Dr Mehul Shah

What are the purposes of codes?

• 1. As guides to their members in the areas of ethical
standards and standards of behaviour where they act
as references in day-to-day decision-making.
• 2. They also act as statements of the organization’s
contract with society, setting out the ways that
institutions and their members will behave in their
everyday dealings with clients, employees, suppliers,
communities and the general public.
• 1. Define accepted standards of behaviour for the
group.
• 2. Promote high standards of practice.
• 3. Provide benchmarks by which members can
measure and develop their personal standards.
• 4. Define the ethical aspirations and identity of the
group both internally and in relation to the public
and communities around them.
• 5. Exhibit a level of maturity to the outside world.
Professions
A profession requires extensive training and the
mastery of specialized knowledge. It often has a
professional association or institution, a code of
practice and a means for licensing. Examples are law,
medicine, finance, the military, nursing, and
engineering.
• Have specialized knowledge and skill.
• Have power – the power of knowledge and the
capacity to affect society.
• Have autonomy of practice. This varies according to
employment context
Engineers are responsible for:

• Their own actions.

• Duties accepted and implicit in their work and
institutions.
• Legal requirements of the nations in which they
practice.
• Legal obligations imposed by contract.
• The greater moral consequences of their actions, and
of those for whom they are responsible.
• The institution can:
• Enable the professional development of moral awareness,
skills, responsibility
• and identity, through codes, dialogues and training.
• • Ensure its processes and organization are conducive to the
development of
• moral responsibility.
• • Provide support and the opportunity for professionals to
work through decisionmaking
• and any conflicts of interest.
• • Regulate the practice of the individual professional.
The professional code
Professional codes enable ethical reflection and
development, and are a means of developing the
integrity of the professional body.
• 1. Responsibility to the profession.
• 2. Responsibility to oneself.
• 3. Responsibility to the employer, with the member
acting as an employee.
• 4. Responsibility to the client.
• 5. Responsibility to the other individual members of
the group or profession.
• 6. Responsibility to the community.
• Responsibility to the environment.
Case 3.1

A civil engineer sees colleagues from his own firm

finishing off a side road into a nearby estate without
constructing a proper foundation.
Should he tell his superiors?
The value conflict that emerges in this simple case of
whistle blowing is between loyalty to the colleagues,
loyalty to the firm, loyalty to the profession and concern
for the future well-being of the people on the estate.
Case 3.2
Imagine that you are an experienced engineer. You
occasionally pause to watch the progress of a
construction site in the middle of a city where you
work. A viewing place has been formed in the security
fence specifically for members of the public. You notice
a problem with a tower crane, which you feel could
lead to a failure if not rectified. The failure is not likely
to take place immediately but it appears to you that
the crane could collapse and parts of the boom fall into
the site and adjacent street unless some action is taken
soon. Do you have any responsibility for action to
prevent the possible accident? If so, to whom?
The professional code and
responsibility to society
A member shall at all times so order his conduct as to
safeguard the public interest, particularly in matters
of Health & Safety and the Environment.
A member shall at all times take all reasonable care to
ensure that their work and the products of their work
constitute no avoidable danger of death or injury or
ill-health to any person; and take all reasonable steps
to avoid waste of natural resources, damage of the
environment, and wasteful damage or destruction of
the products of human skill and industry.
Conclusion
Engineering professions have been amongst this
group and have always sought to clearly identify what
sets them apart as a ‘profession’ from other groups
and even other professions.
The engineers therefore see themselves as working
for clients and, while fulfilling their engineering
contractual obligations, having a higher level of
responsibility that, noted of all professions, is ‘public
service’.