Question Bank Professional Ethics

GE2025 Professional Ethics in Engineering Department Of CSE 2013-2014
ST.JOSEPH’S COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

GE2025 Professional Ethics in Engineering
QUESTION BANK
UNIT – I
PART A
l. Define Ethics.
* Study of right or wrong * Good and evil * Obligations & rights * Justice * Social & Political
deals
2. Define Engineering Ethics. [Nov 2009][May 2013]
* Study of the moral issues and decisions confronting individuals and organizations engaged in
engineering /profession. * Study of related questions about the moral ideals. character, policies
and relationships of people and corporations involved in technological activity. Moral standards /
values and system of morals.
3. What is the need to study Ethics?
To responsibly confront moral issues raised by technological activity. To recognize and resolve
moral dilemma. To achieve moral autonomy.
4. Differentiate moral and Ethics ?
MORAL:
 Refers only to personal behavior.
 Refers to any aspect of human action.
 Social conventions about right or wrong conduct.
ETHICS
 lnvolves defining, analyzing, evaluating and resolving rnoral problem and developing
rnoral criteria to guide human behavior.
 Critical reflection on what one does and why one does it.
 Refers only to professional behavior.
5. What is the rnethod used to solve an Ethical problem.
 Recognizing a problem or its need.
 Gathering information and defining the problem to be solved or goal to be achieved.
 Decision making and optimzation.
6. What are the senses of Engineering ethics? [May 2011]
o An activity and area of inquiry.
o Ethical problems, issues and controversies.
o Particular set of beliefs, attitudes and habits.
o Morally correct.
7. Differentiate Micro -ethics and Macro -ethics .
Micro-ethics : Deals about some typical and everyday problems which play an important role in
the field of engineering and in the profession of an engineer.
Macro-ethics : Deals with all the societal problems which are unknown and suddenly burst out
on a regional or national level.
8. What are the three types of Inquiry? [April 2011] [May 2013]
St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

Nornative Inquiry.
Conceptual lnquiry
Factual Inquiry
9. What are the steps in confronting Moral dilemmas?
ldentify the relevant moral factors and reasons
Gather all available facts that are pertinent to the rnoral factors involved.
10. Define Moral Autonomy. [May 2013]
Personal Involvement
Self-determining and independent.
Exercised based on the moral concern for other people and recognition of good moral reasons
12. Give the importance of Lawrence Kohlberg's and Carol Gilligan-'s theory?
Kohlberg gives greater emphasis to recognizing rights and abstract universal rules. Gilligan
stresses the importance of maintaining personal relationships based on mutual caring.
11. Give the need for Authority?
Authority provides the framework in which learning can take place.
12. What are the criteria required for a Profession?
o Knowledge
o Organization
o Public Good
13. Give the general criteria to become a Professional engineer'
Attaining standards of achievement in education, job performance or creativity in engineering
that distinguish engineers from engineering technicians and technologists.
Accepting as part of their professional obligations as least the most basic moral responsibilities
to the public as well as to their employers, clients, colleagues and subordinates.
14. Differentiate Self -respect and Self -esteem.
Self-respect : It is a moral concept; refers to the virtue properly valuing oneself'
Self-esteem : It is a psychological concept; means having a positive attitude toward oneself, even
if the attitude is excessive or otherwise unwarranted.
1 5.What are the two forms of Self -respect?
a. Recognition sell'-respect b' Appraisal self
16.What are the senses of Responsibility? a virtue b obligations c general moral capacities of
people d liabilities and accountability for actions e. blameworthiness or praiseworthiness
17. When will you tell an Act as an involuntary one?
Act done in ignorance
Act performed under compulsion
18. State Rawl's principles (APRIL2011)
1. Each person is entitled to the most extensive amount of liberty compatible with an equal
amount for others'

2. Differences in social power and economic benefits are justified only when they are likely to
benefit everyone, including members of the most disadvantaged groups'
19. Give the drawbacks of Utilitarianism.
o Sometimes what is best for the community as a whole is bad for certain individuals in the
community.
o It is often impossible to know in advance which decision will lead to the most good'
20. Give the drawback of Duty Ethics .
. Duty ethics does not always lead to a solution which rnaximizes the public good.
21. Give the drawbacks of Rights Ethics ? How do we prioritize the rights of different
individuals?
It often promotes the rights of individuals at the expense of, large groups / society.
22. Differentiate Ethical Relativism and Ethical Egoism
Ethical egoism- the view that right action consist in producing one’s own good.
Ethical relativism- the view that right action is merely what the law and customs of one’s society.
23. Define Religion.
A religion is any set of articles of faith together with the observances. attitudes, obligations and
feelings tied up therewith, which, in so far as it is influential in a person, tends to perform two
functions, one social and the other personal.
24. Give the uses of Ethical Theories.
In understanding moral dilemmas
Justifying professional obligations and ideals o
Relating ordinary and professional morality
25. What are personal ethics and business ethics?
Personal ethics deals with how we treat others in our day - to - day
Business ethics deals with the desired norms of behavior that pertain to transactions.
26. What do you mean by normative ethics ? [May 2011]
Normative ethics deals with the professional codes of ethics that specify role norms or
obligations that professions attempt to enforce. It is the recommendations of standards and
guidelines for rnorally right or good behavior.
27. What is descriptive ethics or non-normative ethics?
Descriptive ethics deals with the factual investigation of moral behavior and beliefs ie., tire study
not of what people ought to do but how thev reason and how they act.
28. Mention some universally accepted ethical principles.
Honesty
lntegrity
Fulfilling commitments
Abiding by agreements in both letter and spirit
. Willing to admit mistakes
. Being caring and compassionate
. Having respect for human dignity

29. What are the steps in confronting moral dilemmas?

* ldentify the relevant moral factors and reasons
*Gather all available facts that are pertinent to the moral factors involved.
*Rank the moral considerations in order of importance as they apply to the situation,
*Arrive at a carefully reasoned judgment by weighing all the relevant factors and reasons in light
of the facts.
PART B
1. What are the ethical theories? How can you classify thern? (16)
2. What is meant by virtues? Do engineers need virtues?(16)
3. What is meant by professional responsibility? Also discuss the theories virtues (l6)
4. Explain the various types of virtues (16)
5. Illustrate the interconnectedness among the virtues of integrity and self respect.(i6)
6. i) Explain Gilligan's theory of moral development (8) [May 2013, 2011]
ii) Explain Kohlberg's model of moral development (8) [May 2013, 2011]
7. (i). Give the steps in confronting moral dilemmas. (8) [May 2013]
(ii) Explain the skills needed to handle problems about issues in engineering ethics (8)
8. What is the different ethical theory’s available for right action, self interest and duty ethics.
9. Explain how Gilligan view the three levels of moral development initiated by kohlberg. What
is moral autonomy?
10. Explain the scope of engineering ethics (16)
11. Discuss the importance of duty ethics and virtue in engineering profession (16)
12. Explain the ethical theories and how these theories are useful in justifying moral obligation to
engineers.(16) [May 2013]
13. Bring out the relationship between moral autonomy and respect of autonomy (16)
14. Discuss any two case studies on professional disagreements an engineer may encounter and
discuss how you would act in that situation.
15. What is virtue ethics? Explain the virtue and golden mean of Aristotle.
16. Explain in detail about engineering ethics and its philosophy?
17. Explain the Four ethical theories [May 2011]
18) Compare arid Contrast Aristotle’s and Macintyre’s versions of virtue ethics theory (16).
19) Who is a professional? Explain whether engineering is a profession?
UNIT II
PART A

1. What is the importance of experimentation?[Nov 2011]

Experimentation is commonly recognized to play an essential role in the design process. Preliminary tests
or simulations are conducted from the time it is decided to convert a new engineering concept into its first
rough design. Materials and processes are tired out, usually employing formal experimentation
techniques. Such tests serve as the basis for more detailed designs, which in turn are tested.
2. List some of the importance of learning from the past.

This might be expected that engineers would learn not only from their own earlier design and operating
results, but also from those of other engineers. Unfortunately, that is frequently not the case. Lack of
established channels of communication, misplaced pride is not asking for information, embracement at
failure or fear of litigation and plain neglect often impede flow of such information and lead to many
repetitions of past mistakes.
3. What is meant by valid consent?[May 2010]

A consent, which has been given voluntarily, is known as valid consent. Valid consent is also defined as
consent based on the information a rational person would want together with any other requested
information to make a rational decision.
4. What are the responsibilities of engineers to society?

Some of the responsibilities of engineers to society are
 Primary obligations to protect the safety of human subjects and respect their right of
consent.
 A consent awareness of the experimental nature of any project, imaginative forecasting of
its possible side effects and a reasonable effort to monitor them.
 Autonomous, personal involvement in all steps of the projects.
 Accepting accountability for the results of a project.
5. What are the types of Standards?

Standards can be classified based on the following criteria’s, namely
Uniformity of physical properties and functions.
Safety and reliability
Quality of the products
Use of accepted procedures
Separability
6. What is meant by industrial standards?

Standards consist of explicit specification that, when followed with care, ensure that stated criteria for
interchangeability and quality will be attained. Example ranges from automobile type size or load ratings
of computer language.
7. List out the advantages of industrial standards.

Advantages of industrial standards are
 It facilitates the interchange of components

 They serve as ready-made substitutes for lengthy design specifications

 They decrease production costs

 Gives a competitiveness among the manufacturers
8. What do you understand by standard experiments?
Experimentation is commonly recognized to essential role in the design process. Preliminary tests or
simulations are conducted from the time it is decided to convert a new engineering concept into its first
round design.
9. Explain “informed consent”
Viewing engineering as an experiment on a social scale places the focus where it should be on the human
beings affected by technology for the experiment is performed on persons not on inanimate objects.
Informed consent is understood as including two main element knowledge and voluntarieness. First
subjects should be given not only the information they request but also all the information needed to make
a reasonable decision. Secondly, subjects must enter into the experiments without being subjected to the
force.
10. Explain codes of ethics.
The code of ethics has to be adopted by engineering societies as well as engineers. These codes exhibit
the rights, duties, and obligations of the members of a profession. Codes are the set of laws and standards.
A code of ethics provides a framework for ethical judgment for a professional.
11. Explain minimal compliance.
Minimal compliance can find its expression when companies or individuals search for loopholes in
the law that will allow them to barely keep to its letter even when violating its sprits
12. Write about U.S Steamboat code.
Early steam engines were large and cumbersome. In steam of these pioneers careful calculations and
guidelines, however boiler explosions were frequent, particularly on steamboats. Demands for safety rules
finally moved Congress to expert its river and interstate regulatory powers.
13. What is Babylon’s building code?
Hammurabi as king of Babylon was concerned with order in his realm and he decided that his laws
should also govern the builders of his time. The substantive or normative part of Babylon’s building code
is admirably succinct.

14. What do you mean by a regulated society?[May2013]
In order to live, work, and play together in harmony as a society, we need to carefully balance individual
needs and desires against collective needs and desires. This is done to obtain ETHICAL CONDUCT.
Ethical conduct defines a strong element of altruism, provides such a balance.
15. Write down the name of engineering societies that have published codes of ethics?[Nov2012]
Some names of engineering societies that have published codes of ethics are
IEEE – International Electrical & Electronics Engineering Association
IEE – International Electrical Engineering Association
IE – Institute of Engineers (INDIA)
NSPE – National Society of Professional Engineers (USA)
ABET – Accreditation Board of Engineering & Technology (USA)
AAES – American Association of Electrical Societies
ABES – American Association and Engineering Society
ASCE – American Society of Civil Engineering
AICTE – All India Council of Technical Education
ISTE – Indian Society of Technical Education
16. What are the uncertainties which occurs while designing?

The following uncertainties occur in the design.
Model used for design calculation
Exact characteristics of the material purchased
Constancies of material used for processing and fabrications
Amount of pressure the finished product will encounter
17. List some examples for Learning from the Past.
Some examples for Learning from the Past are

 Titanic and the Arctic
 The sunshine skyline bridge in the bay of Thamba at Sweden due to resonance. Similarly Tasman
Bridge in 1975.

 Nuclear Reactor – Three Miles Island 1979 due to mal function of valves. Bhopal.
 Tettron dam in Los angles due to rapid flow of water. Fontenelle dam.
18. What are the primary responsibilities of Engineers?

The engineers has so many responsibilities, namely
 Having a clear awareness of the experienced nature of any project, thoughtful forecasting of its
possible side effects and an effort to monitor them reasonably.
 Unrestricted free personal involvement in all the steps of the project.
 Being accountable for the results of a project.
 Exhibiting their technical competence and other characteristics of professionalism.
 The primary duty is to protect and safe guard the human lives.
19. Define : Conscientiousness.
Conscientiousness means sense of awareness or consciousness. People act responsibly based on the extent
of their Conscientiousness. Conscientiousness means commitment or responsibility required in a
situation. Engineering is a responsible profession, so the engineers must be very Conscientiousness in
their profession while maintaining a full control of the given situation, know what good or bad takes
place.
20. Explain : Moral Autonomy.[Nov 2012]

This topic entirely covers the personal involvement in ones activity. Nowadays people are very much
genuine to their personal activities. Moral beliefs and attitudes have to be incorporated in ones personal
life so that he can take a committed action to any situations.
When engineering as seen as a social experimentation it helps to keeps a sense of autonomous

participation in ones work. An engineer as an experimenter is undergoing training which helps to form his
identity as a professional, it leads to know about the current economic and safety standards. This also
involves a greater sense of personal involvement in ones work.
21. Define: Accountability.
The people those who feel their responsibility always accepts the entire blame for their actions. In short, it
is known as accountability, which means being culpable (guilty) and hold responsible for faults and
respond to the assessment of others. Accountable persons will conduct themselves based on the specific
circumstances.
22. List some function of codes.
The functions of codes are
 Inspiration and Guidance

 Support
 Education and Mutual Understanding

 Public Image
 Protecting the Status
 Protecting Business Interest
23. List some Limitation of codes.
The Limitation of codes is
 Codes are said to be coercive. (Implemented by threaten force)

 Codes are produced is very rapid manner
 Many engineer members of the society are not aware and the existence of the codes of their
society and they never goes through it.
 Only few are there in INDIA so we cannot complex them.
 They cannot be taken as final decision.
 Internal conflicts in a body so the rules are not followed.
 Codes are generally restricted be they are general and vague wordings. Therefore, they are not
applicable to all situations.
24.What is Whistle blowing
 This Is an act by an employee of informing the public or higher management of unethical or
illegal behavior by an employee or supervisor.
25. Types of whistle blowing

 Internal whistle blowing: (within organization) i.e., by passing Immediate Supervisor and
reporting to top management.
 External whistle blowing :(outside organization)Going to press, media. Also anonymous whistle
blowing where in the person is not identifying himself while making the report.
PART-B
1. Compare and Contrast Engineering Experiments with Standard Experiments. [May 2013]
2. Discuss the problems with law in engineering .
3. What is Proper role of law in Engineering?
4. What are the aspects of engineering that make it appropriate to view engineering projects as
experiments?
5. Explain with some examples that engineers would learn not only from their earlier design and
operating results but also form those of others engineers.
6. What are the general features of morally responsible engineers? Explain each with appropriate
examples?[Nov2012]
7. In the challenger disaster, examine if and how the principle actors behaved as responsible
experimenters ?[Nov 2010]
8. What are said to be the main elements included in “Informed Consent”? Enumerate the conditions that
would define valid consent.
9. Summarize the relationship between the codes and the experimental nature of engineering in
concurrence with the limitations?
10. Explain the code of ethics? [May 2011] [May 2013]
11. Explain in detail the challenger accident. What are the ethical problem involved in this? [May 2011]
12. How do you call an engineer as a responsible experimenter? [May 2013]
13. What is ‘Research Ethics’? How it is maintained. [May 2013]

UNIT – III
PART A
1. What is meant by risk?

A risk is the potential that some thing unwanted and harmful may occur. These days the new risks are the
less obvious effects of technology are now making way to public consciousness. The mathematical form
is R = P * C
2. What is safety?
A thing is safe if its risks are justified to be acceptable. Thus, a thing is safe if the perceived risk of the
person, who judges is less and it is unsafe if the perceived risk are high.
3. What is the idea behind acceptability?

A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer apprehensive (worried) about it.
Apprehensiveness depends to a large extent on how the risk is perceived. This is influenced by the factors
as whether the risk is assumed voluntarily, the effects of the knowledge on how the harm is done or job
related pressure.
4. What can the engineer do to ensure safety?

Relying on experience was mentioned as most important. However, it is well known that experience
gained by one engineer is often not passed on to others. Especially the bad news is not at all passed.
Another way of gaining experience is through tests. Under certain situation, it would be a valuable source
of information.
5. What are the various analyses that are available for testing the products?
The various analyses that is available for testing the products are
 Scenario Analysis
 Failure Modes and effects Analysis
 Fault Tree Analysis
 Event Tree Analysis
6. What are the difficulties of accessing the personal risks?

There are so many difficulties in assessing personal risks particularly in case of involuntary risks. It is
very difficult to assess the involuntary personal risks, which are specified in the Examples like Living
near a refinery and locating a Nuclear Plant.
7. What does Minimal Compliance mean?

The fact that proof of negligence is not essential to impose liability is a frightening prospect of most
manufacturers. The significance of the strict liability doctrine, as far as engineers are concerned, is that
although in many cases it is impossible to test every product, the engineer must weigh the chances of a
defect causing serious injury against the cost of eliminating or minimizing the defects in the products.
Adhering to accepted practices and observing standards is not sufficient, such behavior is called as
minimal compliance.
8. How can you improve the product safety?[may 2011]

Safety is not a written work on the design of a product. The following examples will clearly explain that
the safety is not based on the possible but unpredictable features.

 Introduction of magnetic door catch system on refrigerators. It prevents death by suffocation

of children accidentally trapped in them. This magnetic door catch now permits the door to be
opened from inside easily. It is also cheaper than the older types of spring locks.
 The dead-man handles for the drivers in trains to control over the speed of the train.
 The semaphores used in railroads that are used for signaling purpose. Cables actuate
semaphore and when the arm was lowered it indicates, “STOP.” Whenever there is a failure in the
cables, the position of the arm is always lowered.
 The safety belt introduced in the Volkswagen’s car. This belt is an attachment on the door of
the car. So that maximum safety is provided.
9. Name the techniques are available for reducing risk.[Nov 2010]

A number of techniques are available for reducing risk. Some of them are
Application of inherent safety concepts in design. For example in the case of liquefied gas,
storage system the present trend is to replace pressurized storages with cryogenic storage at
atmospheric pressure.
Use of diversity and redundancy principles in instrumented protection schemes.
Regular inspection and testing of safety systems to ensure reliability.
Training of operating personal and regular audits to ensure workability of the systems and
procedures.
Development of a well considered emergency plan together with regular drills to ensure
preparedness.
10. What are the activities to be performed by the engineers to safeguard the public from risk?
Therefore, the engineer has to do the following activities to safeguard the public from the risks.
 Provide the background material to support or to provide the faulty positions and actively
take part in the debate.
 Act as the model of a science court.
 Measure the risks and benefits on a ordinal (relative) scale rather than cardinal (absolute)
scale
 Ensure the parties affected by the project concerned are polled.
11. What are the types of risks?

The risks are classified as
Under Estimation of Risks
Over Estimation of Risks
No Estimation of Risks
12. State some IEEE codes of ethics related to the Responsibility and Safety.
The IEEE code of ethics says three points namely,
 To accept responsibility in making decision consistent with safety, health, and welfare to the
public and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment.
 To improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application and potential sequence.
 To maintain and improve the understanding of technology and its appropriate applications.
13. What are the safety criteria for safe design to be followed by the engineers?
The safety criteria for safe design that has to be followed by the engineers are
 The minimum requirements are that the design must satisfy all the applicable laws. For this the
legal standards should be made to known everyone.
 If an alternate design is available it should be also explored, that is once a product is produced we
should not stop our work.

 The engineers should make attempt so that the consumers do not perform misuse of the products.
Therefore, the design must be done in such a manner that the misuse is avoided.
 Once the product is manufactured, the finished devices should be rigorously tested.
 The main thing is that the engineers must take as much time as possible for designing so that he
can minimize future risk of injury.
14. What is the risk identification procedure?

Linda Fisher formed an agency called Environment Protection Agency (EPA). In that agency, the risk
identification procedure as follows.
 Work place inspection
 Management / Worker discussion
 Independent audits
 Job Safety analysis
 Hazard and operability studies
 Accident Statistics
15. List some factors which is based on the acceptability of risk.

Some of the factors, which is based for risk are
 Voluntarism and Control
 Effect of Information on Risk Assessment
 Job-Related Risks
 Magnitude and Proximity
16. Draw the plot between cost and risk.
17. What is Scenario Analysis?

It is a general and common approach. In this analysis, when testing the safety of a product, a person has to
start from a given point and then to study all the different consequences developed gradually from it.
18. What are Failure Models and Effect Analysis? [May 2009]
In this method, a person has to systematically examine the failure models of each part of the product
without giving attention on the causes or relationships among the elements of complex systems.
19. What is Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)?

It is a pertinent technique in analyzing the primary causes of occurrences of an undesirable situation. It is
a just opposite of the above-mentioned method. In this testing, a person has to propose the system failure
and then finds out the events back to analyze the possible causes at component level. These methods are
more useful in emergency situations.

20. What is Event Tree Analysis (ETA)?

It has been found to be very useful in identifying a potentially hazardous situation in the plan. This
analysis is the reverse of the fault tree analysis. It is mathematically oriented version of scenario analysis.
21. What is Risk Benefit Analysis?

RBA is a method that helps the engineer to analyze the risk in a project and to determine whether a
project should be implemented or not. It is very much closer to the Cost Benefit Analysis (the quantity of
benefits by incurring certain expenditures). In RBA, the risk and benefits of a product are allotted to
money amounts and the most beneficial ratio between risk and benefits is calculated.
22. What is ‘caveat emptor’ or ‘Buyer beware’.

This means that if harm is made by a product to the user the manufacturer is made liable. This is called
‘caveat emptor’ or ‘Buyer beware’.
23. Doctrine of Strict liability or principles of strict liability[Nov 2009]

1. Following and implementing the accepted practices and standards are not sufficient. This is called
minimal compliance.
2. Engineers to use standards and practices which are check list only.
3. Engineers can be sued personally though they have acted according to the instructions of their
employers.
4. Some company protects their engineer and allow themselves to be sued.
5. Independent engineers can write liability limits in their contracts.
6. To practice preventive and defensive engineering activities, good knowledge of liability is
necessary.
24. Define Safe exit. (May 2011)

“A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be acceptable”. The sense of a degree of safety that
satisfies all individuals as groups under all conditions is neither attainable nor affordable.
25. What are the Categories of risk.

A risk may be in any of these categories, namely
– Low consequence and Low Probability
– High consequence and Low Probability
– Low consequence and High Probability
– High consequence and High Probability
UNIT III
PART-B
1. Explain in detail about the effect of information on risk assessments?

2. Discuss in detail testing strategies for safety?
3. Discuss in detail “risk benefit analysis and reducing risks? [MAY 2009]
4. Would knowledge of risk help you to have better safety standards or safe products? Substitute
your arguments with suitable case studies?
5. How to account publicly for benefits and risks?
6. Discuss the motion of “safe exit” using evacuation plans for communities near nuclear power
plants or chemical processing plants?
7. What are the safety lessons we can learn from Three Mile Island and Chernobyl safe exits?

8. Explain the study of accidents?

9. What is risk? Discuss its types [May 2011]
10. Discuss the Engineers’ responsibility for safety
11. Describe the concept of risk benefit analysis [May 2013] [May 2011]
12. Give a discussion on safety measures to be taken in engineering unit. [May 2013]
13. Discuss the various measures of assessing and reducing risks. [May 2013]
14. How are public risks perceived? Explain with Bhopal gas tragedy.
UNIT-IV
PART A
1. What do you understand by collegiality?[Nov 2009]

Engineers shall not attempt to injure, maliciously or falsely, directly or indirectly, the professional
reputation, prospects, practice, or employment of other engineers, nor untruthfully criticize other
engineers’ work. Engineers who believe others are guilty of unethical or illegal practice shall present such
information to the proper authority for proper action.
2. What does Loyalty mean?

Loyalty means being truthful to one’s person. For engineer’s loyalty should not to be equated with merely
obeying, one is immediate superior, but to do good for the company and people. It is an important virtue.
There are two sense of loyalty namely Agency Loyalty and Identification Loyalty.
3. Explain misguided loyalty.

Employee sometimes with over enthusiasm and loyalty will be misled to act on own and unknowingly
exceed legal commitments to gain or profit for his employer, which may backfire sometime. Hence, this
defines as Misguided Loyalty or inappropriate Loyalty.
4. What does authority mean?

Authority is an assignment of the resources needed to complete a task one should have leadership quality
and a good motivator, to execute his authority to get work done. Hence, authority is necessary. Authority
provides a way for identifying the areas of responsibility and accountability.
5. List the classifications of Authority.[Nov 2011]

The classifications of Authority are
 Institutional Authority
 Morally Justified Authority
 Accepting Authority
6. Explain institutional authority.

Institutional Authority is acquired, exercised, and defined within institutions. It may be defined as the
institutional right given to a person to exercise power based on the resources of the institutions. It is given
to individuals in order for them to meet their institutional duties, that is, their assigned tasks within an
organization.
7. What are the paramount obligations of an engineer?

Recent Code of ethics typically states that an engineer’s paramount obligations are to protect the public
health, safety and welfare rather than the obligations of loyalty and faithful service to employers.
Paramount is to mean “chief in importance or deserving primary emphasis”

8. What is meant by collective bargaining?

Unions are Collective bargaining agents that sometimes place the economic interests of the members
ahead of those of the clients or employer. A number of professional societies have also held that loyalty to
employers and the public is incompatible with any form of collective bargaining.
9. What is N.S.P.E code?

NSPE – National Society of Professional Engineers (USA)
National Society of Professional Engineers have given their codes of ethics that the engineers shall not
actively participate in strikes and other collective forcing action against their employers.
10. Explain the term confidentiality.

Keeping confidence is one of the most central and widely acknowledged duties of any professional. In
this context, Confidential Information (Privileged Information) is information deemed desirable to keep
secret. Keep secret is relational information.
11. What is duty ethics? [Nov 2009]

Immanuel Kant is the most famous of the ethicists who regards duties, rather than good consequences, as
fundamental. He lists the duties as
Honest Improve ones own intelligence

Keep your promises Character
Don’t inflict (impose) suffering on other people Talent
Be fair Don’t commit suicide
Make reparations when you have been unfair
Show gratitude for kindness extended by others
Kant explains the duty ethics based on three interwoven theories namely each expresses respect for
persons, each is a universal principle and each expresses an unqualified command for autonomous moral
agents.
12. What is meant by utilitarianism?[May 2009]

In the view of Utilitarianism, it is to produce most good for most people, giving equal consideration to
everyone affected. The best meaning is that it produces maximum benefit for the greatest number of
people. The standard of this theory is maximization of goodness. It is not so easy to achieve it.
Goodness means happiness that is believed to be internal good. All good things are instrumental
goods, which provides happiness for the people. For example people go dentist if it is solved the
people becomes happy.
13. Explain professional rights.

Engineers have fundamental rights to live and freely pursue their legitimate interests. They have a human
right to pursue their work and not to be fairly discriminated `against in employment based on sex, race, or
age.
14. What is patenting?

Patents differ from trade secrets. Patents legally protect specific products from being manufactured and
sold by competitors without the express permission of the patent holder. Trade secrets have no such
protections. Patents are protected by statute laws passed in order to provide incentives for creativity.
15. Explain industrial espionage.

Industrial espionage means industrial spying. It has increased in the recent years due to a large amount of
competitions in the world, so the people started cheating other persons for their improvement. For
example the case of Peter Gopal at Silicon Valley.
16. What is meant by price fixing?

Companies join together and fix prices before going for auction or government tenders, thus take chances
in rotation in getting the tender in their favor, which is an illegal act. However, there is an argument that
the public is benefited because the price is stabilized.
17. What is IPR and explain its main clauses?

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) will have wide range of socio economic technological and political
impacts. Intellectual Property is the information and original expression that derives its original value
from creative ideas with a commercial value. Intellectual property permits the people to have fully
independent ownership for their innovations and creativity like that for their own physical property.
18. What is meant by discrimination in professionalism?[Nov 2010]

Discrimination is being bias or doing unfairness. Discrimination means to make an unfair difference in
ones treatment of people. The other way of defining giving preference based on sex, race, religion, etc. so
the type of Discrimination behavior is said to be “Reverse Preferential Treatment.” In general, we can
say “Morally unjustified treatment of people on irrelevant grounds.”
19. List some example for Discrimination.

Some examples are
1. An opening arises for a chemical engineer plant. Normally such positions are filled by
promotions. However, there was not proper person so they thought of an African person.
Management believed that the most of the whites working would not accept a black person as
their boss. So the interest among the workers will decrease hence the efficiency of the workers
will also reduce, so they appointed a white person by promotion.
2. An electronics company has more number of women in their sales section. However, they are
paid less than the men working of the same cadre are. When the company enquired said that the
amount paid to women becomes as a second income.
3. Due to the economic activities to a agriculture company the management has decided to give
retirement to the engineers who are verge of retirement within 10 years, because they can’t give
layoff to the company.
20. What does whistle blowing mean?

Whistle blowing is alerting relevant persons to some moral or legal corruption. It is something defined as
making public accusations about misconduct or corruption. In this sense, an individual need not be an
member of an organization in order to blow the whistle, even the journalists, politicians and the consumer
group can blow the whistle.
21. What is employee’s bill of rights?

No public or private organization shall discriminate against an employee for criticizing the ethical, moral,
or legal policies and practices of the organization discriminate against an employee to engaging in outside
activities of his choice or for objecting to a directive that violates common norms of morality.
22. List a few non-contractual employee rights.

 Right to choose outside activities,
 Right to privacy,

 Right to due process from employer,

 Right to equal opportunity.
23. List the situations when ‘right to choose outside activities’ can be curbed.
 When the activities lead to violating or detrimental to the duties, as in moonlighting, and
 When the interest of the employer is damaged.
24. What is the ‘right to due process’?

 Right to fair process or procedures in firing,
 Demotion and in taking any disciplinary actions against the employees.
 Fairness is in terms of the process rather than the outcomes.
25. What is meant by ‘industrial design patent’?

 Idea or conception regarding features of shape, configuration, and pattern, ornamental with lines
or colors applied to any article, two or three dimensional, made by industrial process.
 Patent has a term of 14 years from the date of filing the application, e.g., design applied to shoes,
T.V., textiles.
PART B
1. How are conflicts of interest solved?
2. Discuss in detail about the employee rights.
3. What is the importance of loyalty and collegiality in teamwork?[May 2012]
4. What are the procedures to be followed for Whistle Blowing? How can this be avoided?
5. Discuss the ways and means of reducing occupational crime in industries.
6. What is institutional authority? How do you correlate institutional authority, expert

authority and power?
7. Discuss faithful agent and public service arguments.[May 2011]
8. Discuss the right of conscientious refusal.
9. Discuss the right to recognition.
10. Discuss Intellectual Property Rights.
11. What is respect for authority? How far should it be recognized by salaried professionals as
morally justified?[May 2013]
UNIT-V
1. What is meant by multi National Corporation?[May 2010]

Multinational Corporation does extensive business in more than one country. For example Hindustan
lever ltd, Maruthi, Hyundai, etc are multinational corporations. For example, Union Carbide (Bhopal) of
USA has more than 37 branches across the world, which includes INDIA also. The country in which the
company is established is called the Home country and the company’s country is called as Host country.
In most of the multinational companies, the home company has a share of 51% and the host company has
49% of share.
2. What are the three senses of relative values?

Relative values mean relative principles. These relative values help in deciding how the multinational
corporations and individuals have to act in host countries. There are many versions of relativisms
depending on the way in which values are supposed to be relative. Here are three versions namely Ethical
Relativism, Descriptive Relativism and Moral Relationalism or Contextualism
3. Explain : Ethical Relativism.[May 2011]

Ethical Relativism : Actions are morally right within a particular society when they are approved by law,
custom, or other conventions of that society. It is a false one as it implies ridiculous and illogical ways. It
justifies a deliberate extermination of a race of people such as in Germany. They are not morally correct
as it is criticized with human rights, public good, and duties to respect people.
4. Explain : Descriptive Relativism.

Descriptive Relativism : As a matter of fact value beliefs and attitudes differ from culture to culture. It
does not entail (involve) ethical relativism. As per this theory, there exists some difference between the
moral beliefs and attitudes of different culture.
5. List some of the International Human Rights.

The following are some of the international human rights, namely
 The right to freedom of physical movement
 The right to ownership of property
 The right to freedom from torture
 The right to fair trail
 The right to nondiscrimination
 The right to physical security
 The right to freedom of speech and association
 The right to minimal education
 The right to political participation
 The right to subsistence
6. Explain : Moral Relationalism.

Moral Relationalism or Contextualism : Moral judgments should be made in relation to the factor that
varies from case to case. In particular, customs and laws are usually morally relevant factors that should
be taken into account. For example in our country, we remove the shoes before entering a house as a
symbol of respect, but we cannot expect it in western culture.
7. List some steps for promoting morally Just measures.

Some of the steps are listed below.
 Multinational corporations and individuals should respect the basic human rights of the people
of the host countries.
 The activities of the multinational corporations should give some benefits to the host
countries.
 The multinational should do more good to the host countries by the way of promoting the
overall economy and improving the welfare of the workers.
 The business activities of the multinationals must improve morally justified institutions in the
host countries.
 Multinationals should respect the laws and the cultures of the host countries without violating
the basic moral rights.
 Multinationals should give a fair wage to their employee and workers of the home company
same as that of the host company.

 Sufficient safety of the workers and danger in the working conditions should be taken care of
the multinationals.
8. What is technology transfer?

Technology Transfer: Technology transfer is a process of changing the technology to a new setting and
implementing it. Technology includes hardware such as machines and installations as well as techniques
such as technical, organizational, and managerial skills & procedures. The transfer of technology may be
done by governments, universities private voluntary organizations, consulting firms and by multinational
companies.
9. What is appropriate technology?

Appropriate Technology: Appropriate Technology means identification, transformation, and
implementation of the most suitable technology for a new set of conditions. These conditions include
social factors, which are apart from economic and technical engineering constraints. Identification done,
based on human values and needs.
10. What is meant by environmental ethics?[Nov 2011]

Environmental Ethics forbid the activities of people for deteriorating the surroundings of environment in
so many ways. It is well known fact that we are misusing our major resources there by spoiling the
environment. Moreover, it is well known agreed fact that industrial activities mainly affect the biosphere,
polluting water and atmosphere.
11. What is acid rain?

Industries and thermal power plants release innumerable quantities of nitrogen oxide and sulphur every
day. These gases react with atmospheric moisture thereby forming nitrates, sulphates, nitric acid, and
sulphuric acid droplets. These compounds emitting at a particular place may be transmitted even hundred
of kilometers in downstream and may be deposited on ground and vegetarian lands directly as acid rains.
12. What is computer ethics?

Computer Ethics is the analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology and the
corresponding formulation and justification policies for the ethical use of technology. It defines as a field
concerned with “policy vacuums” and “conceptual muddles” regarding the social and ethical use of
information technology.
13. What is meant by biocentric ethics?[May 2011]

A life-centered ethics regards all living organisms as having inherent worth. The most fundamental
feature of us is our will to live, by which both a will to survive and a will to develop according to inmate
tendencies. Most recent defenders of biocentric ethics however have developed complex sets of rules for
guiding decisions.
14. What is ecocentric ethics?

It defines, as “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic
community.” A frequent criticism of sentiment-centered and biocentered ethics is that they are too
individualistic, since they locate inherent worth in individual organisms.
15. What is meant by Sentient-centered ethics?

Of the several versions of natural-centered ethics advanced by philosophers, we examine first the one that
recognizes all sentient animals as having inherent worth. Sentient animals are those that feel pain and
pleasure and have desires.

16. Who are hackers?

The individuals who directly meddle with any computer security system by implanting unwanted codes
with the objective of paralyzing the network and destroying the equipments said as hackers.
17. Who are consulting engineers?

Consulting engineers work in private practice. Fees for the services they render, not by salaries received
from employers compensate them. Because of this, they tend to have greater freedom to make decisions
about the projects they undertake. Yet, their freedom is not absolute. They share with salaried engineers
the need to earn a living.
18. List out the problems of Defense Industry.

Many nations feel with privilege on their defense industry but without thinking on some serious problems
that they may come across along with huge military buildings.
 The defense industry faces the problem of waste and huge cost in implementing and maintaining
a weapon system.
 The defense industry also facing the problem of technology creep, that is the development of new
weapons. It makes changes in the arrangements relating to diplomacy. It upsets all negotiations. It
affects the political ability of a country.
 It also faces the problems in maintaining secrecy. The secrecy in weapons development paves the
way for corruptions and leads to create mistakes in the weapon system itself.
 Every country allocates a large amount of its resources to defense sector. The amount spent in the
defense industry creates only a few jobs when compared with the other industries.
19. List out the engineer involvement in Weapon Development.[May 2011]

Engineer’s involvement in manufacturing of weapons is unavoidable. For engineers who design weapons,
manufacture them, and use them have some reasons to support their involvement. The following are some
of the justifying arguments
.
 Take a case of an engineer who involves in the manufacturing of antipersonnel bombs.
Antipersonnel bombs are most dangerous. When they explode, they evolve a shower of
sharp fragments of steel or plastic on the victims. They can fix the time to explode after
some hours of delivery. When they explode on a person, the removal of the fragments is a
time consuming task. The engineer who produces this kind of bomb clearly known about
its danger. When he thinks morally he does not want to be involved in producing them.
However, for his involvement he may argue that if he does not do his job, someone else
will be doing the job. Doing job produces a steady income for his family.
 A chemical engineer who gets involved in the production of napalm (napalm is a jelly
like petrol substance used in incendiary bombs) argues that only the government must
take necessary actions to stop the production of napalms.
 Another engineer, who is a specialist in controlling and guiding missiles, says that he
feels proud to be able to help his country through his involvement in the defense industry.
He also adds that there should have not been any more world wars.
 A nuclear engineer knows very well about the danger of increasing nuclear arsenal.
Arsenal is a place where the weapons are being stored. He argued that he is working very
hard to reduce the risk of nuclear accidents.
From the above examples it is clear that all over the world talented engineers are engaged in the weapons
work. They should think morally, before getting involved in weapons production.

20. Explain competitive bidding for consulting engineers.[May2013]

Competitive bidding means offering a price in order to achieve something in return by that offer. The
professional codes of ethics forbid the consulting engineers from involving competitive bidding. They are
restricted from competing for jobs based on submitting priced proposals.
21. What is bias and explain three types of bias.

The most common abuses involve more subtle biases resulting from money, ego, and sympathy. The
various types of bias are
 Financial Biases
 Ego Biases
 Sympathy Biases
22. Explain your views on engineers as managers.[may 2010]

Most of the engineers are experiencing the best methods of technical training like other professions.
Many of the engineers move into managerial jobs. The reason being many companies wants to have the
engineers as managers. Because they have thought that in order to manage technological corporation, the
technical understanding of the engineers is very essential.
23. What are the duties of an engineer as an experimenter, in environmental ethics?

 To Study how industry and technology affect environment,
 To fix tolerable and actual pollution levels, protective measures for immediate
implementation, and
 To educate people.
24. What is meant by conceptual framework in computer ethics?[Nov 2009]

Computer program: Is it an IP? Is copyright applicable to this? Or is it a process protected
by a patent? Is it proprietary information? Here, guidelines are needed.
25. List the provision in NSPE codes on the advertisement by consultant.[May 2013]
The following are prohibited:
 Statement containing misrepresentation or omission of a necessary
fact,
 Statement likely to create an unjustified expectation, statement containing prediction of future
success, and
 Statement likely to attract clients, by the use of slogans
PART - B
1. Explain the role of engineers as managers.

2. Explain environmental ethics.
3. What are the philosophical views of nature? Discuss ecocentric ethics.[Nov 2011]
4. Explain engineers as expert witnesses and advisors.
5. Discuss an engineer’s involvement in weapons work.
6. Write a brief account on 'consulting engineering'.
7. Explain computer ethics. [May 2013]
8. Discuss the pros and cons of multinational companies from ethical point of view.[May 2010]
9. Discuss 'morally creative leaders' and participation in professional societies.

10. Does Globalization solve the global issues?

Question Bank Professional Ethics

Încărcat de

Informații document

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Question Bank Professional Ethics

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

GE2025 Professional Ethics in Engineering Department Of CSE 2013-2014

ST.JOSEPH’S COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

29. What are the steps in confronting moral dilemmas?

17. Explain the Four ethical theories [May 2011]

19) Who is a professional? Explain whether engineering is a profession?

St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

1. What is the importance of experimentation?[Nov 2011]

2. List some of the importance of learning from the past.

3. What is meant by valid consent?[May 2010]

4. What are the responsibilities of engineers to society?

5. What are the types of Standards?

6. What is meant by industrial standards?

7. List out the advantages of industrial standards.

 It facilitates the interchange of components

St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

 They decrease production costs

8. What do you understand by standard experiments?

9. Explain “informed consent”

10. Explain codes of ethics.

11. Explain minimal compliance.

12. Write about U.S Steamboat code.

St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

14. What do you mean by a regulated society?[May2013]

IEEE – International Electrical & Electronics Engineering Association

IEE – International Electrical Engineering Association

IE – Institute of Engineers (INDIA)

NSPE – National Society of Professional Engineers (USA)

ABET – Accreditation Board of Engineering & Technology (USA)

AAES – American Association of Electrical Societies

ABES – American Association and Engineering Society

ASCE – American Society of Civil Engineering

AICTE – All India Council of Technical Education

ISTE – Indian Society of Technical Education

16. What are the uncertainties which occurs while designing?

Model used for design calculation

Exact characteristics of the material purchased

Constancies of material used for processing and fabrications

Amount of pressure the finished product will encounter

17. List some examples for Learning from the Past.

Some examples for Learning from the Past are

St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

18. What are the primary responsibilities of Engineers?

19. Define : Conscientiousness.

20. Explain : Moral Autonomy.[Nov 2012]

When engineering as seen as a social experimentation it helps to keeps a sense of autonomous

21. Define: Accountability.

22. List some function of codes.

The functions of codes are

 Inspiration and Guidance

St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

23. List some Limitation of codes.

The Limitation of codes is

 Codes are said to be coercive. (Implemented by threaten force)

25. Types of whistle blowing

St.Joseph’s College of Engineering ISO 9001:2008

1. What is meant by risk?

3. What is the idea behind acceptability?

4. What can the engineer do to ensure safety?

6. What are the difficulties of accessing the personal risks?

7. What does Minimal Compliance mean?

8. How can you improve the product safety?[may 2011]