Amalan Kejuruteraan Amalan Kejuruteraan Professional Professional (SMM4901)(SMM4901)

Chapter 2: Professional Ethics Chapter 2: Professional Ethics

Prof Ir Dr. Ab Saman b. Abd Kader, Prof Ir Dr. Ab Saman b. Abd Kader,

(Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UTM)UTM)

THE ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL THE ENGINEER AS A PROFESSIONAL MANMAN

- Engineering is a predominantly an employee profession

- Absence of personal practitioner-client relationship

- Engineer tend to practice their profession as member of team, led and managed by Senior Engineers

- Senior Engineer tend to concerned with their leadership and management of large resources of men, material and finances.

- Junior member always involved in detail technical practice.

- In engineering management, engineer is responsible in a very direct sense for control over the resources of the community.

- Engineering therefore; is a unique profession in which all of the marks of the professional man have a curial importance:

- He must have High level skills & must develop different skills as he career advance.

- Must have strong motivation for service.

- The whole community is the ultimate client.

ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISMETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM

- Engineering is closely involved in human relations and in business and commerce.

- Ethics means “laws and morals”, it carries an additional connotation of “rightness”

- The code is statement of the principle of “rightness”, and to enable an intelligent man to deduce for himself the course of his own professional conduct.

- Under the code, the professional man must be worthy, through his conduct and must be trusted within the community and his colleagues.

- Must be confident in any situation.

- Each professional man must have positive attitude and live by the rules of their profession.

- Most professional engineers adopt an institutional view of the originations of the profession i.e loyalty and support without direct personal gain.

- The true professional man always give a support to his organization and sometime grudgingly.

ENGINEERS AND SOCIETYENGINEERS AND SOCIETY

- Engineer are responsible to his own image.

- Engineer must perform excellent job to gain respect for the public.

- Engineer must always aware of technological advancements, and get involved in research and development.

- Engineer have a brain, technology and expertise, just need an effort and commitment.

- Engineer not only provide human resources for infrastructure development but also important devices necessary for the welfare, health and safety of the pubic.

- Engineer yield a degree of influence over decisions makers and polices. If the influence based on self-interest, the interest and welfare of community became secondary important i.e. corruption will happen.

- Engineer must emphasizes the positive qualities in a job or occupation.

WHAT IS ETHICS? WHAT IS ETHICS?

- From Greek word “ETHOS”.

- Meaning “ATTITUDE” and “CULTURE” that determine behavior of the society.

- Associated with actions, elaborations and objectives.

- It is a discipline of moral, action and appropriate behavior of human being.

- Engineering ethics consists of responsibilities and rights and also of desirable idea and personal commitments in engineering.

- Engineering ethics is the study of the decisions, policies and values.

WHAT IS ETHICS?... CONT.

- Morality concerns respect for persons, both others and ourselves.

- It also involve being fair and just, meeting obligations and respecting right and not causing unnecessary harm by dishonesty and cruelty.

ETHICS VS LAW ETHICS VS LAW

- Ethics is enforce by heart and going against it hurts.

- Ethics ensure limits of culture, idealism, belief and moral values.

- Following ethical code mean follow the law.

- Ethical code is more general.

- Ethics can be expended to attitudes to good and bad behavior.

- Ethics can be determine more value and cover guide to good and bad behavior in society.

- The law is enforced by court and culprits can be punished.

- The law ensure limits too. Going against it is a criminal act.

- Obeying the law does not equal to following ethics.

- The law is the minimum regulations to control criminal act.

- The law enforces the predetermine regulations.

- The law is inadequate to ensure moral values.

- The law does not cover individual guide and various societies.

ETHICS & ISLAM ETHICS & ISLAM

- Al Quran is the guide for good and bad not only for Muslims but for ALL human beings.

- “Dan hendaklah ada diantara kamu segolongan umat yang menyeru kepada kebajikan, menyuruh kepada makruf dan mencegah dari yang mungkar” (surah Ali Imran : 3:104)

- “Sesungguhnya engkau (hai muhammad) menpunyai budi pekerti (etika) yang baik” (surah al Qalam, 68:4)

CODE OF ETHICS CODE OF ETHICS

- In every profession, there are various set of positives qualities.

1. Universal positive qualities, which pertains to any job or occupation like dedication, hardworking (diligence) and honesty.

2. Positive qualities which are particular to the job or occupation at hand

3. Professional ethics and this is the category of social and moral awareness of the implications or effects of the one’s job on the wider community and environment.

CODE OF ETHICS…CONTS.CODE OF ETHICS…CONTS.

- The following skills are related to engineering ethics.

1. Moral awareness – recognizing problem and issues in engineering.

2. Cogent moral reasoning – Clarifying and assessing arguments on opposing sides of moral issues.

3. Moral coherence – forming consistent and comprehensive viewpoint base on relevant fact

4. Moral imagination – creative in solving solution.

5. Moral communication – precision in language, able to express views.

CODE OF ETHICS …CONTSCODE OF ETHICS …CONTS

6. Moral reasonableness – willingness and ability to be moral reasonable.

7. Respect for persons – concern for the well-being of other as well as oneself.

8. Tolerance of diversity – respect for ethnic and religious differences and acceptance of reasonable difference in moral perspectives.

9. Moral hope – using rational language to resolving moral conflicts

10. Maintaining moral integrity and integrating one’s professional life and personal convictions.

MEANING OF MEANING OF “RESPONSIBILITY”“RESPONSIBILITY”

1. Obligations.

- morally mandatory and some obligations are incumbent on each of us, such as to honest, fair and decent.

- Other are role responsibilities, acquired when we take an special role such as parents, employees and professionals.

2. Accountable

- capacity to understand and act on moral reasons.

- answerable for meeting particular obligations.

- acted as what we did.

- admit on wrongdoing. (voluntary wrongdoing or negligence).

3. Conscientious

- do right thing at the first time and everytime.

WHY PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IS IMPORTANCE TO WHY PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IS IMPORTANCE TO ENGINEERS?ENGINEERS?

1. A hallmarks professionalism – only professional have code of ethics.

2. Basic qualification requirement – to state the moral responsibilities of engineers and the freedom to exercise them.

3. An edge in competition – to give customer or public confident by protecting and serving the public interest.

4. Guidance to good practices and deterring wrongdoing.

5. Offering inspiration

6. Establishing shared standard and contributing to education.

7. Ultimate benefit of profession – have a value of honest & transparency.

ETHICAL DILEMMAS ETHICAL DILEMMAS

- usually result from loyalties to 2 groups

• duties to employers/clients and the public

• Example - The China Syndrome  (fiction) Nuclear plant employee discovers safety problems, reports them to administration, but cannot convince them to address them. Conflict between loyalty to company and loyalty to public.

• Example - Destination Disaster (fact) Flaws in design of DC-10 were made known to sub-contractor by an engineer, but subtracter company withheld the information from McDonnell-Douglas for financial reasons. Conflict between professional obligation of public safety and to abide by company procedures.

REGULATIONS ON PROFESSIONAL CONDUCTSREGULATIONS ON PROFESSIONAL CONDUCTS

All professional group have 2 main characteristics:

1. Professionals in the same discipline institutionalize themselves into a professional body with recognized standard of academic and practice qualifications for members.

2. The professional body has a Code of Ethics to govern the conduct of its members and disciplinary procedures in the event of breach of such code.

3 PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING BODIES IN MALAYSIA3 PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING BODIES IN MALAYSIA

IEM Codes of Ethics

BEM Code of Professional Conduct

Association of Consulting Engineers, Malaysia (ACEM)

IEM CODE OF ETHICSIEM CODE OF ETHICS

- Lays down general guidelines for the conduct of member vis-à-vis his relationship and his transactions with:

- The community

- The employer

- Clients

- Peers

- Involving moral and philosophical considerations to public safety and health, conservation of resources and environment, upgrading of technology, assuming responsibility within one’s competence.

- Also include the do’s and don’ts between engineer and employee, client and peers.

BEM CODE OF PROFESSIONAL BEM CODE OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCTCONDUCT

- Under Section 15 of The Engineers’ Act 1967, Board may order the cancellation of the registration of any engineer, if:-

- He is guilty of fraud, dishonesty or moral turpitude,

- He accepts illicit commission,

- He fails to disclose to his client any vested financial interest in his dealings with client.

- BEM code as regulating body, has the force of law

- Can distinguish between what is legal and what is not.

- Protect interest between Engineer, his employee or his clients.

ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, MALAYSIA (ACEM)ENGINEERS, MALAYSIA (ACEM)

- Engineer who practice as Consultants are governed by their memorandum and articles of association.

- ACE code is designed for area like advertising and promotion of works, fees and other remuneration, competition with other members, submission of bids, or proposals and related subjects.

- Articles 16 to 27 of association, is “Duties of Members”

- Code of ACE places an onerous duty on its members to conform both the IEM and BEM Codes as well as their own specific rules governing the conduct of Consulting Engineering business.

APPLYING GLOBAL ETHICS IN APPLYING GLOBAL ETHICS IN ENGINEERING ORGANIZATIONSENGINEERING ORGANIZATIONS

- New era i.e. Globalization, refer to integration of nations through trade, investment, transfer of technology and exchanges of ideas and culture.

- Global interdependency affect engineering and engineers in many ways where moral challengers arises:

- Who loses jobs at home when manufacturing is taken offshore?

- What does the host country lose in resources, control over its own trade, and political independence?

- What are moral responsibilities of corporations and individuals operating in less economically developed countries?

APPLYING GLOBAL ETHICS IN APPLYING GLOBAL ETHICS IN ENGINEERING ORGANIZATIONSENGINEERING ORGANIZATIONS

What are “global issues”?

• Global issues:– World-wide impacts (the world is shrinking)– Long time periods – Cross-cultural, multi-national (real impacts; is doing engineering the same here as everywhere else?)

• Relevance to engineering?

– Broad thinking in engineering design process is essential!– Engineering is naturally cross-cultural (e.g., students)– Globalization is happening!– Impact on engineering profession is unfolding

CASE STUDY - BHOPALCASE STUDY - BHOPAL

- Union Carbide in 1984 operated in 37 host countries in addition to its home country, USA.

- On 3rd Dec 1984, the operators of Union Carbide’s plant in Bhopal, India became alarmed by a leak and overheating in storage tank.

- The tank contained methyl isocyanate (MIC), a toxic ingredients used in pesticides.

- Within 1 hour, the leak exploded that sent 40 tons of deadly gas into atmosphere.

- This is the worst industrial accident in history

- 500,000 persons exposed to the gas

- 2500 to 3000 deaths within few days

- 10,000 permanently disabled

- 100,000 to 200,000 injured

- 10 years later, 12,000 death claims and 870,000 personal injury claims had been submitted

- Only $90 million of Union Carbide’s settlement had been distributed.

UNION CARBIDE PRODUCTUNION CARBIDE PRODUCT

Products

Union Carbide both produces and purchases ethylene, a basic building-block chemical, from components of crude oil and natural gas. We convert ethylene to polyethylene or react it with oxygen to produce ethylene oxide, the precursor to many of the products we sell: ethylene glycol and hundreds of solvents, alcohols, surfactants, amines and specialty products.

Some of the chemicals we make go directly into products used every day: polyethylene and polypropylene into food containers or toys; ethylene glycol into automotive antifreeze, and isopropanol into rubbing alcohol. Others are used in manufacturing processes to enhance quality and performance: ethyleneamines for wet-strength in paper towels; biocides as bacteria-growth inhibitors in cosmetics, and surfactants for soil removal in industrial cleaning. Other essential products include: deicing and anti-icing fluids to remove or prevent ice buildup on airplanes; amines for removing impurities in oil and gas refining processes; solution vinyl resins for industrial coatings to prevent corrosion, and polyethylene glycols to make tablets and pills easier to swallow.

Whether they are adding strength to stretch wrap, or smoothness to paint, removing static from laundry or simply making a teddy bear more cuddly, the products of Union Carbide make great chemistry a part of daily life.

WHAT WENT WRONG?WHAT WENT WRONG?

- The disaster was caused by a combination of extremely lax safety procedures, gross judgment errors by local plants operators and possible sabotage with unintended consequences.

- Greater sensitivity to social factors was needed in transferring chemical technology to a country foreign to supplier of the technology.

- US engineers make regular on-site safety inspections

- In 1982, financial pressures relinquish its supervision of safety at the plant.

- Government of India required the Bhopal plant to be operated entirely by Indian workers.

- Union Carbide at first trained the plant personnel in its West Virginia plant.

WHAT WENT WRONG??...CONTSWHAT WENT WRONG??...CONTS

- 2 years later, safety practices eroded due to

- Personnel problems i.e. high turnover of employees, fail to train new employees, safety procedures not follow

- Move away from US standard to lower Indian standards

- Sabotage – a disgruntled employee unscrewed a pressure gauge and inserted a hose into it not realizing that it would cause immense damage.

- Extreme hazards i.e.

- tanks storing MIC gas were overloaded,

- standby tank was not empty for emergency dump,

- tank were supposed to be refrigerated but refrigeration was shut down to cut cost making the tank temperature 3 to 4 times what they should have been.

- Negligence – worker knew there was a leaked but did not check for leaks; It was not my job! because it was the maintenance depart to responsibility to check the safety.

- There were no emergency procedure, no emergency drill and no evacuations plan.

- The incident was not informed to the thousands of squatters in the areas surrounding the plant.

WHAT ARE THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITIES WHAT ARE THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITIES MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS LIKE UNION MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS LIKE UNION

CARBIDE?CARBIDE?

- Ethical relativism; the view that actions are morally right within a particular society when they are approved by law, customs etc.

- this false because it might excuse moral horrors, example: it would justify low standards if that were all a country requires

- Ethical absolutism; retains precisely the same practices endorsed at home , never making any adjustments to new culture.

- this is also false because it fails to take account of many variable facts.

- Ethical relationalism; the view that moral judgment are contextual in that they are made in relation to a wide variety of factors including the customs of other culture.

TECHNOLOGY AND THE WORK ETHICSTECHNOLOGY AND THE WORK ETHICS

- Technology : value-neutral or value-laden?

Value-neutral : says that technology consists of artifacts or devices – machines, tools, structures perhaps together with knowledge about how to make and maintain devices.

Value- laden : says that technology consists of value-guided organizations and general approaches, in addition to artifacts and knowledge.

Engineers need to understand how their work effect public life, as manager, entrepreneurs, consultants & government official, engineers provides many form of leadership in development and implementing technology with their profession & communities.

- Cultural Relativism (sociological relativism): the descriptive view that different groups of people have different moral standards for evaluating acts as right or wrong.

Ethical Relativism: the prescriptive view that (1) different groups of people ought to have different ethical standards for evaluating acts as right or wrong, (2) these different beliefs are true in their respective societies, and (3) these different beliefs are not instances of a basic moral principle.

Ethical Absolutism: the prescriptive view that there are basic or fundamental ethical principles which are true without qualification or exception as to time, condition, or circumstance. A. Examples: Kant's categorical imperative, the principle of utility, or the Christian commandment to love God and neighbor. B. All other ethical rules, principles, ideals, and norms are contingent upon whether they are entailed by basic or fundamental moral principles (Q.v., the Case Study on Internal Moral Standards.)

http://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/problems_topics.html - discuss on moral issue.

CUSTOMS AND ETHICAL RELATIVISMCUSTOMS AND ETHICAL RELATIVISM

Ethical Relativism is the view that values are relative to and reducible to conventions, customs or laws. It is right because the customs say it is right. Ethical relativism looks like encouraging the virtue of tolerance of differences among different groups, but it has limits. Ethical relativism might seem attractive because it is easily confused with other view that are plausible.

1. Descriptive relativism is a statement that beliefs and attitudes about values differ from culture to culture.

2. Ethical relationalism means moral judgement should be made in relation to factors that can vary from case to case. Those factors include customs, conventions, and codes.

3. Ethical pluralism means that customs can have great moral significance in deciding how we should act.

RELIGION AND DIVINE COMMAND ETHICSRELIGION AND DIVINE COMMAND ETHICS

There are important connections between morality and religion in the lives of many people.

1. They are related historically.

2. For many people, there are important psychological connections between moral and religious beliefs. Religious faith and hope imply trust: trust that we can receive insight into what should govern right action and can be sustained in that action.

3. Religions sometimes set a higher moral standard than is conventional. Many religions emphasise particular ideals of character, e.g Christianity centres on the virtues of hope, faith and love; Buddhism emphasises compassion, Judaism on virtue of tzedakah (righteousness) and Islam on ihsan (translated as either piety or the pursuit of excellence).

Divine command ethics claims that an act is right simply means it is commanded by God, and it is wrong if forbidden by God.

Self-Interest and Ethical Egoism

Ethical egoism is a view that attempts to reduce moral values to self-interest. Ethical is a theory about morality and egoism is about sole duty of each individual in maximising his/her own good (well being, happiness).

Psychological Egoism

Psychological egoism is a view that believes that people are psychologically incapable of caring about anyone but themselves. People are only motivated by what they believe is good for themselves in some respect.

Predominant egoism is a view that the strongest desires for most people most of the time is self-seeking.

Mixed motives is a combination of self-concern and concern for others.

Compensation and Self-Interest

Compensation values, such as money, power, and recognition, can be pursued for the good of others, and play a major role in motivating and guiding human conduct.

THE SEAFARER AS A PROFESSIONAL THE SEAFARER AS A PROFESSIONAL MANMAN

– Seafaring is predominantly an employee profession

– Absence of a personal practitioner-client relationship

– Seafarer tend to practice their profession as members of teams, led and managed by senior seafarer who are employees, even though they also assume the role of employers in many aspects of their relationships with their juniors

– The more senior seafarer tend to be concerned with the leadership and management of large resources of men, materials and finance over which they have control

– It is the juniors who are more involved in the detailed technical practice of the profession; and technical direction comes from middle levels of the organizational structure

(cont)

– Management implies responsibility and in seafaring management, the professional engineer is responsible in a very direct sense for control over the resources of the community

– Seafaring therefore, is a unique profession in which all of the marks of the professional man have crucial importance

– he must have high-level skills and he must develop different skills as his career advances

– he must have a strong motivation for service because everything he does impinges on the community in some way or other

– The whole community is the ultimate client rather than the individual clients as in the case with other professions

2.0 Ethics and Professionalism

• Seafaring is closely involved in human relations and in business and commerce. A great many of the special problems in personal conduct met by seafarer are likely to arise from this fact

• Ethics means something more than "law" and "morals" , it carries an additional connotation of "rightness“

• The Code is a statement of the principles of "rightness", of broad scope and with enough detail to enable an intelligent man to deduce for himself the course of his own professional conduct

• The essence of all professional codes is that the professional man must be worthy, through his conduct, of the trust placed in him by the community and his colleagues

(cont)

• To act every situation in a manner that will add to the confidence and esteem in which his profession is held by the community

• A profession is no better than its individual members. If they do not have the professional attitude and live by the rules of the profession, they have no profession

• Most professional seafarer adopt an institutional view of the organizations of the profession

- deserving, even requiring, the loyalty of each engineer as an expression of this identity as a professional engineer - organizations are the manifestation of the professional entity and

they require the giving of effort, loyalty and financial support without thought to direct personal gain

• Instrumental view of the professional organizations: support is given, sometimes grudgingly, on the basis of an expected return in some tangible form. The instrumental view should have no place in the value system of the man who aspires to true professional status

3.0 Seafarer and Society• We are responsible for our own image

• If we want the public to appreciate our work then we must first do an excellent job

• We must be aware of technological advancements, be designers instead of users and get involved in research and development

• We have the brains, the technology and the expertise; we just need effort and commitment from ourselves

• Seafarer provide not only the necessary human resources for the infrastructure development of a country but also important devices necessary for the welfare of the public

cont

• Seafarers yield a degree of influence over formulators of policies and decision makers. If this influence is based on the self-interests of individuals or a minority in which case the interests and welfare of the wider community becomes of secondary importance. Corruption is an extreme example of this

• Because of the significance and influence of professionals in society, the value systems which govern their lives and attitudes are needless to say, of great importance

• By professional ethics or professionalism, one is referring to a philosophy of work that values and emphasizes the positive qualities in a job or occupation

• One would also need to consider the wider implications of one's occupation in social and moral contexts

4. Code of Ethics

• In every profession, there are various sets of positive qualities

• universal positive qualities which pertain to any job or occupation like dedication, diligence and honesty

• positive qualities which are particular to the job or occupation at hand

• professional ethics and this is the category of social and moral awareness of the implication or effects of one's job on the wider community and environment

4.1 Ethics• Ethics is the study of morality. It

studies which actions, goals, principles, policies, and laws are morally justified

• It refers to moral values that are sound, actions that are morally required (right) or morally permissible (all right), policies and laws that are desirable

cont

• Accordingly, seafaring ethics consists of the responsibilities and rights that ought to be endorsed by those engaged in seafaring, and also of desirable ideals and personal commitments in seafaring

• Seafaring ethics is the study of the decisions, policies, and values that are morally desirable in seafaring practice and research

• Morality concerns respect for persons, both others and ourselves

• It involves being fair and just, meeting obligations and respecting rights, and not causing unnecessary harm by dishonesty and cruelty

• In addition, it involves ideals of character, such as integrity, gratitude, and willingness to help people in severe distress

• And it implies minimizing suffering to animals and damage to the environment

cont• The following skills are related to seafaring ethics

• Moral awareness: proficiency in recognizing moral problems and issues in seafaring

• Cogent moral reasoning: Comprehending, clarifying, and assessing arguments on opposing sides of moral issues

• Moral coherence: Forming consistent and comprehensive viewpoints based upon a consideration of relevant facts

• Moral imagination: Discerning alternative responses to moral issues and receptivity to creative solutions for practical difficulties

cont

• Moral communication: Precision in the use of a common ethical language, a skill needed to express and support one's moral views adequately to others

• Moral reasonableness: The willingness and ability to be morally reasonable

• Respect for persons: Genuine concern for the well being of others as well as oneself

• Tolerance of diversity: Within a broad range, respect for ethnic and religious differences, and acceptance of reasonable differences in moral perspectives

• Moral hope: Enriched appreciation of the possibilities of using rational dialogue in resolving moral conflicts

• Maintaining moral integrity, and integrating one's professional life and personal convictions

4.2 Meanings of "Responsibility"1. Obligations

a. Responsibilities are obligations-types of actions that are morally mandatory. Some obligations are incumbent on each of us, such as to be honest, fair, and decent

b. Other obligations are role responsibilities, acquired when we take on special roles such as parents, employees, or professionals

2. Accountable

a. Being responsible means accountable. This means having the general capacities for moral agency, including the capacity to understand and act on moral reasons

b. It also means being answerable for meeting particular obligations, that is, liable to be held to account by other people in general or by specific individuals in positions of authority

c. We can be called upon to explain why we acted as we did, perhaps providing a justification or perhaps offering reasonable excuses

cont

d. Wrongdoing takes two primary forms:

I. voluntary wrongdoing • Voluntary actions occur when we knew what we were doing was

wrong and we were not coerced

• Some voluntary wrongdoing is recklessness, that is, flagrant disregard of known risks and responsibility

• Other voluntary wrongdoing is due to weakness of will, whereby we give in to temptation or fail to try hard enough

II. Negligence occurs when we unintentionally fail to exercise due care in meeting responsibilities. We might not have known what we were doing, but we should have

3. Conscientious

• Morally admirable seafarer accepts their obligations and is conscientious in meeting them. They diligently try to do the right thing, and they largely succeed in doing so, even under difficult circumstances

4.3 Key Concepts

• Ethical dilemmas, or moral dilemmas: situations in which reasons, conflict, or in which the application of moral values is problematic, and it is not immediately obvious what should be done

• Steps in resolving ethical dilemmas:

– Moral clarity: Identify the relevant moral values– Conceptual clarity– Informed about the facts. Obtain relevant information – Informed about the options: Consider all genuine options – Well-reasoned: Make a reasonable decision

• Right-wrong, better-worse: Some ethical dilemmas have solution that are either right (obligatory) or wrong (morally forbidden); other dilemmas have more that one permissible solution, some of which are better or worse that others either in some respects or overall

4.4 Importance of codes of ethics

• Codes of ethics state the moral responsibilities of seafarer as seen by the profession and as represented by a professional society

• Because they express the profession's collective commitment to ethics, codes are important in stressing engineer's responsibilities and also the freedom to exercise them

• The essential roles of codes of ethics:

(1) serving and protecting the public (2) providing guidance(3) offering inspiration(4) establishing shared standards(5) contributing to education(6) deterring wrongdoing(7) strengthening a profession's image

5.0 Regulations on professional conducts• All professional groups have two main characteristics:

• Professionals in the same discipline institutionalize themselves into a professional body with recognized standards of academic and practice qualifications for membership

• The professional body has a Code of Ethics to govern the conduct of its members and disciplinary procedures in the event of breach of such Code

• When we speak of a Code of Ethics, we are not talking about law. In the Code of Ethics, our concern is with what is morally right or wrong

cont• Situations which require the Professional Engineer to consider the morality of his actions arise under circumstances in which they may exist conflict of interest between the individual professional and any or all of the entities with which he has to interact i.e. Community, Employer, Clients and/or Peers

• The professional owes a duty of care towards those he serves in ensuring that their interests are protected, and in this respect, there is a guideline which is what the Code of Ethics is all about

• The three Professional Seafaring bodies in Malaysia have complementary functions in the regulation of professional conduct

• All three bodies have their own Code of Ethics designed to suit their specific requirements according to the objectives for which each body is constituted

6.0 Applying global ethics in shipping organizations• Globalization refers to the increasing integration of nations

through trade, investment, transfer of technology, and exchange of ideas and culture

• Global interdependency affects seafaring and seafarer in many ways as in multinational corporations where moral challenges arises:

– Who loses jobs at home when manufacturing is taken offshore?– What does the host country lose in resources, control over its

own trade, and political independence? – What are the moral responsibilities of corporations and

individuals operating in less economically developed countries?

cont• Technology transfer is the process of moving technology to a novel setting and implementing it there

• Technology includes both hardware (machines and installations) and technique (technical, organizational, and managerial skills and procedures)

• A novel setting is any situation containing at least one new variable relevant to the success or failure of a given technology: example, the setting may be a foreign country

• Appropriate technology refers to identification, transfer, and implementation of the most suitable technology for a new set of conditions and it includes social factors

7.0 Technology and the work ethics

• Technology: Value-neutral or value-laden?

• Value-neutral: says that technology consists of artifacts or devices - machines, tools, structures perhaps together with knowledge about how to make and maintain devices

• Value-laden: says that technology consists of value guided organizations and general approaches, in addition to artifacts and knowledge

• Technological determinism is the view that the primary structures of human society are determined by technology, rather than human beings controlling technology

• Social constructionism is the view that emphasizes 2 way causal interactions between technology and society & highlights the importance of human perceptions & interpretations

cont

• An example: automobile

– It is a necessity but the effects include the depletion of world oil supplies, pollution and deaths (accidents)

– Another example: Tomato harvester- plucks and sorts tomatoes with a single pass. Cost of harvesting tomatoes was reduced. But jobs were lost, small growers forced out of business. Funding to develop new technology comes from the taxpayers

• Seafarer need to understand how their work affects public life

• As managers, entrepreneurs, consultants & government officials, seafarer provide many form of leadership that should include moral leadership in developing and implementing technology within their profession & communities

• Moral leadership is the success in moving a group toward morally desirable goals using morally desirable procedures.

abdsaman@fkm.utm.my