Ethics, Standard of Care and Your Engineering Profession
By: Dr. Patricia D. Galloway, Ph.D., P.E., CPEng, PMP, MRICS, F.ASCE, FIEAust, F.ICE, F.AACEI, CFCC

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Perhaps no greater “soft skills” are necessary for the Engineer to acquire than the ability to deal capably with ethical issues and to behave in a professional manner, for these skills lie at the heart of the Engineer’s primary obligation - to hold paramount public safety, health and welfare. As Engineers seek to enhance their image in the 21st century by achieving a better grasp of globalization and improving their ability to communicate effectively, they must also strive to enhance their image with the public whom they are obligated to protect by performing their work in accordance with ethical standards and by giving back to their profession through participation in professional activities and licensure. The Engineer’s role and responsibility today extends beyond protecting today’s public to protecting future generations and the environment that these generations will inherit.   

While ethics have always been an important component of engineering practice, the ethical considerations of the 21st century place a heavier burden on Engineers today. Engineers today must also work to devise ethical means of addressing such problems as climate change, an increase in natural disasters and the pressing need to incorporate the principles of sustainable design into a wide array of projects. And as Engineers move forward in the 21st century, they must also formulate a vision that focuses on how best to determine future societal needs and approaches the management process accordingly, an ethical consideration not typically considered in the past.

Engineering is considered one of society’s activities that has the highest of ethical standards. Opinion polls show that engineering has rated near the top in public esteem and judgment of ethical standards.  A written code of ethics declares before the public the high standards which are professed and provides the public with an understanding of what to expect in their relations with members of the profession. The public then “takes for granted” that the infrastructure for which the public relies will not fail.  The public also puts their trust into Engineers and believes that Engineers will be truthful and honest. The standard of truthfulness in engineering is very high, much higher than in everyday life. It imposes an absolute prohibition on deception.

The Order of the Engineer and Professional Society Codes of Ethics and State Licensing Boards define the Engineer’s role and responsibility. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) makes known the importance of the Engineer’s role in its first canon:

• Fundamental Canon 1.0
  • “Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public...
    1. Engineers shall recognize that the lives, safety, health and welfare of the general public are dependent upon engineering judgment, decisions and practices incorporated into structures, machines, products, processes and duties.
    2. Engineers shall approve or seal only those design documents reviewed or prepared by them, which are determined to be safe for public health and welfare in conformity with accepted engineering standard.”

An engineering practicing professional must possess a service motive and share advances in knowledge, safeguard professional integrity and ideals and render gratuitous public service in addition to service rendered to clients; must recognize one’s obligations to society and to other practitioners by living up to established codes of conduct; must assume relations of confidence and accept individual responsibility; and should carry one’s part of professional groups as well as one’s part of the responsibility of advancing professional knowledge, ideals and practice.

Of course the root of the term “professional” is the word “profession,” which may be defined variously as a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation; a principal calling, vocation, or employment; an occupation that requires advanced expertise, self-regulation, and concerted service to the public good; an occupation in which one is skilled; or a vocation in which professional knowledge of some level of learning is applied to serve others.  But what distinguishes a profession - or more precisely, the engineering profession - from a job or an occupation? A job is a task for which one is paid, so clearly engineering is a job. An occupation is employment through which a person earns a living, and so clearly engineering is an occupation. Engineering, however, is certainly much more than a job or an occupation. While the necessity of education and training is implied in the definition of the term “profession,” an individual does not become a professional simply by acquiring a broad education.

The role is to design a project that meets the desired purpose, is constructible, and designed so that the user and public health, safety and welfare are protected. However, today the role and responsibility goes beyond protecting today’s public, but also to the protection of future generations and the environment. Public works projects are constructed for public welfare; thus consideration as to project long term impact to society and ultimate client objectives play an important part. Ignoring your role including sustainability issues could lead to being found not to have followed a Standard of Care. The Engineer can be held liable and even negligent. Despite the dire consequences of not meeting a standard of care, few Engineers are aware of the meeting a standard of care means or that not meeting it can be construed as being negligent.  While professional liability insurance policies cover errors and omissions, policies seldom cover negligence.

The Kentucky Administrative Code is clear relative to the Engineer’s professional responsibility and the issue of negligence:

• 322.010 (4) (a) 2.0
  • “...or projects with which the public welfare or the safeguarding of life, health, or property is concerned, when that professional service or work requires the application of engineering principles and data.
• 322.180 Grounds for Disciplinary Practice
  • (2) engaged in gross negligence

Given the failing infrastructure of today, in today’s environment, the client is looking to the Engineer to provide solutions that will not only be in the best interest of “today” but will serve as a solution for “tomorrow” and the “future.” Sustainability considerations, life-cycle costing and asset management considerations are all areas that an Engineer should be addressing along with the risks that may arise based on decisions to be made in these considerations which in turn may fall to an expected standard of care. Risk identification and evaluation must be words used in the every day vocabulary of the 21st Century Engineer. The design process must consider the knowledge of a particular product performance or design process as is easily obtained in the public domain-especially given the internet and the availability of knowledge and engineering journals. Assumptions made in the design process will be used in standard of care allegations. As Engineers are not typically familiar with standard of care issues, the following instruction from a judge in a standard of care case defines the broad aspect of this expectation and why Engineers must not only look at their contract, but the industry as a whole as to what their fellow Engineer would have done in similar circumstances:

• “In performing professional services for a client, defendant has the duty to have that degree of learning and skill ordinarily possessed by reputable engineers practicing in the same or a similar locale and under similar circumstances”
• “It is his or her further duty to use care and skill ordinarily used in like cases by reputable members of his or her profession practicing in the same or similar locality under similar circumstances, and to use reasonable diligence and his or her best judgment in the exercise of his or her professional skills and in the applicability of his or her learning in an effect to accomplish the purpose for which he or she was employed.”
• “A Failure to Perform Any Such Duty is Negligence”

Identification of risks and consideration of actions to be taken should risks occur are becoming the expectation and not a concept of the future. If sustainability consists of employing concepts of life-cycle costing, asset management and future impacts to society, what happens if the Engineer fails to take into consideration such steps in its design considerations?  One such liability could be an assertion to follow a standard of care. Engineers design, specify, require and ENFORCE. The Engineer has a sworn duty to protect the public health safety and welfare. Forgetting any of the above results in the Engineers assuming the role of the Responsible Party with all the risk, liability and consequences thereto.

Sustainable design is now requisite. While environmental impact assessments are now common, clients will begin to require that both social-economic and human impact assessments be performed before projects can proceed. For instance, with respect to economic considerations, what is the project cost that represents the best values from the perspective of achieving the project objectives? Have the life-cycle costs been analyzed to determine the total cost of project delivery over its expected life? Have environmental factors been included in the valuation of assets and services? With respect to environmental questions, how will the project interact with the natural environment? Are there any concerns regarding the materials or products proposed that may exert potential future negative impacts on the project depending on the use application?

When considering social impacts, the Engineer should begin by asking how the person living next door is going to view the project.  How can the project best be integrated into the community?  Will the health, diversity and values of the community be maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations?  This in time will require the Engineer to examine specific aspects of the project relative to its materials and products.  Is the life expectancy of the selected materials and / or products the same relative to the social expectation of how long the project will function as designed?  Is there a need for future inspections of any aspect of the project regarding it structural integrity to assure its sustainability over the expected design life?

We should be proud we are Engineers.  However, just having a degree in Engineering is not enough. It is what we do and what we give back that makes us a profession. It is more than a job. The profession calls for high standards as it should. We have an ethical responsibility to the population of this world to act responsibly in everything we do, whether it is designing, constructing, or making managerial decisions. The professional engineering license examination is a necessary requirement to ensure that we can safely design and teach others how to design. Continuing education should be required to maintain a professional engineering license and to better ourselves as first managers and then leaders of the engineered project. We must actively participate in our professional organizations and as part of these professional organizations move as a coalition to ensure that we maintain our stronghold in leadership and decision-making positions, whether that is in City or State government, a particular project, or within our own universities or corporations. We must endure a long battle, but it is our civic duty and obligation as part of our ethical and professional responsibilities.

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Moderator: Kris R. Nielsen, Esq. Ph.D, JD, PMP, MRIC
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Presenting: Case Study - Evaluation of Contractor's Delay & Damages
Presenters: Tom Papachristos, CFCC, and Pradip Mehta, CCE, PMP,PSP
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AACE International's 52nd Annual Meeting & ICEC's 6th World Congress on Cost Engineering, Project Management and Quantity Surveying
Presenters: Bruce Hallock, PSP, CFCC
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