Engineers in Society

NCB40102

1.Dilemmas for the Engineer

2.Ethical Framework
3.Code of Professional Conduct
 Engineers in Society
NCB40102

Dilemmas for the Engineer

1. Brain drain – Professionals including engineers migrate to
work in other countries due to better remuneration.

• E.g. – The Development of massive oil and gas projects in

Middle East between 2005 and 2007 which led many
Malaysian engineers to resign from local companies. The
consequences of this is the loss of manpower to local
company.
 Engineers in Society
NCB40102

Dilemmas for the Engineer

• Another challenge faced by most engineering activities are
greenhouse emission, global warming, depletion of fuel and
food resources.
• Example:
 A construction of a hydroelectric power plant in
Malaysia would consume a large area of jungle and will
cause deforestation.
 A study shows forests absorb about 18% of all carbon
dioxide produced by fossil fuels.
 Engineers in Society
NCB40102

Dilemmas for the Engineer

• Job Migration – A situation where a company feels that
is no longer economical to carry on a job in one
country when the same job performance and output
can be achieved in a different country at lower wages.
• In Malaysia, many electronic manufacturing companies
shift their operations to China due to cheap labour
cost. The country loss the manpower, some key
engineering skills and technological capabilities.
 Engineers in Society
NCB40102

Dilemmas for the Engineer

• Will you work as engineer?
 Engineers in Society
NCB40102

Sustainable Development
• Example of Sustainable development is the Green Energy Building at
Energy Center of Malaysia
• Apply a combination of advance and currently available energy efficiency
and renewable energy technologies during the design concept stage.
• Served as a model for future building in term of minimized energy
demand load, usage of renewable energy and efficient use of fossil fuel.
• Built without compromising the comfort and safety of the occupants
 Engineers in Society
NCB40102

Sustainable Development

• Sustainability requires working defensively and also creating

innovative projects, such as environment-friendly systems in
homes and cars.
• The use of electric cars is a good example of reducing the
global warming effect.
• The pollution from “Battery” can be confined to one area and
better controlled as compared to the release of emission from
millions of cars in major cities.
 Engineers in Society
NCB40102

Sustainable Development

What is RSPO?
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a global, multi-
stakeholder initiative on sustainable palm oil. Members of RSPO, and
participants in its activities come from many different backgrounds,
including plantation companies, processors and traders, consumer goods
manufacturers and retailers of palm oil products, financial institutions,
environmental NGOs and social NGOs, from many countries that produce
or use palm oil. The RSPO vision is to “transform the markets by making
sustainable palm oil the norm".
 ETHICS
Public
 Morality refers to those standards of conduct that apply to all
individuals within society rather than only to members of a
special group.
 These are the standards that every rational person wants
every other person to follow and include standards that every
rational person wants every other person to follow and
include standards such as the following:
 Respect the right of others
 Show fairness in your dealings with others
 Be honest in all actions
 Keep promises and contracts
 Consider the welfare of others
 Show compassion to others.
Engineers in Society
NCB40102
Engineers in Society
NCB40102
 ETHICAL FRAMEWORK
Scope of Engineering Ethics

Social
Experimentation

Moral Reasoning Responsibility for

& Ethical Safety

Scope of
Engineering
Ethics
Engineers,
Responsibility to
Managers, &
Employee
Consultants

Rights of
Global Issues
Engineers
ETHICAL FRAMEWORK
Ethical Issues
CODE OF ETHICS
The Purpose
 CODE OF ETHICS
The Purpose

The code of ethics or code of conduct of a professional society

serves as guidelines for its members with regard to their
profession.

The Code of Professional Conduct of BEM clarified:

 General professional integrity
 Advertisement
 Conflict of interest
 Loyalty to other members of the profession
 CODE OF ETHICS
The Purpose

• Primarily, a code of ethics provides a framework for ethical

judgment for a professional. It also serves a starting point
for ethical decision making.
• A code can also express the commitment to ethical
conduct shared by members of a professional.
• A code defines the roles and the responsibilities of
professionals.
• A code helps create an environment within a profession
where ethical behavior is the norm
• A code can strengthen the individual’s position by
indicating that there is a collective sense of correct
behavior; there is strength in numbers.
 Engineers in Society
NCB40102

CODE OF ETHICS
Engineer
 Engineers in Society
NCB40102

Integrity is an Engineers most valuable asset.

Without Integrity, an Engineer has little value
in a technical community.
 Proprietary Information.
 It is never acceptable to share
one suppliers information
with another. (Exception is publicly available
material)
 This includes status of
proposals, your satisfaction
with another proposal, etc.
 Example:
 Supplier G has solved a tough
seal problem that supplier P
has not yet discovered they
have.
 Overall P has the lowest cost
proposal and would be best
for the company.
 If P would just find the seal
problem and solve it.
 Can you drop some hints to P?
 Suppliers / Vendors
• Cost
• It is never acceptable to • Example:
share pricing information, • Two suppliers out of four are really
not publicly available. close in price.
• Suppliers who loose bids • Supplier A has a better product
cannot be told what price than B, but is a few percent higher.
won. Exception is • There is a lot of margin in the
government. product.
• Your company would be best
served by buying A.
• Can you hint to A to drop their
price a few percent?
 Customers
 It is never acceptable to
provide misleading or false
information to a customer
or potential customer.
 It is never acceptable to
allow a customer or
potential customer to be
mislead.
 Example:
 Your boss tells you that a
potential customer wrongly
thinks that your widget wizard
has a futuristic features... Arm
Band Music Player
 Your boss tells you this has
clinched the sale.
 You will be meeting with the
customer next week.
 Do you make a point of
informing the customer?
 Public
 Engineering is a profession.
 A profession is an
occupation that involves a
public trust.
 Professional expectations:
 Interest of public before
your own.
 Example:
 Your boss asks you to remove an expensive
shield that keeps your minivan gas tank from
rupturing and spewing fuel onto rear seat
passengers during certain side impacts.
 He explains that the increased cost of the
shield will reduce sales 30000 units.
 Your competitors don’t have it, and there will
be less than 100 collisions of this type per year.
 It is unlikely anyone will ever be injured.
 What do you do?

Solving Ethical Conflicts
A. Individual preparation
•Maintain a record of event
and the details
•Examining the company’s
internal appeals process
•Be familiar with the laws
that could protect you
•Identify alternative
courses of action
•Decide on the outcome
that you want the appeal
to accomplish
Procedure for
B. Communicate with your
immediate supervisor
•Initiate informal discussion
•Make a formal written
appeal
•Indicate your intention of
starting internal process of
appeal
C. Initiate appeal through
the internal chain of
command
•Maintain formal contacts
as to where the appeal
stands
•Inform your intention to
pursue an external
solution
 Whistleblowing
 Whistleblowing is the act by an employee of informing the public of
higher management of unethical or illegal behaviour by an employer
or supervisor.
 Types of whistleblowing:
 INTERNAL => when an employee goes over the head of an
immediate supervisor to report a problem to a higher level of
management.
 EXTERNAL => when an employee goes outside the company and
reports wrong-doing to newspapers or law-enforcement authorities.
 ANONYMOUS => when the employee who is blowing the whistle
refuses to divulge his name when making accusations.
 ACKNOWLEDGE => when the employee puts his name behind the
accusations and is willing to withstand the scrutiny brought on by his
accusations.