Ethical Issues Experienced by Engineering Students and Practitioners

Abstract

According to some philosophers, ethics may be divided into four primary theories—rights ethics, duty ethics, utilitarianism, and virtue ethics. In addition, four secondary theories—ethical egoism, corporate egoism, ethical relativism, and divine‐command ethics—may also be considered. This paper reviews the foregoing ethical theories and presents guidelines that may be followed to promote ethics and professionalism in the workplace. In addition, it presents the results of a survey of engineering students concerning ethics and professionalism and compares the findings with a previous study involving engineering practitioners. The results show that students with minimum work experience tend to rate, the frequency and seriousness of ethical issues lower than students with work experience, members of the Consulting Engineers Council, and faculty. Among the exceptions—alcohol and drug abuse, and failure to protect the environment—are listed in the frequency category. Three issues—technical incompetence or misrepresentation of competence; failure to protect public health, safety, or welfare; and poor quality control or quality of work—are considered serious by students with experience, faculty, and practitioners.