Improving Engineering Ethics of Professional Engineers in Sri Lanka – Perspectives of Young Engineers

Doing things right is an essential requirement of any profession in the world. Ethics guide professionals to achieve that. Engineering Ethics, which is supposed to be abided by professional engineers, has become a sensitive topic in the industry with rapid globalization. Today, engineers confront numerous ethical issues in the fast-moving world, which is never before. However, it is not an excuse to work unethically. Engineering Ethics should be promoted among engineers, and their ethical behaviour should be enhanced in the present world to face ethical dilemmas successfully. In such a situation, this study was conducted to identify the ways to improve the ethical behaviour of engineers within the context of Sri Lanka. Data were collected from a conveniently selected sample of young engineers in Sri Lanka through a self-administered online questionnaire as an opinion survey. The qualitative content analysis technique was employed inductively to achieve the objective. Approximately 200 responses were received from a sample of 500 engineers. Analysis of the responses has identified the following major categories. 57.5% of responses recommend that it requires proper education and training on Engineering Ethics to improve the ethical behaviour of Sri Lankan engineers. 22.8% of responses recommend carrying out a system change in the existing socio-economic environment in Sri Lankan industrial sector. In comparison, 19.7% of responses highlighted the necessity of enforcing and empowering Engineering Ethics and their practice in Sri Lanka. Stakeholders of the engineering profession can incorporate the study's findings at the policy level to improve the ethical behaviour of engineers. Collecting data only from young engineers in Sri Lanka whose industrial experiences were less than ten years without considering the opinions of senior engineers can be identified as a significant limitation of this study.