Unit I Human Values (GE8076 Professional Ethics in Engineering)

GE8076 Professional Ethics
in Engineering
by
Dr. S. Selvaganesan Ph.D.(Malaysia)
Professor & HoD / IT

UNIT I
Human Values
 Morals, values and Ethics – Integrity – Work
ethic – Service learning – Civic virtue –
Respect for others – Living peacefully –
Caring – Sharing – Honesty – Courage –
Valuing time – Cooperation – Commitment –
Empathy – Self confidence – Character –
Spirituality – Introduction to Yoga and
meditation for professional excellence and
stress management.

Introduction: Human Values
 Human values are the virtues that guide us
to take into account the human element
when one interacts with other human
beings.
 They are many positive dispositions that
create bond of humanity between people
and thus have value for all of us as human
beings.

 Human values are the principles, standards,
beliefs and convictions that adopt as their
guidelines in daily activities.
 Principal human values are the foundation
on which professional ethics are built.
 They are a set of consistent measures and
behaviors that individuals choose to practice
in the pursuit of doing what is right or what
is expected of them by society.
 Most laws and legislation are shaped by
human values.
Introduction: Human Values

MORALS
 The term Moral is derived from the
Latin word ‘mores’ which means habit.
 Moral is concerned with the principles
of right and wrong behaviour.
 It represents the act of manifesting high
principles for proper conduct.
 Moral can be viewed as a lesson that
can be derived from a story or
experience.

MORALS
 Moral values are relative values that
protect life and are respectful of the
dual life value of self and others.
 The great moral values, such as truth,
freedom, charity, etc., have one thing
in common. When they are
functioning correctly, they are life
protecting or life enhancing for all.

MORALS
 Morality is the quality of being moral.
 That which renders an action right or
wrong;
 It is the practice of moral duties apart
from religion.
 Simply, morals refer to an
individual’s own principles regarding
right and wrong.

MORALS
 Morals can be referred as Descriptive
Ethics. It is a study of human behaviour
as a sequence of beliefs about what is
right or wrong, or good or bad.
 In a sense, morals are the study of
what is thought to be right and what
is generally done by a group, society,
or a culture.

MORALS
In general, morals correspond to what actually is done in
a society.
1. Morals are best studied as psychology, sociology, or
anthropology. Different societies have different
moral codes.
2. Morals are descriptive science; it seeks to establish
‘what is true’ in a society or group.
3. Often, morals are considered to be the shared ideals
of a group, irrespective of whether they are practiced.
4. In a sense of descriptive ethics, different persons,
groups, and societies have different standards. This
observation is seen as true by all groups.

VALUES
 The term Values comes from the Latin
word ‘valere’ which means to be of worth.
 Value means relative worth, utility or
importance, degree of excellence, quality
and intrinsically valuable.
 Value literally means something that has a
price, something precious and worthwhile.

VALUES
 Values are a set of principles or standards of
behaviour, that are regarded as desirable,
important and held in high esteem by
soceity.
 They are based on moral norms or
standards.
 Value is the importance or usefulness of
something.
 Since we give importance, we try to protect
values.

VALUES
 Values reflect personal attitudes and judgments,
decisions and choices, behaviour and relationships,
dreams and vision.
 They give rise to beliefs, thoughts, feelings and
actions.
 Higher benefits, higher the value and higher values,
higher respect.
 Value guide us to do the right things and be morally
sound.
 The basis for values are morals.
 There are different types of values such as personal
values, social values, behavioural values, moral
values and spiritual values.

VALUES
 Values guide us to live ethically, taking right
decisions, and act appropriately.
 Values guide us to evaluate and judge others
actions similarly.
 Values and beliefs have a bearing on our
attitudes. Attitudes are very important for
success and harmony in life.
 Good values help us in feeling at peace from
within, and live in harmony with ourselves and
the society.
 Values give direction to our life.

ETHICS
Ethics refer to the moral principles that
govern a person’s behaviour or the
conducting of an activity.
It is the branch of knowledge that deals with
moral principles.
It refers to rules provided by an external
source, e.g., codes of conduct in workplaces
or principles in religions.

ETHICS
The term ‘ethics’ is derived from the Greek
work ‘ethos’, which meant ‘customs’.
Ethics is the study of the characteristics of
morals.
First of all, ethics is the quest for and the
understanding of the good life, living well, a
life worth living.
In wider perspective, ethics is concerned with
knowing what is worth doing and what is not
worth doing; knowing what is worth wanting
and what is not worth wanting.

ETHICS
Ethics is defined as the discipline dealing
with what is good and bad, and with moral
duty and obligation.
Some of the universally accepted ethical
principles are:
Integrity, Honesty, Humanity, Responsibility,
Accountability, Confidentiality, Discipline,
Loyalty, Collegiality, Conscientiousness,
Competency, Diligence, Wisdom, Courage,
Temperance, Justice etc.

ETHICS
 Various Disciplines of Ethics
1. Personal Ethics:
• Personal ethics is Concerned with the rules by which
an individual lives his or her personal life.
• It deals with how we treat others in our day-to-day
lives.
2. Business Ethics:
• Business ethics is concerned with truth and justice
and has a variety of aspects as the expectation of
society, fair competition, advertising, public
relations, social responsibilities, consumer
autonomy, and corporate behavior.

ETHICS
3. Engineering Ethics:
• Engineering Ethics is concerned with
the rules and standards governing the
conduct of engineers in their role as
professionals.
• A body of philosophy is guiding the
ways that engineers should conduct
themselves in their professional
capacity.

ETHICS
 Various Disciplines of Ethics (Contd.)
4. Medical Ethics:
• Concerned with the rules and standards governing the conduct of
doctors and other medical practitioners in their role as
professionals.
• Indian Medical Association (IMA)
5. Legal Ethics:
• Concerned with the codes that guide the professional conduct of
lawyers, judges, etc.
• All India Bar Association & Indian National Bar Association
6. Accounting Ethics:
• Concerned with the codes that guide the professional conduct of
accountants.
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of India & Institute of Cost Accountants of
India

ETHICS
• Types of Ethics
a) Descriptive Ethics / Morals
b) Normative Ethics / Prescriptive
Ethics
c) Metaethics / Analytical Ethics

ETHICS
 Descriptive Ethics:
 Morals can be referred as Descriptive
Ethics. It is a study of human behaviour
as a sequence of beliefs about what is
right or wrong, or good or bad.
 In a sense, morals are the study of what is
thought to be right and what is generally
done by a group, society, or a culture.

ETHICS
 Normative Ethics / Prescriptive Ethics
 The study of moral problems which seeks to
discover how one ought to act.
 Normative ethics is the study of how people ought
to behave.
 More specifically, normative ethics is the discipline
concerned with the judgments of setting up norms
for the following queries.
 When an act is right or wrong, e.g. is it wrong to
litter on campus?
 What kind of things are good or desirable.
 When a person deserves blame, reward or
neither.

ETHICS
 Metaethics / Analytical Ethics
 This discipline concerned with elucidating the meaning of
ethical terms or the discipline concerned with the
comparison of ethical theories.
 If one can develop a set of principles for distinguishing
between good and bad conduct, we must be able to
understand what ‘good’ means.
 Some Metaethical questions:
 What is goodness?
 What is justice?
 What is the source of our values?
 Is it possible to justify our ethical judgments?
 What does it mean to say something is "ethically good"?

Morals, Values and Ethics
 Morals describes the goodness or
badness, or right or wrong of actions.
 Values describe individual or personal
standards of what is valuable or
important.
 Ethics describes a generally accepted set
of moral principles.

For an example, imagine that you’re sitting in a diner, and an incredibly loud
and obnoxious individual comes in, disturbing everyone’s dinner. How would
you respond?
a) beat up the jerk until he leaves or dies
b) threaten to beat him up
c) do your best to ignore him
d) get up and leave
e) politely explain how his actions are disturbing others, and that you’ll
complain to the manager if he persists.
The first two options may be expedient in terms of getting rid of the jerk, but
it also sets a precedent that justifies physical force to get what you want; very
likely, this individual may respond by escalating the situation.
The next two options are also expedient, but how does it address the
behavior in question? For all we know, the jerk is simply oblivious to the
effect he has on others.
The last would be considered ethical in terms of establishing a boundary of
what is considered “good/right” behavior, and the likely consequences of
continuing to violate that boundary. Indeed, even the consequences prescribed
fall within ethical bounds, by respecting that the final decision of what to do
lies with the person entrusted with running the business.

Four Common Approaches Used in Ethical
Decision-Making
Approach to Dealing
with Moral Issues
Principle
Virtue Approach The ethical choice is the one that best
reflects moral virtues in ourselves and our
community.
Utilitarian
Approach
The ethical choice is the one that produces
the greatest excess of benefits over harm.
Fairness Approach The ethical choice is the one that treats
everyone the same and does not show
favoritism or discrimination.
Common Good
Approach
The ethical choice is the one that advances
the common good.

Ethical Decision Making
1.Get the facts.
2.Identify the stakeholders and their
positions.
3.Consider the consequences of your
decision.
4.Weigh various guidelines and principles
(Virtue, Utilitarian, Fairness, Common
Good).
5.Develop and evaluate options.
6.Review your decision.
7.Evaluate the results of your decision.

Ethics in Computer / Information
Technology field
The increased use of information technology
has raised many ethical issues for today’s IT
professional.
Licensing of IT professionals
Internet communication
Intellectual property
Employee/employer issues

Integrity
 Integrity is the quality of being honest
and having strong moral principles and
moral uprightness.
 It is a personal choice to uphold oneself
to consistently moral and ethical
standards.
 In ethics, integrity is regarded by many
people as the honesty and truthfulness or
accuracy of one’s actions.

Integrity
 One can describe a person as having
ethical integrity to the extent that the
individual’s actions, beliefs, methods,
measures and principles all derive from a
single core group of values.
 An individual must therefore be
flexible and willing to adjust these
values in order to maintain consistency
when these values are challenged.

Integrity
 Integrity is the word derived from
the Latin word ‘integritas’ which
denotes ‘the undiminished or
unimpaired condition of a thing.
 A thing that has integrity is as good as
it can be and cannot be improved.

Integrity
Various types of Integrity
 Every object in this world has some means of
integrity which is to be maintained and not to be
spoiled.
 The following are some form of integrity which is
also to be followed to lead an ethical life, since
ethics and integrity are bounded together.
1. Personal Integrity
2. Professional Integrity
3. Business Integrity
4. Academic Integrity
5. Research Integrity

Integrity
1. Personal Integrity
 Persons are said to have integrity or
not, or to have more or less integrity.
 A person possessing integrity cannot
be bribed; is honest, truthful and
trustworthy.

Integrity
2. Professional Integrity
 Integrity characterizes both individuals
and institutions in which they work.
 When used as a virtue term, ‘integrity’
refers to a quality of person’s character.
 Integrity literally means moral
‘wholeness’.

Integrity
3. Business Integrity
 Business integrity is the reliability with
which the business undertakes its
transactions with various parties with
which it interacts.
 The values of honesty and integrity are
the foundation of an organization’s
reputation.

Integrity
4. Academic Integrity
 Honesty as an engineer begins with
honesty in studying to become an
engineer.
 Academic integrity is the importance of
an institution’s reputation.
 Integrity in research is about promoting
excellence in pursuing truth.

Integrity
5. Research Integrity
 Research should be guided by what
Richard Feynman calls a kind of utter
honesty.
 Integrity in research is about promoting
excellence in pursuing truth.
 For example, if we’re doing an
experiment, we should report everything.

Work Ethic
 Work Ethic is a set of values
based on the moral virtues of
hard work and diligence.
 It is also a belief in the moral
benefit of work and its ability
to enhance character.

Work Ethic
Understanding Work Ethics
 Work ethics are standard measures that
control all functioning in a professional
environment.
 This means, as an employee, you are
expected to be honest, sincere and diligent
about the work you are assigned.
 The practices you opt for (to finish the
work) should be ‘clean’, acceptable and
should abide by concerned laws.

Work Ethic
Five Characteristics of a Good Work Ethic
 The following five characters ensure the
possession of work ethic in an employee.
1. Reliability
2. Dedication
3. Productivity
4. Co-operation
5. Character

Work Ethic
1. Reliability
 Reliability goes hand in hand with a good work
ethic.
 If individuals with a good work ethic say that
they are going to attend a work function or
arrive at a certain time, they do, as they value
punctuality.

Work Ethic
2. Dedication
 Individuals with a good work ethic are often highly
dedicated.
 Those with a good work ethic are dedicated to their jobs
and will do anything they can to ensure that they perform
well.
 Often this dedication leads them to change jobs less
frequently, as they become committed to the positions in
which they work and are not eager to abandon these posts.
 They also often put in extra hours beyond what is
expected, making it easy for their employers to see that
they are workers who go beyond the rest of the workforce
and truly dedicate themselves to their positions.

Work Ethic
3. Productivity
productive.
 They commonly get large amount of work done more
quickly than others who lack work ethic.
4. Cooperation
cooperative in business environment.
 These individuals commonly respect their bosses
enough to work with any individuals with whom they
are paired in a productive and polite manner, even if
they do not enjoy working with the individuals in
question.

Work Ethic
5. Character
 Individuals with a good work ethic often also possess
generally strong character.
 This means that they are self-disciplined, pushing
themselves to complete work tasks instead of
requiring others to intervene.
 They are also often very honest, sincere and
trustworthy.

Work Ethic
Factors that demonstrate a strong Work Ethic
 A work ethic is a set of moral principles an employee
uses in his/her job.
 Certain factors come together to create a strong work ethic.
A strong work ethic can improve your career.
1. Integrity
2. Sense of Responsibility
3. Emphasis on Quality
4. Discipline
5. Sense of teamwork

Work Ethic
How to increase Employee Work Ethic
 A work ethic is typically something ingrained within a
person.
 There are some basic guidelines we can follow to
increase employee work ethic.
Step 1: Expect your manager to set a good example.
Step 2: Create a public recognition system
Step 3: Set clear goals and milestones.
Step 4: Monitor potential troublemakers.
Step 5: Create a monetary award system.

Work Ethic
Negative Work Ethics
 Negative work ethics may be the behavior of a single
individual or something more systematic.
Negative Influences of Bad Work Ethics
 The most obvious sign of a negative work ethic is a
lack of productivity.
 Lack of productivity costs the company time and
money.
1. Attendance
2. Politics
3. Espirit de Corps

Work Ethic
How to deal with Bad Ethics in Co-workers
Step 1
 Avoid the temptation to wait for a coworker to figure out that his bad
work ethic is affecting you.
 Speak to the coworker in private, and explain the problem by giving
specific examples of how his failure to complete work hampered your
ability to get your job done.
 Explain the problem with a teamwork perspective, pointing out how he
and others have an important role to fulfill in the workplace.
Step 2
 Find out if your coworker understands how to complete his assigned
tasks when you discuss work-ethic problems with him.
 Employees sometimes get duties from managers that they don't have the
skills to fulfill, so they avoid those duties.
 Recommend that a coworker ask a manager for guidance or training on
how to complete tasks he doesn't understand. Help him yourself if you
can, but don't do his job for him.

Work Ethic
How to deal with Bad Ethics in Co-workers
Step 3
 Bear in mind that a coworker might not be getting his job done because
he has personal problems that are distracting him.
 Don't feel compelled to take on a coworker's problems, but you can
show understanding by giving him some slack on the job while he sorts
out his troubles.
 In such cases, ask him to consider whether taking time off from work
would be beneficial in tackling his problems.
 Step 4
 Tell your manager about the problems a coworker's bad work ethic is
causing if your other efforts to help him fail.
 Don't make the issue personal when you tell your manager about the
matter. Present your manager with business-related reasons the
coworker's poor work habits are affecting the workplace.
 Consider things such as whether the coworker's behavior is creating a
backlog of work for you and others.

Service Learning
 Service learning is a method of
teaching, learning and reflecting that
combines academic classroom
curriculum with meaningful service,
frequently, youth service, throughout
the community.
 As a teaching method, it falls under the
philosophy of experimental education.

What Is Service-Learning?
Unit 1
Service-Learning is a teaching and learning
strategy that integrates meaningful community
service with instruction and reflection to enrich the
learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and
strengthen communities.

Service Learning - Definition
 It is defined as “a method under which students or
participants learn and develop through active participation
in thoughtfully organized service that is conducted in and
meets the needs of a community;
 is coordinated with an elementary school, secondary
school, institution of higher education, or community
service program, and with the community;
 and helps foster civic responsibility;
 and that is integrated into and enhances the academic
curriculum of the students, or the educational
components of the community service program
 And, provides structured time for the students or
participants to reflect on the service experience.

Service Learning - Definition
 Service-learning is a teaching strategy that offers
students opportunities to learn both in the class room
and in the wider world.
 This pedagogical tool provides students with chances
to directly interact with local agencies and effect
change in the community.
 Alternatively, the National Youth Leadership Council
defines service learning as ‘a philosophy, pedagogy,
and model for community development that is used as
an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or
content standards.”

Key Components
Service-learning combines experimental learning and community
service opportunities. It is distinguished in the following ways:
 Curricular Connection: Integrating the learning into a
service project is a key to successful service learning.
Academic ties should be clear and built upon existing
disciplinary skills.
 Student voice: Beyond being actively engaged in the project,
trainees have the opportunity to select, design, implement, and
evaluate their service activity.
 Student discussion: Students discuss their learning
experience during in-class discussions.
 Reflection: Structured opportunities are created to think, talk,
and write about the service experience. The balance of
reflection and action allows the trainee to be constantly aware
of the impact of their work.
Service Learning

Key Components
 Community Partnerships: Partnership with
community agencies are used to identify genuine needs,
provide mentorship, and contribute input such as labor
and expertise towards completing the project.
 Authentic Community needs: Local community
members or service recipients are involved in
determining the significance and depth of the service
activities involved.
 Assessment: Well-structured assessment instruments
with constructive feedback through reflection provide
valuable information regarding the positive ‘reciprocal
learning’ and serving outcomes for sustainability and
replication.
Service Learning

 In 2008, the National Youth Leadership Council released
the K-12 Service-Learning Standards fro Quality Practice.
 Meaningful Service
 Link to Curriculum
 Reflection
 Diversity
 Youth Voice
 Partnerships
 Progress Monitoring
 Duration and Intensity
Service Learning

Types of Service Learning
The following are four types of service
learning methods followed.
1. Direct Service-Learning
2. Indirect Service-Learning
3. Advocacy Service-Learning
4. Research Service-Learning
Service Learning

The following are four types of service learning methods
followed.
1. Direct Service-Learning: person-to-person, face-to-face
service projects in which the students’ service directly impacts
individuals who receive the service from the students. (Eg.
Tutoring, work with elderly, peer mediation etc.)
2. Indirect Service-Learning: working on broad issues,
environmental projects, or community development–projects
that have clear benefits to the community or environment, but
not necessarily to individually identified people with whom
the students are working. (i.e., collecting trash along a
riverbank, restoration of historic structures, food and clothing
drives)
Service Learning

3. Advocacy Service-Learning: Working, acting, speaking,
writing, teaching, presenting, informing, etc., on projects
that encourage action or create awareness on issues of
public interest (i.e., promoting reading, safety, care for the
environment, local history, violence and drug prevention,
disaster preparedness)
4. Research Service-Learning: Surveys, studies,
evaluations, experiments, data gathering, interviewing,
etc., to find, compile, and report information on topics in
the public interest (i.e., water testing, flora and fauna
studies, surveys)
Service Learning

Comprehensive Action Plan for Service Learning (CAPSL)
• CAPSL identifies four constituencies on which a program
for service learning needs to focus its principal activities:
Institution, Faculty, Students, and Community.
• CAPSL also identifies a sequence of activities (Planning;
Awareness; Prototype; Resources; Expansion;
Recognition; Monitoring; Evaluation; Research;
Institutionalization) to be pursued for each of the four
constituencies(institution, faculty, students and
community).
• CAPSL provides a heuristic for guiding the development
of a service learning program in higher education.
Service Learning

Comprehensive Action Plan for Service Learning
(CAPSL)
Advantages of CAPSL: it is general enough that the
execution of each cell can be tailored to local
conditions.
Disadvantages of CAPSL: it is not possible to detail
how each step can be successfully accomplished to
take the sequence of activities from the whole CAPSL
model and apply it to any cell in the matrix.
Service Learning

Service Learning in Language Education
• Service learning can be used in all standard disciplines and
recently has been explored for use in
improving language instruction.
• A recent study found that integrating environmental issues
with foreign language study
• provides significant opportunities for students to increase
their language proficiency,
• develop their understanding of concepts related to
the environment,
• And, become more involved in a global community through
a virtual service learning project.
• Similar work has found that students can contribute
to sustainable development while improving their language
skills
Service Learning

Effect on Engineering Education
• Many engineering faculty members believe the
educational solution lies in taking a more
constructivist approach, where students construct
knowledge and connections between nodes of
knowledge as opposed to passively absorbing
knowledge.
• Today, many engineering educators are concerned
their students do not receive enough practical
knowledge of engineering and its context.
• Some speculate that adding context to engineering
help to motivate engineering students’ studies and
thus improve retention and diversity in engineering
schools.
Service Learning

Effect on Engineering Education
• Others feel that the teaching style do not match the
learning styles of engineering students.
• Educators see service learning as a way to both
implement a constructivism in engineering education as
well as match the teaching styles to the learning styles of
typical engineering students.
• As a result, many engineering schools have begun to
integrate service learning into their curricula and there is
now a journal dedicated to service learning in
engineering.
Service Learning

Differentiating Service-Learning
from Other Forms of Education
 Experiential Learning: The knowledge and skills
acquired through life, work experience and study
which have not been formally attested through any
educational or professional certification.
 Internship: A work-related learning experience for
individuals who wish to develop hands on work
experience in a certain occupational field
 Practicum: A college course that is designed to give
students supervised practical application of a
previously studied theory

Civic Virtue
 Civic Virtue is morality or standards of
righteous behavior in relationship to a
citizen’s involvement in society.
 An individual may exhibit civic virtue by
voting, volunteering, organizing a book
group and attending a PTA meeting.
 Civic virtue is cultivation of habits of
personal living.
 Civic virtue is dedication of citizens to
the welfare of their community.

Civic Virtue
 Civility is the behavior between persons
and groups that conforms to a social
mode (that is, in accordance with the
civil society), as itself being a
foundational principle of society and
law.

Civic Virtue
 Importance of Civic Virtue
 Civic virtue helps people understand
their ties to the community and their
responsibilities within it.
 Civic virtue both expresses and builds
trust and cooperation in the citizenry,
and it is these qualities – “social capital”
– that make everything else go well.

Respect for Others
 “The treasure of a man is how he
treats you when others are not
looking.”
 Respect for other individuals can be
shown in many forms.
1. Showing gratitude
2. Respecting other’s opinions
3. Respecting your enemies
4. Respecting yourself.

Respect for Others
1. Showing gratitude
 Thank people for their assistance and their support
on a regular basis.
 It is important to remember all the people who’ve
helped you on your journey.
 Show respect by saying thanks.
 Remember to thank your parents, siblings, co-
workers, classmates, friends, teachers, and
neighbours.
 Remember to speak politely to everyone.
 Be sincere.
 Respect the abilities of others.

Respect for Others
2. Respecting other’s opinions
a. Be a good listener.
b. Ask lots of questions
c. Learn about the perspectives of others.
d. Respectfully disagree.
3. Respecting your enemies
a. Don’t judge people before you get to know
them.
b. Decide to like people.
c. Worry about your own backyard.

Respect for Others
4. Respecting yourself.
a. Take care of yourself.
b. Avoid self-destructive behaviors.
c. Stay healthy.
d. Be ambitious.

Living Peacefully
 Living in peace is about harmoniously with
yourself, others, and all sentiment beings around
you.
 Living in peace is both an outward and an
inward process.
 Outwardly, living in peace is a way of life in
which we respect and love each other in spite of
our cultural, religious, and political differences.
 Inwardly, we all need to search our hearts and
minds and understand the fear that causes the
impulse to violence, for in continuing to ignore the
rage within, the storm outside will never subside.

Living Peacefully
Ten ways to stop stressing and start living
peacefully
1. Take time for silence
2. Get rid of stuff
3. Give yourself a safe space
4. Create a budget
5. Organize your time and self
6. Stop being influenced by media
7. Be rational
8. Exercise
9. Express gratitude
10. Treat yourself

Living Peacefully
Remember these things:
1. Worrying accomplishes nothing.
2. Worrying is bad for you.
3. Worrying is the opposite of trust and peace.
4. Worrying puts your attention in the wrong direction.
When worry does grab a hold of you, these fun tips can
help to stop it.
• Listen to music
• Go to a party
• Read a book
• Have a movie night with your friends
• Go camping
• Have a family outing
• Spend a day at the beach

Caring
 Caring can be defined as an act of feeling and
exhibiting concern and empathy for others,
i.e., feeling or showing care and compassion.
 Engineers have capacities for genuinely
caring about the public safety, health and
welfare.
 Engineers are strongly motivated by self-
interest, but they are capable of responding to
moral reasons in their own right, as well as
additional motives concerned with the
particular nature of their work.

Caring
 The following are some basic assumptions
underlying the caring process.
1. Caring can only be effectively
demonstrated and practiced
interpersonally.
2. Caring consists of basic processes that
result in the satisfaction of certain
human needs.
3. Effective caring promotes health and
individual or family growth.

Sharing
 Sharing is the joint use of a resource or space.
 It is the process of dividing and distributing.
 Sharing is a basic component of human
interaction, and is responsible for
strengthening social ties and ensuring a
person’s well-being.

Sharing
 Sharing can be considered as one of the
following criteria.
a) To allow someone to use or enjoy something
that one possesses.
b) To use or enjoy something jointly or in turns.
c) To talk about personal experience or feelings
with others.
d) To be concerned or partake equally or jointly,
as in a business venture.
e) One of the equal parts into which the capital
stock of a company is divided.

Honesty
 Honesty refers to a facet of moral character and connote
positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity,
truthfulness, straightforwardness, including
straightforwardness of conduct, along with the absence of
lying, cheating, theft, etc.
 Furthermore, honesty means being trustworthy, loyal, fair,
and sincere.
 Honesty is valued in many ethnic and religious cultures .
 "Honesty is the best policy" is a proverb of Benjamin
Franklin;
 "Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom"
proverb of Thomas Jefferson.

Honesty
 Some of the actions of an engineer that lead to
dishonesty are:
1. Lying
2. Deliberate deception
3. Withholding the information
4. Not seeking the truth
5. Not maintaining confidentiality
6. Giving professional judgment under the
influence of personal benefits and
prejudice

Courage
Courage (also called bravery, bravado or valour) is the
choice and willingness to confront agony, pain,
danger, uncertainty or intimidation. Physical courage
is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, death
or threat of death, while moral courage is the ability to
act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame,
scandal, discouragement, or personal loss.

Valuing Time
 A first step in good time management is to understand the
value of your time.
 If you are employed by someone else, you need to understand
how much your employer is paying for your time, and how
much profit he or she expects to make from you.
 If you are working for yourself, you should have an idea of
how much income you want to bring in after tax. By working
these figures back to an hourly rate, this gives you an idea of
the value of your time.
 By knowing the value of your time, you should be able to tell
what tasks are worthwhile to perform, and which tasks give a
poor return. This helps you cut away the low value jobs, or
argue for help with them.
L

Cooperation
 Cooperation is the process of groups of
organisms working or acting together for
common or mutual benefit, as opposed to
working in competition for selfish benefit.
Many animal and plant species cooperate
both with other members of their own
species and with members of other species

Commitment
Commitment is willingness to give your time and
energy to something that you believe in, or a
promise or firm decision to do something.
Commitment means acceptance of the
responsibilities and duties and cooperation means
help and assistance. By developing team
commitment and cooperation in a work team you
are assisting the team to meet its goals and
objectives. Work teams that are committed and
cooperative are more likely to achieve the goals the
business has set.

Empathy
 Empathy is the ability to mutually experience the
thoughts, emotions, and direct experience of others.
 The ability to understand another person’s
circumstances, point of view, thoughts, and feelings is
empathy.
 When experiencing empathy, you are able to understand
someone else’s internal experiences.

Empathy
Empathy is the ability to feel what the other person
is feeling. It is to experience their emotions.
Emotional Quotient (EQ) is the capability of
individuals to recognize their own emotions and those
of others, discern between different feelings and label
them appropriately, use emotional information to
guide thinking and behavior, and manage and/or adjust
emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one's
goal(s).
 Emotional Quotient is also called
Emotional intelligence (EI) or emotional leadership
(EL) or Emotional intelligence quotient (EIQ).

Self Confidence
 Self-confidence relates to self-assuredness in one's
personal judgment, ability, power, etc., sometimes
manifested excessively. Being confident in yourself
is infectious if you present yourself well, others will
want to follow in your foot steps towards success.
 Promise yourself, no matter how difficult the
problem life throws at you, that you will try as hard
as you can to help yourself.
 You acknowledge that sometimes your efforts to
help yourself may not result in success, as often
being properly rewarded is not in your control.

Character
 Character traits are all the aspects of a person's behavior and
attitudes that make up that person's personality. Everyone has
character traits, both good and bad.
 Some character traits have to do with your underlying values or
beliefs. Some examples of these types of character traits include:
Religious, Honest, Loyal, Devoted, Loving, Kind, Sincere,
Devoted, Ambitious, Satisfied, Happy, Faithful, Patient,
Determined, Persistent, Adventurous, Homebody, Considerate,
Cooperative, Cheerful, Optimistic, Pessimistic, Funny.
 Some character traits can be bad, and you may not want these
traits associated with you. Some examples of these types of
character traits include: Dishonest, Disloyal, Unkind, Mean, Rude,
Disrespectful, Impatient, Greedy, Angry, Pessimistic, Repugnant,
Cruel, Unmerciful, Wicked, Obnoxious, Malicious, Grumpy,
Quarrelsome, Caustic, Selfish, Unforgiving

Character
 A leader or person who likes to be in charge may have
the following character traits: Domineering, Boorish,
Persuasive, Ambitious, Bossy, Disparaging, Picky, Sly,
Cold-hearted, Rude, Self-centered, Conceited
 Some character traits can be consciously developed,
learned or acquired. For example, character traits that
you may consciously choose to learn or adopt include:
Educated or Informed
 Some character traits for children include: Playful, Zany,
Active, Wild, Silly, Affectionate, Funny, Rough,
Talkative, Rowdy, Smart, Fidgety, Shy, Lively,
Submissive, Stubborn

Spirituality
 Spirituality is the concept of an ultimate or an alleged
immaterial reality, an inner path enabling a person to discover
the essence of his/her being; or the "deepest values and
meanings by which people live.
 Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and
contemplation, are intended to develop an individual's inner
life.
 Spiritual experiences can include being connected to a larger
reality, yielding a more comprehensive self; joining with other
individuals or the human community; with nature or the
cosmos; or with the divine realm.
 Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or
orientation in life. It can encompass belief in immaterial
realities or experiences of the immanent or transcendent nature
of the world.

Spirituality
Spirituality is the realization and
understanding of who you are?
It brings alignment of mind with the body.
Meditation and Yoga help to become
spiritual.
You realize truth and understand reality.
These are also known as moral values.

Spirituality
 Importance of Spirituality in Ethics
 Spirituality plays a key role in the development
of ethical leaders. Moreover, spirituality demands
that ethical leaders cultivate and nourish a sense
of self that recognizes the interrelatedness of life
or sense of community.
 A sense of community refers to the larger
extended ecological sphere made tangible by
nature, defined as the Universe and the Cosmos,
but in its final essence, it is spirit.

Spirituality
 Importance of Spirituality in Ethics (Contd.)
 Spirituality is the core of the inner and social lives of ethical
leaders. It informs the relationship between the private and
public spheres of leadership at the intersection where worlds
collide.
 How then do leaders utilize spirituality as a resource in making
fitting spiritual decisions in the various contexts and situations that
lead to transformation of powerful, intransigent systems?
 The relationship among spirituality, ethics, and leadership is
important because leaders in many public venues are
increasingly turning to approaches that emphasize some
form of spirituality as an authoritative source in making
decisions that impact the lifestyles, attitudes, and behaviours
of many people, especially in the areas of education,
government, health, science, and business.

Introduction to Yoga and meditation for
professional excellence and stress
management

YOGA
 The word “Yoga” means “yoke” or “unity” translated
from Sanskrit. It also means “discipline” or “effort”.
 Yoga is an ancient discipline designed to bring
balance and health to the physical, mental, emotional,
and spiritual dimensions of the individual.
 When adopted as a way of life, yoga improves
physical, mental, intellectual, and spiritual health.
 Yoga offers an effective method of managing and
reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, and
numerous studies demonstrate the efficacy of yoga on
mood-related disorders.

YOGA
 Yoga is often depicted metaphorically as a tree
and comprises eight aspects, or limbs:
yama (universal ethics),
niyama (individual ethics),
asana (physical postures),
pranayama (breath control),
pratyahara (control of the senses),
dharana (concentration),
dyana (meditation), and
samadhi (bliss).

Tree of Yoga
 When one thinks about Yoga today,
the first thing that comes to mind is
the physical practice of postures, or
Asana.
 As described in Patañjali’s Yoga
Sutras, Asana is only 1 of the 8
limbs of Yoga.
 Applying the other 7 will not only
deepen our physical and spiritual
practice but also help take our yoga
off the mat and into our daily lives.
 To help better understand how the
8-step path comes all together,
 BKS Iyengar’s representation of the
Tree of Yoga:

1.Roots: Foundation for living honorably and clearly
Yama – a list of outward observances representing
principles of ethical behavior
2.Trunk: Establishing a base of purity in one’s body and
mind
Niyama – Inward personal observances that improve the
self and surrounding relations
3.Bark: Protecting the tree from outer elements and
preventing its essence from flowing outward
Pratyahara – turning awareness inward, sense withdrawal
4.Sap: Juice which carries the energy on this inward
journey, links the whole tree as one
Dharana – focused state of concentration, bringing the
mind to a single point of focus
Tree of Yoga

5.Branches: Strong and flexible to move with the wind of life
Asana – physical practice of yogic postures
6.Leaves: Drawing in life force through the exchange of breath
Pranayama – mastering the science of breath, breath control
7.Flowers:
Dyana– Meditation
8. Fruit: The essence of the tree
Samadhi – bliss, to feel unity, peace, freedom
Tree of Yoga

• It will calm your mind.
• Reduce human stress
• It will boost human immunity.
• Enhancing fitness.
• Better sleep.
• Weight control.
• Improves respiration, energy, vitality.
• Encourage positive thoughts and self-
acceptance.
Benefits of Yoga

What is Meditation?
 Meditation is a practice that has been associated with
almost all religions and civilizations across the world.
Since it is so closely associated with religion, many people
take meditation to be the same thing as praying.
Meditation is important part of Yoga.
 Benefits of Meditation
 Meditation has two important benefits:
1. Meditation prevents stress from getting into the
system.
2. Meditation releases accumulated stress that is in the
system.
Both of these happen simultaneously, leaving one
refreshed and joyful.

What is Meditation?
 Physical benefits of Meditation
 Lowers high blood pressure
 Lowers the levels of blood lactate, reducing anxiety
attacks
 Decreases any tension-related pain, such as tension,
headaches, ulcers. Insomnia, muscle and joint
problems.
 Increases serotonin production that improves mood and
behaviour
 Improves the immune system
 Increases the energy level, as you gain an inner source
of energy.

What is Meditation?
 Mental benefits of Meditation
 Anxiety decreases
 Emotional stability improves
 Creativity increases
 Happiness increases
 Intuition develops
 Gain clarity and peace of mind
 Problems become smaller
 Meditation sharpens the mind by gaining focus and expands
through relaxation
 A sharp mind without expansion causes tension, anger and
frustration
 An expanded consciousness without sharpness can lead to lack of
action/progress.
 The balance of a sharp mind and an expanded consciousness bring
perfection
 Meditation makes you aware – that your inner attitude determines
your happiness.

What is Meditation?
 Other Benefits of Meditation
Emotional Steadiness and harmony
Meditation brings harmony in creation
Consciousness evolves
Personal Transformation

The role of yoga in stress management
 Hans Selye first introduced the term stress into life science.
The term stress is derived from the Latin word Stringere,
which means “to be drawn tight.”
 Stress is a complex, dynamic process of interaction
between a person and his or her life. Stress can affect one’s
health, work performance, social life, and the relationship with
family members.
 Eminent behavioral scientist Stephen Robbins defines stress as
that which arises from an opportunity, demand, constraint,
threat, or challenge, when the outcomes of the event are
important and uncertain.
 Stress can also be defined as the harmful physical and
emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the
job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the
worker.

The role of yoga in stress
management ….
 Job stress can lead to poor health and even injury. Hence we
can say that stress is a silent killer, and prolonged exposure to
stress may exert harmful effects on physical, psychological,
and behavioral well-being of an individual.
 According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health, 80% of workers experience job stress.
 Kulkarni, in an article “Burnout” published in Indian Journal
of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, has said that the
rapid change of the modern working life is associated with
increasing demands of learning new skills, the need to adapt to
new types of work, pressure of higher productivity and quality
of work, time pressure, and hectic jobs. These factors are
increasing stress among the workforce.

IMPACT OF STRESS
 One of the studies quoted that stress-related disorders
evolve gradually through four recognizable stages.
1.In the first, psychological changes such as anxiety,
irritability, and insomnia arise, due to over-stimulation
of the sympathetic nervous system.
2.In the second stage symptoms such as high blood
pressure, elevated heart rate, and increased intestinal
motility surface.
3.In the third stage, a more profound physical or
biochemical imbalance sets in,
4.In the final fourth stage, irreversible symptoms that
often require surgical or long-term management appear.

IMPACT OF STRESS
 Increased sympathetic activation and the release of stress
hormones, including adrenaline, lead to increases in heart
rate, blood pressure, breathing, body temperature, and
muscle tension.
 In contrast, the relaxation response has been proposed as
an antidote to stress; relaxation decreases heart rate,
breathing, body temperature, and muscle tension.
 Similar to stress in the workplace, college students are
also often impacted by stress. Academic stress can result
from many different imperative stressors, such as final
grades, term papers, examinations, and excessive
homework. Stress has exhibited a negative correlation
with cognitive performance, thus negatively impacting
academic performance.

EFFECT OF YOGA IN STRESS …..
 A growing body of research evidence supports the belief that certain yoga
techniques may improve physical and mental health through down-regulation
of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous
system (SNS).
 The HPA axis and SNS are triggered as a response to a physical or
psychological demand (stressor), leading to a cascade of physiologic,
behavioral, and psychological effects, primarily as a result of the release of
cortisol and catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine).
 This response leads to the mobilization of energy needed to combat the stressor
through the classic fight-or-flight response.
 Over time, the constant state of hyper vigilance resulting from repeated firing
of the HPA axis and SNS can lead to dysregulation of the system, and
ultimately diseases such as obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disorders,
depression, substance abuse, and cardiovascular disease. Studies also show
that yoga decreases levels of salivary cortisol, blood glucose, as well as plasma
renin levels, and 24-hour urine norepinephrine and epinephrine levels.

EFFECT OF YOGA IN STRESS
 Yoga significantly decreases heart rate and systolic and diastolic
blood pressure.
 Studies suggest that yoga reverses the negative impact of stress on
the immune system by increasing levels of immunoglobulin A as
well as natural killer cells.
 Yoga has been found to decrease markers of inflammation such as
high sensitivity C-reactive protein as well as inflammatory
cytokines such as interleukin-6 and lymphocyte-1B. These studies
suggest that yoga has an immediate quieting effect on the SNS-
HPA axis response to stress. While the precise mechanism of action
has not been determined, it has been hypothesized that some yoga
exercises cause a shift toward parasympathetic nervous system
dominance, possibly via direct vagal stimulation. Shapiro et al
noted significant reductions in low-frequency heart rate variability
(HRV)—a sign of sympathetic nervous system activation—in
depressed patients following an 8-week yoga intervention.

EFFECT OF YOGA IN STRESS
 Regardless of the pathophysiologic pathway, yoga has been
shown to have immediate psychological effects: decreasing
anxiety and increasing feelings of emotional, social, and spiritual
well-being.
 Several literature reviews have been conducted that examined the
impact of yoga on specific health conditions, including
cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cancer,
and anxiety.
 Another study has shown improvement of mental health of both
the young and seniors by reducing stress through yoga. Yoga can
be wisely applied in welfare programs to improve the quality of
life in all age groups.
 Yogic science includes yogasanas (postures), pranayama
(breathing practices), dhyana (meditation), and relaxation
techniques which benefit human beings at every level.

Unit I Human Values (GE8076 Professional Ethics in Engineering)

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