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Professional ethics encompass the personal and corporate standards of
behavior expected by professionals
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By no later than the year 1675, the term had seen secular application
and was applied to the three learned professions: divinity, law,
and medicine
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Professionals and those working in acknowledged professions exercise
specialist knowledge and skill
...

It is capable of making judgments, applying their skills, and reaching
informed decisions in situations that the general public cannot because
they have not attained the necessary knowledge and skills
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What are Professional Ethics? Examples and Types
Every profession has its particular rules, regulations, or you could say
principles
...
Ethics
means principles of something
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Professional ethics is guidance for people working in a particular
profession that tells them what they supposed to do and what they are
not supposed to do while working there
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Be it engineering, medical or health industry, or law or any other
profession
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It shows how much you know about the
job, your passion for your work
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The
Hippocratic Oath, taken by doctors when they are rewarded the degree
in medicine
...
And, every ethics differs depending upon the type
of profession a person has
...
Professional ethics might sound critical
to understand, but it is not
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Almost everyone knows that students who persuaded medical studies or
health-related studies or you can say would he doctors, nurses, etc
...
Now the oath they take is what
they will be doing for the rest of their lives
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What they say during the oath is the
ethics of their profession
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There is a broader field of ethics in the area of profession
...
People from different
professions have to follow different ethics, and they have to abide by
the rules
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Professional is about delivering essential services and making
commitments
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It requires a special relationship
between the place, the trade, and the student
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Types of Professional Ethics
Every profession has its way of dealing and making the profession work
...

They are followed by each profession, which is being honest in their
work and serving the people along with trustworthiness, respecting
others, honesty, accountability, abiding by the rules and avoiding
harming anyone
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And, if anyone fails to do so, she/he becomes unworthy of being in that
profession
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And it has to be followed
by the people with full honesty
...
Media and their Professional Ethics
Journalists or anyone related to media has a great responsibility for
transparency
...
The job of journalists is fierce and terrifying because they are
always in the target
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But journalists have to be honest and unbiased while reporting the
news
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Therefore, ethics in media is crucial and is about sticking to the facts
instead of presenting their opinions
...
”
2
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Here, the lawyers or anyone in the legal area should balance their duty
to prosecute criminals and defend the clients
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People from the Legal field are to maintain the confidentiality of their
clients and avoid conflicts
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The most important thing is that they
should not make their clients fools
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In the judiciary, field balance is a must
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A person involved in a legal or judicial
business, must defend their clients or prosecute the criminal with
honesty
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They cannot force anyone to say something even if they know it’s a lie,
but they can make them confess the truth with tricks
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Engineer’s Professional Ethics
Engineers also have specific ethical codes that they have to follow
anyhow
...
They are
the one building houses, dams, highways, any gadget or even a car
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National Society of Professional Engineers created an ethics code for
engineers to make sure that engineers know that in their profession,
they need to be honest and responsible
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This
code is the principle they follow
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When they are to
conduct any building making or designing, they have to do it with full
sincerity to decrease the risk of harm
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Therefore the one making it should be
honest
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Medical Professional Ethics
People of medicine have to take an oath about promising and serving
the people who are in pain
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Other than this oath, the nurses and doctors are advised to respect the
patient’s dignity, respect the human right
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Doctors and nurses should always respect their patient’s dignity, honest,
helpful to their patients
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Any major fault or mistake can ruin the entire professional life of a
person
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Being honest and treating everyone equally is very much required in the
medical field
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Everyone has equal rights
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5
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Every company, group or administration has a particular code of conduct
that is to be followed by the people there
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This helps in creating and
modifying the rules
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Also, it creates transparency
with the clients and makes it easier to take decisions accurately
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How to teach Professional Ethics to your Workforce?
1
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Given below are a few tips that one needs to focus on while teaching
professional ethics and throw light upon to imbibe a heightened sense of
ethics in the professional mass
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Throw light upon that particular
issue and think about ways to improve that specific issue that has
cropped up
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Ask other professionals from different fields and different lines of











work about their code of ethics and the issues they face daily
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Focus on what those issues are and how they
can be sold with
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Think about research papers, evaluations and design works and
the issues that crop up there and how it affects people in the long
run
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2
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For example, give a context where it states that a
significant accident happened due to the negligence of a particular
professional establishment or industry
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Imbibe a heightened sense of responsibility among the individuals
and teach them the importance of adhering to ethics
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Professional ethics are likely to vary from one profession to
another
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Professionalism requires a person to utilize their professional skills with
relevant ethics
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The most prominent among them are:
HONESTY
TRUSTWORTHINESS
LOYALTY
BEING LAW-ABIDING
NO SINISTER MOTIVES
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE
RESPECT
FAIRNESS TO ALL
ACCOUNTABILITY
Your professional ethics may have to be tailored depending on your job
profile, industry and organization
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CODES OF CONDUCT
The codes of conduct for any profession are established by combining
the above-mentioned ethics with professional skills
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These codes of conduct also aim to safeguard the wellness of
professionals and help them achieve their expectations without
compromising on things like work-life balance, quality of work and
personal and professional development
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Let’s take a look at the beneficiaries and
what they get from professionalism:
PUBLIC:
If the codes of conduct are adhered to, the general public is assured of a
standardized service and will trust an individual’s professional skills
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PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY:
Adherence to the codes of conduct by professionals benefits even other
members of the same profession
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Ethics also prevent a
person from exploring the loopholes in the rules and misuse the system
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By agreeing to assist the client,
these professionals bind themselves to a certain degree of responsibility
to take care of the client’s needs
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Such a relationship between the client and the
professional adviser is known as a fiduciary relationship and points to
the existence of certain duties that the service provider has towards the
client
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When we enter into an
agreement with a client or sign a contract for certain professional
services, we become legally bound to fulfill the terms of the contract
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For instance, if a communication professional enters into a contract to
provide internet services to an online business, then it becomes the
responsibility of the communication professional to apply all his
professional skills to deliver the agreed level of services to his customers
or clients
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The job market is highly competitive and unless you
run a business ethically, you’re unlikely to sustain its growth for a long
time
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For instance, you might initially make a lot of sales by making tall claims
about the effectiveness of a product, but if the product fails to deliver

the promised performance, your business will lose its credibility and
sales will plummet
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It’s a well-known fact that
employees are the brand ambassadors of an organization
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Thus, as an
employee, you must always remember that your actions and behavior
will impact your place of work’s public opinion
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It not only refers to
adherence to law but also doing things that are socially and morally
appropriate and help you win the faith and support of the clients and
other stakeholders
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Let’s go back to the example of the communication professional
providing internet services
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If
this person uses old or refurbished equipment at the rate of new
equipment, he might make money initially
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Such behavior is considered unethical and unacceptable
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However, that’s no justification
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If you wish to be a professional then remember that
ethical conduct is the key to your success
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Norms govern what we should or shouldn’t do
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Those who
indulge in immoral conduct are often left to deal with a guilty conscience
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LEGAL NORMS OR LAWS:
These are the rules which aim to prevent anarchy and maintain
peace and order in society
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It must also be remembered that all professionals are human
beings
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Therefore, ethics should be influenced by meaningful
decisions and empowerment
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Like values, professional ethics provide rules
on how a person should act towards other people and institutions in such an
environment
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Ethical principles
Ethical principles underpin all professional codes of conduct
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However, there are some universal ethical principles that apply across all
professions, including:


honesty

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trustworthiness

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loyalty



respect for others



adherence to the law



doing good and avoiding harm to others



accountability
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They also seek to set out the expectations that the profession and
society have of its members
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Codes of conduct
sit alongside the general law of the land and the personal values of members
of the profession
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Other contributors to professional ethics
Fiduciary duties
When an adviser agrees to assist a client, they agree to take on a level of
responsibility for that person and their immigration matter
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This is a fiduciary
relationship between the fiduciary (the adviser) and a principal (the client)
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Contractual obligations
When an adviser enters into a contract (or written agreement) with a client this
creates legally binding obligations to perform the terms of the contract in a
particular way
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Many ethical issues are likely to stem from advisers’ relationships with clients
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Other laws
As well as New Zealand immigration legislation, advisers should also be aware
of other relevant laws that seek to regulate how service providers must behave
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Advisers operating outside of New Zealand should make sure that they are
familiar with any equivalent legislation that governs the behaviour of service
providers there
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, as other employees
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Professional Rights
The rights that engineers have as professionals are called Professional
Rights
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The right of conscientious refusal
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Right of Professional Conscience
This is a basic right which explains that the decisions taken while
carrying on with the duty, where they are taken in moral and ethical
manner, cannot be opposed
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It requires autonomous moral judgement in trying to
uncover the most morally reasonable courses of action, and the correct
courses of action are not always obvious
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The exercise of moral reflection and conscience that justifies
professional duties is necessary, with respect to that duty
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Right of Conscientious Refusal
The right of conscientious refusal is the right to refuse to engage in
unethical behavior
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This action might bring conflicts within the authority-based
relationships
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When there occurs disagreement among considerable number of
people whether the act is unethical
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Right to Recognition
An engineer has a right to the recognition of one’s work and
accomplishments
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The right for internal recognition which includes patents,
promotions, raises etc
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The fulfillment of right to recognition motivates the employee to be a
trustful member of the organization, which also benefits the employer
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Employee Rights
An employee right can be any right, moral or legal, that involves the
status of being an employee
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Privacy and equal opportunity can be considered essential
rights too
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It is the right to control the access to and the use of information about
oneself
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The instances when a
supervisor unlocks and checks the desk of his subordinate in his absence
or when the management questions about his likes, dislikes or posts on
social media regarding his personal opinions where it has nothing to do
with the company
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The personal
information in such cases is given based on the special professional
relation and trust
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Such a discrimination should never be allowed at any
workplace; this is where everyone has to be treated equally
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Equal opportunity – Affirmative Action
Affirmative action refers to the preference given to a person or a group
who was denied equal importance in the past
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So to compensate that, amendments were made

in recent laws to provide them special quota for reservations in
education, employment and social sectors
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Ideally such compensation should be given to those
specific individuals who in the past were denied jobs
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Sexism and racism still permeate
in our society and to counterbalance their insidious impact reverse
preferential treatment is warranted in order to ensure equal
opportunity for minorities and women
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These rights enable the
right person to benefit from the protection of moral and material
interests resulting from the authorship of scientific, literary or artistic
productions
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Protection of IPR
Like the other rights, the intellectual rights also should be protected and
supported
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These inventions should be protected legally in order to develop the
commitment and interest for more creations
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The Intellectual property rights are protected by certain measures like
patents, trademarks, industrial designs, copyrights, etc
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These trademarks ensure the belongingness of products to
the authorized owners
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The protection offered through the
trademarks is limited for a period, but can be renewed indefinitely upon
payment of the corresponding fee
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They may even consist of drawings or signs such as shapes,
colors, holograms, sizes or some non-visible signs such as smell, taste
and sound also
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Industrial Designs
The ownership of an industrial design protects it from any duplication
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This further increases
marketability
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Geographical Locations
The geographical location indications are helpful for the customers to
identify the original and quality products, which are produced using the
raw materials of that geographical area
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It may be used
by all the producers who make products that share certain qualities in
the place designated by a geographical location
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WIPO
The intellectual property rights are protected by an International
organization called as the
World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) which was established in 1970
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The inventors and
authors are therefore recognized and rewarded for their ingenuity
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Engineering Ethics
Engineering is the process of developing an efficient mechanism which
quickens and eases the work using limited resources, with the help of
technology
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An engineer with ethics,
can help the society in a better way
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Engineering Ethics is the study of decisions, policies and
values that are morally desirable in engineering practice and research
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Morals are the principles or habits with respect to right or
wrong of one’s own conduct
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Morals
are what you think is good and bad personally
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Depending on a few factors, our mind filters
things as good or bad
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A moral is the code of conduct that you develop over time and set for
yourself to follow, just like
Being good to everyone
Speaking only the truth
Going against what you know is wrong
Having chastity
Avoid cheating
Being a nice human being etc
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Morals can be
changed according to one’s beliefs as they are completely dependent on
one’s perception towards the ethical values
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Ethics are a set of rules or principles that are generally
considered as standards or good and bad or right and wrong, which are
usually imposed by an external group or a society or a profession or so
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Ethics are dependent on others definition
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A person who strictly follows a set of ethical principles, may not have
any moral at all while a person who violates ethical principles at times,
may maintain a high moral integrity
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A best example that can
explain ethics is utilitarianism
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According to this philosophy, an action is morally
right if its consequences leads to happiness of the people and wrong if
the action leads to their unhappiness
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Ethics in Engineering
Ethics are principles followed depending upon the moral responsibility
that a person feels
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An engineer whether he works individually or works for a company, has
to go through some ethical issues, mostly under the conditions such as,
conceptualization of a product, issues arising in design and testing
departments, or may be on the issues involving the manufacturing, sales
and services
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The ethical decisions and moral values of an engineer need to be
considered because the decisions of an engineer have an impact the
products and services - how safe they are to use, the company and its
shareholders who believe in the goodwill of the company, the public
and the society who trusts the company regarding the benefits of the
people, the law which cares about how legislation affects the profession
and industry, the job and his moral responsibilities and about how the
environment gets affected, etc
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Our behavior should
include the following −

Respecting others and ourselves
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Keeping promises
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Avoiding cheating and dishonesty
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Morality commands respect for persons, both others and ourselves
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Steps to Deal with Issues
Whenever there occurs an issue, one should possess a few skills in order
to sort out the problem
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They are as follows −
Moral Awareness − One should be able to recognize the moral
problems and issues that occur in Engineering
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Cogent Moral Reasoning − In order to come to a conclusion on an issue,
the argument has to be assessed and comprehended
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Moral Coherence − After having gone through all the logical and moral
facts, consistent and comprehensive view points are to be formed based
upon a consideration of relevant facts
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Alternative responses are to be found out for
dealing with moral issues while creative solutions should be found out
for practical difficulties
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Though one has all these moral goals, the ethical reasoning for achieving
moral conduct with responsibility and commitment is obtained by a few
skills that are described below
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Unless one is
willing and improve such ability, justice cannot be done
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Such concern should also be there
with oneself along with being there for others
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Every
person differs with another when compared on grounds of moral
reasoning
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Moral hope − The moral conflicts can be resolved by using better
communication and having rational dialogue which is evident-based and
open-ended which is acceptable and appreciable by both the parties
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Being honest and
having strong moral principles helps one to resolve an issue in an
efficient manner
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Engineering Ethics - Moral Issues
A moral issue can be understood as an issue to be resolved not only by
considering the technical stuff but also by keeping moral values in mind
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Types of Moral Issues
There are mainly two types of Moral issues that we mostly come across
while keeping the ethical aspects in mind to respond
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Macro-ethics
This approach deals with social problems which are unknown
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Types of Inquiries
The issues can be resolved by following an investigation procedure, step
by step in order to have a clear understanding towards the issue
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Judging the issues has to be followed by a systematic procedure to
avoid any flaws
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Following are the different types of inquiries made
for this
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This is the expected ideal
response, which might differ from what one believes to be right or
wrong
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This includes the responsibility of engineers to
protect the public safety and how they should respond under such
dangerous practices
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They
refer to the thought process where the moral rights are to be
implemented in order to fulfill their professional obligations
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The ethics that an
engineer should possess to protect the safety, health and welfare of the
public, etc
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It describes what safety is and mentions the marginal issues of safety
along with the precautions an engineer should take to avoid risk
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Factual and Descriptive Inquiries
Factual Inquiry or the descriptive inquiry help to provide the facts for
understanding and finding solutions to the value based issues
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This helps in providing the information regarding the business realities
such as engineering practice, history of engineering profession, the
effectiveness of professional societies, the procedures to be adopted
when assessing risks and psychological profiles of engineers
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Engineering Ethics - Ethical Theories
Ethics is that branch of philosophy that deals with morality
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The ethics are mainly divided into two
categories depending upon the morality of humanity
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A lie which saves a life, comes
under this
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The moral law which states
that a lie is a lie, and shouldn’t be done, though it ends in a good deed
can be taken as an example of non-consequential ethics
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These theories help to
create the fundamentals of obligation suitable and applicable to
professional and personal conduct of a person in his everyday life
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Golden Mean
The Golden Mean ethical theory was proposed by Aristotle
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A “Mean value of solution” which will be between
the extremes of excess and deficiency
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A mean solution that will work towards
controlling the pollution and protecting the environment will also help
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This theory phrased by Aristotle states that virtues are
tendencies to find the golden mean between the extremes of too much
(excess) and too little (deficiency) with regard to particular aspects of
our lives
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e
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There are internal goods such as products, activities and
experiences should never clash with the external goods such as money,
power self-esteem and prestige
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The external goods when extremely
concerned, though by individuals or by organizations, threaten the
internal goods
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According
to this theory, the solution to a problem is by realizing that every person
has a right to live
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The rights of a person towards life, health, liberty, possession, etc
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For example, any action in terms of Capital punishment, Jails, Income
taxes and Medical charges etc
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What does it mean?
Rights-based ethics is the recognition of human dignity at its most basic
form
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Everyone has a right to live, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness
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"
The natural law states that human laws are defined by morality and not
by some authority
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Any action done by a person that would

prevent a fellow being from living a good and happy life, is considered
immoral or unnatural
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Moral duty is
the obligation to act based on ethical beliefs
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According to this theory, every person has a duty to follow which is
accepted universally, with no exceptions
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What are these ethics?
Kant observed that everyone is bound to follow some moral laws
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This theory can also be called as Deontological theory or
the Absolutist theory
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To have good will, is to perform one’s duty
for the sake of duty and for no other reason
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There are four virtues that come under this law, which have to be
discussed here
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One should always be cautious to perform
one’s duties
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The
temptations that might lead to the violation of duties and ethics have to
be restrained
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Fortitude
Fortitude is the sense of having tolerance
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Both may or may not go with each other
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Truth and fairness are the aspects one should always bear in
mind
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A free will and a will under moral laws are one and the same
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There should be a universally valid will, under which everyone can be
free
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According to this
theory, the happiness or pleasure of a greatest number of people in the
society is considered as the greatest good
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An example of this can be the removal of reservation system in
education and government jobs, which can really benefit the talented
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What are these ethics?
Consider the cost-benefit analysis in engineering
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It weighs the total good against total bad
and then compares the results to similar tallies of the consequences of
alternative actions or rules
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There are two main types of Utilitarianism
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Act Utilitarianism states that “A
particular action is right if it is likely to produce the higher level of good
for the most people in a given situation, compared to alternative
choices that might be made
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For example, looting the richer to feed the poor,
can satisfy and make a group of poor people, happy
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Hence act-utilitarianism seems to justify the
wrong-doing
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” We
need to consider a set of rules, where they interact with each other
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Engineers with ethics should follow the rule-utilitarianism considering
the point, “Act as faithful agents or trustees of employers”
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Like in the above example, one should seek the help of law
and order to prove the guilt of richer and let see that the poor get
benefitted
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The tenets of the theory should never contradict the other
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The theory should guide in specific situations comprehending all aspects
possible
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Uses of Ethical Theories
Ethical theories help in the following areas −
Understanding moral dilemmas
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Relating ordinary and professional morality

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