Profession: a vocation at the

service of person realization

Chapter 2
Dra. Fernanda Jiménez, Mgst. Edu.

Ing. Jennifer Yépez, MSc.

Universidad Politécnica Salesiana
Chapter Objective

To value professional-vocational
dimension like a factor of personal
and social realization
Content
1. Profession: beginning and
conceptualization.
2. Profession, vocation and importance
3. Diversity in professions and its
interrelation
4. Common general duties to all
professions
5. Professional, familiar and social sense
of profession
6. Identity of the professional of UPS
Profession: beginning
• It will be important to distinguish
“profession” from other words like
“job” and “occupation”.
• Job: any work for hire, regardless of the
skill level involved and the
responsibility granted.
• Occupation: it implies employment
through which someone makes a living.
• What is the difference among “job”,
“occupation” and “profession”?
Profession: beginning

• Words “profession” and “professional” go

beyond the definition of a job or occupation.
• Example:
• “professional athletes”, the word “professional” is
used to distinguish the practitioner from an
unpaid amateur.
• “professional carpenter”, “professional” is used to
show some degree of skill acquired through years
of experience (quality of service).
Profession: beginning

• Neither of these senses of the word “professional”

is applicable to engineers, due to:
• There are not amateur engineers
• The length of time one works at an engineering-
related job does not confer professional status.
• The term “professional engineer” will be given
after to examine the nature of professions.
Profession: vocation and importance

Importance of a Profession

• The professions occupy a position of great

importance in a society characterized by
minute division of labor based upon technical
specialization.
• Many important features of social organization
are dependent upon professional functions.
Profession: vocation and importance

Importance of a Profession

• Professional activity is coming to play a

predominant role in the life patterns of
increasing numbers of individuals of both
sexes.
• What common attributes do these professional
occupations possess which distinguish them
from the nonprofessional ones?
Profession: vocation and importance

Attributes of a Profession

1. Work that requires sophisticated skills, the use

of judgment (making significant decisions
based on formal training and experience), and
the exercise of discretion (keeping information
private and making decisions autonomously).
2. Membership in the profession requires
extensive formal education.
Profession: vocation and importance
Attributes of a Profession

3. The public allows special societies or

organizations that are controlled by members
of the profession to set standards for
admission to the profession, to set standards
of conduct members, and to enforce these
standards.
4. Significant public good results from the
practice of the profession.
Profession: vocation and importance

Engineering as Profession

• The essence of engineering design is judgment:

how to use the available materials,
components and devices to reach a specified
objective.
• Discretion is required in engineering: engineers
are required to keep their employers’ or
clients’ intellectual property and business
information confidential.
Profession: vocation and importance

Engineering as Profession

• About mechanization; certainly, once a design

has been performed, it can easily be replicated
without the intervention of an engineer.
• Each new situation that requires a new design
or a modification of an existing design requires
an engineer.
Profession: vocation and importance

Engineering as Profession

• Engineering requires extensive formal training.

• Each discipline within engineering has a
professional society, such the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM),
the Information Systems Audit and Control
Association (ISACA).
Profession: vocation and importance

Engineering as Profession

• All these societies serve to set professional

standards and frequently work with schools of
engineering to set standards for admission,
curricula, and accreditation.
• Unlike law and medicine, each specialty of
engineering has its own society.
• There is no overall engineering society that
most engineers identify with.
Diversity in professions and its interrelation

Differences between Engineering and Other

Professions
• Lawyers are typically self-employed in private
practice, essentially an independent business,
or in larger group practices with other lawyers.
• Most engineers are not self-employers, but
more often are small part of larger companies
involving different occupations. The exception
to this rule is civil engineers.
Diversity in professions and its interrelation

Differences between Engineering and Other

Professions
• Usually engineers are not in significant
managerial positions when they are employed
by large corporations.
• Although engineers are paid well compared to
the rest of society, they are generally less well
compensated than physicians and lawyers.
• Many engineers, especially those employed by
large industrial companies, do not have
engineering licenses.
Common general duties to all professions

Professional Responsibilities of Engineers

• Confidentiality and Proprietary Information:
• Members of the profession should keep certain
information of their client secret or confidential.
• Confidentiality is a well-established principle in
professions such medicine and law
• Engineers must keep some information confidential
because it can be used by a competitor to gain
advantage or to catch up.
• What types of information should be kept
confidential?
Common general duties to all professions

Professional Responsibilities of Engineers

• Conflict of interest:
• Avoiding conflict of interest is important in any
profession.
• A conflict of interest arises when an interest, if
pursued, could keep a professional from meeting one
of his obligations.
Common general duties to all professions

Professional Responsibilities of Engineers

• Types of Conflict of interest:

1. Those which compromise engineering judgment.
2. Potential conflicts of interest, which threaten to
easily become actual conflicts of interest.
3. There are situations in which there is the appearance
of a conflict of interest.
Common general duties to all professions

Professional Responsibilities of Engineers

• Competitive Bidding:
• The codes of ethics of the engineering societies
usually include a prohibition on competitive bidding
for engineering services
• It forbids engineers to compete for engineering work
based on submitting price proposals rather than
soliciting work and charging customers based on a
fixed fee structure.
Common general duties to all professions

Professional Rights of Engineers

• Right to privacy.
• Right to participate in activities of one’s own
choosing outside of work.
• Right to reasonably object to company policies
without fear of retribution.
• Right to due process.
• Right of professional conscience. It involves the
right to exercise professional judgment in a ethical
manner.
Bibliography

Allhoff, F., & Vaidya, A. (2008). Professions in ethical

focus (1st ed.). Peterborough: Broadview Press.
Fleddermann, C. (2012). Engineering ethics (4th ed.).
Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.