Ethics in Construction Industry Essay Example

For the building and designing professions, the incalculable value of human life demands nothing less than the highest moral considerations from those who might risk it otherwise. Engineers, architects, project managers, and contractors, therefore, have the fundamental right of professional conscience.

Ethics generally constitute

1. A system of moral principles, by which human actions and proposal may be judged well or bad, or right or wrong.
2. The rules of conduct recognized in respect of a particular class of human actions.
3. Moral principles, as of an individual”, (delbridge etal, 2000).

The general concepts of ethics are applicable in any area of organization, industry or profession. In this paper, we will try to see construction ethics in two major areas: Professionals in the Construction Industry and the businesses in it.

Professional Ethics and Construction

Professional ethics, for any profession is an important subject that describes a profession’s ethical guideline that each member of a given profession follows. Construction is vast field and contains many professionals in it like Civil Engineers, Architects, Contractors, Surveyors, Designers and Drafts Men. Each profession in the construction industry has ethical dilemma that requires due attention. Before describing the relationship between professional ethics and construction, we should fully understand what professional ethics means and thus it is the next point.

Professional Ethics

The professions have always been linked with the notion of 'service'. Thus, a profession has been described as a group of people organized to serve a body of specialized knowledge in the interests of society. Similarly, professions could be defined as "occupations that both require advanced study and mastery of

a specialized body of knowledge and undertake to promote, ensure or safeguard some matter that significantly affects others’ well-being”. A professional operates in a world of people with whom they work, colleagues and other specialists, and people whom they serve, such as their clients and the public.

Professionals are not exempt from the common ethical behaviors - such as obligations, duties, and responsibilities - that are binding on ordinary people and are usually bound by a set of principles, attitudes, or types of character dispositions that control the way the profession is practiced. This has been termed Professional Ethics and concerns potential problems confronting members of a profession or group and their impact on society, with the implication that fairness should be attributed not only to clients but also colleagues and the public.

One important aspect is that of conflict of interest, defined as an interest which, if pursued, could keep professionals from meeting one of their obligations. Another is the relevant professional right termed the “Right of Conscientious Refusal”, which is the right of an employee to refuse to partake in unethical conduct when forced to do so by an employer. This may occur in work or non-work situations and not necessarily involve breaking the law. Conscientious Refusal may be done by either simply not participating in the activity that one sees as immoral, or it may be done with the hope of making a public protest that will draw attention to the situation that one believes is wrong.

Different professions, however, have different reputations insofar as ethical behaviors are concerned. In a recent public opinion survey conducted in Australia, for

example, architects were rated superior in ethical behavior to lawyers, some doctors, and almost all businessmen and businesswomen; with the clergy being ranked the highest. Lawyers, it seems, are expected to prioritize their obligations to the client over their obligations to the public even if their client is guilty of committing a crime, regardless of how heinous the crime

Today, building professionals gain integrity and respectability to some extent through professional bodies. These are embodied in codes of practice, which define the roles and responsibilities of professionals and are the cornerstone of the ethics programs. Of course, codes alone are insufficient to ensure ethical conduct and they need to be complemented with the assignment of functional responsibility (e.g. ethics officer) and employer training.