**3. Individual social responsibility development**

An individual's perceptions of their social responsibilities as engineers will develop over time via the process of professional socialization. The professional socialization process begins with novice views of the engineering profession. These informal influences may include messages from media (e.g., movies, news, books), family or acquaintances (e.g., parent an engineer), and school (primary and secondary). Some students' pro-social motivations are a driver for their decision to major in engineering [54, 82]. This aligns with efforts to market the social benefits of engineering, in line with recommendations from the US National Academy of Engineers "Changing the Conversation" report [83]. A higher percentage of female engineering students included helping people, helping the environment, and positively impacting society as reasons they chose their engineering major, based on open-ended responses [84]. Differences were also found among disciplines; a greater percentage of students majoring in environmental and civil engineering described helping goals as compared to students majoring in mechanical engineering [54]. Among UK students given 7 options as to why they decided to study engineering, only 13.5% selected a desire to 'make a difference' to the world; there was no difference between female and male students, and this aspiration was the lowest among 4th year students [82]. There is also some evidence that students who enter engineering with the strongest pro-social motivations leave engineering majors during college at a higher rate than their peers [85, 86].

Models have been proposed to explain the development of professional responsibility attitudes in individual engineers. The Professional Social Responsibility Development Model (PSRDM) [89] was based on an ethic of care framework, and drew from Schwartz's [90] altruistic helping behavior model, Ramsey's [91] model for integrating social responsibility into the decision process of scientists, and the Delve [92] Service Learning Model. The PSRDM includes three realms: personal social awareness, professional development, and professional connectedness. The personal social awareness realm describes one's personal feelings of a desire to help others, which is inclusive of the dimensions of awareness that needs exist, feelings that one possesses the ability to help, and a connectedness that motivates one to action. Separate from these personal feelings, an engineer should develop professionally. The three dimensions of this realm include one's belief that a variety of *base skills* are needed for engineers, feelings that engineering has the capacity to help address societal issues (*professional ability*), and an awareness that one should analyze the societal impacts of engineering and include stakeholders from the community in the engineering process. Finally, it is anticipated that a person's individual motivations to help will come together with their engineering professional development, to inform their sense of professional connectedness. A personal motivation to help others through application of one's engineering skills can be fostered through a cycle of engaging in this helping behavior. It will also increase one's sophistication in their awareness of both the costs and benefits of helping and serving others through engineering. An Input-Environment-Output type of model derived from Wiedman [93] was used by Rulifson [92] to describe the development of professional social responsibility ideas in engineering students. As inputs, individuals bring pre-dispositions toward personal social responsibility and attitudes toward engineering into college. These are developed from family influences and high school, etc. Within higher education, a number of factors have been determined to influence ideas of professional social responsibility. However, Cech [87] notably found that attitudes toward public service decreased among 326 engineering students attending four US institutions. This concerning trend was termed a "culture of disengagement." It is perhaps not surprising given that the majority of engineering studies focus on technical issues, and preference technical issues over the interactions of technology with society. This technical:social dualism may reduce students' focus on the impacts of their work as engineers. However, experiences during engineering studies may counter this decrease in engineering students' ideas of socially responsible engineering. Some engineering students cited courses as impactful to their views of social responsibility [94]. Brodeur [95] suggested a number of ways to integrate social responsibility ideas into engineering education, including the use of the CDIO Syllabus, cooperative learning, constructive controversy, and designimplement projects. Service-learning may advance students' ideas of social justice [96] and

Professional Social Responsibility in Engineering http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.73785 51

There are some elements of engineers' professional social responsibilities that are widely agreed upon. These include protection of human health and safety, and protection of the environment. Other engineering social responsibilities have less consensus across countries and

social responsibility [62, 95].

**4. Conclusions**

Professional socialization processes for engineers are more explicitly occurring during higher education and in the engineering workforce. The continuum of the development of professional civil engineers is outlined explicitly in the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (BOK) [40]. Here, the acquisition of various knowledge, skills, and attitudes is mapped from the Bachelor's degree in engineering, through a Master's degree or additional formal education, and during mentored experience working under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer. In regards to professional and ethical responsibility, the civil engineering BOK includes proposed affective domain outcomes such as "commit to the standards of professional and ethical responsibility for engineering practice" [40, p. 94]. Within the "attitudes" outcome elements such as honesty, integrity, consideration of others, respect, and tolerance are included [40].

During higher education, in addition to learning important knowledge and skills, students are developing attitudes and affective outcomes associated with engineering. Professional socialization during higher education includes courses and a variety of informal education experiences outside the classroom, such as professional societies or internships in engineering. A number of studies have explored student perceptions related to elements of social responsibility. Despite bringing students with aspirations toward positive social benefits into engineering, there is evidence that these goals may diminish over time [87, 88].

Professional socialization continues into the engineering workforce. While Cech [87] found continuing evidence of decline in the public service beliefs of alumni from engineering programs after 1.5 years in the workforce, counter-evidence suggests that working engineers may become more committed to their professional social responsibilities over time. A survey of working engineers (Bielefeldt unpublished, from the study described in [8]) found that the majority (61% of n = 467) agreed with the statement "Since earning my bachelor's degree, I have become more motivated to help people and society through my work"; only 16% disagreed and 23% were neutral. Responses did not differ by gender but did differ based on years since earning Bachelor's degree (5 or fewer years lower than 6 or more years) and engineering discipline (mechanical lower than environmental). Similarly, the majority (67%) disagreed with the statement, "Since earning my bachelor's degree, I have become less confident of my ability to make positive impacts on people and society through engineering." Responses differed by gender (female stronger agreement than males), years since earning Bachelor's degree (5 or fewer years more agreement versus 6 or more years), and discipline (environmental stronger agreement than civil).

Models have been proposed to explain the development of professional responsibility attitudes in individual engineers. The Professional Social Responsibility Development Model (PSRDM) [89] was based on an ethic of care framework, and drew from Schwartz's [90] altruistic helping behavior model, Ramsey's [91] model for integrating social responsibility into the decision process of scientists, and the Delve [92] Service Learning Model. The PSRDM includes three realms: personal social awareness, professional development, and professional connectedness. The personal social awareness realm describes one's personal feelings of a desire to help others, which is inclusive of the dimensions of awareness that needs exist, feelings that one possesses the ability to help, and a connectedness that motivates one to action. Separate from these personal feelings, an engineer should develop professionally. The three dimensions of this realm include one's belief that a variety of *base skills* are needed for engineers, feelings that engineering has the capacity to help address societal issues (*professional ability*), and an awareness that one should analyze the societal impacts of engineering and include stakeholders from the community in the engineering process. Finally, it is anticipated that a person's individual motivations to help will come together with their engineering professional development, to inform their sense of professional connectedness. A personal motivation to help others through application of one's engineering skills can be fostered through a cycle of engaging in this helping behavior. It will also increase one's sophistication in their awareness of both the costs and benefits of helping and serving others through engineering.

An Input-Environment-Output type of model derived from Wiedman [93] was used by Rulifson [92] to describe the development of professional social responsibility ideas in engineering students. As inputs, individuals bring pre-dispositions toward personal social responsibility and attitudes toward engineering into college. These are developed from family influences and high school, etc. Within higher education, a number of factors have been determined to influence ideas of professional social responsibility. However, Cech [87] notably found that attitudes toward public service decreased among 326 engineering students attending four US institutions. This concerning trend was termed a "culture of disengagement." It is perhaps not surprising given that the majority of engineering studies focus on technical issues, and preference technical issues over the interactions of technology with society. This technical:social dualism may reduce students' focus on the impacts of their work as engineers. However, experiences during engineering studies may counter this decrease in engineering students' ideas of socially responsible engineering. Some engineering students cited courses as impactful to their views of social responsibility [94]. Brodeur [95] suggested a number of ways to integrate social responsibility ideas into engineering education, including the use of the CDIO Syllabus, cooperative learning, constructive controversy, and designimplement projects. Service-learning may advance students' ideas of social justice [96] and social responsibility [62, 95].

## **4. Conclusions**

of engineering, in line with recommendations from the US National Academy of Engineers "Changing the Conversation" report [83]. A higher percentage of female engineering students included helping people, helping the environment, and positively impacting society as reasons they chose their engineering major, based on open-ended responses [84]. Differences were also found among disciplines; a greater percentage of students majoring in environmental and civil engineering described helping goals as compared to students majoring in mechanical engineering [54]. Among UK students given 7 options as to why they decided to study engineering, only 13.5% selected a desire to 'make a difference' to the world; there was no difference between female and male students, and this aspiration was the lowest among 4th year students [82]. There is also some evidence that students who enter engineering with the strongest pro-social motivations leave engineering majors during college at a higher rate than their peers [85, 86].

50 Social Responsibility

Professional socialization processes for engineers are more explicitly occurring during higher education and in the engineering workforce. The continuum of the development of professional civil engineers is outlined explicitly in the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (BOK) [40]. Here, the acquisition of various knowledge, skills, and attitudes is mapped from the Bachelor's degree in engineering, through a Master's degree or additional formal education, and during mentored experience working under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer. In regards to professional and ethical responsibility, the civil engineering BOK includes proposed affective domain outcomes such as "commit to the standards of professional and ethical responsibility for engineering practice" [40, p. 94]. Within the "attitudes" outcome elements such as honesty, integrity, consideration of others, respect, and tolerance are included [40].

During higher education, in addition to learning important knowledge and skills, students are developing attitudes and affective outcomes associated with engineering. Professional socialization during higher education includes courses and a variety of informal education experiences outside the classroom, such as professional societies or internships in engineering. A number of studies have explored student perceptions related to elements of social responsibility. Despite bringing students with aspirations toward positive social benefits into

Professional socialization continues into the engineering workforce. While Cech [87] found continuing evidence of decline in the public service beliefs of alumni from engineering programs after 1.5 years in the workforce, counter-evidence suggests that working engineers may become more committed to their professional social responsibilities over time. A survey of working engineers (Bielefeldt unpublished, from the study described in [8]) found that the majority (61% of n = 467) agreed with the statement "Since earning my bachelor's degree, I have become more motivated to help people and society through my work"; only 16% disagreed and 23% were neutral. Responses did not differ by gender but did differ based on years since earning Bachelor's degree (5 or fewer years lower than 6 or more years) and engineering discipline (mechanical lower than environmental). Similarly, the majority (67%) disagreed with the statement, "Since earning my bachelor's degree, I have become less confident of my ability to make positive impacts on people and society through engineering." Responses differed by gender (female stronger agreement than males), years since earning Bachelor's degree (5 or fewer years more agreement versus 6 or more years), and discipline

engineering, there is evidence that these goals may diminish over time [87, 88].

(environmental stronger agreement than civil).

There are some elements of engineers' professional social responsibilities that are widely agreed upon. These include protection of human health and safety, and protection of the environment. Other engineering social responsibilities have less consensus across countries and disciplines, including the mandate to participate in pro bono work, strive for social justice, and embrace diversity. Corporations focused on engineering activities and for which engineers work typically have corporate social responsibility statements which document their commitments and contributions to sustainability in the form of their working conditions, the local community, and environmental impacts. Finally, studies are documenting how engineers' develop their sense of professional social responsibility, including their upbringing, college experiences in and out of the classroom, and socialization in the engineering workforce. Some troubling findings are that an individual's commitment to socially responsible engineering may actually decline over time, perhaps as they begin to separate their technical expertise from social commitments or feel that business interests outweigh broader social responsibilities.

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There are still a number of unanswered questions in regards to engineers' beliefs of their professional social responsibilities, and factors that contribute to shaping these beliefs. More research that involves working engineers is needed. This should include longitudinal studies. It is unclear how the job roles of an engineer – from a freshly graduated junior engineer, to a more senior engineer with supervisory responsibilities – may impact their views of professional social responsibility. It is also unclear how the work setting – public entity, private consultant, working for industry – might be impactful. Job roles should also be explored – research, design, project management, sales, etc. These studies are needed in different countries and cultural settings, as well as in different engineering disciplines. Due to the widespread impacts that engineers have on society and our planet, it is imperative to understand how to better foster social responsibility commitments among engineers.
