Chapter 1

ENGINEERING
PROFESSIONALISM
Er. Subash Sapkota
(BE CIVIL, MSC in ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT)
 CourseOutline

No. of chapters = 6
1. Engineering Professionalism 4 hrs.
2. History of Engineering Practice 2 hrs.
3. Engineering Professional Practice in Nepal 12 hrs.
4. Engineering Professional Practice Sectors in Nepal 4 hrs.
5. Engineering Professional Practice in Other Countries 2 hrs.
6. Issues of Engineering Professional Ethics 3 hrs.

EPP
 References:

⚫ Carson Morrison and Philips Hughes, “ Professional

Engineering Practice with Ethical Aspects.”
⚫ Tak Bahadur Galami,” Engineering Professional
Practice.”
⚫ Nepal Engineering Council Act
⚫ Contract Act/ Labor Act/ Company Act/ Copyright
Act/ Public Procurement Act/ Building Bylaws.
⚫ Lawcommission.gov.np

EPP
 1.1 Profession / Professional and Professionalism

1.2 Moral and ethics in engineering profession

3. Codes of ethics and guidelines for engineering

profession

4. Relationship of engineering profession to basic

science and technology, Relation to other profession

1.5 Key roles of engineers in development activities

ENGINEERING 1.6 Law of ethics in engineering practices

PROFESSIONALISM
(4hrs) 1.7 Fundamental canons for professional engineers

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 Profession
• A profession can be defined as the
systematic knowledge acquired
through specialized training
through specialized training or
education .
• Profession is taken as synonym to
job or occupation but is little
different from them.
• Profession helps providing
specialized type of services for the
needy person or community.
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Characteristics of Profession

1.Systematic knowledge and skills:

A profession requires systematic
knowledge and skill.
Without acquiring systematic
knowledge and processing certain
skills, the occupation cannot be a
profession.
Thus medicine, engineering law are
considered as profession.

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Characteristics of Profession
2. Authenticity of knowledge and
skill/ specialized types of services:
Because of their knowledge and skills ,
professionals do have authority and are
also honored by the clients.
Professionals provide specialized type of
service to the ordinary people that they
do not understand.
In this regard , professionals get the
authority of implementing or utilizing
their knowledge or skills on those
ordinary people .

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Characteristics of Profession

3. It is a public property and matter of public

evaluation:
• Professional practice of a professional is subjected to
public evaluation.
• Their clients are always watching each and every
professional behaviour and practice, hence, a
professional’s activity usually become a matter of
public evaluation.
• General people always discuss about the practicing
doctors or engineering their behaviors on the
society.
• In this way, a professional becomes a public property
and their clients them to be honorable.

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Characteristics of Profession
4. Bound by code of ethics:
There will be a code of ethics to regulate
the relationship between professionals,
clients and colleagues .
Professional are required to maintain
high morale and high standard of
behaviors on the society.
They are not free to act as what they
desire .
Their personal and professional
behaviors are controlled by the code of
ethics prepared by the professional
associations/societies. 7
Characteristics of Profession
5. Every profession has some set of
behavior that is similar of the other
people of the same profession:
There will be professional culture
developed by professional organizations.
Every professional do have some set of
behaviour that are similar to the other
person of the same profession.
For example, the different can be seen
between the behaviour of the engineers
or the behaviors of the lawyers.
Their professional societies or the
communities help maintain such culture.
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Factors affecting the morale of the profession/
engineering
1. Salary, incentives, bonus
2. Social norms/ values
3. Low morale ( state of despair hopelessness)
4. Implementation of the laws and regulation
5. Lack of political commitment

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Professional engineering

• Professional engineering can be defined in various

ways.
• However we can say that the practice of professional
engineering is any act of designing, composing
evaluating advising reporting, directing, supervising
where in the safeguarding of life, health and property
or the public welfare is concerned and that requires
the application of engineering principles but does not
include practicing’s a natural scientist
•Nepal engineering council act, 2055 defines
the engineering as the occupation which is
done by the engineers.
•The engineer has been defined as a person
having graduate degree in engineering from
the institute reorganized by the council.

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 Ethics (नै तिकिा)

• Ethics can be defined as the science of rightness and wrongs

of conducts in purposive action which involves choices and
will.
• It is the expression of character that is settled habit of will.
The will is the self in action.
• Thus, ethics is the science of human character as expressed
in right or wrong conduct. Rightness and wrongs refers it the
good, which are the ideas of human life.
• Thus ethics is the science of high test good. It is the science
of morality.

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Moral and non moral (immoral) action
(नैतिक र गैर नैतिक (अनैतिक) कार्य )

• Moral is concerned with human

behaviors and the established norms
in the society.
• Moral means the standards of
behaviour accepted by the culture
and religion of the society.
• Moral qualities are the behaviour
that drives the society forward.
• Non-moral is naturally the devoid of
moral quality.
Moral and non moral (immoral) action

• All actions are not object of moral judgment.

• Only voluntary and habitual actions of
rational personality objects of moral
judgment; we cannot speak of the
phenomenon of the nature, eg hurricane,
floods famines etc moral or immoral.
• The actions of animal are neither moral nor
immoral.
Moral Dilemma and Ethical Decision Making
THE TROLLEY PROBLEM

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THE FOOTBRIDGE DILEMMA
 Resolving Moral Dilemmas

1. Moral clarity
• – Need to know something is wrong! Do not ignore problems!
• – Loyalty to employer, responsibilities to public and environment
(and complex relations between these)
2. Know the facts
• – Get hard, documented facts, discuss with others
• – Competence matters in gathering technical facts
3. Consider options
• – Diversity of actions to take? Evaluate/discuss.
• – Long-term, short-term perspectives, repercussions?
• – “Creative middle solution”?
4. Make a reasonable decision
• – Weigh all factors, recognize “gray areas”/compromises
• – An engineering design problem?
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Example of Ethical Dilemma
Victor is an engineer in a large construction firm. He has
been assigned the task of being the sole person to
recommend cement for the construction of a large apartment
building. After some research and testing, he decides to
recommend HIMAL cement for the job, which he determines
are of the lowest cost and highest quality. On the day after
Victor’s decision was made, an HIMAL representative
visits him and gives him a voucher for an all-expense-paid
trip to the annual HIMAL Technical Forum, which meets in
Bangkok, Thailand. The trip will have considerable educational value,
but will also provide day trips to the beach and other points
of interest. If Victor accepts, has he been bribed?

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• Do you see a “creative middle solution”?
• What about affect on future decisions on
HIMAL?
• What is company policy? Is there an
appearance of bribery (घुसखोरी)?
• May not be a bribe, but still may not be a
good idea!
 Unawareness (थाहा
नपाउनुु )

Insensitivity to issues (महत्व

Why people are नतिनुु )

unethical? Selfishness (स्वाथथ)

Faulty reasoning (गलि कारण

तुु खाएर)

Pressure (तुबाब)

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 Codes of ethics and guideline for professional
engineering practice
1. A code ethics governs the conduct of all practitioners.
2. It endures that engineers practice within their realm of expertise they do so
in a fair and ethical manner and they place the good of society above their
personnel gain.
3. This is a means by which engineer governs themselves.
4. It is privileged earned over the years through knowledge, experience and
trust.

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Five fundamental ethical values for codes
of ethics

1. Protection of life and safeguarding people.

2. Sustainable management and care for the
environment.
3. Community well being
4. Professionalism , integrity and competence
5. Sustaining engineering knowledge.
Rules of conduct:

Professional Engineers (PEs) shall:

1.Have proper regard in all their work for the safety
and welfare of all persons and for the physical
environment affected by their work.
2.Undertake only work that they are competent to
perform by virtue of training and experience and
shall express opinions on engineering matters only
on the basis of adequate knowledge and honesty
convictions.
3.Sigh and seal only reports , plans or documents that
they have prepared under their direct supervision
and controls.
Rules of conduct…
4. Act for their clients or employers as faithful agents
or trustees :always acting independently and with
fairness and justice to all participants.
5. Not engage in activities or accepts remuneration for
services rendered that nay create a conflict of
interest with their clients or employers without the
knowledge and consent of then clients on
employers.
6. Not disclose confidential information without the
consent of their clients or employers unless the
withholding of information is considered contrary to
the safety of the public. 26
Rules of conduct…
7.Present clearly to their clients or employers the
consequence to be expected if their professional
judge is overruled by other authorities n matters
pertaining to work for which they are
professionally responsible
8.Not offer accept the convert (hidden) payment
for the purpose of securing an engineering
assignment.

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Rules of conduct…
9. Present their qualification competence or
advertise professional service only through
factual representation without exaggeration.
10. Conduct themselves towards other
professional engineers and towards employees
and other with fairness and good faith.
11. Report unprofessional practice

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 Professional code of conduct by NEC
1. Discipline and honesty
2. Politeness and confidentiality
3. Non- discrimination
4. Professional work
5. Deeds which may cause harm to the engineering
profession
6. Personal responsibility
7. State name, designation and registration no.
8. No publicity or advertisement must be made
which cause unnecessary effect.
सावयभौतमकिा
चार धमयतनरपक्ष प्रणाली

Four secular systems (चार धमयतनरपक्ष प्रणाली )

Four secular systems or method for making ethical proper

and good decisions:
1. Utilitarianism(उपर्ोतगिावाि): the principle to be
followed is that of beneficiaries . A decision or act is
right or good only if it generates amount of benefit for
the largest number of people at the lowest cost or
harm to others.
2. Universalism (सावय भौतमकिा) the principal to be followed is
of consistency. A decision is right or good if everyone
faced with the same set of circumstance should be
expected to make the same decision.
Four secular systems…

3. Distributive justice (तविरणात्मक न्यार्)– a belief in

the primacy of justice. A decision is good and
proper if the least advantage member of the
society somehow enjoy a better standard of living
the decision compared to as they did before.
4. Personal liberty (व्यक्तिगि स्विन्त्रिा)- value of
liberty. A decision is right or good only if all
members of our society somehow have a greater
freedom to develop their own lives after the
decision.
 Relationship of engineering professions to basic science
and technology and other professions

• The basic science teaches us the law of nature, properties of matter

and sources of power that are available around us.
• Technology teaches us the best application of those laws of nature and
utilization of the properties of matters and sources of power by which,
engineers can make new facilities and create new services.
• Engineering:
• Converts knowledge and produce something useful.
• Application of science
• A bridge between science and technology
S+E = T
• A role to take technology successfully to market which is termed as
innovation
T+E+M = I
• The engineer is by profession best placed to span the gap between
science and technology and the gap between technology and
innovation.
• Whatever the future is, it is heavily depended upon technology. The
engineer and engineering play the central role in its creation and its
successful operation. 32
 Relationship of engineering with other
profession
Areas of discipline related to engineering
• Medicine and Biology: Development of X-Ray machines,
implantmnets of artificial devices like pacemakers. The heart
for example functions musk likes a pump, the skeleton is like
linked structure with levers, the brain produce electric signals
etc.
• Art: There are direct connections between art and
engineering. For example architectural design and aesthetics.
• Politics: In political science the term engineering has been
borrowed for the study of the subjects of social engineer and
political engineering which deals with forming political and
social structure using the engineering methodology coupled
with political science principles.
 Key Roles of engineers in development
activities
Major roles to be played by engineer in development activities are:
1. Creating vision:
• Engineer creates and sets a vision. Imagine useful and beneficial matters and source of
power for the human benefits.
2. Preparing Mission:
• Engineers have been very successful in developing technologies that enable progress and
economic prosperity by preparing various mission / activities related to production and
infrastructure development.
3. Execution:
• Engineers executes the action plan and activities with engineering skills and knowledge.
4. Monitor and evaluate:
• Supervision, monitoring and evaluation of activities is necessary to make economical,
qualitative and timely delivery of products.
5. Train:
• Guidance and train the new and emerging engineers practically and technically to make
more professionals.
Any Questions???

THANK YOU !

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