ABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO.
CANDIDATE INFORMATION 2
COMPETENCY STANDARD REQUIREMENTS 3
KEYS TO ICONS 4
GENERAL GUIDELINES 6
CANDIDATE SUPPORT 7
SECTION 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CONCEPT OF ETHICS AND 10
ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR
1.1. What are Ethics?
1.2. Value Systems
1.3. A Brief History of Ethics
1.4. Ethics Definitions
1.5. Key Concepts
1.6. Ethics Alarms
1.7. Importance of Ethical Conduct in Business
1.8. Professional Ethics
1.9. Ethical Issues Facing Engineers
1.10. Code of Ethics
1.11. SAIMechE‟s Code of Conduct
APPENDICES 59
REFERENCES 70
RECORDING OF REPORTS 73
ASSESSMENT PROCESS 74
C ANDIDATE INFORMATION
Details Please Complete details
Name of candidate
Name of supervisor
Work Unit
Name of mentor
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Date started
Date of completion &
Assessment
C OMPETENCY STANDARD REQUIREMENTS
(Direct extract from SAIMechE‟s Standard of Professional Competency (SPC))
LEARNING OUTCOME 8
Conduct his or her engineering activities ethically.
Assessment Criteria:
The candidate is expected to be sensitive to ethical issues and adopt a systematic
approach to resolving these issues, typified by:
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1. Identify the central ethical problem;
2. Identify affected parties and their interests;
3. Search for possible solutions for the dilemma;
4. Evaluate each solution using the interests of those involved, accorded suitable
priority;
5. Select and justify solution that best resolves the dilemma.
Range Statement: Ethical behaviour is at least that defined by the Code of Conduct.
K EYS TO ICONS
The following icons are used throughout the study guide to indicate specific functions:
DON'T FORGET/NOTE
This icon indicates information of particular importance
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CANDIDATE GUIDE
This refers to the learning material in this module which is aligned to the
SAIMechE Competency Standard
EXERCISES
Practical activities to do, either individual or in syndicate groups during
the training process
BOOKS AND WEBSITES
Additional resource information for further reading and reference
SELF TEST QUESTIONS
Self-evaluation for candidates to test understanding of the learning
material
QUOTATIONS
Quotations which offer interesting points of view and statements of
wisdom and insight
YOUR NOTE PAD
Provided for candidate to document notes during presentation of
training
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G ENERAL GUIDELINES
PURPOSE
This module provides easy to follow steps to help you define, analyse, understand and
solve ethical problems.
This module is designed to equip you with the basic skills required to:
1. Know the definitions and major concepts in ethics
2. Understand the ethical approach to decision making,
3. Follow the assessment criteria steps when making a decision
4. Understand the SAIMechE Code of Conduct
5. Explain the concept of personal ethics and their relationship to business and
engineering ethics
6. Describe the role of a code of conduct in a work environment, when following ethical
principles
7. Uphold the code of conduct within the work team
8. Identify and solve ethical problems in upholding the code of conduct
9. Communicate effectively, when explaining and describing the concept of ethics and the
application of a code of conduct.
LEARNING OUTCOME AND RANGE OF LEARNING
This programme uses the basic structure of SAIMechE‟s Competency Standard and
specifically the assessment criteria to take you through the process of learning, as an
understanding of the assessment criteria and the range of understanding required is
fundamental to professional competence.
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C
ANDIDATE SUPPORT
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LEARNING OUTCOMES:
• Describe and define what is meant by the word
“ethically”
• Explain the role of general ethical code s in good
business practice
• Be fully conversant with The Code of Conduct
1. ETHICAL ISSUES
1.1. What are Ethics?
Ethics is relevant to you in your everyday life as at some point in your professional or
personal life you will have to deal with an ethical question or problem, e.g. what is your
level of responsibility towards protecting another person from threat, or whether or not you
should tell the truth in a particular situation?
EXAMPLES OF POOR ETHICS:
• Your fair share is whatever you can get away with
• Nobody expects you to be honest when they're not looking
• It's not stealing unless they catch you
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AN AFRICAN FABLE
Truth, Falsehood, Water, and Fire were traveling together and came
upon four heads of cattle. They decided to split the cattle evenly and
each take an equal share. But Falsehood was greedy and told Water
that Fire was going to burn his land and steal his cattle.
Water believed him and jumped on Fire and put him out. Falsehood
tricked Truth into believing that Water was going to steal their cattle
so they took them to the top of a hill for Water cannot run uphill.
Falsehood laughed that he had tricked everyone and Truth, realizing
Falsehood had lied, began to fight him for the cattle. They called
Wind to determine whom the cattle belonged to, but Wind did not
know. According to this fable, what are Falsehood and Truth still
doing?
According to this fable told in Ethiopia and other eastern African
nations, Truth and Falsehood are still in a battle with one another.
Let's hope truth wins.
1.2. Value Systems
Values are the unarticulated beliefs that form the foundation for ethical behavior, i.e.
practices that are viewed by our society as correct behavior. As an Engineer, you should
acknowledge the fundamental importance of the following values both for yourself and
your profession:
1. Quality of life - people being satisfied with their whole life experience;
2. Health, human potential, empowerment, growth and excellence - people being
healthy, aware of the fullness of their potential, recognizing their power to bring that
potential into being, growing into it, living it, and, generally, doing the best they can
with it, individually and collectively;
3. Freedom and responsibility - people being free and responsible in choosing how
they will live their lives;
4. Justice - people living lives whose results are fair and right for everyone;
5. Dignity, integrity, worth and fundamental rights of individuals, organizations,
communities, societies, and other human systems;
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6. All-win attitudes and cooperation - people caring about one another and about
working together to achieve results that work for everyone, individually and collectively;
7. Authenticity and openness in relationships;
8. Effectiveness, efficiency and alignment - people achieving the maximum of desired
results, at minimum cost, in ways that coordinate their individual energies and
purposes with those of the system-as-a-whole, the subsystems of which they are parts,
and the larger system of which their system is a part;
9. Holistic, systemic view and affected parties orientation - understanding human
behaviour from the perspective of whole system(s) that influence and are influenced
by that behaviour; recognizing the interests that different people have in the system's
results and valuing those interests fairly and justly;
10. Wide participation in system affairs, confrontation of issues leading to effective
problem solving, and democratic decision making.
1.3. A Brief History of Ethics
1.3.1. Natural Behaviour
Even when observing the animal kingdom, there are clear signs of rules of behaviour.
The young monkey does not mess with the “big daddy” and when lions are feeding off a
freshly killed carcass the hyenas keep a good distance. All of this behaviour appears to
be instinctual or intuitive but it serves the very clear purpose of maintaining order within
the animal kingdom.
1.3.2. Human Behaviour
Human ethical behaviour has been observed from the earliest recorded data and
anthropological and archeological studies have indicated that all primitive tribes have very
definite rules of behaviour. Christopher Boehm (1982) has hypothesized that the
incremental development of moral complexity throughout hominid evolution was due to the
increasing need to avoid disputes and injuries in moving to open savannah and developing
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stone weapons. Human morality, though sophisticated and complex relative to other
animals, is essentially a natural phenomenon that evolved to restrict excessive
individualism and foster human co-operation. Group morality develops from shared
concepts and beliefs and is often codified to regulate behaviour within a culture or
community.
1.3.3. Mythology
Perhaps the existence of mythology arose out of the need to regulate society and this was
much easier to do when the stories were fascinating and the members of the community
could identify with the mythological characters. Out of these myths grew rules of behaviour
and conduct which contributed towards controlled and ordered living.
1.3.4. Codes of Conduct
Moral code examples throughout history are: the „Golden Rule‟, the „Five Precepts‟ and
the „Noble Eightfold Path‟ of Buddhism, the Egyptian code of Ma‟at, and the „Ten
Commandments‟ of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Among the earliest written codes is the „Code of Hamaurabi‟, the sixth King of Babylon
who lived between 1810 BCE and 1750 BCE. This code was of a more secular nature and
was written up on stone pillars for all the subjects of his kingdom to see and live by. There
were very clear, if somewhat brutal, sanctions for anyone who transgressed them but this
led to the orderly functioning of that ancient society.
1.3.5. From Ancient Greece to the Modern Era
Ancient Greece was the birthplace of Western philosophical ethics, moral precepts from
the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. Names like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle have become
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household names. Greece had moved from being a warring group of tribes to a community
of people living in city states where individuals spent time thinking about such things as
happiness, the „good life‟ and the value of being organised.
Ethical principles and practices have become the cement that binds a society together in
such a way that individual citizens may pursue their desires and reach for their goals.
Grayling (2005) states that: „manners are central to true morality; they are the lubricant of
social relations, the sweetener of personal interaction, and the softener of conflict. Without
them society itself would be impossible and out of control. The answers to questions about
how a complex, pluralistic community should cope with the stresses of internal difference
and competition have to put civility at their heart, because nothing else
- certainly not the blunt instrument of the law - can do nearly as well‟.
1.3.6. The Need for Ethics and Codes of Conduct
“On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too
good, and not quite all the time”
George Orwell
Therefore, from the early stirrings of functionality in primitive society, through the early
codes of city life and academic philosophizing we arrived at a place where society needs
rules of conduct which, when expressed as simple plain good manners, can provide a
framework for the „good life‟ which is of benefit to both individuals and society.
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A 2005 global study of over 1100 managers and executives
identified the top three factors most likely to cause business
people to compromise ethical standards:
• Pressure to meet unrealistic objectives/deadlines
• Desire to further one’s career
• Desire to protect one’s livelihood
John Eckmire in the essay Ethics Dilemma
1.4. Ethics Definitions
It is useful to have a clear understanding of what is meant by the word ethics.
Definition of Ethics:
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines ethics
as:
“Relating to morals, treating of moral questions;
morally correct, honourable”.
This begs the question: “What is the definition of MORALS?”
Definition of Morals:
“Concerned with goodness or badness of character or disposition, or with the distinction
between right and wrong; dealing with regulations of conduct”.
Definition of Ethics from the Dictionary of Psychology:
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“A branch of philosophy concerned with that which is deemed acceptable in human
behaviour, with what is good or bad, right or wrong in human conduct in pursuit of goals
and aims.”
Ethics explores the nature of rights, of moral responsibilities, and of how to go about
addressing an ethical problem.
Engineering ethics is the field of applied ethics which examines and sets standards for
engineers' obligations to the public, their clients, employers and the profession and is
appropriate in all aspects of professional practice.
"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got."
Janis Joplin
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