Professional Ethics in the Field of Electrical Engineering

So far, there have been many kinds of violations or abuses committed by Electrical Professionals, causing harm to other people, such as installing electrical installations that do not meet standards and other work in the electrical sector. This has encouraged several organizations/professional associations in the electricity sector to conduct surveys. So, from the results of the survey, several regulations/codes of ethics were created to reduce the impact of errors and accidents, which could harm the professionals themselves and many people.

1. Understanding Ethics

Ethics comes from the Greek Ethos, which means character, moral character, or custom. Ethics relates to the concept possessed by individuals or society to assess whether the actions they have taken are wrong or right, bad or good. According to Martin [1993], ethics is defined as "a discipline that can act as a performance index or reference for our control systems." Ethics is a reflection of what is called "self-control" because everything is created and applied from and for the benefit of the social group (profession) itself.

2. Definition of Profession and Professionalism

A profession is a permanent job in a certain field based on special skills that are carried out responsibly with the aim of earning income.

Professionals are workers who carry out a profession. Every professional adheres to moral values that direct and underlie noble actions. In carrying out professional duties, professionals must act objectively, meaning free from shame, sentiment, hatred, laziness, and reluctance to act. Thus, a professional clearly must have a certain profession, which is obtained through a special education and training process. In addition, there is also an element of the spirit of service (professional calling) in carrying out a work activity. This needs to be emphasized properly to differentiate it from ordinary work, which is solely aimed at earning a living and worldly material wealth.

We must remember and really understand that "Job/Profession" and "Professional" have several differences, namely:

Profession :

- Relying on a special skill or expertise.

- Carried out as a main job or activity (full-time).

Professional :

- People who know their skills and expertise.

- Spend all his time on his work or activities.

- Live from it.

- Proud of his work.

We not only know professional terms for occupational fields such as medicine, teachers, military, lawyers, and the like, but this extends to include fields such as managers, journalists, painters, singers, artists, secretaries, and so on. In line with this, according to DE GEORGE, confusion arises regarding the definition of the profession itself, related to the terms "profession" and "professional." This confusion arises because many professional people do not or are not necessarily included in the definition of profession.

3. Understanding the Professional Code of Ethics

Before we get into the code of ethics of a professional staff, it would be good for us to know what a code of ethics is. Codes are signs or symbols in the form of words, writing, or objects that are agreed upon for certain purposes, for example, to guarantee news, a decision, or an agreement of an organization. Code can also mean a systematic collection of rules.

A code of ethics can be interpreted as a pattern of rules, procedures, signs, and ethical guidelines for carrying out an activity or job. A code of ethics is a pattern of rules or procedures as a guide to behavior.

In relation to professions, a code of ethics is a procedure or rule that becomes the standard for the activities of members of a profession. A code of ethics describes the professional values of a profession translated into standards of behavior for its members. The most important professional value is the desire to provide service to society.

4. Purpose of the Code of Ethics

In general, the purpose of a code of ethics is so that a professional can provide the best possible service to consumers and prevent unprofessional behavior. The objectives of formulating a professional code of ethics include:

1. To safeguard and maintain the welfare of members.
2. To increase the dedication of members of the profession.
3. To improve the quality of the profession.
4. To improve the quality of professional organizations.
5. Elevate service above personal gain.
6. Have a strong and closely-knit professional organization.
7. Determine your standards.

5. Function of the Code of Ethics

The professional code of ethics is a means to help implementers as professionals so that they cannot damage professional ethics. Three main things are the function of a professional code of ethics:

The professional code of ethics provides guidelines for each member of the profession regarding the outlined principles of professionalism. This means that with a professional code of ethics, professional practitioners are able to know what they can do and what they cannot do.
A professional code of ethics is a means of social control for society over the profession in question. This means that professional ethics can provide knowledge to the public so that they can understand the importance of a profession, thereby enabling control over implementers in the workplace (social circles).
A professional code of ethics prevents interference from parties outside professional organizations regarding ethical relationships within professional membership. This meaning can be explained by the fact that professional practitioners in another agency or company must not interfere with the implementation of the profession in other agencies or companies.

In the field of electricity, the professional code of ethics contains scientific studies regarding principles or norms in relation to the relationship between professionals and clients, between professionals themselves, between professional organizations and professional organizations, and the government. One form of relationship between a professional and a client (service user) is, for example, installing or designing electrical installations.

A professional cannot install or plan an electrical installation at will but must refer to the norms of standardization of personnel competency and training that apply internationally and also refer to regulations and technical expertise situations in the country.

6. Types of Ethics

There are two types of ethics that we must understand together in determining good and bad human behavior:

1. DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS

Descriptive Ethics, namely ethics that seeks to critically and rationally examine human attitudes and behavior and what humans pursue in life as something of value. Descriptive ethics provides facts as a basis for making decisions about the behavior or attitudes to be taken.

2. NORMATIVE ETHICS

Normative Ethics, namely ethics, tries to determine various ideal attitudes and behavior patterns that humans should have in this life as something of value. Normative ethics provides assessments as well as norms as a basis and framework for actions to be decided.

Ethics can generally be divided into:

1. GENERAL ETHICS

It talks about the basic conditions of how humans act ethically, how humans make ethical decisions, ethical theories, and basic moral principles that serve as guidelines for humans in acting, as well as benchmarks for judging whether an action is good or bad. General ethics can be analogous to science, which discusses general understanding and theories.

2. SPECIFIC ETHICS

It is the application of basic moral principles in specific areas of life. This application can take the form of How I make decisions and act in the specific areas of life and activities that I undertake, which are based on methods, theories, and basic moral principles. However, this application can also take the form of How I assess my behavior and that of other people in specific areas of activity and life, which are based on the conditions that allow humans to act ethically: the way humans make decisions or actions, and existing basic moral theories and principles, behind it.

SPECIAL ETHICS is further divided into two parts:

1. Individual ethics concerns human obligations and attitudes towards themselves.
2. Social ethics, namely, talks about the obligations, attitudes, and patterns of human behavior as members of humanity.

It should be noted that individual ethics and social ethics cannot be sharply separated from each other because human obligations towards themselves and as members of humanity are interrelated. Social ethics concerns human relations with humans both directly and institutionally (family, society, state), a critical attitude towards world views and ideologies, as well as humanity's responsibility towards the environment.

Due to the wide scope of social ethics, social ethics is divided or divided into many parts or fields. The most current discussions in the field are as follows:

1. Attitude towards others
2. Family ethics
3. Professional ethics
4. Political ethics
5. Environmental ethics
6. Ideological ethics.

7. Electricity Concerning System (Republic of Indonesia Law No. 30 /2009)

In this Law, what is meant by:

1. Electricity is everything that concerns the supply and utilization of electric power, as well as businesses supporting electric power.
2. Electrical power is a form of secondary energy that is generated, transmitted, and distributed for all kinds of purposes but does not include electricity used for communications, electronics, or signaling.
3. The electricity supply business is the procurement of electricity, including generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity to consumers.
4. Electric power generation is the activity of producing electric power.
5. Electric power transmission is the distribution of electric power from generators to the distribution system or to consumers or the distribution of electric power between systems.
6. Electric power distribution is the distribution of electric power from the transmission system or from generators to consumers.
7. A consumer is any person or entity who purchases electric power from a business license holder providing electricity.
8. Electrical power-supporting businesses are business activities that support electric power to consumers.
9. The general electricity plan is a plan for the development of an electricity supply system that includes the areas of generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity needed to meet electricity needs.
10. An electricity supply business license is a permit to carry out a business providing electricity for the public interest.
11. An oration permit is a permit to supply electricity for one's own benefit.
12. A business area is an area designated by the Government as a place where electric power distribution and/or sales business entities carry out the business of providing electric power.
13. Compensation for land rights is compensation for the release or surrender of rights to land, including buildings, plants, and/or other objects located on the land.
14. Compensation is the giving of a sum of money to the holder of rights to land, including buildings, plants, and/or other objects on that land, because the land is used indirectly for electricity development without releasing or handing over land rights.
15. The central Government, hereinafter referred to as the Government, is the President of the Republic of Indonesia, who holds the authority of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia as intended in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.
16. Regional governments are governors, regents or mayors, and regional apparatus as elements of Regional Government administration.
17. The Minister is in charge of the electricity business.
18. Every person is an individual or entity, whether a legal entity or a non-legal entity.

Conclusion

Codes of ethics can be seen as a product of applied ethics because they are produced thanks to applying ethical thinking to a particular area, namely the profession. But, once a code of ethics is in place, ethical thinking does not stop. Codes of ethics do not replace ethical thinking; on the contrary, they are always accompanied by ethical reflection.

For a code of ethics to function properly, one of the absolute requirements is that the profession creates the code of ethics. A code of ethics will not be effective if it is simply dropped from above, namely government agencies or other agencies, it will not be imbued with the ideals and values within the profession itself. External agencies can recommend creating a code of ethics. They perhaps can also help in formulating it. Still, the creation of the code of ethics itself must be carried out by the profession concerned. To function well, the code of ethics itself must result from the profession's SELF REGULATION (self-regulation).

By creating a code of ethics, the profession will establish black and white its intentions to realize the moral values it considers essential. This can never be imposed from outside. Only a code of ethics that contains the values and ideals accepted by the profession can be ingrained with it and become the foundation of hope for implementation and to be implemented diligently and consistently. Another condition that must be met for a code of ethics to be successful is that its implementation is continuously monitored.

References or Bibliography

UURI. No. 30 /2009, Concerning Electricity
Act. No.8 /1999, Concerning Consumer Protection
PP. No.4/2010, Concerning Amendments to PP No. 28/2000 Concerning Business and Community Roles Construction Services Professional Engineer Certification Program-PII
Act. No. 5 of 1999, concerning the Prohibition of Monopoly Practices and Unfair Business Competition.

Writer:

Sihid Nurhidayat (Panca Sakti University Bekasi Student - Information Systems, Faculty of Science and Technology)

Dr. Son Haji, S.Ag, MM (as teaching lecturer)

Script Editor:

Nurdiansyah