Engineering Ethics

Prompt #2

By: Kevin Chung

            Although there is no written rule on how engineers should work and behave, there are a code of ethics that are expected to be uphold. I was able to find what the ethics were on the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) website. And it lists the fundamental canon of these ethics. 

1.    Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.

2.    Perform services only in areas of their competence.

3.    Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.

4.    Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.

5.    Avoid deceptive acts.

6.    Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession

Picture Credit: aiche.org

            When I look at these canons, I feel that these ethical guidelines are the same as my ethics on how I should work and conduct myself in business. The first and second canons go together for me because I never do work that I feel unfit for unless I have some to help me with. That’s because I feel that if I perform a service badly, I will affect myself, and others negatively than what my intended purpose was. I agree with the third canon because of personal experience and from events from the real world, like the crises Volkswagen had gotten themselves into by lying about their car emissions. The fourth canon is how I treat others when I’m working in a group of people, and it's no different when working with clients or trustees. The fifth and sixth canons go together because acting honorably is avoiding deceptive acts and following the rules.

Looking at the ethics that engineers are expected to uphold, I believe that people already know the ethical guidelines that people in my field must follow. So that makes me think that most people in my field follow these ethics. And engineers don’t really have a choice. If we don’t uphold the safety of people when we create our products, then no one fund our projects and we’ll have no work. If engineers don’t work with clients or with agents faithfully without deceit and lies, then work will be difficult, if not, impossible because no can trust each other to get the work done. So people in my line of work must uphold these ethics if they want to be at all successful.

Taking in all the stuff that I’ve learned from looking at the ethics that are to be uphold as an engineer, I pretty sure I can do it. I’ve lived with the pretty same ethics that are required in engineering for my most of the teenage life. So I feel pretty prepared to follow these rules when I do become a mechanical engineer.  I hope that this article was helpful. If you have a question or just something to add to this, then please leave a comment and I will respond to it as soon as I can.

Sources

"Ethics." NSPE Provides a Code of Ethics and Other Resources to Practice Ethical Engineering. National Society of Engineers, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.