 A concept or study of morality within a context

established by
◦ cultural values,
◦ professional values,
◦ social norms, and
◦ accepted standards of behavior
 Morals
◦ Beliefs based on what someone’s conscience suggests is
right or wrong, rather than on what is legal or illegal.
 Ethics
◦ The study of good and bad, of moral duty, and moral
obligation
 Ethical Standards
◦ Principles of conduct, how people ought to behave in a
certain situation
Construction is an inherently dangerous occupation.
 A big project should expect some loss of life and
injuries.
 Small projects sometimes just have really bad luck
and people get hurt.
 Spending money to prevent random occurrences is a
waste of time and money.

What is the moral stand you will take?

 Loyalty
 We will be called upon to be loyal to friends, family, organization,
profession, et. al., and being loyal to one may mean being disloyal to
another. These loyalties may be mutually exclusive.
 Honesty
 Honesty is telling the truth as you see it but it’s really much more. It
does involve not lying but also giving a true and complete
representation of one’s self, our actions and our views.
 Responsibility
 Responsibility requires taking ownership of the consequences of our
actions and ensuring no harm comes to someone because of those
consequences.
Source: https://web.stevens.edu/asee/fileadmin/asee/pdf/Scalza_-_final.pdf
All licensed professionals from engineers to architects to doctors and lawyers are
licensed by the state they work in and that state along with that profession have a set of
ethics standards. Most professions are, at least at first, self patrolling. When a
profession does not do this, the state steps in and this is usually where unethical has
become illegal.
Some of the areas that are affected by unethical behaviour of a licensed professional
are as follows:
 Quality of the work - A licensed professional, either engineer or architect are often
called upon to decide whether the quality of the work meets or exceeds the
standards as set forth in the specification. Unethical decisions have been made from
ignorance, neglect or dishonest greed.
 Conflict of Interest is a situation in which a person, such as a public official, an
employee or a professional, has a private or personal interest sufficient to appear to
influence the objective exercise or his or her official duties.
 Moonlighting and “No Show jobs” - Moonlighting is the practice of performing an
additional job which is separate from a person’s day job. Another form of this is the
“no show” job. The union often forces an employer to put fake people on the payroll.
This is unethical and illegal but is still practiced today.

Source: https://web.stevens.edu/asee/fileadmin/asee/pdf/Scalza_-_final.pdf
Source: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.427.2168&rep=rep1&type=pdf

 Collusive tendering
 Bribery
 Negligence
 Fraud
 Dishonesty and unfairness
Some basic cases for understanding
 A client plans a project and hires Consultant-A to
furnish complete engineering services for a project.
◦ Because of the potentially dangerous nature of implementing
the design during the construction phase, Consultant-A
recommends to the client that a full-time, on-site project
representative be hired for the project.
◦ After reviewing the completed project plans and costs, the
client responds that the project would be too costly if such a
representative were hired.

 Consultant-A proceeds with his work on the project

as per his initial suggestion.
Question:
 Was it ethical for the Consultant-A to proceed with
his work on the project knowing that the client would
not agree to hire a full-time project representative?
 Consultant-B submitted a proposal to a Council following an
interview concerning a project. The proposal included technical
information and data that the council requested as a basis for
the selection.
 A staff member of the Council, made B's proposal available to
another Consultant-A.
 Consultant-A used Consultant-B's proposal without his/her
consent in developing another proposal, which was
subsequently submitted to the council.
 The extent to which Consultant-A used Consultant-B's
information and data is in dispute between the parties.
Question:
 Was it unethical for Consultant-A to use Consultant-B's
proposal without his/her consent to develop a proposal
which Consultant-A subsequently submitted to the
council?
 Engineer-A is employed as the City Engineer for a medium-
sized city and is the only licensed professional engineer in a
position of responsibility in the city government.
 The city has several large food processing plants that discharge
very large amounts of vegetable wastes into the city's sanitary
system during the canning season. Part of the canning season
coincides with the rainy season.
 Engineer-A has the responsibility for the disposal plant and
beds and is directly responsible to City Administrator-C.
 Asst. Engineer-B answers to Engineer-A.
 During the course of her employment, Engineer-A notifies Administrator-C
of the inadequate capacity of the plant and beds to handle the potential
overflow during the rainy season and offers possible solutions.
 Engineer-A has also discussed the problem privately with certain members
of the city council without the permission of City Administrator-C.
 City Administrator-C has told Engineer-A that "we will face the problem
when it comes."
 City Administrator-C orders Engineer-A to discuss the problems only with
him and warns that his job is in danger if he disobeys.
 Engineer-A again privately brings the problem up to other city officials.
 City Administrator-C removes Engineer-A from responsibility of the entire
sanitary system and the chain of command by a letter instructing Asst.
Engineer-B that he is to take responsible charge of the sanitary system
and report directly to City Administrator-C.
 Asst. Engineer-B asks for a clarification and is again instructed via memo
by City Administrator-C that he, Asst. Engineer-B, is completely
responsible and is to report any interference by a third party to City
Administrator-C.
 Engineer-A receives a copy of the memo. In addition, Engineer-A is
ordered not to discuss this matter further and that if he does he will be
terminated.
 Engineer-A continues in his capacity as City Engineer, assumes no
responsibility for the disposal plant and beds, but continues to advise Asst.
Engineer-B without the knowledge of City Administrator-C.
 That winter during the canning season, particularly heavy storms occur in
the city. It becomes obvious to those involved that if waste water from the
ponds containing the domestic waste is not released to the local river, the
ponds will overflow the levees and dump all waste into the river.
 Under state law, this condition is required to be reported to the state water
pollution control authority, the agency responsible for monitoring and
overseeing water quality in state streams and rivers.
Question:
Did Engineer A fulfill his ethical obligation by informing City
Administrator C and certain members of the city council of his
concerns? If you were Engineer A, how would you respond to
this situation?