Practitioner Involvement with Engineering Ethics and Professionalism
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 118, Issue 1
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.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
“Code of ethics.” (1990). ASCE official register 1991. ASCE, 62–65.
2.
“Correspondence course taking shape.” (1990). Texethics. Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism. Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, Tex., 1(1), 3.
3.
Dean's letter. (1990). Texas State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, Austin, Tex., Dec.
4.
“Engineers rank tops in ethics.” (1990). Engrg. Times. NSPE, 12(7), 1.
5.
Florman, S. C. (1987). The civilized engineer. St. Martin's Press, New York, N.Y.
6.
Koehn, E. (1991). “An ethics and professionalism seminar in the civil engineering curriculum.” J. Prof. Issues in Engrg. Education and Practice, ASCE, 117(2), 96–101.
7.
Koehn, E., and Bourque, J. (1990). “Professionalism, ethics, and image of civil engineers.” Proc., Education and Continuing Development for the Civil Engineer: Setting the Agenda for the 90s and Beyond, ASCE, 968–974.
8.
Laws and rules concerning the practice of engineering and professional engineering registration. (1985). Texas State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, Austin, Tex.
9.
“Making ethics test a must for registration.” (1991). Engrg. Times. NSPE, 13(2), 1–3.
10.
Miles, R. D. (1990). “Engineering ethics and professionalism course.” Proc., Education and Continuing Development for the Civil Engineer: Setting the Agenda for the 90s and Beyond, ASCE, 921–926.
11.
Professional development program. (1990). Texas State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, Austin, Tex.
12.
“Recommended ethics references.” (1990). Texethics. Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism. Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, Tex., 1(2), 6.
13.
Salvadori, M. G. (1977). “Engineering ethics and engineering education.” Proc., Ethics, Professionalism, and Maintaining Competence, ASCE, 1–5.
14.
Schaub, J. H., and Pavlovic, K. (1983). Engineering professionalism and ethics. John Wiley & Sons, New York, N.Y., 34–39.
15.
“Testing for professional ethics.” (1991). ASCE Policy Statement, No. 376, April.
16.
“What Texas industries are doing about ethics.” (1990). Texethics. Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism. Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, Tex., 1(2), 2–3.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 118 • Issue 1 • January 1992
Pages: 49 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 ASCE.
History
Published online: Jan 1, 1992
Published in print: Jan 1992
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.