MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY.

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND GEOSCINCES

MINING ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

HMINE 516-Proffessional Ethics, Practice and Engineering Managements

NAME LINSON GOTA

REG NUMBER R175715E

MODULE CODE HMINE516

MODE OF ENTRY CONVENTIONAL

ASSIGNMENT 1
1. What is Ethics?

Ethics refers to principles that define behaviour as right, good and proper. Such principles do
not always dictate a single "moral" course of action, but provide a means of evaluating and
deciding among competing options.

2. What are Moral Dilemma’s and How to resolve them?

Moral dilemmas are situations whereby two or more moral obligations, duties rights or ideas
come into conflict. To resolve them we must identify the factors, gather the facts, rank moral
considerations, consider alternative courses of actions and arrive at a judgement.

3. What is a professional engineer?

A professional engineer is someone who has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from an

accredited school, is a registered PE, Acts in a moral responsible way while practising
engineering.

To add on a PE must be Independent and serving their employer

A PE must satisfy these two general criteria

 He/she must attain high standards of achievements in education, job performance and
creativity.
 They must accept moral responsibility to the public ,their employers ,clients colleges
and subordinates

4. List the typical ethical issues engineers encounter.

 Safety
 Acceptable Risk
 Compliance
 Confidentiality
 Environmental Health
 Data Integrity
 Conflict of Interest
 Honesty/Dishonesty
 Societal Impact
  Fairness
 Accounting for uncertainty


5. Describe the three components of the engineering code of ethics

(i) The Fundamental Canons – responsible for articulating the basic components of ethical
engineering.

(ii) The Rules of Practice –responsible for clarifying and specifying in detail the fundamental
canons of ethics in engineering

(iii) Professional Obligations- They elaborate the obligations that engineers have.

6. Describe the three stages of Moral Development

i. Pre-conventional level – Whatever benefits oneself or avoids punishment

ii. Conventional Level –Uncritical acceptance of society’s rules
iii. Post conventional level –Moral Autonomy

7. Describe moral autonomy behaviour

Moral Autonomy means self-determinant or independent. It is concerned with the decision

making power of a person with regard to ethical issues. It is a skill or habit of thinking
rationally about ethical issues. Moral autonomy behaviour is increased by studying
engineering ethics as it enables an engineer to strengthen their professional values such as
honesty and integrity. The moral autonomy behaviour of a person depends on his/her early
upbringing or influence from teachers, friends and neighbours.

8. List four possible sources of conflict

i. Deadline
ii. Career
iii. Personal Integrity vs cooperate loyalty
iv. Insufficient knowledge
9. Explain the ten code of ethics in engineering giving examples

i. To accept responsibility in making engineering decisions consistent with the safety,

health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger
the public or the environment;
ii. To avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose
them to affected parties when they do exist;
iii. to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data
iv. to reject bribery in all its forms;
v. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential
consequences;
vi. to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological
tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of
pertinent limitation;
vii. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and
correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others
viii. .To treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender,
disability, age or national origin;
ix. To avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or
malicious action;
x. To assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support
them in following this code of ethics.

10. Describe the seven role of codes

i. Inspiration and guidance – The code provides a healthy framework and guidance so
that engineers are inspired and motivated by support found in code of ethics.
ii. Support – The code can act as a legal support to engineers who act ethically against
the odds they face in the organisations
 iii. Deterrence and Discipline –Codes form the basis for identifying unethical acts and
facilitate possible action by society e.g. Professionals are under pressure to act
ethically in fear of losing their practice licences.
iv. Education and Mutual understanding – Professionals are exposed and adopt an
ethical culture in organisations through education in ethics.
v. Contributing to a professions public image - codes help engineer to a have positive
public image among the public and to serve effectively and engineers acquire greater
powers of self-regulations.
vi. Protecting a status quo – Codes are used to promote an agreed minimum level of
ethical conduct. All members should be treated at par when they commit mistakes.
vii. Promoting Business interests - None should be prevented from quoting for doing a
job.(even if they are not members of society )

11. Give four limitations of codes

i. Professionals are in dilemma situations sometimes when different entries of codes are
conflicting with each other.
ii. They are general and idealistic as they seldom answer specific questions
iii. It is difficult to enforce ethical codes
iv. Cross-cultural issues are not always addressed.

12. What are the most common cases of descriptive ethics according to Burges and
Mullen Study?

i. Plagiarism
ii. Confidentiality of Data
iii. Faked Data
iv. Criticizing colleagues for gain
v. Holding back, disguising data
vi. Destruction of data
vii. Not reporting incident deliberately
13. What are the reported reasons for misbehaviour according to Patricia Logan 2001?

i. Economic Pressure
ii. Transition from employee to consultant results in compromises
iii. Working in foreign countries
iv. Lack of legal standards
v. Working on contingency basis
vi. Decrease in job security
References
ECZ, 2020. The Engineering Council of Zimbabwe (ECZ) regulating the operations of, Harare:
Engineering Council of Zimbabwe.

Smith, F., 2014. Intellectual Property In Mining: How to preotect against a resouce Downturn ,
Australia: Lexology.

UpCouncil, 2022. Upcouncil. [Online]

Available at: https://www.upcounsel.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-intellectual-
property#:~:text=Ability%20to%20have%20a%20competitive,obtain%20financing%20for%20your
%20business
[Accessed 4 March 2022].

WIPO, I. B. o., 2004. General Introduction to Intelectual Property Rights , Muscat: WIPO.