Engineers are required to uphold the greatest levels of honesty and integrity since they are responsible for the public’s safety, health, and welfare. Engineers are required to follow and comply with a code of professional ethics, which includes upholding the highest ethical standards of conduct. The main engineering code also mentions honesty, stating that “…engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty… the services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity” (National Society of Professional Engineers, 2021).
Neglecting the principle of honesty can lead to serious consequences and undermine the credibility of an engineer. For example, an engineer may certify that a project is technically sufficient, but this does not mean that it will be adequate only under particular conditions. This can result in irreversible failure and jeopardize the structure’s overall safety. For example, once the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City was completed in July 1981, two walkways hung over the atrium fell, injuring and killing over 200 people (McFadden, 2021). Despite their understanding of the construction issues, the engineers did not adequately examine and authorize the alterations to the proposal, according to the study. The principle of honesty was severely harmed as a result of this scenario.
Sometimes, however, the principle of honesty involves many variables beyond technical plans and structural design difficulties. This can lead to a situation when the dilemma of the principle of honesty is getting hard to uphold. For instance, the disruption of funding or miscommunication between different branches of companies when the engineer is facing several dilemmas. In this situation, the engineers have to ensure that their professionalism and adherence to the ethics code are beyond the difficulties of the system in which they have to work in.
References
McFadden, C. (2021). Understanding the Tragic Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse. Interesting Engineering. Web.
National Society of Professional Engineers. (2021). NSPE Ethics Reference Guide. NSPE Publishing. Web.