- Independent audit of ethical behaviour shows UK engineering profession compares favourably with the wider workforce
- Individuals, companies and professional engineering organisations must work together to address issues and promote ethical practice.
An independent national audit of ethical behaviour in UK engineering has found that the profession has a good foundation of ethical practice and that engineers and technicians take ethics very seriously. However, there is also variation in the support for ethical practice across the industry that must be addressed in a coordinated fashion.
The Royal Academy of Engineering commissioned the business ethics consultancy, GoodCorporation, to carry out the audit in 2022 and has today published the independent findings in Ethics in the Engineering Profession, together with a collective response from the engineering profession.
The audit asked more than 2000 individuals, companies, and professional institutions about their experience of ethical practice and compared the experience of engineers and technicians with over 3000 responses from those in other careers and sectors.
Key findings
- Eighty per cent of engineers and technicians surveyed said their organisations have a strong ethical culture and that operating responsibly is a priority, compared with 66% of the general UK workforce who believe this about their own organisation.
- Some 94% of engineers agreed that serious adverse impacts on safety should be reported, regardless of any possible effect on their career, while 84% of engineers and technicians were mindful of how their work affects the environment, compared with 65% of the UK working population questioned.
- Some company cultures can make engineers and technicians feel dissuaded from actively raising bad news or concerns in the workplace. For example,
- One third of engineers and technicians report the work they undertake makes them feel ethically compromised.
- 44% say profitability is sometimes prioritised over fitness-for-purpose.
- 35% say they are asked to take shortcuts they feel are unacceptable.
- Engineers and technicians in larger companies have more support when it comes to ethics than those working in smaller firms. Engineering businesses rank the safety, health and wellbeing of workers, business integrity and cybersecurity as the most relevant ethical risks for their organisations, and report being well prepared to address risks in these areas. Many companies also recognise the increasing relevance of such risks in their supply chains and are working to mitigate them. The engineering profession and the individual institutions that make up the professional landscape are actively working on ethics but there is scope for a more unified and comprehensive approach.
The profession’s response
After consulting widely with the professional engineering institutions about the audit’s findings, the Academy has published a response on behalf of the profession that accepts the key findings and welcomes the valuable insights it offers.
Although the report describes the digital, IT and computing sectors as distinct, the general principle of the expected ethical behaviours of engineers and technicians working in these sectors should be consistent with those of the wider engineering community.
Ethical company cultures require wholesale review of company values, and top-to-bottom adoption. The company section of the audit shows that many companies are well advanced in their thinking and preparedness for the risks that they feel are most relevant, but more can be done to ensure this thinking has the desired effect on culture.
The profession commits to working with its constituent bodies and other partners in engineering to do the following:
- Build within the profession a greater awareness of, and alignment with, the Engineering Council/Royal Academy of Engineering Statement of Ethical Principles
- Map the roles and responsibilities for the various stakeholders in UK engineering regarding ethics.
- Explore how smaller engineering companies can be better supported to develop and embed the resources necessary for ethical practice.
- Improve ethics resources developed for professional engineers and technicians to use as part of their Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
- Examine mandating minimum requirements for ethics-related CPD among professionally registered engineers and technicians.
- Assess the availability of channels for UK engineers and technicians to call out bad practice and consider the need for a prescribed body to support this.
- Create better links between professional engineering institutions and employers/companies across UK engineering.
Dr Rhys Morgan, Director of Education and Diversity at the Academy, said “The public must have confidence that engineering is practised ethically in the UK, and I am pleased that the results of this audit support other research that suggests engineering is a highly trusted profession. Engineers work in the service of society and are therefore bound by a moral code of ethical behaviour to act in a way that upholds the high standards expected by the public.
“The findings of this audit not only provide insight into UK engineering ethical culture but also useful pointers on how future benchmarking exercises might be improved. Everyone working as an engineer or technician, whether a member of a professional engineering institution or not, is a member of the engineering community. We need to find new and better ways to reach and engage with that wider community of engineers more effectively.
“As a self-regulated profession responsible for much of the technology, infrastructure, products and services that support 21st century society, we cannot be complacent and we must strive to be the most ethical profession we can be.”
The audit was one of the actions proposed in the 2022 report Engineering Ethics: maintaining society’s trust in the engineering profession that the Academy and the Engineering Council agreed to take forward with the support of the professional engineering institutions.
Notes for editors
- The joint Engineering Ethics Reference Group was established by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Engineering Council. It operates at a strategic level with the overarching objective of providing advice and a steer to the profession about embedding a culture of ethical behaviour. More about its work can be found here.
- GoodCorporation offers a range of business ethics consultancy services to help their clients to design, build, embed and evaluate effective ethics and compliance programmes. They evaluate and benchmark the results for regulators, companies and external advisers.