HSIR 14 : Professional Ethics

GIR (General Institute Requirement) Course for Final year students (2022),
Electronics and Communications Engineering Department, NIT Trichy

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HSIR 14: Professional Ethics – Course Content and Schedule

Unit - 3
Unit - 4
Unit - 2 Engineering as
Unit - 1 Safety, Unit - 5
Engineering Social
Human Values Experimentation Responsibilities Global Issues
Ethics
07-02-2022 to and Rights 04-04-2022 to
28-02-2022 to 11-03-2022 to
24-02-2022 31-03-2022 24-01-2022 to 18-04-2022
10-03-2022
04-02-2022

Evaluation : Internal Assessment Tests (Cycle Tests) & Presentations by Students during February - May 2

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Human Values

1. Morals, Values and Ethics

2. Integrity
3. Work Ethic
4. Service Learning
5. Civic Virtue
6. Respect for others
7. Living Peacefully
8. Caring
9. Sharing
10. Honesty

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Human Values

11. Courage
12. Valuing time
13. Co-operation
14. Commitment
15. Empathy
16. Self Confidence
17. Character
18. Spirituality
19. The Role of Engineers in modern society
20. Social expectations

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 Integrity

 Draw inference from Code of ethics from similar situations or case studies.
 Integrity is the foundation of Ethical behavior.
 Integrity in Ethics means honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions
 Opposite of Integrity is Hypocrisy
 Integrity comes from Latin word: Integer = Complete or Whole.

In most of the situations there might not be a direct reference to a code of ethics,
To draw inference a formulate a clear, informed and well reasoned answers, we must
have a good knowledge about the basic building blocks of Ethics.

Integrity is one of the basic building blocks.

Integrity is the foundation of Ethical behavior.
Integrity in Ethics means, honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions

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Integrity

Examples _ Professional Integrity examples

1. Refrain from sharing company secrets and confidential information with others.
2. Remain honest with your profession.
3. Avoid gossiping about other people.
4. Follow through on promises you make.
5. Return found items without an expectation of receiving a reward.
6. Admit when you are wrong.

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 Remain Integrated with your core profession
Challenger Case study

 In 1986 NASA had an ambitious launch schedule of the space shuttle.

Launch date was 28th Jan and NASA wanted to show it could launch
regularly and reliably. President Ronald Regan in his state union address
had planned to announce the success that evening
 Robert Lund, VPE at Morton Thiokol was both an Engineer and a Manager
 On 27th evening, Lund protested to NASA in a tele-conference, put up strong
recommendation to postpone the launch on a safety issue. NASA officials expressed
dismay at recommendation.
 Jerald Mason, SVP of Morton Thiokol asked for a time out. During the break, Mason
admonished Lund to “take off his engineering hat and put on his management hat”.
 Lund Reversed his decision 7

Please note that I have marked Engineer with Green – representing commitment to
society. Manager is colored blue representing Time (Promise) and Money

Shocking Facts About the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster (11:09 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywjumob-SoA

O ring sealant was for the solid state had not been tested for working in extreme cold
temperature.
As you are aware, 28th Jan is one of the coldest days in Northern Hemisphere.
On 27th evening, Lund protested to NASA in a tele-conference, put up strong
recommendation to postpone the launch on a safety issue.
NASA officials expressed dismay at recommendation.

Jerald Mason, SVP of Morton Thiokol asked for a Time out.

During the break Mason admonished Lund to take off his engineering hat and put on
his management hat.
Lund Reversed his decision

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Engineering code question is “Prove that, why the launch is perfectly safe”
Management’s code question is “Prove that, why the launch is Unsafe”
Both, Mason and Lund can be accused of not showing integrity.

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Integrity - Another case study where Manager’s hat is acceptable

Chethan Reddy is the Operations Manager of a company.

Office infrastructure comes under him. There are two elevators in the office block, each
elevator can carry 8 persons. There is a strict safety instruction stating there should not be
more than 8 persons boarding the lift at any point of time. Both the elevators are busy
during peak hours.
A major overhauling of the lift is scheduled within a month. It takes almost 5 days each to
carry out the overhauling each lift. The overhauling schedule is staggered so that at least
one lift is operational. The top management instructs Chethan Reddy to relax the 8 person
limit norm to 10 person.
 Should Chethan wear an Engineers Hat or Management Hat ?
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 Before taking a Management decision

The lift specification says 8 persons with an average weight of 100 Kgs. Chetan finds out
that the average weight assumed by the equipment manufacturer is 100 Kg. But the
average weight of an employee in his office is 85 Kg. So, the overloading with 10 persons
will be 50 Kg. The lift design has made an allowance of extra 30% as factor of safety.
Which is 240 Kg. So, this overload is well within limits.
Impact of other factors like space constraint, oxygen supply will be marginal and well
within the limits. The ropes and other moving parts are in safe working condition.
Chethan agrees to wear the management hat. He takes the consent of the top
management and sends out clear communication to all employees, stating that the
relaxation of the load limit is temporary. He strongly advises all employees to give
preference to ladies and differently abled persons and use the staircase as far as possible.
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Chethan and his team members decide to use the stair-case, during the two weeks,
leading by example.

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 Work Ethics

A set of values based on the ideals of discipline and hard work

Work Ethic is not just put in Hard work.
• Clearly defined priorities
• Clearly defined Objective
• Staying Focussed.
• Finishing the task on time
• Continuous Learning and Development
• Stay committed to Team-Work

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7 Habits of highly Effective people by Steven Covey

1.Be Proactive
2.Begin with the End in Mind
3.Put First Things First
4.Think Win-Win
5.Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
6.Synergize
7.Sharpen the Saw

https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/habits-of-highly-effective-people-summary

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 Service Learning

An educational approach that combines

learning objectives with community
service in order to provide a pragmatic,
progressive learning experience while
meeting societal needs.

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Swades - SRK brings electricity to the village | Movie Scene | Shah Rukh Khan, Gayatri
Joshi (05:30 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xkG8SZ_MXs

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 Start to put service learning into practices

 Reduce the digital the gap in Digital divide - Educate your community members especially elders
how to use smart phones and social media apps
 Volunteer yourselves to work for any service organization to teach language or any other essential
life skills

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I am sure that in your house or in your neighborhood, there will be quite a lot of your
relatives or friends who are technological challenged.

Make yourself a promise, don’t show off your knowledge and act big.

But reach out to them and start teaching them.

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 Civic Virtue

 Righteous behaviour in relationship to a citizen's involvement in society.

 Exhibit civic virtue by paying tax, obeying traffic rules, voting, volunteering, organizing a book
group, etc.
 CIVIC CONVERSATION – Listen to others, Keep yourself well informed
 CIVILISED BEHAVIOR – Dress decently and appropriately
 Do justification by creating value

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We now come to the next topic Civic Virtue.

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 Civic Virtue

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Many of you have seen this famous movie / story about Bat-man

Movies help you to internalize some good habits. This great clipping in the batman
gives you the essence of civic virtue.

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Start practicing right now “Civic Virtue”

 Obey Traffic rules

 Avoid using Non recyclable plastics
 Stand in Queue
 Pay Taxes
 Do not throw garbage on public places
 Don’t take bribes and favors and avoid giving Bribes
 Don’t demand or give dowry and discourage your family members from doing so
 Vote (if no candidate is acceptable to you, can use NOTA option)

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 Some examples of Civic Virtue

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What is Civic Virtue? 4:05 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANl4MqtHBxg

Cincinnatus is often associated with civic virtue, service to the greater good, humility
and outstanding leadership due to his willingness to serve Rome and surrender
ultimate authority after he was no longer needed.

Cincinnatus was a Roman politician who had been exiled due to his son's politics. As
was done by a proper Roman, he retreated to his farm where he worked the land.
When Rome was on the verge of being invaded Cincinnatus was asked by the people
to come and lead Rome against the invaders. Once in Rome he had complete control
over Rome while he led the Romans to victory. Afterwards he immediately gave up
all control and went back to his farm. Key here is the Roman idea of "for the state."
Even though Rome had rejected him, Cincinnatus still served the Republic. Even
though he had complete power, the equivalent to a dictator, he did not keep the
power for himself, but returned it to the people. And through it all he was modest
and humble, all examples of how to be the "perfect" Roman. He served his Republic
with no thought of benefit for himself alone.

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George Washington has been known to possess civic virtue. He, often times he
showed up to help with the army, he ran the Continental Army, even though it wasn't
something he had to do. He was asked to do it and he decided to do it for the good of
the people. Later on, they called him up to be the president. Throughout his life,
George Washington considered morality, honesty, and good character to be of the
utmost importance.

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 Start showing respect to others

 People by nature are selfish as well as altruistic.

 It pays if, majority of us try to be Altruistic
 The basic building block for Altruism is to show respect for others

What can we do?

• Observe lane discipline while driving
• Stop spiting on the road
• Stop talking loudly in public places
• Respect Q system
• Stop throwing thrash on the roads
BE ALTRUISTIC AND HOPE FOR THE BEST !!!!!
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People by nature are both Selfish and Altruistic

Altruists have a strong desire to help other people

Studies on 18-month-old toddlers show that they will almost always try to help an
adult who is visibly struggling with a task.
For e.g., without being asked to do so: if the adult is reaching for something, the
toddler will try to hand it to them, or if they see an adult drop something accidentally,
they will pick it up.

However, if the same adult forcefully throws something to the ground, toddlers won’t
try to retrieve it: they can read the body language of the adult and subconsciously
understand that the adult’s action was deliberate and that the object is unwanted.

An experiment was conducted by creating situations where adult is staking books

while the toddler looks on.

In one group the adult clumsily knocks the last book of the stack.

In another group the adults forcefully throws the book down.

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It was observed that, these very young children will assist (or refrain from helping)
with a book-stacking task depending on what they perceive to be the adult’s
intention.

If the adult clumsily knocks the last book off the top of the stack, the toddler will try
to put it back

If the adult deliberately takes the last book off, toddlers won’t intervene.

Even before kids are taught to chip in — perhaps especially before they are told it’s an
obligation — children tend to act as per the context.

When you get time and opportunity you can do this experiment yourselves.

The mind set of the child in this context is called disposition. This disposition
becomes a character trait as we experience more and more conditioning from the
adults. We tend to exhibit this character most of the time as we grow up.

When we are in a situation where we are 'Child' in any social transaction, we tend to
be selfish or altruistic based on two factors:

1) our preconditioned character trait

2) the strength of the context.

If the context is very strong it can over-rule the character trait. But if the context is
weak, the character will prevail

The take-away from this study is that we create strong contexts, even a hardcore
Selfish person can be transformed to an Altruist.

As engineers we are more empowered than many of us around and with out our
knowledge, we have influence on others at work-place as well as in family & social
circles.

So, if we consciously attempt to create strong contexts where your influence's innate
Altruistic behaviour is kindled, we will spread this habit, we will start getting more
and more respect.
This is a proven fact.

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 Living Peacefully

 The word engineer was initially used in the context of warfare dating back to 1325
 Engine’er (literally, one who operates an engine) referred to "a constructor of military engines”
 Military Engineering was the first modern day Engineering Profession.
 Civil Engineering being second oldest engineering discipline came up in 1747.
 Civil defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering.
 Mechanical engineering emerged as a field during the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 18th century
 Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of
animals and plants.
 It put economics commerce, trade and general welfare of people on the top of the list of priorities of the
Government overtaking Military Defense.

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In this context, "engine" referred to a military machine

i.e., a mechanical contraption used in war (for example, a catapult (a ballistic device
used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other
propellants).
Hence, we may be tempted to think that since Mechanical Engineering had its origins
in Military Engineering, wars in fact are good for Mechanical Engineering.
Living peacefully is diametrically opposite to War and other violent conflicts.
Peace therefore is a misfit in Mechanical engineering Ethics studies. Is it ?

Civil Engineering is considered the second-oldest engineering discipline after military

engineering. It is defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military
engineering.

Mechanical engineering emerged as a field during the Industrial Revolution. The

Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of
daily life was influenced in some way. In particular average income and population
began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists have said the

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most important effect of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for
the general population in the western world began to increase consistently for the
first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully
improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries. Industrial Revolution is the most
important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals and
plants.

It put economics commerce, trade and general welfare of people on the top of the
list of priorities of the Government overtaking Military Defense. It is a well-
established fact that general welfare improves during peaceful times. Hence living
peacefully is a critical behavior trait required for the growth of our professional and
personal life.

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Questions ?

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