Name: Joshua DC.

Cimanes Year & Section: 3rd-C

Summary of Code of Ethics and Ethical Values

One encompassing part of Construction Building Codes and Laws is ethics. As

Construction Engineering students, it is a crucial objective for us to be able to identify
ethics and obligations with regards to construction engineering.
Ethics is defined as a moral principle that governs a person’s behavior or the
conduct of an activity. It is important to be instilled in our behavior because according to
Lon Fuller, we must begin by analyzing the functions that our profession performs in the
society. He added that a code of ethics must contain a sense of mission, some feeling for
the peculiar role of the profession it seeks to regulate.
Historically speaking, the Code of Ethics began a half century later after the Boston
Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American
Institute of Architects and other engineering and profession groups emerged as they
formed their own organization. These first codes were criticized almost as soon as they
were adopted as they were concerned with duties to employers and fellow professionals.
During World War II, the American Engineering Council (AEC) began a process
that almost achieved agreement among engineers on a single code of ethics. When this
council dissolved, the Engineers Council for Professional Development (ECPD) took over
to give conscious effort to synthesize the major provisions of earlier codes. Some
organizations, while assenting to the code, retained their own as well to preserve
provisions that seemed to suit their circumstances better than the corresponding
provisions of the ECPD Code. The ECPD revised its code in 1963, 1974 and 1977 in
attempt to reverse this trend. Later on, the Accreditation Board for Engineering
Technology (ABET) replaced the ECPD soon after these revisions were made.
This history of code of ethics for engineers proves that to be a profession is to be
like the most respected professions which requires long training, special skills and
licensing. A code of ethics is one of those things a group must have before society will
recognize it as profession. The contents of the code are settled by considering what
society would accept in exchange for such benefits of professionalism as high income
and high prestige. It is also primarily a contract between professionals by protecting each
from certain pressures such as the consequences of competition.
In using code of ethics, ordinary morality may seem to allow such conditions where
employers and his clients are against the safety in the project operation. The purpose of
code of ethics is to view the fundamental canon of the ethics where it has paramount
concern to safety, health and welfare of the public.