CODES OF CONDUCT

GROUP 2
Baile, Lawrence Matthew J.
Tined , Jet Lewis S.

ICE BREAKER.
Aside from Civil Engineering, what are your

other course choice?

What made you choose Civil Engineering above

the rest?

Did you know that..

Normally, the engineering programs takes 5 years to
complete. Some schools who apply the trimesteral
system do the program in 4 years.

A combination of classroom instruction and on the

job trainings make up the duration. The estimated total
number of hours for on the job trainings is 480 hours.

Review classes in preparation for the Civil

Engineering Licensure Examination can take an
additional 6 to 12 months, depending whether or not
you pass the exam on your first try.

Several career opportunities for Civil

Engineering graduates such as:

Structural Engineer
Project Engineer
City Planner
Traffic Engineer
Surveyors, drafters and technicians

According to surveys, engineering is one of

the highest paying jobs and one of the in
demand professions in the Philippines in the
year 2015.

CODES OF CONDUCT

A code in which organizations (like companies or

professional associations) lay down guideline for responsible
behavior of their members.

These codes are formulated for a variety of reasons, such

as: increasing moral awareness, the identification and
interpretation of the moral norms and values of a profession or
a company, the stimulation of ethical discussion, as a way to
increase accountability to the outside world and to improve the
image of a profession or company.

Types of Codes of Conduct for Engineers

Professional code formulated by a

professional association.
Corporate Code formulated by a company.

Distinction of Codes Of Conduct

Aspirational code has the objective to express

moral values of a profession or company.

Advisory code has the objective to help

individual professionals or employees to exercise

moral judgments in concrete situations.
Disciplinary code has the objective to achieve

that the behavior of all professionals or employees

meets certain values and norms.

PROFESSIONAL CODE
Formulated for a variety of professions like doctors, nurses,
lawyers, priests, the police, and corporate managers. Also
engineers have professional codes of conduct.

Historically, the development of professional codes for

engineers began in England in 1771 with the code of the
Smeatonian Society.

Professional codes for engineers provide content to the

responsibility of engineers. They express the moral norms and
values of the profession. Most modern professional codes relate
to three domains: 1) conducting a profession with integrity and
honesty, and in a competent way; 2) obligations towards
employers and clients; and 3) responsibility towards the public
and society.

All professional codes include the obligation to practice

ones profession with integrity and honesty, and in a
competent way. This is the traditional core of all professional
codes. This implies that the practitioner must be well
enough educated, must keep up to date in his field and
must take only work in his field of competence.

Integrity and competentprofessional practice

If a conflict of interest is unavoidable it should at least be disclosed to the interest parties.

Engineers shall perform services only in the areas of their competence. (NSPE Code of conduct)

Engineers shall issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner. (NSPE Code of conduct)

Engineers shall not be influenced in their professional duties by conflicting interests. (NSPE Code of conduct)

Engineers shall maintain their relevant competences at the necessary level and only undertake tasks for

which they are competent. (FEANI)

Obligations towards clients and employers

Obligations towards clients and employers are mentioned in most
professional codes. In many cases, it is stipulated that engineers should
serve the interests of their clients and employers and that they must keep
secret the confidential information passed on by clients or employers.

Engineers shall act for each employer or client as faithful agents or

trustees. (NSPE Code of conduct)

Engineers shall not disclose, without consent, confidential information

concerning the business affairs or technical processes of any present or

former client or employer, or public body on which they serve. (NSPE Code
of conduct)

Engineers shall provide impartial analysis and judgement to employer or

clients, avoid conflicts of interest, and observe proper duties of

confidentiality. (FEANI)

Social
responsibility and obligations towards the public
Virtually all professional codes in one way or another emphasize the social
responsibility of engineers. Matters frequently referred to are: safety; health; the
environment; sustainable development; and the welfare of the public. According to a
limited number of professional codes engineers must inform the public about the
aspects of the technology in which they are involved and that are relevant to the
public, such as the risks and hazards involved.

Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public. (NSPE

Code of conduct)

Engineers shall at all times strive to serve the public interest. (NSPE Code of conduct)

Engineers are encouraged to adhere to the principles of sustainable development in

order to protect the environment for future generations. (NSPE Code of conduct)

Engineers shall carry out their tasks so as to prevent avoidable danger to health and

safety, and prevent avoidable adverse impact on the environment. (FEANI)

NSPE - National Society of Professional

Engineers

FEANI - European Federation of National

Engineering Associations

CORPORATE CODE

Voluntarily commitments made by individual companies

or associations of companies setting certain values,
standards, and principles for the conduct of corporations.
Corporate codes are usually more recent than professional
codes. They have been formulated since the 1960s and
1970s, particularly in reaction to corporate scandals. The
main elements of the various kinds of corporate codes: the
mission, the core values, the responsibilities towards
stakeholders and detailed rules and norms.

Mission statement
Many corporate codes contain a mission
statement that concisely formulates the
strategic objectives of the company and
answers
the
question
what
the
organization stands for.

At Microsoft, we work to help people and

businesses throughout the world realize their full
potential. This is our mission. Everything we do
reflects this mission and the values that make it
possible. (Microsoft mission statement)

Core values

Core values express the qualities that a

company considers desirable and which ground
business conduct and outcomes. Often mentioned
values include teamwork, responsibility, open
communication and creativity. Also values like
customer
orientation,
flexibility,
efficiency,
professionalism,
and
loyalty
are
regularly
mentioned.

Responsibility to stakeholders

Most
corporate
codes
also
express
responsibilities to a variety of stakeholders like
consumers, employees, investors, society, and the
environment. Competitors and suppliers are also
sometimes mentioned as stakeholders.

Possibilities and Limitations of

Codes of Conduct

Codes of conduct help to express the

responsibilities of engineers. They are,
therefore, a useful point of departure for
discussions about these responsibilities.

Norms and rules

Norms and rules contain guidelines for

employees how to act in specific situations. This
may include subjects like the acceptance of gifts,
fraud, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, theft,
corruption, bribery, discrimination, respect, and
sexual harassment.

Codes of conduct and self-interest

Codes of conduct are a form of self-regulation.

Sometimes, they are primarily formulated for reasons of
self-interest, for example to improve ones image to the
outside world, to avoid government regulation or to
silence dissident voices.

A code of conduct serving only the interests of a

company or profession may amount to window
dressing. We speak of window-dressing if a favorable
impression is presented of what the company is doing
but that impression does not represent how the
company and its employees actually behave.

Vagueness and potential contradictions

In the application of codes of conduct to
concrete situations, one is frequently
confronted with rather vague concepts and
rules that need interpretation. Depending on
the exact interpretation of such concepts and
rules, codes of conduct sometimes result in
contradictory recommendations about what to
do in a specific situation.

Rules of confidentiality and disclosure of

information contained in three different codes of
conduct.
NSPE (National Society of Professional Engineers)

Engineers shall not reveal facts, data, or information without the prior consent
of the client or employer except as authorized or required by law or this Code.

Engineers having knowledge of any alleged violation of this Code shall report
thereon to appropriate professional bodies and, when relevant, also to public
authorities, and cooperate with the proper authorities in furnishing such
information or assistance as may be required.

FEANI (European Federation of National Engineering Associations):

Engineers shall observe proper duties of confidentiality.

Engineers shall be prepared to contribute to public debate on matters of
technical understanding in fields in which they are competent to comment.


IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronic

Engineers):
We, the members of the IEEE, agree to
accept responsibility when making engineering
decisions consistent with the safety, health and
welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly
factors that might endanger the public or the
environment.

Can ethics be codified?

Some authors have argued that the idea of

drafting a code of conduct is misperceived
because ethics cannot be codified. In a sense, this
objection is the mirror of the previous one.
Whereas people who criticize the vagueness and
potential contradictions in codes of conduct are
worried that such codes do not uniformly
prescribe certain behavior, people who argue that
ethics cannot be codified are often worried that
codes of conduct contain strict prescriptions which
conflict with what ethics is about according to
them.

Can codes of conduct be lived by?

Codes of conduct sometimes contain provisions that are

very difficult or impossible to follow in practice. Professional
codes can, for example, justify or require actions that go
against the interest of the employer. More generally,
professional codes sometimes require that engineers inform
the public timely and completely if the safety, health, or
welfare of the public is put at stake in a technological
project. This duty to inform the public can conflict with the
confidentiality duty that engineers also have according to
the law in many countries. If engineers in such situations
release information outside the company in which they are
working, they are blowing the whistle

Enforcement
Enforcement is only an objective in the case of disciplinary codes.
Active enforcement of codes of conduct seems to be an exception,
especially for professional codes.

For Professional codes,

One obvious reason why professional codes are often not

enforced is that they are often advisory and that enforcement

is not an objective of advisory codes. An underlying reason for
the lack of enforcement, and for the choice to formulate
advisory rather than disciplinary codes, is that professional
codes do not have a legal status. Moreover, the possibilities
for professional associations to enforce professional codes are
limited. Enforcement requires sanctions and the most severe
sanction that professional societies can exercise with respect
to their members is usually loss of membership.

For Corporate codes,

Corporate codes

also usually lack a legal status.

Nevertheless, enforcement or at least monitoring of the code is
more common than in the case of professional codes. Of the
world largest companies that have a code, 52 percent report
monitoring of compliance with the code (Kaptein, 2004).
Generally speaking, corporate codes offer more possibilities for
enforcement than professional codes. The reason for this is that
companies usually influence the daily practice of individual
engineers to a much larger extent than do professional
associations. Companies have more possibilities to stimulate or
discourage the behavior of individual engineers than
professional associations. Ultimately, they can dismiss
engineers if in breach of the code of conduct; a sanction that is
much more severe than loss of professional membership.

THANK YOU

REFERENCES:

Ethics, Technology, and Engineering: An

Introduction by Ibo Van de Poel and

Lamber Royakkers