Beyond the Code: A Meta-Analysis of Cultural and Societal Factors in Engineering Ethics

Since concerns in the ethical issues of engineering projects can cause harm, both to the public and the environment, the topic has received many attentions. This meta-synthesis will seek to pull together current knowledge to illuminate the ethical issues which are encountered within engineering projects including: the moral obligation of engineers; conflict of interest; safety; and environmental concerns. Due to the relative unavailability of important theoretical studies on ethical issues and decision-making in engineering profession, this study uses findings from substantial quantitative studies, qualitative case analytical studies, and formal or standard theoretical studies in various fields of engineering to analyze common ethical issues, and assess the roles of regulatory frameworks, corporate governance, and code of conducts as agents in ethical decision processes. Results show that these engineers are restrained by code of technical professionalism, but their principles of ethics are limited by extraneous factors such as financial viability and/or company dictates. The author then discusses the implications of the findings to practice and suggests ideas for implementing ethical education to engineering and for strengthening the function of professional engineering institutions in the ethical development of engineers.