Engineers in Society: An Ethical Approach

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Engineering is considered as one unique field in the society. Be it locally or globally, there would always be growing demand to solve problems. But engineering is just not a career to help resolve issues of daily lives; it has become a key path to development in many aspects. With such complex diversity, engineers nowadays need more than just a handbook to contribute to the society. In Malaysia alone, there are more unregistered engineering undergraduates than registered Professional Engineer (PE) that work in government & private sectors. This raises a question: Does that mean majority of unregistered engineers do not have to abide by the code of professional conduct regulated by Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) & Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) ? Technically speaking, only members of the group are bound to follow & adhere to the code of conduct. However the notion of occupational ethics should not be forgotten as well. Ethics is defined as compilation of moral values & principles that is meant to guide code of conduct of individuals & organizations. Taking case of the assignment, as an experienced, knowledgeable engineer, the sense of responsibility to clients,individuals & society should already be deep instilled into their mindset. By using the title of Ingineur, engineers should imply that they possess a shared understanding of proper conduct guidelines among their profession. Together with this notion, the act of adhering to code of professional conduct is to be sustained; not bound against wealth, reputation,power or working experience.

Back to the question, when an experienced,reputable engineer is offered means of campaigning his image to gain benefits in exchange, what should he do? By all means, to answer this ...

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....” Even though securing the profitability of the firm is important, but moral ethic prevails. The act of campaigning for third party, in certain point of view is considered as putting focus on wrong side. The engineer’s quality of his service will be doubted, as well as diminishing the credibility of his firm.

In all, all speculations being made by the engineer’s decision of campaigning for the political leader can only be realized upon the winning of the by-election. A promise will remain as a commitment yet to be achieved. But from here we could conclude that the engineer will cost more than he could earn for the firm, if he promised the political leader. And most importantly, code of ethics in engineer profession does its job well in ensuring interests of all parties are protected. This is what an engineer should always consider as long as he serves the society.

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