Engineering Ethics - History and Development

The Nineteenth Century and Growing Concern:

As engineering rose as a distinct profession during the nineteenth century, engineers saw themselves as either independent specialists or technical employees of large enterprises. In the United States growing professionalism gave rise to the development of four founding engineering societies: ASCE (1851), the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) (1884), ASMF (1880), and the American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME) (1871). ASCE and AIEE were more closely identified with the engineer as learned professional, where ASME<>

Turning of the Twentieth Century and Turning Point:

As the nineteenth century drew to a close and the twentieth century began, there were a series of significant structural failures, including some spectacular bridge failures, notably the Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (1851), Tay Bridge Disaster (1879), and the Quebec Bridge collapse (1907). These had a profound effect on engineers and forced the profession to confront short comings in technical and construction practice, as well as ethical standards.

One response was the development of formal codes of ethics by three of the four founding engineering societies. AIEE adopted theirs in 1912. ASCE and ASME did so in 1914. AIME did not adopt a code of ethics in its history.

Concerns for professional practice and protecting the public highlighted by these bridge failures, as well as the Boston molasses disaster (1919), provided impetus for another movement that had been underway for some time: to require formal credentials (Professional licensure in the US.) as a requirement to practice. This involves meeting some combination of educational, experience, and testing requirements.

Over the following decade’s most American states and Canadian provinces either required engineers to be licensed, or passed special legislation reserving title rights to organization of professional engineers. The Canadian model is to require all persons working in fields of engineering that posed a risk to life, health, property, the public welfare and the environment to be licensed, and all provinces required licensing by the 1950s.

The US model has generally been only to require those practicing independently (i.e. consulting engineers) to be licensed, while engineers working in industry, education, and sometimes government need not be licensed. This has perpetuated the split between professional engineers and those in industry. Professional societies have adopted generally uniform codes of ethics. On the other hand technical societies have generally not adopted these, but instead sometimes offer ethics education and resources to members similar to those of the professional societies. This is not uniform, nad the question of who is to be held in the highest regard: the public or the employer, is still an open one in industry, and sometimes in professional practice.

Current Status:

The difference in viewpoint between the engineer as a professional and the engineer as employee is still reflected today in the use of the title “engineer”. In US industry, the title “engineer” is determined by the firm and can often apply to anyone executing design work. These can include individuals with an Associate degree or degree in engineering technology. Here, the term “graduate engineer” is pertinent to differentiate those with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering. The US model law for Professional engineers requires a minimum of a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering.

This difference also has led to the division of engineering societies broadly into professional and technical societies. Both professional and technical societies advance technical practice through developing standards, and providing educational, and training resources. However, professional societies like ASCE, ASME, IEEE, and later AICE (1907), and NSPE (1934), also focus on professional practice issues facing the engineer such as licensing laws and ethics.

Technical societies like AIME, the American Railway Engineering Association (AREA) (1899), and later the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) (1905) and Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) (1932) generally don’t address professional practice issues, including ethics.

Current Ethical Issues:

Efforts to promote ethical practice continue. In addition to the professional societies and chartering organizations efforts with their members, the Canadian Iron Ring and American Order of the Engineer trace their roots to the 1907 Quebec Bridge collapse. Both require members to swear an oath to uphold ethical practice and wear a symbolic ring as a reminder.

Currently, bribery and political corruption is being addressed very directly by several professional societies and business groups around the world. However, new issues have arisen, such as offshoring, sustainable development, and environmental protection, that the profession is having to consider and address.