Values of Ethics in Profession

Values– something we pick-up from our family, peer, society we

live in, which moulds our personality, our thinking, behavior and
attitude.
Values -- are a set of principles/standards of behavior that are
desirable, important and our society holds them in high esteem
Vales – means “to be of worth” and ‘to be strong’
It means – something that has a price, precious, dear, and
worthwhile, for which suffering, sacrifice and even dying is worth
 Corporate Governance

‘Corporate governance is not just running the business of

the company, but giving a direction to the enterprise,
overseeing and controlling the executive actions of the
management with satisfying legitimate expectation of
accountability and regulation of corporate interest
beyond the boundaries’
• ‘THE STAKE HOLDER’S-SATISFACTION
• ‘THE SHARE HOLDER’S- “
• THE EMPLOYEE -- “
• ‘THE PRODUCT USER - “
• ‘THE VENDOR -- “
• ‘THE ETHICAL VALUES
• `THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY’
 Case study 1
• Sunil, the finance director of rank electronics, had started
the day well when he got the news that the company’s
m.d. Gautam, was returning after a successful trip to
America from where trail orders for their TV sets had
been secured through his efforts. On reaching office
Sunil wanted to congratulate gautam for the orders.
however, as he entered his chamber, his secretary met
him in a state of shock. ’sir, there is no money in the
bank as the purchase director had given a cheque of 25
crores to one of the suppliers, which has been paid by
the bank’. Sunil went around finding the facts and he
realized that yes,25 crores have been debited to their
account leaving very little in the bank. He really got
worried how to finance the new order. On enquiry Tiwary, Purchase
director confirmed the transaction.
Incidentally Tiwary is a relative of MD, enjoys the trust and has
considerable power.
Sunil did a little investigation and found that the order placed and
advance payment released is for certain components and will last 6
years.
Where as certain component’s inventory is down to few weeks and
have been neglected by Tiwary.
Sunil planned to visit Tiwary and discuss the matter.
When he reached the residence of `Tiwary, a party was in full swing.
Sunil found the supplier of the contract was having a great time.
Sunil understood everything.
Question – 1) What action can be taken against Tiwary?
2} How to stop such misuse of power?
3) What system changes should be incorporated?
 Case study-2
CEO’s unethical behavior
In order to save tax and increase profits, a CEO spoke to a electricity
company executive
CEO-please bill us only 10% of our consumption and I will take care of
you.
Exe – how much?
It was decided 15lakh will be paid to the Exe every month for next 5
years.
CEOs logic was simple – with less power consumption shown, he will
show less production(10%). So less excise and sales tax, huge profit
in cash.
After 3 yrs, the exe was transferred and scam was caught. CEO landed
in jail.
 Ethics

• Derived from ‘ethos’, which means character. Actually it

is a manifestation of morals and values in the form
decision.
• Example – a colleague makes several personal calls
from office. What should you do?
• a] talk to him/her and request to refrain
• b] inform above
• c] keep quite
 Moral and Human Values

• Moral – are the standards, norms or principles of what is right or

wrong

• Human values are the vales of the human being for the human
beings and by the human beings
• Moral + values + ethics = Human values
• Value creation in an organization is by adopting ethical practices
and behavior of all personnel especially the key persons (people
who matter )
 The problem areas
• 1] Slight variation in ethical practices leads to short term profits.
Example – adding less than prescribed proportion of cement in the
mixture of cement, sand and stone chips leads to cost saving at the
cost of weakening of the structure.
• 2] Slowly it becomes a habit, ultimately becomes a habit in corporate
life and a clean image vanishes – CWC scam,
• 3] To enhance the value system organizations has to remain above
board – TATA
• 4] Although PR activity improves ‘image, small fraud, if and when
exposed wipes out all the good work -- e.g. BATA
 Business Ethics

• Business ethics covers all major and minor activity, process,

systems followed/practiced in an organization example – the PF
contributions of employees not deposited every month
• Business Ethics covers – a] primary stake holders, b] secondary
stake holders, c] customers, d] consumers, e] environmental
players, f] public, g] suppliers – e.g.. – Australian vendors of CWC
are yet to be paid although they have received payments for their
services in Beijing Olympics
• Share holders - [secondary stakeholders] – {ROI+}
 Important areas

• Some of the important areas in Corporate where ethical practices

assumes maximum importance –
• i] Production ii] HR iii] Sales and Marketing iv] Finance v] IT
Production – raw material supplied by suppliers – substandard
-- semi processed material -- production process/management
-- specification not followed -- no quality inspection – before or after
-- safety norms flouted/flashy outside, -- poor quality packaging
-- vendor being relative of management supplies poor quality material
-- JIT not followed -- No test run
 IT

• Software piracy
• Espionage
• Recruiting key persons from rival organization
• ATM fraud
• Over pricing of products
• Over valuation of products/process
• Example – AT &T – 1995-1996
 Finance

• Manipulation of share prices

• High payment to staff to avoid income tax
• Improper projection of cost of land, building, machinery
• Over stocking
 Value crisis in contemporary society

• Integrity – consistent honest behavior develops integrity. – the moral

of honesty results in integrity. A person is said to be of high integrity
when his behavior and action matches.
-- ‘a person comes to office late everyday but insists his staff to be on
time. Even orders fine for late coming’ - Does he have the moral
right to issue such orders
• Work ethics – are laid down by organizations to be followed by one
and all. A good work ethic creates a good work culture, ensures
discipline and increases productivity.
• Integrity is an act of honesty. Work is workshop. Service is
responsibility.
 Service

• Service, being intangible, is to go beyond the call of duty to satisfy

the receiver.
• E.g. – working free for an NGO, membership and service in Lions or
Rotary club
• Service is a responsibility of human towards other human being, the
civil society
• -- Respect towards others, -- Caring -- sharing – courage
• -- Living peacefully – co-operation --
• Value of time – time is money
 Professionalism
• Any profession gives rise to 2 kinds of practitioner
a] one who discharges duty as laid down in rule book
b] the other who ensures the responsibility is discharged to the core
The western philosophy – ‘have money will travel’ – these
professionals takes payment and will not let any possibility of
complain exit. They will never waste time idling, chit chat or any
other non productive work in a time which he is paid for.
 In India

• Societal level --
• India is a country where traditional family values are inter - woved.
Although this group consciousness has remained mostly confined to
caste, clan and village community, it is fighting the sweeping
changes coming from west.
• The growth of ‘isms’ has divided the rural society and urban society,
we are today being absorbed by individualism, consumerism, right-
ism etc. This has slowly replaced our traditional practice of ‘atthiti
deva bhobo’, feeling for community as one, humanitrism largely
amongst middle and elite class
• At the time of Independence we gave ourselves a thoroughly
enlightened and egalitarian constitution for creating a good and
modern society. It promised to secure all citizens for justice, liberty,
equality and fraternity and a new system of governance was
adopted.
• It featured parliamentary democracy, legislature and judiciary, rule
of law, balance of power between the executive and judiciary and
fundamental rights of citizen.
• These were very different from the prevailing system and societal
values. No attempt was made to examine the underpinning values
of the new system, to harmonise them with our own value system
and to assimilate them into our societal and intellectual temper.
• The contemporary elite had very little or no sensitivity towards the
values of the constitution.
• No attempt was made to educate the new generation to develop
their social consciousness, democratic temper and attitudes
• “democracy to people means, voicing our demands, asserting our
rights or registering our protests but not accepting responsibility
towards community, society, our obligations discharge”
• Last few decades while we achieved economic, material progress
mainly it benefited the rich and not-so-rich.
• Our strength was our joint family based institution, where values of
sharing and caring was inculcated through way of life; this is now
crumbling as new generation is on the move of aspiration.
• Value expresses quantitative significance or importance to ideas,
feelings, activities and experiences,
• We analyse these experiences unconsciously and attach different
degree of importance to them
• The basis of this evaluation is our system of values. “he is a good
person”, “she is honest” etc.
• This value system develop affects our attitudes, preferences, goals,
aspiration and to achieve, we ignore social, human and ethical
implications.
• On the other hand those who value morality, justice, kindness,
compassion may decline lucrative career options, where one has to
compromise these values
• Another dimension of value crisis at individual levels the rise
of “right consciousness and steep decline of “duty
consciousness”
 Intellectual level

• The value climate of a society is closely linked to its intellectual level

• Writers, academicians, philosophers, and other intellectual sets the
tone
• They do critical examination of social and human situations and
generate new ideas and solutions to human problems
• Unfortunately contemporary intellectuals are mainly critics, imitative
and reactive, rather than being creative and proactive
• The fragmentation of knowledge into almost watertight academic
compartments are producing narrowly focused specialists and super
specialists.
• This is resulting in intellectual vacuum
• Today society values and norms are being dictated by politicians,
businessman, film stars, Cricketers, TV personalities and fiction
writers [e.g.- Rajiv Gandhi, Mukesh Ambani, M.S.Dhoni, Big B……..]
• At the intellectual level we do not question the ‘west based’ ruling,
fashion statements, values…
• At the intellectual level we do not question the west based ruling,
fashion statements
 Nature of values
• Human value perceptions decide whether it will be a just society, a
caring society or a ruthless society.
• The balance between the material and moral values decides the
overall goodness of a society.
• The different socio – political ideologies like liberalism, democracy,
socialism etc. are different ways of realising certain cherised values
at the societal level.
• All the social institutions like judiciary, state, educational institutions,
specialised professions, industry, trade and commerce etc. have
been created for the realisation of some values deemed necessary
for the common good of the society.
• In the highly intellectual Greek tradition truth, goodness and beauty
are the ultimate values.
• In India – existence, knowledge and bliss are ultimate values
• In the Buddhist tradition the ultimate goal of life is considered to be
liberation from the bondage of “Dhuka”, caused by ignorance and
‘trishna’. This leads to ‘NIRVANA’
• Unfortunately the hold of religion on the minds of new generation is
getting weaker and is steadily declining.
• This is the age of ‘reasoning’ which started in early 1800s in Europe
at the time of “Renaissance”
 Value spectrum of good life

• Creative thinking is one of the most prized endowments of human

beings
• It helps people to think, to dream and to create visions of a good life,
and the civilization moves up from one tier to next higher tier. It is an
on going process
• Every generation thinks dreams and finally articulate the ways and
means to better their life.
• Civilization after civilization has simply vanished from the earth ,
because they became complacent and stopped dreaming.
• Simply thinking or dreaming do not gaurantee good life it wants, it
has to create conditions and capabilities to translate the dreams into
reality
• There are difference in these dreams over different individuals ,
groups and culture
• Some may be matter of details, some more fundamental.
• Yet there is a large quantum of commonality in the conceptions of
values which constitute a ‘good life’ [ example – the chariot wheel,
bullock cart wheel, the mirror of Europe– aarsi of India]
 The good life
• The need ---
• The want ---- ------- ---------- ---------------
• It must be free of wants and deprivations
• The basic needs must be fulfilled.
• Next comes ---- material comfort and conveniences, which adds to
comfort and joy
• A life with continuous struggle for survival is not a good life
• A good life is a life that allows relaxation and recreation
• Values associated with material aspect/comfort of living are called
material values.
 Societal values
• Good life can be lived only in a good society
• Such society provides peace, harmony and general well being with
overall growth
• This is necessary to ensure social cooperation for production of
material and social goods
• In a good society everyone is aware of their rights, earning a
livelihood and freedom to blossom to their potential [apartment life –
USA life style]
• Societal values refers to making a good society. They are
operatives in social structures and the basic social institutions
created by society
• They affect the manner in which the economic and political activities
of the society is carried out and how power and authority are
distributed in it.
• The quality of individual and collective life of complex modern
society very much depends on societal values.
• “society is an organisation for co-operative working to seek human
development, through production and distribution of shareable
social goods”.
• This definition clearly recognises that main objective as all social
arrangements is to seek human development.
• ‘human development’ means development of a total human
personality.
• ‘shareable goods’ means – a] common physical facilities like road,
transportation, water, electricity, gas …etc. b] the common
economic development – shared by all.
• Our constitution provides rights, liberties, freedom as social goods
• The modern search for a ‘good society’ talks of three societal values –
justice, rule of law and democracy
• JUSTICE – on one hand it means people getting their rightful dues,
reward, recognition, respect for rights, liberties, meeting valid demands,
on the other hand the area of law, legal justice is a formal proceedure
followed by courts adjucating conflicting claims of litigants.
• Legal issues decided as per constitutional and legal provisions.
• The value climate of a society is closely linked to its intellectual
level.
• Writers, academicians, philosophers and other intellectuals sets the
tone.
• They do critical examination of social and human situations and
generate new ideas and solutions to human problems
• Unfortunately contemporary intellectuals are mainly critics, imitative
and reactive rather than being creative and pro-active.
• The fragmentation of knowledge into almost water tight academic
compartments are producing narrowly focused specialists and super
specialists.
• Resulting in a intellectual vacuum.
• Today society values and norms being set by political leaders,
businessmen, TV personalities, film celebrities and even fiction
writers. (e.g. Rajiv Gandhi, Ratan Tata, Sharukh Khan, Mandira
Bedi..)
• At the intellectual level we do not question the west based rulin ,
fashion statements
 Psychological values
• One must possess sound mental health, maturity for a good life.
• There should not be any stress, psychological conflicts. The value
determinants of a good life can be grouped into 2 categories.
• Internal – These values are concerned with the quality of emotional
and mental life of an individual. It is the attitudes and myriad of
mental processes which covers the world of our feelings, desires,
impulses, motives and goals.
• They collectively shape our personality, external behavior and our
sense of well – being, happiness and harmony.
 Aesthetic values

• Creation and enjoyment of beauty are part of a good life. A careful

cultivation of taste for appreciating beauty in art, nature and life
leads to bliss and is called Aesthetic values.
• A good person must be a moral person, his personal conduct and
social interrelations must be based on ethical principles.
• Ethical and moral values occupies the centre stage in good life.
 Humanistic Psychology
• Earlier studies were more looking at human behavior and personality
instead of positive and healthy aspects.
• They painted a grim picture of animal like instincts, passion and
impulses arising out of unconscious state of mind.
• While behavioral psychology saw human as a black box whose
responses could be predicted by observing different responses it
exhibits in response to different stimuli; Neurobiological approach tries
to explain all human emotions, experiences and action in terms of
neural activities within the brain and the nervous system.
• All these studies termed human being as a complicated machine or
lower level organisms whose behavior is governed by deterministic
laws.
• But that is not all of a human.
• What about his humanity, which gives meaning, purpose, dignity
and value to his existence.
• The modern branch of humanistic psychology believes individual
have freedom to choose and determine their own action.
• They have inner capacities, strengths and values, also an urge to
grow into a full human person.
• An increasing openness to experience.
• The individuals become more openly aware of their own feeling and
attitudes.
• He also becomes aware of reality as it exists outside his world.
• He is able to perceive it as it comes and not in an pre-conceived
notion.
• This increasing ability to be open to new experiences prepares him
to meet ‘new people’ and ‘new problems’.
 Increasing existential living

• Also called ‘Living life fully in each moment’

• Such living means absence of rigidity of tight organisation.
• It means – a flowing, a charging organisation of self and personality
• An increasing trust in his own organism [i.e. in himself]
• Some persons have more trust on themselves, their judgments and
achieve greater ‘personhood’.
• They have an internal locus of evaluation for their choices, decisions
and standards to live by.
• Their ‘feels right’ is more trustworthy guide than others advice.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Self actualisation
Aesthetic needs
Cognitive needs
Esteem needs
Societal needs
Safety needs
Psychological needs
 Characteristics of self actualisation person

• The highest level of human needs –

“to become everything one is capable of becoming”
• They have more efficient perception of reality and a more
comfortable relation with it. (e.g. politician)
• They are good judges of people. They can easily detect fake,
spurious and dishonest.
• They cheerfully accept themselves, other people and the world for
what they are.
• They do not feel defensive and do not suffer from inferiority
complex.
 Mental health

• The process of living and growing always involves conflicts,

stresses, frustrations and anxieties.
• Our quality of life, internal sense of harmony, happiness and
wellbeing is inversely dependent on our ability to cope with
frustrations.
 Characteristics of mental health

• Efficient perception of reality – as described in Maslow’s needs.

• 1] self knowledge – to understand ourselves, our motives, feelings,
preferences and values
• 2]Self analysis requires introspection neutrally. It means we
understand our limits, strengths on which to move forward and our
weaknesses which needs covering up and rectification.
• 3] Control of behavior – a mentally healthy person’s behavior is
controlled by their conscious. They are not carried away by
impulses, moods, fancies. (e.g. crowd burning trucks, buses or
trains) They control negative and socially disapproved urges.
 Affectionate relationship

• Quality of life depends on the quality of relationship one builds up.

• It is built on affection, love, trust. Feeling for others, a desire to help,
care.
• Cold, self centered, possessive persons fails to enjoy good life.
 Productivity

• Mentally healthy person will utilise time and energy in useful and
productive activity, it gives them joy, satisfaction and a sense of
fulfillment.
• They are not bored and do not complain of lack of opportunities
 Indian context

• Indian perceptions -- The Indian “chitta vritti” or state of mind seeks

to understand and analyse natural inclination, desire, passion etc.
so that they can be controlled consciously.
• The basic idea is to uplift and refine human personality by
overcoming and eliminating negative emotions and disvalues like
‘trishna’ (lust), ‘raga’ (anger), dwesh, (hate) and replacing them.
• The replaced positive value are love, compassion.
• This is known as ‘chitta suddi’ (psychological purification).
• The vedantic tradition recognises body, mind and soul, where soul
is regarded as the core.
• It is the entity which thinks , feels, and knows.
• Our consciousness, mental faculties and psychological values
derive their strength from the power and qualities of the soul.
• Where as modern western thinking do not recognise soul as an
object.
• In order to gain spiritual enlighten the mental thought waves (chitta
vritti) must be brought under control, hence “Yoga” as yoga is the
way to control waves of mind.
 Cultural level

• Indian culture have survived several millennia and has

undergone constant changes.
• It has generated a variety of ideas, philosophy, religious
beliefs and social customs.
• One of the most important characteristics of cultural
tradition has been “tolerance”
• Some consider it as a virtue of “unity in diversity”
• To others it is contradictory
• The modern attitude of Indian culture brings strong sense of pride.
• It is an emotional response satisfying a psychological need for
strong cultural identity as also a sense of belongingness.
• This identity is with smaller sub – cultural groups divided by
language, religion, or region.
• In the Indian ‘value tradition this is known as ‘dharma’, which
provides the regulating principles for pursuing ‘artha’ and ‘kama’ and
guide for spiritual pursuits.
• Conduct in accordance with ‘dharma’ gives meaning and worth to
human life.[eg-mahabharat, ramayan]
• Dharma defines and clarifies the virtue of ‘sadguna’ and ‘sadachar’,
duties and responsibilities.
 Ethos

• Derived from Greek word ethos [character], refers to philosophical

science that deals with rightness and wrongness of human action
• Ethics refers to most important values and beliefs of an
individual/society
• The beliefs helps shape character of people in that society, teaching
them what is good and what is bad.
• Ethics implies knowledge of these basic principles and the
responsibility to make the appropriate choice whenever necessary
 Professional Ethics

• It refers to the ethical obligations that people in professional

occupation have to follow because of their professional status.
• It encompasses how professionals behave in their professional work
and not merely how they conduct themselves.
• Engineering ethics is the activity and discipline aimed at
understanding the moral values that ought to guide engineering
practice, resolving and justifying moral judgements concerning
engineering.
 Ethics in profession

• With the increasing complexity and sophistication brought about by

technical about technological advances and knowledge explosion.
• It has become necessary to further define and redefine the definition
of ethics to suit variety of activities.
• Plus globalization, liberalisation and privatisation have opened inter-
play of innumerable actors in the world stage.
• On other hand, natural resources, material, finance, technical
backup , infrastructure, markets are limited, which means fierce
competition to get the maximum of these basic needs.
• More often than not organisations indulge in practices which may
not be termed as strictly ethical.

•
 Engineering Profession

• Engineers experiment with things and processes.

• Since they do not experiment with human beings, their experiment
may not be regarded as social experimentation.
• But since there is always a strong human interface in the use of
process and results of these experiments benefits the human only.
• Social experimentation is a research process.
• Engineering involves applied research and development.
• It seeks to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects involved
in the process.
 Responsibilities of Engineers

• Engineers are experimenter.

• They are technical enablers or facilitators, but they are not sole
experimenters.
• Their responsibilities are shared with colleagues, management,
public and stake holders.
 Conscientiousness

• It means commitment to live according to certain moral values.

• Conscientiousness implies consciousness.
• A engineer has to be sensitive to a range of moral values and
relevant responsibilities.
• They have to evaluate a given situation, its implications and
determine who are involved and who are affected.
• They should not violate any rights, breach any confidentiality or
tamper with data.
• He has to be the guardian of public interest.
 Accountability

• It means being responsible, liable, answerable or obligated.

• It may be individual or collective.
• It assumes that there is a duty that one has to discharge .
• Normally one is held responsible for the failure of one’s duty.
• Responsible people are expected to accept moral responsibility for
their actions.
• In extreme they even resigns from their posts.
•
 Moral autonomy

• In Greek auto means ‘self’, while nomos means ‘law’, i.e. self law,or
self regulation.
• It denotes absence of external constraints plus a positive power of
self – determination.
• Engineers should always act as to treat persons as ‘end in
themselves’ not as means to ends.
• As an experiment an engineer is exercising his identity as a
professional societies.
 Being informed

• An engineer has to show the commitment to obtain and properly

assess all the information pertinent to meeting one’s moral
obligations.
• Conscientiousness is blind without relevant factual information.
• This is a continuous process and confidentiality must be maintained.
• The cost benefit analysis of information collection is to be estimated
by the engineer.
 Code of ethics

• Engineering societies like IEEE, ASCE, ABET, ASME etc. plus

technologically advanced companies like Texas Instruments,
TISCO, IBM have developed code of ethics for their members and
staff engineers some of them are company specifics.
 Awareness of law

• With experimentation exposes importance of law and places greater

burden on moral responsibility on engineers – which goes beyond
following laws blindly.
• Judiciary normally do not have much understanding of engineering
technology, they first try to understand , gather information and
deliver Judgement.
• Laws tend to lag behind technology development ( Indian
broadcasting law is 100 year + old)
• Experimentation is not a standardised activity and general
standards cannot always be applied. It creates for creativity and
going beyond existing stardards. Laws insist on compliance of
minimum standards.[Titanic life boats]
 Safety

• Safety is an objective as well as subjective matter, since most

often, values perspective differ.
• It is thought as “ fairly safe or relatively safe”
• The safety norms or standards are mandatory as per various laws
e.g. pollution control, ISI, environmental laws, etc.
•
Safety