Engineering with Ethics - Essay Example

Engineering with Ethics Ethics in engineering is important and consists of some aspects to consider at all times. Professional engineers must be sensitive to ethics at all time, must have advanced ethical knowledge, must work to improve ethical judgment always, and finally must increase the will to be ethical. Ethical goals suggest the behaviors, which engineers should embrace. The good behaviors include rejecting bribes, having legal certification and avoiding the use of poor quality materials and implements (Burgess et al., 1396). Ethics, for this reason, helps in guiding engineers from taking part in bad practices that they would have otherwise done. The nature of work engineers do has the objective of supporting the activities of humans. Whether in construction of roads, dams or housing structures, the success of engineering is judged on the extent of its ability of enabling people to achieve their goals. Engineers are service providers who offer services that support basic needs of humans and must be ethical. As an engineer in the future, I would deal with factors involving safety, scarcity of materials, and operational factors. I would, for this reason, be compelled to ensure satisfaction of specifications of the products. Failing to meet any specification means failure of the project. Engineering work involves two options for meeting specifications or if not met, looking into making them right. Therefore, shortcuts cannot be made with an aim of saving money because it is not acceptable in practice. For this reason, an engineer has to consider safety limits in designing, producing and running projects. The first matter of ethics in my profession will be accuracy and strictness to the engineering calculations and procedures for carrying out tasks. This will imply that it will be my duty as an engineer to be very faithful in following the steps required in engineering acquired in training. I will be faithful in using the knowledge that is relevant in engineering such as conducting proper and accurate calculations for engineering estimates. Accuracy in engineering is very important because as a professional fine attention and accuracy leads to production of the best solutions for engineering problems. On the other hand unethical behaviours include carelessness and wrong calculations. These unethical issues are the issues I will stay away from. Such unethical behaviours in engineering lead to production of poor engineering products and unsafe products for use. Such products can cause accidents, issues of death and bad injuries. Good professional ethics that I will follow also involve acting with all honesty about the things that I am qualified to do as an engineer and not accepting to work in areas of engineering where I am not qualified in or competent enough in. Honesty also covers avoiding to falsely taking more money from clients by quoting too much for products and services. Taking money which is not proper from clients is unethical and I will not do that. I will avoid working in projects that I see myself not able to provide the best and safe quality products in. Temptations for doing work in areas where people do not have enough required skills are always brought by love for money and making money the first priority of work. For example when a company has a project that pay a lot of money, many engineers may be tempted to work in that project even though their skills do not match the requirements for that work. This has a big risk of the engineers making mistakes because of lack of enough competencies, and they may not know the major mistakes to avoid. This might lead to very big and bad disasters. In my professional work, I will avoid such mistakes. Working in the field where my skills are best is the most ethical thing for me to do, and will help in making positive contributions in the society. My second ethical goal would be the development of empathy towards the clients. This would allow me to look at things from the client’s point of view and consider the client’s concerns and the environment. Here what I would require is to assume myself not as a technician but as the client in order to look at issues from a wider perspective. Further, I will view myself as the servant of the client to help me develop values of ethically dealing with the client. I must, therefore, work hard and understand the morals greatly valued by the client. I will not assume that my professional codes of conduct are the best and relevant to the clients I am serving. The engineering needs must help in supporting the moral environment of the client not my moral standards as an engineer. The client’s moral environment consists of the advantages and value that the client gets when they use the final product of my work. With this in mind, I also have to create a balance by questioning the client and give suggestions for improving the needs of the client. Even as some of the needs of the client may not be very popular with engineering standards, I would try hard to understand the client as provide the most ethical and suitable solution. My third most considered issue of ethics would be about integrity and honesty as an engineer. This I will do by working hard to conduct myself in the highest professional standards of conduct, being very open, honest and fair as a professional engineer. These principles will help me in making it my duty as an engineer to keep my clients informed about the facts of engineering that they are supposed to know. Engineers are professionals who are trusted by the public to be people who provide complete information and which is highly accurate as can possibly be. Therefore, I would not at any time lie to my clients . Sometimes I would need to inform clients about information that they don’t ask directly and which the clients may sometimes not want to know. In cases where there is information that would not be good to tell the clients because of confidentiality, as an engineer it would be advisable to avoid disclosing such information because it would destroy confidentiality. In such cases, not disclosing such information would not mean that I am dishonest. I will practice integrity by doing only the things that are ethically right according to the engineering profession. I will not accept to fall to pressure of doing things that would compromise ethical values and principles whether the source of that pressure would be from the customers or my employer. I would avoid where there is conflict of interest, where I would be compromised, I will declare and pull out of such jobs that would lead me to bad influence. I will be reliable and what I say will match what I do. I will always take steps to stop unethical issues in the profession such as use of bad materials, stealing the client’s money by lying, stealing other engineers inventions and involving in professional misconduct. In conclusion, rejection of engagement in ethical and social aspects by engineers is not good for the engineering profession and may hurt the clients or give them unnecessary burdens. Engineering should be considered as an art that requires communication with the clients and giving them products of their desire. Understanding the tasks in hand, objectives, moral values and wants of the clients help in creating products that are suitable for the client’s needs. Engineers’ motivations for code of ethics should not only be the written codes. Personal responsibility should largely inform the ethical practices of the engineers. For this reason, in engineering, personal character should be adopted in making fair and balanced ethical decisions. Personal character will assist in the development of qualities that will help in making ethical decisions in the process of dealing with projects at hand. It is also important to note that the types of projects worked in will create various challenges and ethical issues. However, the personal qualities of engineers such as honesty, compassion, empathy and patience must exist. These values form the wisdom needed to make ethical decisions. Work Cited Burgess, Richard, et al. "Engineering Ethics: Looking Back, Looking Forward." Science & Engineering Ethics 19.3 (2013): 1395-1404. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. Read More