Ethics Notes
Ethics Notes
Ethics Notes
OBJECTIVES:
To enable the students to create an awareness on Engineering Ethics and Human Values, to
instill Moral and Social Values and Loyalty and to appreciate the rights of others.
OUTCOMES:
Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to apply ethics in society, discuss the
ethical issues related to engineering and realize the responsibilities and rights in the society.
TEXTBOOKS:
1. Mike W. Martin and Roland Schinzinger, “Ethics in Engineering”, Tata Mc Graw Hill, New
Delhi, 2003.
2.Govindarajan M, Natarajan S, Senthil Kumar V. S, “Engineering Ethics”, Prentice Hall of India,
New Delhi, 2004.
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REFERENCES:
1. Charles B. Fleddermann, “Engineering Ethics”, Pearson Prentice Hall,
New Jersey, 2004.
2. Charles E. Harris, Michael S. Pritchard and Michael J. Rabins, “Engineering Ethics –Concepts
and Cases”, Cengage Learning, 2009.
3. John R Boatright, “Ethics and the Conduct of Business”, Pearson Education, New Delhi, 2003.
4. Edmund G Seebauer and Robert L Barry, “Fundamentals of Ethics for Scientists and
Engineers”, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001.
5. Laura P. Hartman and Joe Desjardins, “Business Ethics: Decision Making for Personal Integrity
and Social Responsibility” Mc Graw Hill education, India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi 2013.
6. World Community Service Centre, “Value Education”, Vethathiri publications, Erode, 2011.
Web sources:
1. www.onlineethics.org
2. www.nspe.org
3. www.globalethics.org
4. www.ethics.org
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LESSON PLAN
Teac
Sl. T/R
Unit Topic(s) hing Page(s) Hours
No. Book
Aids
1 INTRODUCTION
3
HUMAN VALUES
2 Morals Values and ethics T1 BB 0.4,0.9 2
I
Integrity
Work ethic
0.11,0.13,0
3 Service learning T1 BB 1
I .15
Civic virtue,
Respect of others, 0.17,0.18,0
4 T1 BB 2
I Living peacefully, caring, Sharing .19,0.20
0.21,0.22,0
5 Honesty, courage, Valuing Time T1 BB 1
I .24
6 I Co- operation, Commitment, T1 BB 0.26,0.27 1
7 I Empathy, Self-confidence T1 PPT 0.28,0.29 1
Character, Spirituality Introduction to
8 I yoga and meditation for professional T1 BB 0.30,0.32 2
excellence and stress management
ENGINEERING ETHICS
9 II Senses of engineering ethics, variety T1 BB 1.5,1.7 2
of moral issues
10 II Types of inquiry T1 BB 1.9 1
11 II Moral dilemma, Moral autonomy T1 BB 1.11,1.13 1
12 II Kohlberg’s theory T1 PPT 1.17 2
13 II Gilligan’s theory T1 BB 1.18 2
Consensus and controversy,
14 II T1 BB 1.19 2
Models of professional roles
II
15 Theories about right action T1 BB 2.2 1
II
16 Self interest, customs and religion T1 BB 2.3 1
17 II Use of ethical theories T1 BB 2.13 1
ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL
18 EXPERIMENTATION T1 BB 3.1 2
III
Engineering as experimentation
4
26 CIV Conflicts of interest, T1 BB 5.14 1
27 Oc
IV c Occupational crime, professional rights T1 BB 5.18 2
29 IV Discrimination T1 BB 6.11 1
Global issues
30 V Multinational corporation T1 BB 7.1 2
Total 53
Revision 7
Total hours 60
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UNIT- I
HUMAN VALUES
Morals,
values and Ethics
Integrity
Work ethic
Service learning
Civic virtue
Respect for others
Living peacefully
Caring
Sharing
Honesty
Courage
Valuing time
Cooperation
Commitment
Empathy
Self confidence
Character
Spirituality
Introduction to Yoga and meditation for professional excellence and stress management.
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TWO MARKS QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
7. Define Empathy.(APR-2018)
Empathy means putting self in a position of someone else and thinking as the later and
reasoning suitable action.
Spirituality raises a man above the materialistic world into a realm where he seeks
peace and real happiness. Spirituality is a broad term threat refers to the way of living. It
emphasizes a constant awareness of the spiritual dimension of nature.
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9. Define Integrity. (NOV-2018)
Integrity is the bridge between responsibility in private and professional life.
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(iii) Values transcend specific objects, situations or persons.
(iv) Values are relatively permanent and resistant to change.
19. What are the two important ways of building courage? (NOV-2017)
The two important ways of building courage are given below:
1. Raise your consciousness.
2. Move from fear to action, even if you expect to fail.
20. Define the term self confidence. How is it related to character development? (NOV-
2018)(May -2016)
Self-confidence is positive attitude, wherein the individual has some positive and realistic
view of himself, with respect to the situations in which one gets involved. The people with self-
confidence exhibit courage to get into action and unshakable faith in their abilities, whatever may
be their positions. They are not influenced by threats or challenges and are prepared to face them
and the natural or unexpected consequences.
The people with self-confidence have the following characteristics:
1. A self-assured standing,
2. Willing to listen to learn from others and adopt (flexibility),
3. Frank to speak the truth, and
4. Respect others’ efforts and give due credit.
21.Define Professionalism.
The word ‘Professional’ gets different meanings based on the context. In general
‘Professional’ relates to any work that a person does for an occupation, especially work which
requires a special skill or training.
‘Profession’ means a type of job that requires special training and that brings a fairly high
status, for example - work connected with medicine, law and education.
Whatever may be one’s profession one should show one’s professionalism, i.e., qualities that
are typical or expected of a person in that profession.
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PART-B & C QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
HONESTY:
Lying: Honesty as it means, is to avoid lying also. Lying may be of any type, for e.g., an engineer
by mistake communicates some test results on a sample testing. Actually lying means a person
happened to be intentionally with less knowledge, communicating false or misguided information.
But of course, even in such cases complications may arise. To be honest, a person should not give
information that he believes to be false even though it is actually true. Even gestures and nodding
and some other indirect statements may also give false statement or meaning during conversation,
even though the person has not said any lie.
Deliberate Deception: Sometimes the engineers may discuss some matters on technical aspects in
such a way implying knowledge, which he does not have to impress an employer or a customer. In
that case, he is definitely engaging in deliberate deception though he is not lying.
Withholding the Information: Sometimes some of us hide certain information in conversation.
Though it is not a matter of lying, it is another type of deceptive 10ractice. Suppose an engineer
during the proposals to his executive, fails to point out some of the negative aspects of the project,
he gets engaged in serious deception, even though he is not lying. So dishonesty may be
considered as a form of omission if one fails to pass on the information that his superior or his
subordinates would reasonably expect; and such information should not be omitted.
Adequate Promotion of Dissemination of Information: Sometimes engineers are engaged
in planning for protection of the public health and safety. In such cases the obligation of the
engineer is to see the maximum possible effect to disseminate the information regarding safety and
health of the public. For e.g., in situations like earthquake, tsunami, fire hazard, infectious
diseases. Affected people in such areas must receive the information well in advance to avoid a
disaster. Failing to develop the dissemination of such information is also a false and dishonest.
Seeking of the Truth: The most honest engineer is the one who is committed in searching and
locating the truth not merely to avoid dishonesty. It would not be fair to assume ourselves that
lying is a serious mistake than deliberate dissemination, withholding information, not adequately
promoting the dissemination information or failing in search of truth.
Maintaining Confidentiality: Maintaining the confidentiality in information and not to reveal
any such points to anybody also one of the main characters of honesty. Engineers should not get
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tempted to disclose or discuss some confidential information without the knowledge or consent of
the client. Mostly such confidential information may be either,
Informing to the engineer by client
Finding out by the engineer during the process of the work carried out by the client
Permitting any Judgment Leading to Corruption: Professional judgment is an important
part of any kind of professional services. Sometimes these judgments may be corrupted or unduly
influenced by certain conflicts of interest or some extraneous factors. This attitude is also another
type of misuse of truth. Sometimes engineers in the design process may submit specification of
minute equipment. Though the equipment is of good quality some later developments and
innovations related to that equipment might actually be better. But when the engineer makes use of
an idea of a company proposed by any particular person who is known for so many years by the
company, the engineer may be correct and honest in certifying the company but he is not giving
his employer the benefit of the latest innovations. So he is giving unbiased professional judgment.
This may also be treated as a form of dishonesty.
Honesty mainly refers to two aspects, namely,
1. Truthfulness and
2. Trustworthiness
Each one depend on the other or in the other words, truthfulness is most essential to be in worthy.
Honesty normally includes the acts like not liking, not stealing, not involving in bribes and
kickbacks. In other words, it refers to paying respect to the other’s property
1. Honesty in Beliefs: It refers to intellectual honesty. This means forming of one’s beliefs
without self-deception.
2. Honesty in Speech: It refers to the act not deceiving or not intentionally misleading
others. For e.g., acts like pretending, manipulating somebody’s attention, intentionally
lying, misleading and withholding some pertinent information which someone or a client
has to know.
3. Honesty in Act: Honesty in act means the individual should not steal, or manipulate
accounts, or get bribes and kickbacks.
Thus, honesty is a very basic virtue for those people who engage themselves in the relationships
with other employers and clients.
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HONESTY ON CAMPUS
Similarly honesty on campus is also a major point to train the students on the study of
ethics. They must be very careful in making use of the literature survey, which they have made for
thesis presentation or fabrications of products or models.
New ideas and reports are heard that there has been substantial increase in the most serious
types of cheating, during examination. There are some higher levels of cheating on publication
work in natural science, social science, etc.
The experience of the students in engineering colleges is basically a training period for
their professional career. So part of this training programme should be in the area of professional
honesty and ethics.
Acts with dishonesty in the campus by a student can be practiced in his professional life
later. Some of the dishonesty attitudes expected of the students are trimming data, forgery,
plagiarism and multiple authorship in publications could rise, particularly disturbing issues, with
regard to honesty in scientific and technological work.
Multiple authorship of papers can frequently raise specifically a vexing issues with respect
to honesty especially in scientific and technological research and testing.
It is a major fraud to claim the significant credit for any research done, when a contribution
related is really insignificant and minor.
The fraud submission claimed for authorship or even such thought of fraud presentation to
claim the authorship give an unfair advantage in the competition in which they seek for job or
promotion or seeks some recognition in the scientific community.
INTEGRITY
Integrity is one of the core qualities that the professional practitioners should possess.
It refers to honesty and open mindedness either with one selves or others. Mostly this involves the
discovery of truth and its communication.
Very specifically integrity refers to the capacity to communicate the truth in proper manner
so that it enables the client and others to make informed-decisions. Honesty as well as integrity are
very important for the development of trust.
Integrity plays its important role in different situations and context, to lead to the
consistency of character and operation. A good test of this is not just constant operation in different
contexts but also how the individual operates where there is nobody around, testing the consistency
and truth against personal attributes.
This is one of the self-direction virtues on commitment and on putting understanding into
action. Moral integrity refers to the unity, which is a consistency among our attitudes, emotions
and conduct in relation to justified moral values. Thus integrity is a bridge between responsibility
in private and public life.
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The virtues of self-respect and pride in the job can be made possible only with the help of
the integrity. Prevents the attitude among the individuals that they are not responsible for their
wrong doings in the job.
It creates an enthusiasm among the individuals for achieving excellent performance in
their job and also makes them to see that the job is done well.
Maintaining integrity is somewhat difficult and complicated because a few jobs are
designed to have a perfect mesh between personal ideals and work activities of some one.
Maintaining integrity is possible only with the attitude of compromise. Compromises are
the possible ways to keep relationships, when differences arise.
Sometimes they may lead to a severe conflict between working life and personal life. So,
for maintaining integrity, an individual must have the ability to identify reasonable compromises
and he should also be willing to make reasonable compromises.
Integrity requires practicing engineers to accept cases only when they have sufficient
time for preparation.
They should refuse to accept the cases when they cannot justify with good conscience for
the sake of their client; they must consult with the people of expertise regarding the technique
and legal details of the cases. Moreover they must always be open to new information.
The integrity of the engineers also plays a vital part in cautioning them, not to misuse the
correct information when they fail to inform their employers, clients or the general public, with
relevant details. These kinds of information to general public are most important when they are
concerned with health and safety of the public.
Therefore the integrity of the engineers is most essential in the following works:
Engineering research and testing
In the use of intellectual property
Client professional confidentiality
Expert testimonials
Failure to inform the public.
2.Explain the role of Yoga in Professional Ethics.(APR -2019,APR 2017)
Yoga is an ancient discipline designed to bring balance and health to the physical, mental,
emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the individual, when adopted as a way of life, yoga
improves physical, mental, intellectual, and spiritual health.
Yoga offers an effective method of managing and reducing stress, anxiety, and
depression, and numerous studies demonstrate the efficacy of yoga on mood-related disorders.
Yoga is often depicted metaphorically as a tree and comprises eight aspects, or limbs:
1. Yama (Universal Ethics),
2. Niyama (Individual Ethics),
3. Asana (Physical Postures),
4. Pranayama (Breath Control),
5. Pratyahara (Control Of The Senses),
6. Dharana (Concentration),
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7. Dyana (Meditation),
8. Samadhi (Bliss).
Hans Selye first introduced the term stress into life science. The term stress is
derived from the Latin word Stringere, which means “to be drawn tight.”
Stress is a complex, dynamic process of interaction between a person and his or her life.
Stress can affect one’s health, work performance, social life, and the relationship with family
members.
Eminent behavioral scientist Stephen Robbins defines stress as that which arises
from an opportunity, demand, constraint, threat, or challenge, when the outcomes of the event are
important and uncertain.
Stress can also be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when
the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker.
Job stress can lead to poor health and even injury. Hence we can say that stress is a
silent killer, and prolonged exposure to stress may exert harmful effects on physical,
psychological, and behavioral well-being of an individual.
According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 80% of workers
experience job stress. Kulkarni, in an article “Burnout” published in Indian Journal of
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, has said that the rapid change of the modern working
life is associated with increasing demands of learning new skills, the need to adapt to new types of
work, pressure of higher productivity and quality of work, time pressure, and hectic jobs. These
factors are increasing stress among the workforce.
IMPACT OF STRESS
One of the studies quoted that stress-related disorders evolve gradually through four
recognizable stages.
1. In the first, psychological changes such as anxiety, irritability, and insomnia arise, due to over-
stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system.
2. In the second stage symptoms such as high blood pressure, elevated heart rate, and increased
intestinal motility surface.
3. In the third stage, a more profound physical or biochemical imbalance sets in,
4. In the final fourth stage, irreversible symptoms that often require surgical or long-term
management appear.
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EFFECT OF YOGA IN STRESS
A growing body of research evidence supports the belief that certain yoga techniques
may improve physical and mental health through down- regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-
adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS).
The HPA axis and SNS are triggered as a response to a physical or psychological demand
(stressor), leading to a cascade of physiologic, behavioral, and psychological effects, primarily as a
result of the release of cortical and catecholamine’s (epinephrine and nor epinephrine).
This response leads to the mobilization of energy needed to combat the stressor through the
classic fight-or-flight response.
Over time, the constant state of hyper vigilance resulting from repeated firing of the HPA
axis and SNS can lead to deregulation of the system, and ultimately diseases such as obesity,
diabetes, autoimmune disorders, depression, substance abuse, and cardiovascular disease. Studies
also show that yoga decreases levels of salivary cortical, blood glucose, as well as plasma rennin
levels, and 24-hour urine nor epinephrine and epinephrine
Yoga significantly decreases heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
Studies suggest that yoga reverses the negative impact of stress on the immune system by
increasing levels of immunoglobulin
A as well as natural killer cells Yoga has been found to decrease markers of
inflammation such as high sensitivity C-reactive protein as well as inflammatory cytokines such as
interleukin-6 and lymphocyte-1B.
These studies suggest that yoga has an immediate quieting effect on the SNS-HPA axis
response to stress.
While the precise mechanism of action has not been determined, it has been hypothesized
that some yoga exercises cause a shift toward parasympathetic nervous system dominance,
possibly via direct vagal stimulation.
Shapiro et al noted significant reductions in low-frequency heart rate variability (HRV)—a
sign of sympathetic nervous system
Regardless of the path physiologic pathway, yoga has been shown to have immediate
psychological effects: decreasing anxiety and increasing feelings of emotional, social, and spiritual
well-being.
Several literature reviews have been conducted that examined the impact of yoga on
specific health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cancer,
and anxiety.
Another study has shown improvement of mental health of both the young and seniors by
reducing stress through yoga. Yoga can be wisely applied in welfare programs to improve the
quality of life in all age groups.
Yogic science includes yogasanas (postures), pranayama (breathing practices), dhyana
(meditation), and relaxation techniques which benefit human beings at every level.
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3. What is service Learning?Discuss the role in caring and sharing in society.(NOV-2018)
The professionals whether they are Engineers, Officers, Technicians or Workers, they are
supposed to know the ethical behaviors to be followed among them.
Apart from this, to cope up with others they must also know fully about their service
procedure, norms and conditions.
The service learning is most essential to get along with others so that, not only the business
and productivity are carried over smoothly but also ethical behaviors are well maintained
among individuals.
The service learning procedures will naturally educate the persons to follow up in line with
other departments and also to maintain proper co-ordination.
Normally the service learning may include the characteristics of the work, the basic
requirements to be met, security of the job, cautious awareness in carrying out the orders and
implementing the procedural norms, more than the production itself.
So only the production or business procedures or tactics alone may not set the person in line
for smooth running of any business, the service learning is also most essential.
In other words any worker should know about the service conditions and basic requirements
for their particular designation.
CARING:
As a normal human being when a person is dealing or moving with neighbours, friends,
colleagues, even with their family members, they must have some interest about the welfare of the
other persons as mentioned above, at least to some extent.
These type of caring is essential in the work place also. Caring for others and having
interest in the solution of their grievances will definitely bring in a good environment for work.
This kind of adjustment among the workers or between the executives and subordinates in
the work place is also mandatory for the successful implementation of the workload assigned.
This kind of morality of care, leads to concentration on relationships, centering on feelings
and relationship for smooth coordination rather than impartiality and justice.
The person with justice orientation and caring in any dispute will be interested only on the
fair thing to do and then proceed to follow up the course of action without bothering about the
effect on others.
But the individual with care orientation will try to find out the best course of action that
preserves the interest of all those people involved.
Even actions taken by such care-orientated people will have least amount of damage to the
relationships among the individuals.
Sharing means sharing of feelings, ideas thoughts, resources and profits. Sharing is always
mutually beneficial. Sharing morally acceptable feelings, resources and materials is a value.
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4.What is Empathy? Discuss its role in the spiritual development for excellence in
organization with suitable examples.(APR2018,NOV 2018)
Empathy and trust are platforms for effective understanding and proper communication.
Empathy is essential to develop certain solutions, trials to win and retaining in business, and to
avoid conflicts. Empathy with trust is essential for dealing situations with complaints and retaining
the customers. These empathies with trust are much more important in achieving a successful
personal and business relationship.
For proper customer attention while handling complaints and defusing, the same empathy certainly
helps in
i. Clearly seeing and admitting one’s own limitations and failings
ii. Being not afraid to be vulnerable
SPIRITUALITY
1) Spirituality is a way of living that emphasizes the constant awareness and recognition of
the spiritual dimension (mind and its development) of nature and people, with a dynamic
balance between the material development and the spiritual development.
2) This is said to be the great virtue of Indian philosophy and for Indians. Sometimes,
spirituality includes the faith or belief in supernatural power/God, regarding the worldly
events. It functions as a fertilizer for the soil ‘character’ to blossom into values and morals.
3) Spirituality includes creativity, communication, and recognition of the individual as human
being (as opposed to a life-less machine), respect to others, acceptance (stop finding faults
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with colleagues and accept them the way they are), vision (looking beyond the obvious and
not believing anyone blindly),and partnership (not being too authoritative, and always
sharing responsibility with others, for better returns).
4) Spirituality is motivation as it encourages the colleagues to perform better. Remember, lack
of motivation leads to isolation. Spirituality is also energy: Be energetic and flexible to
adapt to challenging and changing situations. Spirituality is flexibility as well.
5) Creativity in spirituality means conscious efforts to see things differently, to break out of
habits and outdated beliefs to find new ways of thinking, doing and being. Suppression of
creativity leads to violence.
6) People are naturally creative. When they are forced to crush their creativity, its energy
turns to destructive release and actions. Creativity includes the use of color, humor and
freedom to enhance productivity. Creativity is fun. When people enjoy what they do, it is
involvement. They work much harder.
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8. Creative thinking and constant reasoning — Think if we can do something new and if we
can improve further?
9. Ability to analyze and synthesize — Refrain from doing something only traditional.
10. Positive views of adversity — Make adversities one’s source of power—a typical
Karma yogi’s outlook! Every threat is converted into opportunity.
11. Humility — The attitude to accept criticism (it requires courage!) and willing to
correct. It includes modesty and acknowledging the work of colleagues.
12. Sense of vocation — Treat the duty as a service to society, besides your organization.
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