1.
Inspiration and Guidance:
v
Codes provide positive stimulus for
ethical conduct and helpful guidance by using positive language.
v
Codes should be brief to be
effective and hence such codes offer only general guidance.
v
Supplementary statements or
guidelines to give specific directions are added by a number of societies or
professional bodies.
2.
Support:
v
Codes give positive support to
those seeking to act ethically.
v
An engineer under pressure to act
unethically can use one of the publicly proclaimed codes to get support for his
stand on specific moral issues.
v
Codes also serve as legal support
for engineers.
3. Deterrence
and discipline:
v
Codes can be used as a basis for
conducting investigations on unethical conduct.
v
They also provide a deterrent for
engineers to act immorally.
v
Engineers who are punished by
professional societies for proven unethical behaviour by revoking the rights to
practice as engineers are also subjected to public ridicule and loss of respect
from colleagues and local community.
v
This helps to produce ethical
conduct even though this can be viewed as a negative way of motivation.
4. Education
and mutual understanding:
The codes can be used
for discussion and reflection on moral issues and thereby improve the
understanding of moral responsibilities among all engineers, clients, public
and good organizations.
5.
Contributing to the profession’s public image:
Codes present the
engineering profession as an ethically committed society in the eyes of the
public thus enhancing their image.
6.
Protecting status quo:
Codes establish ethical
conventions, which can help promote an agreed upon minimum level of ethical
conduct.
7.
Promoting business interests:
Codes
can place unwarranted restraints of commerce on business dealings.
Relative
importance of the various functions of codes of ethics
v
The perspective of engg as social
experimentation clearly emphasizes the primary role „supportive function of the
codes of ethics. This is so because, only this support enables engineers, speak
out clearly and openly their views, to those affected by engg projects.
v
The, „inspiration and guidance and
„educative‟
functions are also important in promoting mutual understanding and in
motivating engineers to act with higher moral standards.
v
The „disciplinary function in engg
codes is of secondary importance. Those with unethical conduct when exposed are
subject to law. Developing elaborate paralegal procedures within professional
societies duplicates a function which can be done better by legal system. At
best, codes should try to discipline engineers in areas which are not covered
by law.
v
The worst abuse of codes has been
to restrict honest moral effort in the name of preserving professions public
mage and protecting status quo. The best way to increase trust is by
encouraging and aiding engineers to speak freely and responsibly about public
safety.
Limitations
of Codes of Ethics
1. Codes
are restricted to general and vague wording. They cannot be straightaway
applied to all situations. It is impossible to foresee the full range of moral
problems that can arise in a complex profession like engg.
2. It
is easy for different clauses of codes to come into conflict with each other.
Usually codes provide no guidance as to which clause should have priority in
those cases, creating moral dilemmas.
3. They
cannot serve as the final moral authority for professional conduct. If the code
of a professional society is taken as the last word, it means that we are
getting into a
particular
set of conventions i.e. ethical conventionalism.
4. Andrew Oldenquist and Edward Slowter
pointed out how the existence of separate codes for different professional
societies can give members the feeling that ethical conduct is more relative
than it is and that it can convey to the public the view that none is really
righ. The current codes are by no means perfect but are definitely steps in the
right direction.
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