The Studies In Conflict Of Interest In Engineering Profession

On the basis of a particular analysis of existed definitions of conflict of interest, this paper firstly suggests a new definition of it on a different perspective, that is, engineers who by employer or client are distracted by various of interests, when they are making their professional decisions, the dilemma which they have to face when they are considering the interest of the company, the public and themselves is conflict of interest. The issue of conflict of interest in engineering is made up of engineers, the company and the publics. Although there are some ethical problems of conflict of interest, not all of them have matters. Not all conflict of interest is immoral, also not all of them should be avoided.Then, this paper secondly brings in three categories of response to the issue of conflict of interest, that is escape, disclose and managing, with an analysis of the difference between them. Meanwhile, using case study that is very common in studies of engineering ethics, this paper specifies how to group and deal with conflict of interest in practice. However, the author finds that all the methods have their limits and they cannot resolve this issue completely. So, the author comes up with a more reasonable solution to ethical dilemmas that identify and clarify the relevant moral values and key concepts, obtain the relevant information of the fact, consider all the options, and finally make reasonable decisions.Well, is there a unique standard to let engineers could make decisions according to it when they meet the issue of conflict of interest in practice? The author holds that codes of ethics will make the profession of engineering concern more about ethical problems, which have an affect on the public. This paper not only introduces related codes of ethics of engineering societies in U.S. and codes of conduct of major corporations, but also states the definition of code of ethics. Engineering code of ethics is a published conduct norm represented by profession society, providing helpful guidance concerning the main obligations of engineers. In engineering profession, code of ethics has five important functions, serving and protecting the public, giving the factors need to consider, supporting for responsible professionals, and contributing to the profession's image. The author considers limitation of codes and tries to present sound codes of ethics.With discussing the issue of the profession, the author thinks that as a collective commitment of engineering profession, codes of ethics openly serve a moral ideal, and restrict engineers' professional conduct as well as keep the public's faith and trust, like a "contract" between engineers and the public, thus, make sure engineering become a kind of profession. At the end, this paper suggests that engineering professionalism is constituted by professional excellent and ethical integrate together. The highest professional standard, which engineers should abide by, is expressed in the form of codes of ethics. However, beside codes of ethics, professionalism is depended on education accreditation and engineer license as well. Consequently, the issue of conflict of interest in engineering only will be thoroughly resolved in engineering professionalism.