Good ethics ->good business (Hard work and productivity).
 Poor ethics ->Damage a firm's image , lose customers, employees, and
stockholders.
 Work ethic - good to work, good for health, good for safety and security
reasons, good for the personality, good for self-esteem, good for the soul, and
good for society.
 Working in a team includes virtues of,
 collegiality
 loyalty
 respect for authority
 collective bargaining.

23. Strategies to overcome employee alienation;
 Quality Circles: Discussions at periodic intervals with employees performing
similar work , management to get suggestions , ideas for improvements in
production methods or quality control.
 Job redesign: Alter the working conditions- that improve the employee's ability
to do the job (Example: working hours, tasks responsible for, work-at-home
options).
 Job rotation: Assigns people to different jobs or different tasks on a temporary
basis.
 Flexible hours: Flexible timing-May choose the time of arrival and departure
from the work site consistent with the duties and requirements of the position.

24.  Educational method by which participants learn and develop through active
participation in service that is conducted in and meets the needs of a community.
 Service learning is a form of experiential learning where learners (participants) apply
academic knowledge and critical thinking skills to address genuine community needs.
 Service learning is a credit-bearing, educational experience in which students,
 1) Participate in an organized service activity that meets identified on- and off campus
community needs.
 2) Reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of
course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic
responsibility.
 Example: Clinic site which offers free medical assistance to low-income families.

25.  Identifies and researches local needs or issues.
 Combines academic curriculum with service.
 Motivates participants to make a difference in their communities.
 Opportunity to address community needs and issues.
 Develops responsible citizens.
 Fosters a sense of caring for others.
 Experience with economic, social, cultural, and political contexts and factors.
 Greater depth of understanding by connecting course work to the issues and concerns in the
community.
 Opportunities to contribute to the mission and/or purpose of an agency through service and
volunteerism.
 Experience in working with diverse communities.
 Understanding how the non-profit, government or educational sector functions.

26.  It is a morality or standard of righteous behaviour in relationship to a citizen's
involvement in society.
 Example : voting, volunteering, organizing a book group, or attending a PTA
meeting.
 Civic virtue is the cultivation of habits of personal living that are important for
the success of an individual, family, community, or other groups of people.

27.  Even though people knows what is good and what is bad they act unethically due to the
following reasons;
 Unawareness.
 Insensitivity of issues.
 Selfishness.
 Faulty reasoning.
 Pressure –Tendency to justify their unethical actions. Example:
1)A student may copy when there is a threat from the teachers or parents that he may be
punished severely, if he fails in the examination.
2) When there is a strong and urgent need for money, one may go for pick pocketing or
smuggling.

28.  Respect is basically defined as a regard for or appreciation of the worth or value
of someone or something.
 Respect is a relation between a subject and an object, in which the subject
responds to the object from a certain perspective in some appropriate way.
 Respect is always shown for some object.
 The subject of respect is always a person.
 Respect is a responsive relation, and it identifies four key elements of the
response: attention, deference, valuing, and appropriate conduct.
 As per Kant's argument one should never treat people merely as things.
(Reason-Capitalism and advances in technology).

29.  Be honest.
 Keep promises.
 Not cause suffering to other people .
 Be fair.
 Don't swear.
 Accept differences.
 Be polite to others.
 Adopt patience when others make mistakes.
 Be thoughtful of the feelings of others.
 Show gratitude for kindness etc. to others.

30.  One should have convenient environment and working atmosphere to do his
job and carry out his responsibilities.
 There should not be any tension ,pressure, unnecessary interference or
disturbance from others though they are superiors/seniors.
 If people are not carrying out their duties in a peaceful atmosphere, the
unwarranted behaviours will come naturally.

31.  Having or displaying warmth or affection.
 Feeling and exhibiting concern and empathy for others.
 Caring is a process and product which incorporates support, sharing and
respect. It encompasses the unity of mind, body and spirit of the holistic person
with the broader content of one's environment.

32.  Having in common.
 Using or enjoying something jointly with others
 Sharing equally with another or others
 Unselfishly willing to share with others.
 Sharing is the joint use of a resource.

33.  Yoga originated in India.
 From sanskrit word “yuj” meaning union between mind ,body and spirit.
 Include ethical discipline, physical postures, breathing control and meditation.
 Yoga is not only stretching.
 There are 8 limbs of yoga.
 Physical postures called “Asana” is just one of the eight limbs of yoga
 Majority of types more concerned with mental and spiritual well being.

34.  A body with a stressful mind can not be a healthy body.
 HC providers are people who help others to keep their body healthy.
 Off course, to do so, first they need a healthy body without a stressful mind.
 Yoga helps the mind to become clear and pure and clear mind is not affected by
stress.
 HCP with this kind of pure and clear mind can really work better for the well
being of their patients.

35.  The wear and tear our bodies experience.
 The state of threatened homeostasis.
 Stressors cause imbalance.
 Body tries to balance.
 Yoga can be a great help balance the imbalance!

36.  Can be positive and negative.
 Positive stressors-can help compel us to action, can result in a new perspective.
eg: Birth of a new baby, a job promotion, getting married.
 Negative stressors-can result in feeling of distrust, rejection, anger etc. eg:death
of a loved one, loosing a job, getting divorced.

37.  Reduced stress
 Improve many medical conditions:
 Lower heart rate
 Lower blood pressure
 Allergy and asthma symptom relief
 Smoking cessation help
 Spiritual growth
 Sense of well being
 Reduced anxiety and muscle tension
 Increased strength and flexibility
 Slowed aging
 Sound sleep

38.  Providing care to others is a rich and rewarding experience.
 Often feel improved self esteem and confidence.
 But….They have the responsibility of another human being’s life.
 No wonder they live under tremendous stress!

39.  Continuous exposure to suffering.
 Psychological effects of death and dying patients.
 Decreased sleep and food.
 Long hours of work.
 Constant worry about law suits.
 CME – study ,study , study!.

40.  Practicing yoga can be a best thing a provider can do for himself/herself.
 Doing simple “Pranayam” (breathing technique) in breaks can calm their mind.
 Practicing yoga for ½ hr. a day can make their body fit to take care of others.
 Yogic thought process- will teach not to work only for money.

41.  Study at LTC ,Mumbai,India to determine if practice of yoga has any effect on
anxiety status during routine activities and prior to exam done showed
reduction in baseline anxiety as well as anxiety before exam.
 Study at Nehru hospital,Chandigarh,India The psychological tests after yoga
therapy showed high sense of well-being in the nurses.