Find an ethical problem that people usually face in engineering

Find an ethical problem that people usually face in engineering, and find a solution for it

Engineering is a profession that has strongly embedded itself in business (Hooker, 1). Increasingly, engineers are compelled to make strategic decisions in both business and engineering. For most of the large firms, engineering is highly integrated with business and increasingly, engineers play a critical role in the product design, development and marketing. On such note, engineers are a part of a business bringing to attention the need for professionalism and professional ethics, as a result. In modern business, engineers must now think about values, a business division that had been set aside for business managers. The growth that has been experienced in biotechnology and e-commerce has been a trend that has brought about an ethical aspect for engineers. The major scope that has brought about standards in this school of thought is professionalism in management, safety and quality of products, intellectual property rights and international business ethics. For this essay, we shall explore an ethical issue in business and develop a solution for the problem.

A profession can be said to be defined by the reputation that people attach to it and its members. The primary existence of a profession is to create a reputation, enabling those who ascribe to the professional status to identify themselves as highly esteemed individuals (Dodig-Crnkovic, Gordana, and Robert Feldt, 23). An issue that is mostly associated with the engineering practice is that of cost minimization against quality and safety of products. This is the major reason that brings about ethics in the engineering profession. In the engineering practice and profession, some of the ethical issues that exist include; cronyism, nepotism, bribes as well as kickbacks. Bribes are among the major ethical issues that affect the modern day business on a local scale and global extent. Increasingly, anti-corruption campaigns, regulations by the international business laws and the local business community have taken centre stage. On this note, there is a need to understand that, engineers often find themselves in compromising positions where, they might be bribed to alter the product quality in favour of better returns for the investors, at the expense of the consumers.

Bribery is a major ethical issue that affects the engineering profession. Increasingly, engineers have been linked to corrupt deals especially where the government contracts them. In the past, construction companies, owned by engineers have been strongly linked with bribery and have ended on the wrong side of the law and faced persecutions followed by harsh penalties. Bribery is not a phenomenon that is rooted in the developing countries only, but also one that has been taking place in the developed western world. The fight, however, has been varied by the political and social-economic climate. This is where, countries such as China have been able to pass very strong criminal sentences for people accused of the vice. Others, among them most of the developing countries have remained adamant to embracing transparency in the many spheres of the economy. The engineers in particular have been strongly linked to politicians and have often received bribes through shady dealings in the public sector (Van Gorp, 4).

Apart from bribery arising during the contracting process, the vice also arises in the production stage where, engineers are required to develop a cost saving system for the company, but compromises the quality of the programme or at least worsens it. When such a situation arises, it is up to the values of the engineer to determine whether they are willing to compromise the customer’s wellbeing for the profits. For some of the businesspersons, they are willing to buy the engineer’s silence. Another instance where bribery takes place is where; engineers being very important in any production process, they know all production secrets hence they can trade off ideas. Due to their good understanding of the complex machines and formulas that are used in the production processes, engineers are able to sell off the ideas to competing firms, depriving off an innovative firm the ability to reap from the innovation. This entirely depends on the ethics of the engineer and requires that the engineer entrusted with the systems be of very good ethics to safeguard the company’s intellectual property from competitors.

In countries such as South Korea, payments in white envelopes are acceptable especially for government officials (Van Gorp, 34). This is so because, those companies willing to do so subscribe to a relationship with the government. This allows the state to form a strategic partnership with the business or the individual. White-envelop payments show a commitment to serious and restricted behavioural conduct that enables the government to conduct more business with the client in this country. For engineers in this country, the payments are not wrong but in the United States, the culture has clearly put in place rules against such an undertaking. This is regarded to as unprofessional and unethical surmounting to an unethical practice.

According to John Hooker, corruption tends to be more dominant in cultures that have been war stricken or torn by the effects of colonialism (Hooker, 13). The author argues that corruption in the African countries is extremely high and very harmful for business as it strips off the competitiveness entirely. In some of these countries, the engineers are made victims as they have very significant roles in the planning and the execution of the projects unlike in other societies where they only play the technical construction role. Here, they have a mandate to allocate the resources as they see fit and thus require a lot of ethics to thrive and make a good reputation for the profession.

Bribery in engineering has also resulted to massive losses where, an engineer working on a certain project will fail to use the best construction methods or materials later turning the entire project into a collapsed building or bridge (Hooker, 9). In most of the instances, faulty constructions due to cost minimization have caused loss of life for many and less than optimal use of the facility due to shorter periods of use. Some of the facilities develop weaknesses after a very short period and in other cases suffer quick wear and tear owed to the low durability of the materials or methods used in construction.

Among the solutions that are available for bribery in the engineering profession is the denial of a practicing licence for engineers who have been known to involve themselves in corrupt deals (Hooker, 14). This is possible through prosecution and if found guilty, deregistration from the relevant engineering bodies. The second step is the development of legislation. This is whereby; a legislation is developed to ensure that, engineers who are found to be corrupt. In countries that have adopted strong legislation such as China, professionals have adhered to the ethics to avoid the punishment that comes with a conviction. This would be a major starting point in the fight against bribery in the profession.

Moral persuasion can also be an effective approach where, the engineers are requested by the relevant authorities to adhere to their professional ethics to ensure that they build a reputation for the engineering practice (Kreiner, Jesa and Chandra Putcha, 8). Through moral persuasion, the society can also play a major role, to ensure that there is as little bribery as possible though demanding for transparent transactions during project implementation. Strict evaluation of projects and filling of audited reports is also an important part that may discourage bribes. When the awarding of the tenders follows a certain set criterion, the citizens are empowered to ensure that the tender goes out to the lowest bidder and yet, does not compromise on quality. Awarding of tenders on merit can also be a major step towards combating bribery whereby, those who are not qualifies cannot bribe their way to securing a tender. Merit locks them out and ensures only companies known to run projects efficiently are assigned to the projects.

In conclusion, bribery is one of the most controversial issues that one comes across in the ethical life of an engineer. The need to have optimal revenues from scarce resources necessitates the need to minimize costs and in most instances, compromising the quality. Despite the fact that bribery varies from one country to another, most of the countries recognize it as unacceptable. The strategies that are available for fighting against corruption are also limited to certain extents. However, the development of strict legislation has significantly worked out in Countries such as China.