Ethics and the ASCE Report Card for Americas Infrastructure - Assignment Example

“Ethics and globalization” Globalization has attracted mixed reactions from the society for its diverse effects on socio-economic and political effects. Various professional lines are affected by this phenomena and civil engineering is not exceptional. Significant concern is raised towards the ethical implications of globalization on civil engineering. The different levels of technical know-how and education curriculum across the world promotes knowledge gap which favor developed nations. In that regard, Civil engineers from socio-economic and politically superior nations execute major projects at the expense of engineers from less developed economies.

This is compounded with infringement into the local cultures while executing construction projects (McAnally 75). Another critical ethical concern is failure of imported technology to conform to socio-economic policies of the local industries. This pertains particularly to international regulations on patents which suppress the progressive socio-economic strategy of developing economies. Competitive strategies of civil engineering firms to adopt common language and use the same in foreign assignments have a significant ethical drawback.

This has to do with foreign engineering using their language which may not be effective to the locals and the consequence is skewed decision making. For instance, Civil engineers from firms that use English as common language are likely to dominate project evaluation and monitoring process and make the locals to shy aware hence limiting participatory decision making as far as the interests of the local community is concerned. This has led to environmental degradation, disregard of cultural norms which amounts to unethical consequences of globalization in civil engineering.

ASCE maintains transparency and accountability of the engineers in various locations of their assignments. Since one of the ethical codes is to serve humanity, involvement of the local community in foreign assignment is facilitated through use of interpreters and participatory decision making which must incorporate input of local community. Another approach towards remedying this problem by ASCE code of ethics emphasizes involvement of the local engineers to link the foreigners with the host community (McAnally 77).

However, it is worth to note that ASCE code of ethics has standardized rules on projects execution procedures which at times clash with the local legal framework. United States is considered the powerhouse of ultra-modern technology and offers the best civil engineering training for students all over the world. The economic gains from foreign contracts US civil engineers win and fees paid by foreign students contribute to government revenue. Besides, the socio-economic and political policies of United States are increasing gaining popularity across the world.

However, this observation has attracted sharp opposition of some countries especially communist and Arab nations. These countries feel that US culture and political policies are oppressive hence strained diplomatic relations. The brain drain from the superior US technology is considered a trapping which is an ethical concern for developing economies (McAnally 85). Environmental care and recognition of local culture should be flexible while project execution techniques need to remain standardized.

The different technological standards across countries means that workplace safety practices are less adhered to by ill-trained civil engineers from less developed nations. This means increased investment in training. Civil engineers must also offer fare wages that is consistent with the work and living standard of the country in which the project is situated. The diversity of construction practices can be addressed by involving the local engineers in making inclusive decisions so that the product represents quality and reconcile with local demands.

ASCE has the regulating role in which it restructure its legal and labor practices policies to adjust to different countries that US engineers may be assigned. It also serves to establish standard competency conversion criteria that would address regional training variations.Work citedMcAnally, William H. Navigation Engineering Practice and Ethical Standards. Reston, Va: American Society of Civil Engineers, 2009. Print.