Ethical construction procurement

2006

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Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 2003

The results are provided of a small, but reprersentative, questionnaire survey of typical project managers, architects and building contractors concerning their views and experiences on a range of ethical issues surrounding construction industry activities. Most (90%) subscribed to a professional Code of Ethics and many (45%) had an Ethical Code of Conduct in their employing organisations, with the majority (84%) considering good ethical practice to be an important organisational goal. 93% of the respondents agreed that "Business Ethics" should be driven or governed by "Personal Ethics", with 84% of respondents stating that a balance of both the requirements of the client and the impact on the public should be maintained. No respondents were aware of any cases of employers attempting to force their employees to initiate, or participate in, unethical conduct. Despite this, all the respondents had witnessed or experienced some degree of unethical conduct, in the form of unfair conduct (81%), negligence (67%), conflict of interest (48%), collusive tendering (44%), fraud (35%), confidentiality and propriety breach (32%), bribery (26%) and violation of environmental ethics (20%).

The most common unethical conduct evidenced by the contractors are cover pricing, bid cutting, poor documentation, late and short payments, subcontractors' lack of safety ethics, unfair treatment of contractors in tender/final account negotiations, competitors' overstatement of capacity and qualifications to secure work, competitors' falsification of experience and qualifications and bureaucratic, government policy. To minimise the lapse of ethical issues in the industry, the suggested solutions are divided into short, medium and long term categories based on the project time frame. The findings provide useful information to stakeholders on how to deal with the pressing ethical issues confronting the Malaysian construction industry.

2016

PhD research is like a journey which cannot be accomplished without the help of others. There is therefore the need to acknowledge those who have contributed to the success of this journey in one way or another. It gives me great pleasure to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Christabel Ho who gently allowed me to stand on her shoulder and subsequently pushed me up the academic ladder. Her suppleness in scheduling, mild encouragement and relaxed demeanour made for a good working relationship and the impetus for me to complete my study. Her honest caring, holistic concern, and trust in me during the study process enabled me to attend to life while also securing my Ph.D. Without any iota of doubt, Dr. Christabel has been inspiring, fascinating, and enlightening. When need arose for me to juggle priorities, she never judged nor pressurized. When I became too serious, her sense of humour and friendly sarcasm introduced a relaxed mood that lightened my perspective. Her generosity, hospitality and selflessness, words cannot describe. Thank you very much. I also express my deepest gratitude to my co-supervisors, Prof. Yat Hung CHIANG and Dr Vincent C.W. NG. Mere appearance of Prof. Chiang's name on my research instrument commanded a quick response, being an influential and successful academic and practitioner. His effort in reading this thesis is equally appreciated. Meeting Dr. Vincent at the beginning of my study beef up my 'I can do it' attitude. I also thank Dr. Ann Yu for assisting me during my data collection. I am particularly grateful to many practitioners who contributed to the success of this research by providing relevant data. I also appreciate members of staff, colleagues and friends in the Department of Building and Real Estate, too numerous to mention their names, who contributed to my research work in one way or another. Special thanks to Emily, who helped me a lot during my data collection both in translating the questionnaire and interpreting the interview questions. viii To all the members of Association of Nigerian Scholars in Hong Kong, I say a big thank you for the sharing moments. I sincerely appreciate the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region that was administered by PolyU [Grant No: PolyU K-QZ14] which was instrumental in helping me crank out the PhD programme. Thanks to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for providing the platform and enabling environment to conduct my research. I cannot but thank all the staff members of the department of Quantity Surveying, The Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) Nigeria, for their supports and the management of FUTA for granting me study leave and necessary support to cushion the effect of academic rigour. Not mentioned yet are precious and special people because they deserve their own part. How can I forget Foluke Oladinrin, my one and only wife, my help meet, confidant, encourager, soul mate and friend who was deprived of her necessary intimacy shortly after our wedding in pursuit of my PhD. I remember unbalanced life and a lot of loss of concentrations before she finally came to join me in the process. This brought a good speed since I now have someone to share my feelings with. Foluke sacrificed enough to ensure that I finished successfully. Her love, understanding and perseverance surpassed my imagination. Also my wonderful daughter Gloria Oladinrin dazed me a lot. She understands a simple statement "Gloria, I need to work" even when she can barely talk. Having a good family has contributed a lot to my achievement so far. I cannot forget my loving parents Mr. Joseph Oladinrin and Mrs Mary Oladinrin who thought me the way I should go in life, thank you for being there. I also appreciate the entire members of Oladinrin family for their prayers and moral support without which I might not have finished sanely. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION i ABSTRACT ii PUBLICATIONS v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ix LISTS OF FIGURES xiv LISTS OF TABLES xv Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background of the Research 1.2 Reasons for this study 1.2.1 Public policy requirement 1.2.2 Unethical practice in construction industry 1.2.3 The lack of empirically grounded ethical codes implementation model 1.2.4 Deficiencies in code embedment in the web of organizational processes 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Research Aim and Objectives 1.4.1 Aim 1.4.2 Objectives 1.5 Research process Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 12 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Concept of corporate ethics 2.2.1 Ethics 2.2.2 Corporate codes of ethics 2.2.3 Philosophical branches of ethics 2.2.4 Business ethics 2.2.5 Ethics theories and morality of actions 2.2.6 Ethics levels of inquiry x 2.3 Purpose of codes of ethics 2.4 Ethical decision making 2.4.1 Decision making models 2.4.2 Theoretical implications of the models 2.5 Corporate codes of ethics development process 2.5.1 Code creation 2.5.2 Code content 2.5.3 Code implementation 2.5.4 Code administration

Science and Engineering Ethics, 2018

Due to the economic globalization which is characterized with business scandals, scholars and practitioners are increasingly engaged with the implementation of codes of ethics as a regulatory mechanism for stimulating ethical behaviours within an organization. The aim of this study is to examine various organizational practices regarding the effective implementation of codes of ethics within construction contracting companies. Views on ethics management in construction organizations together with the recommendations for improvement were gleaned through 19 semi-structured interviews, involving construction practitioners from various construction companies in Hong Kong. The findings suggested some practices for effective implementation of codes of ethics in order to diffuse ethical behaviours in an organizational setting which include; introduction of effective reward schemes, arrangement of ethics training for employees, and leadership responsiveness to reported wrongdoings. Since most of the construction companies in Hong Kong have codes of ethics, emphasis is made on the practical implementation of codes within the organizations. Hence, implications were drawn from the recommended measures to guide construction companies and policy makers.

2014

All people face moral choices, it can be in private life, work, school or daily life. There are often rules and laws that guide us and declare how we should act in a specific situation. But how should we act in the "gray zone", where there are no clear guidelines and rules, where the boundaries between right and wrong are not so clear. Like other industries, the construction industry is subjected to moral problems, and it is not always obvious what is right and wrong. Ethics and responsibility have become more important in the construction industry in the last years. Today, people have higher demands on their work situation and are more likely to pay attention to irregularities. Many construction companies are working with ethical issues, and develop systems and strategies in order to achieve better ethical actions. The thesis is about ethics and responsibility in the construction industry. The thesis investigates problems and practical cases that have connections to ethical and moral issues. That has been done by choosing five different fields. These fields are "Environmental Threats", "Gender", "Security and accidents", "Corruption", and "Procurement and Tender". Each field consists of a background part where facts and information are presented, after this a case is presented that represents an ethical problem for each field. The study also investigates which factors that the construction industry should work with in order to achieve better ethical actions. This part is mainly based on interviews with researchers and people that are active in the construction industry.

There is a growing consensus of opinion within the Construction Industry and among general public that conduct of professional unethical practices are commonly found in Construction Industry. But so far no study has been undertaken to investigate this perception. The present author/ researcher have taken up the ‘Study on Role of Professional Ethics in Quality Management in Construction’ along with the ‘Study of present level of Professional Ethics in Construction Industry’ in perspective to fulfill this need. The study is to evaluate the perceptions of the Construction Players on Professional Ethical issues in the Construction industry. In this research the Questionnaire research methodology has been employed to get the perceptions of construction professionals on conduct of Professional Ethics. The research findings indicate that various forms of professional un-ethical conduct have significant effect on the quality of construction. The research findings also suggest the means of improvement of quality by inculcation of professional ethics in Construction Industry.

International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, 2016

Objective of this study is to assess ethical behavior among professionals at procurement and after tendering process with its impacts and drivers in Nepalese Construction Industry. Different literatures were reviewed to assess ethical practices along with its cause and effect inside Nepalese Construction Industry. Pilot study was conducted for the validity of the questionnaire. One key informant from each selected organization was interviewed. The questionnaire contains shortcomings of ethical behavior at procurement and after tendering phase, impact of shortcomings of ethical practices and factors leading to these ethical practices based on the objectives of the research. Five ranking Likert Scale were used. The collected data were analyzed based on relative importance index (RII) in three different categories as Investigating Offices (3 numbers), Professional Associations (4 numbers) and Government Departments (4 numbers) with total of 11 organizations. All together 240 respondent...

2020

Gross unethical conducts are common issues among professionals in the construction sector due to the heterogeneous nature of the industry. However, limited efforts are made to ensure that ethical standards become enforced among professionals in the sector. Therefore, this study assessed effective mechanisms for the enforcement of ethical standards to improve public confidence in construction professionals. Data were collected through copies of questionnaire administered on professionals in consultancy, contracting and government organizations in Southwestern Nigeria. One hundred and seventy-two (172) copies of questionnaire were retrieved and found suitable for the analysis. Data collected was analyzed using both the descriptive and inferential statistics. The study revealed that all the ethical standards identified were moderately significant with relative effective index (REI) that ranged from 0.585 to 0.526. Some of these included personal reputation, promotion of civic right, go...

Asian Journal of Applied Science and Technology (AJAST), 2023

Ethical practices are essential to providing quality work which cut across every sector. In building construction, adherence to project management ethical standards is essential to providing quality services that can stand the test of time. However, many building projects have been constructed with standards that are far below the professional ethics. This is evident in the cases of building failure reported throughout the country. The study examines the factors that influences project management ethical practices in Nigeria and specifically in Lagos. A total of 384 samples were selected from project stakeholders and construction professionals. A well-structured 25 items questionnaire was designed to elicit for response on ethical practices and factors that influences ethical practices. The results indicated that ethical practices in project management are influenced by various factors, including the project environment and stakeholder's impact as organizational factors. The major project-related factors that affect ethical practices are project scope and complexity, project financing, project risk, and project stakeholders, while project managers' technical skills, qualifications, and personal values have significant impacts on adherence to ethical practices. The influencing factors could be related to the organization, the project, or the professional, but in most cases, they are a combination of these factors. Therefore, it is recommended that thorough assessments are conducted before, during, and after construction, and different professionals should be assigned to ensure transparency and compliance with standards.