The professional ethical orientation of civil engineering coop students

The purpose of this study was to determine the professional ethical orientation of undergraduate civil engineering students in a cooperative education program. Using the population (N = 255) of civil engineering undergraduate (freshman through senior) students at Northeastern University during the spring quarter 1988, four research questions were investigated: (1) what ethical orientations do civil engineering students demonstrate when making professional ethical decisions? (2) does the professional ethical orientation of the student change as he or she progresses through a civil engineering undergraduate curriculum in a coop program? (3) does the ethical orientation of the student change if he or she encounters ethical dilemmas while on coop? and (4) do students express the same professional ethical orientation for each of the core ethical concepts?; Data were collected using a mailed questionnaire consisting of twelve (12) hypothetical ethical situations that a civil engineering student might experience on coop, and fourteen (14) demographic questions. There are four (4) questions for each of the three (3) Ethical Core Concept areas of the engineering code of ethics: (1) public interest; (2) qualities of truth, honesty, and fairness; and (3) professional performance.; A total of 190 students (75%) returned the questionnaire. Crosstabulations described the respondents' background including cooperative education experience, engineering work experience, membership and activity in the American Society of Civil Engineers Student Chapter, and exposure to ethical concepts and dilemmas at school, work and professional meetings.; Data were analyzed using chi-square and multivariate analysis of variance. Ethical orientations were the dependent variables; year of graduation and exposure to ethical dilemmas while on coop were the independent variables.; Results indicated that the ethical orientation of students changes from a rule-based orientation to an act-based orientation as they progress through an undergraduate civil engineering coop program. Study results did not show any differences in ethical orientation between students who had encountered an ethical dilemma while on coop and those who did not.; Recommendations were made for further research, and the implications of these findings for civil engineering faculty, cooperative education professionals, and employers of coops and graduate civil engineers were discussed.