What the book does do is ensure that engineers who have read it will wonder before acting and will be more aware of the expectations that they should have of themselves, their jobs and their profession. The book works better as a textbook to read and discuss than as a reference work. The first chapter is the most theoretically based, attempting to lay the groundwork of ethical thought and behavior and put it into the context of engineering. Subsequent chapters explore more specific aspects of engineering ethics and tend to be interesting because of references to actual scenarios, but still raise more questions than they provide answers. This serves to raise the reader's consciousness and actually works more effectively than when an author does make rather dogmatic statements, such as that all engineers should be professionally licensed.
Chapters end with study questions, often thought questions or case studies to analyze and argue.
There are few references, most to code sections, cases, and professional codes of ethics. The book does make the case that engineers should be conscious of ethical questions that may arise on the job and does showcase several professional codes of ethics and provide examples of cases when ethical behavior or the lack of it made a difference. Every engineer should be exposed to books like this one, but this one won't serve as the definitive quick reference book on the subject. Inc. All rights reserved.