Practitioner Involvement with Engineering Ethics and Professionalism

Abstract

Ethics depend, in general, on the personal or voluntary acceptance of established rules. In particular, professional engineering ethics has been defined as “service of the public interest with integrity and honor.” In this regard, data show that 100% of the respondents to a study involving practitioners indicated there was a need to include the topics of ethics and professionalism in the engineering curriculum. There also was a unanimous response that the local ASCE branches could assist in these efforts. Surprisingly, however, only 17% of the respondents indicated they would be willing to serve on an ethics and professionalism committee. Even though engineers have been found to be among the most ethical professionals, international engineers and students from other countries often remark that ethics and professionalism are not included in their undergraduate program of study. Trends appear to suggest that the membership of the profession is becoming increasingly international in nature. This may explain the concern of the various technical and professional engineering societies involving the inclusion of ethics and professionalism questions on the Professional Practice Examination.