SRI KRISHNA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

ENGINEERING ETHICS
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
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GLOSSARY
Aspirational
A strong desire to achieve something high or great. An aspirational code would be intended to reach a
higher ethics standard that supercedes being in compliance.

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Authenticity

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Benchmarking
The process of comparing one's ethics climate to that of a previously established "best practices"
climate.
Bias

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Bribe

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Capacity Building
The development of an organization's core skills and capabilities, such as leadership, management,
finance and fundraising, programs and evaluation, in order to build the organization's effectiveness
and sustainability. It is the process of assisting an individual or group to identify and address issues
and gain the insights, knowledge and experience needed to solve problems and implement change.
Capacity building is facilitated through the provision of technical support activities, including coaching,
training, specific technical assistance and resource networking.
Character Education
The long-term process of helping individuals develop knowledge of, motivation to, and practices of
living by a set of ethical standards. Character education stems from the idea that we establish our
standards for action based upon the ideals and behaviors we learn from others.
Cheating

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Authenticity is the character trait or virtue of authenticity is that of being genuine, honest with
oneself as well as others. Therefore, "authenticity" connotes not only candor, but an
absence of hypocrisy or self-deception.

An inclination that influences judgment is a bias. The term may be used in a merely
descriptive way to mean an inclination, but more often it is used indicate an inclination that
influences judgment but ought not to. "Prejudice" is a synonym for bias in this pejorative
sense.
A bribe is something given or offered to a person or organization in a position of trust to
induce such a person to behave in a way inconsistent with that trust.

In general, anything that is done for the purpose of deceiving someone else for personal
gain or advantage. It has three essential elements:
1. more than one person
2. intentional deception or dishonesty
3. a goal of personal gain, whether money, property, or public image.
Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics
A central guide and reference for users in support of day-to-day decision making. It is meant to clarify
an organization's mission, values and principles, linking them with standards of professional conduct.
As a reference, it can be used to locate relevant documents, services and other resources related to
ethics within the organization.

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Code Provisions
The specific standards of behavior and performance expectations that your organization chooses to
highlight and address in your code.

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Commitment

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Communication

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Communities

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Competition

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Compliance
Conforming or adapting one's actions to another's wishes, to a rule, or to necessity. A compliance
code would be intended to meet all legal requirements.
Confidentiality

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Conflict of Interest
A person has a conflict of interest when the person is in a position of trust which requires her to
exercise judgment on behalf of others (people, institutions, etc.) and also has interests or obligations
of the sort that might interfere with the exercise of her judgment, and which the person is morally
required to either avoid or openly acknowledge.
Conscience (Professional)
Copyright

A copyright is a legal right (usually of the author or composer or publisher of a work) to

exclusive publication production, sale, or distribution of some work for a specified period.
What is protected by the copyright is the expression, not the idea.
Corruption
The abuse of public power for private benefit. Perversion or destruction of integrity in the discharge of
public duties by bribery or favor or the use or existence of corrupt practices, especially in a state or
public corporation
Courage
Choosing to do what one believes is right even if the result will not be to everyone's liking or may lead
to personal loss.
Credo
Fundamental beliefs (or a set of beliefs) or guiding principles.
Deontology
The science related to duty or moral obligation. In moral philosophy, deontology is the view that
morality either forbids or permits actions. For example, a deontological moral theory might hold that
lying is wrong, even if it produces good consequences. Deontological theories, from the Greek word
deon, or duty, emphasize foundational duties or obligations. This is a kind of purist view of ethics,
somewhat independent of the realities of life.
Discipline
Discrimination

Discrimination in the common, morally relevant use of the term, is a failure to treat people
fairly because of a bias against (or for) some because of a characteristic such as race,
religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, physical appearance, or disability that is
irrelevant to the decision at hand (e.g., job skills or qualifications for public housing).
Discrimination may be intentional or unintentional. Discrimination is a form of behavior that
shows prejudice, but not the only form.

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Dynamic responsibility
The world of embracing problems and challenges; knowing when to renegotiate promises made; and
fostering change in the society around us. (From "The Joy in Taking Responsibility: Remarks to the
Corps of Cadets, Valley Forge Military Academy & College", April 2001, Kenneth W. Johnson)

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Ego

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Empathy
Caring about the consequences of one's choices as they affect others. Being concerned with the
effect one's decisions have on those who have no say in the decision itself.
Employee rights
Environmental Protection
Ethical Congruence
A situation where one's decision is consistent with, aligns with, the applicable set(s) of values. Under
these circumstances, a choice to take some action will harmonize with the decision-maker's values.
The organizational state where values, behaviors and perceptions are aligned.
Ethical Differences
Situations in which two people agree on a particular value and disagree as to the action to be taken or
decision to be made.
Ethical Dilemmas
Situations that require ethical judgment calls. Often, there is more than one right answer and no winwin solution in which we get everything we want.
Ethics
The decisions, choices, and actions (behaviors) we make that reflect and enact our values.
The study of what we understand to be good and right behavior and how people make those
judgments. (From "What is the Difference Between Ethics, Morals and Values?", Frank Navran)
A set of standards of conduct that guide decisions and actions based on duties derived from core
values. (From "The Ethics of Non-profit Management," Stephen D. Potts)
There are many definitions as to what ethics encompasses:
* The discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation;
* Decisions, choices, and actions we make that reflect and enact our values;
* A set of moral principles or values;
* A theory or system of moral values; and/or
* A guiding philosophy.
Ethical Decision-making
Altruistic considerations What impact will this action or decision have on others or my relationship with
them?
Idealistic considerations What is the right thing to do - as defined by the values and principles, which
apply to this situation?
Individualistic considerations What will happen to me as a consequence of this action or decision?
Pragmatic considerations What are the business consequences of this action or decision?
False Credit Reporting Act
Falsification

In research ethics, the term falsification means changing or misrepresenting data or

experiments, or misrepresenting other significant matters such as the credentials of an
investigator in a research proposal. Unlike fabrication, the distinguishing of falsification data
from legitimate data selection often requires judgment and an understanding of statistical
methods.

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Focus Group
A small group of people whose response to something is studied to determine the response that can
be expected from a larger population. Information obtained from focus groups is not analyzed
statistically, but instead used for informational purposes (i.e., to assess the culture of an organization).

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Good faith
Based on the belief in the accuracy of the information or concern being reported.
Governance
The act, process or power of exercising authority or control in an organizational setting.
Government Accountability Project

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Gray Areas
Situations in which the individual's business standards lack clarity. The lack of clarity may be due to

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an individual's not being familiar with a guideline or a guideline that is vague and subject to
interpretation. Guidelines are often written to provide managers with as much latitude as appropriate,
and this may create gray areas.
Human Rights
Independence
In the most general usage, freedom to act without control or influence from others, to be free to make
decisions and act without external constraint. In the business world, independence has come to have
a specialized meaning. It is most commonly understood to mean freedom from conflicting interests the specialized case of having the ability to make a decision or act in ways which are free from conflict
between one's personal interests and the interests of the party on whose behalf we are making the
decision.
Industrial Accidents
In-house Reporting System
Any system established by an organization to meet the standards of an effective program to prevent
and detect violations of law in order to provide employees and other agents with a means to report
misconduct to the organization without fear of retribution.
Integration
In the context of ethics programs, integration means the ability to put ethical principles into practice
Integrity
Making choices that are consistent with each other and with the stated and operative values one
espouses. Striving for ethical congruence in one's decisions.
ISO
Leadership Interview
One-on-one interviews with top-level executives or managers that are intended to bring forth
information regarding one's ethics climate. Information obtained through these interviews is not
intended for statistical analysis, but instead for informational purposes.
Liability

A person is liable when obligated by law to make satisfaction, compensation, or restitution

for some act or injury. Liability is a legal notion indicating a legal debt or obligation.
Loyalty
Maxims
Short, pithy statements that are used to instruct and guide behavior.
Moral Responsibility
Moral Rights
Morals
Values that we attribute to a system of beliefs that help the individual define right versus wrong, good
versus bad. These typically get their authority from something outside the individual -- a higher being
or higher authority (e.g. government, society). Moral concepts, judgments and practices may vary
from one society to another.
Natural Experiments
Obligations

Obligations are requirements arising from a persons situation or circumstances (e.g.,

relationships, knowledge, position) that specify what must or must not be done for some
moral, legal, religious, or institutional reasons.
Occupational health and safety
Ombudsman
A designated neutral or impartial dispute resolution practitioner whose major function is to provide
confidential and informal assistance to managers and employees and/or clients of the employer:
patients, students, suppliers or customers.
Patents

A patent is a (special, alienable, prima facie) legal right granted by the government to use, or
at least (in cases where other patents that such use would infringe) to bar others from using

a device, design, or type of plant that one has created.

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Patience
Taking time to consider and deliberate the long term consequences of a choice before making that
choice and acting upon it.
Personal Risk
Plagiarism

Plagiarism is commonly defined as the unacknowledged appropriation of the words, graphic

images, or ideas of another person.

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Pollution

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Professionalism

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Quality Control

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Responsibility

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Rights

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Risks

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Rules-centered Code of Conduct

Frequently takes the form of a list of behavioral requirements, the violation of which could result in
disciplinary action.

Positive thinking
Pragmatism
Prejudice

Bias for or against someone or something that fails to take true account of their
characteristics.
Proprietary

Proprietary rights, claims, etc. are the rights, claims, etc. of owners. Sorting out the rights
that go with property ownership is complicated, both because of the variety of types of
property, and because of the problem of sorting out conflicting claims regarding property
and conflicts between property rights and other rights.
Rationality
Reparations

Reparations are benefits given to some person or group to make amends for damage done
by previous injustice. For example, as a result of the "Civil Liberties Act of 1988," JapaneseAmericans who were placed in internment camps during World War II received a monetary
payment (of about $20,000 each) as reparations. Because children may be damaged by
injustice done to their forebears, say because poverty undermines their health or limits their
educational opportunities, arguments are made for reparations to descendants of those who
were first injured, if the consequences of the injury are of the sort that pass from one
generation to the next.
Responsibility is a complex concept with both non-moral and moral meanings, and at least
forward- and back-looking forms. The moral and forward-looking sense of responsibility is
the sense in which one is responsible for achieving (or maintaining) a good result in some
matter.
Rights are claims that have some justification behind them. A moral right is a morally
justified claim. A legal right is a legally justified claim. When one uses the term "right"
without specifying the nature of the justification, one usually means a moral right.
"Risk" is used colloquially as a term for a danger that arises unpredictably, such as being
struck by a car. Sometimes it is used for the likelihood of a particular danger or hazard, as
when someone says, "You can reduce your risk of being hit by a car by crossing at the
crosswalk."

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Safety

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Self Deception

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Social Experimentation

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Static responsibility
The world of duty, obligation, and accountability: doing what you are told, doing what you promised,
doing what is expected.
Survey
A set of questions used to examine a condition, situation or value.
Sustainability
Generally, referring to a state or condition that can be maintained over an indefinite period of time.
Commonly used with development as in: "Sustainable development is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

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Safety involves freedom from danger. A property of a device or process is safe insofar as it
limits the risk of accident below some specified acceptable level.
Self-deception is a failure to make explicit, even to oneself, some truth about oneself (often
ones behavior). It may take the form of making up some rationalization for a behavior that is
inconsistent with ones sense of self, or it may take the form of failing to take notice of some
of the features of the situation when it would be appropriate to do so. The latter
phenomenon is one that psychologists call "denial." Self-deception is a bar to authenticity.
Stakeholder

A stakeholder is a person or group who can affect or be affected by an action. Responsible

decision making requires consideration of the effects on all stakeholders. Various
stakeholders may be morally entitled to consideration of different aspects of their welfare,
however. For example, a corporate decision may affect or be influenced by employees,
stockholders, customers, suppliers, communities, some government agencies, and
corporate competitors.

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Synthetic Biology

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Task Force
A temporary grouping under one leadership for the purpose of accomplishing a definite objective.
Teamwork

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Using synthetic biology, scientists hope to circumvent the difficulties that very complex
naturally occurring biological systems pose to controlling their activities. By building
biological systems from the ground up, they hope to create entities that will function like
computers or factories, producing the desired products at the times and in the amounts we
want.

Terrorism
Therapeutic Illusion

A term given to children (or sometime to a particular disease in children) to express the
problem that few medications prescribed for children have been tested on children or
approved fro use in children. The fear of harming individual children who might be research
subjects in relevant drug studies deprives children as a class by undermining efforts to gain
knowledge about how to better treat them.

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Time Management

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Transparency
Sharing information and acting in an open manner.

Tort

A tort is a private or civil (as contrasted with criminal) wrong or injury. Sometimes "tort law"
is used as a general designation to include provisions concerning breaches of contract as
well as a failure in some duty.

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A principle that allows those affected by administrative decisions, business transactions or charitable
work to know not only the basic facts and figures but also the mechanisms and processes. It is the
duty of civil servants, managers and trustees to act visibly, predictably and understandably.
Trustworthiness

Trust is confident reliance. We may have confidence in events, people, or circumstances, or

at least in our beliefs and predictions about them, but if we do not in some way rely on them,
our confidence alone does not amount to trust. When trust is well-founded and if trust of
another person or moral agent is morally sound, then it is based on trustworthiness.
Truthfulness
Unions (Employee)
Values
The core beliefs we hold regarding what is right and fair in terms of our actions and our interactions
with others. Another way to characterize values is that they are what an individual believes to be of
worth and importance to their life (valuable).
Values-centered Code of Ethics Offers
A set of ethical ideals, such as integrity, trust-worthiness and responsibility, which companies want
employees to adopt in their work practices.
Virtues
Washout Study

A washout study is one in which patients/subjects are removed from all psychiatric
medication to study baseline states or pure effects of new drug treatment.
Whistle-blower
A person who takes a concern (such as a concern about safety, financial fraud, or mistreatment)
outside of the organization in which the abuse or suspected abuse is occurring and with which the
whistle-blower is affiliated.
Whistleblowing is made up of four components: "(1) An individual act with the intention of making
information public; (2) the information is conveyed to parties outside the organization who make it
public and a part of the public record; (3) the information has to do with possible or actual nontrivial
wrongdoing in an organization; (4) the person exposing the agency is not a journalist or ordinary
citizen, but a member or former member of the organization."