Global Engineering Ethics: A Marketing Approach Available to Purchase

There is no doubt that the world is shrinking in many ways, including the ways that engineers from various nations collaborate and share ideas. Along with major international projects such as the international space station, corporations in the United States and abroad are carrying out international engineering tasks on a daily basis. Such collaborations have been of great benefit to the engineering profession because of the free exchange of ideas and engineering talents. One of the main problems facing engineers in the international arena, however, is the lack of a common ethical background. The debate about how to create a common, global code of ethics for engineers has been carried out for several years. The aim of this paper is not add to the arguments about what should be included in a global code of ethics. The purpose of this paper is, in fact, to present a method by which an international organization tasked with the development and administration of such a code could go about attracting potential members. A common code of ethics, containing tenets that most engineering societies around the world already agree upon, is laid down as the framework. From this the basic operation of an international engineering society is outlined. With this basic starting point established the discussion proceeds to the techniques that an international society would need to employ in order grow in numbers and gain credibility among the profession. Further discussion leads to incorporation of these ideas into the education of engineers at the undergraduate level. Ethical training is currently incorporated into undergraduate curricula at many universities in the US. In many cases, however, this portion of the curriculum is limited to western ethical philosophies and the codes of ethics of the American engineering societies. Undergraduate engineering education is designed to develop the next generation to lead their engineering fields. With the prevalence of international collaboration in engineering it is almost assured that these future engineers will be international engineers, to some degree. This paper presents not only a method for attracting potential members to an international engineering society, but also means to prepare future engineers to be responsible members of the international engineering community.