Ethics can be defined as the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. It is a branch of moral philosophy stemming from Ancient Greece. Ethics is based around two central questions: “What is the best way for people to live” and “What actions are right or wrong in particular circumstances”. Ethical behavior is measured by the degree of trustworthiness and integrity with which companies conduct their businesses. Practicing good ethics is an essential part of a company’s reputation. It is important that Ethics is practiced by everyone, not only in the construction business, but also by engineers, lawyers, surveyors, government officials, and so no. Therefore, practicing good ethical behavior is essential in the construction business. Nobody, especially business owners would like to hire a constructor who is known for unethical conducts. The construction business is vast and
The Society of Construction Law developed the following ethical principles with the intention of making these principles applicable to every business area.
- Honesty: Acting honestly and avoiding behavior likely to result in deception of others.
- Fairness: Not looking to obtain a benefit which result from the unfair treatment of others.
- Fair Reward: Avoidance of acts likely to rob another party of a fair reward for work.
- Reliability: Only provide services and skills within areas of competence
- Integrity: Respect for the public’s interest.
- Objectivity: Identify possible conflicts of interest and disclose this to the party who would be unfavorably impacted.
- Accountability: Provide right information so effective action can be taken where necessary.
Construction professionals should be familiar with these principles and practicing them on daily basis as they serve as guidance to avoid potential gray areas when one makes a decision. All the construction professionals would face a situation that involves almost always moral and ethical decisions. These decisions would have instantons results or future effect depends on the circumstances. Therefore, making these principles are part of the daily routine and helping factors in making decision, should be the essence one’s intension. Construction ethics are an essential part of the industry because relationships are everything in business. If a company has bad ethical practices it will end up impacting the amount of work they have. By upholding the ethical codes set by construction leaders the industry can focus on building a better future.
In addition to ethical principles, the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) adopted the following code of ethics to hold individuals in the construction industry accountable to the public, the client, the profession, as well as the environment.
1) Obligation to the Public
- a) Representation of Qualification: Only doing work in which one is qualified to do.
- b) Legal Compliance: Work will be done abiding all laws and will be performed to the same standard regardless of race, religion, sex, etc.
- c) Fair Competition: Work should only be awarded if it were won in a fair bid competition.
- d) Public Contracts: No one should bribe public officials to benefit themselves or a project.
- e) Safety: Individuals should have an active role in safety culture and helping to further develop it.
2) Obligations to the Client
- a) Client Service: Work should be done with the interest of the client in mind.
- b) Conflicts of Interest: Individuals should avoid conflicts of interests and disclose any conflicts that may impact a decision.
- c) Fair Compensation: Work should be negotiated and paid for fairly and reasonably.
- d) Release of Information: Individuals will only make truthful statements as well as keep information confidential in the interest of colleagues and clients.
3) Obligations to the Profession
- a) Industry Standards: Individuals will hold themselves to the standard of practice in the Construction Management profession.
- b) Honesty: Individuals must speak the truth and must not participate in bribery or fraud.
- c) Professional Development: Individuals will work to develop themselves professionally as well as nurture fellow professionals throughout their career.
- d) Integrity of Profession: Individuals will not act on self- interest at the expense of the profession.
4) Obligations to the Environment
- a) Sustainability: Work must follow environmental and sustainable business practices, providing the needs of the present without compromising the needs for future generations.
Demographic change in construction
People from different cultural backgrounds and ethnicity groups tend of occupy positions in construction, positions vary from field laborer to senior executive and higher positions. The current construction industry has been experiencing a significant change in the demographic of employees. In most cases, the construction industry depends on demographic factors like age, gender, ethnicity, and health of employees (Alonso, 2016). The construction industry appears to lose its past workers and as time goes by, new employees are hired. The older age employees phase out and younger generation are phasing in. This as a result is calling for improvement in health conditions of worker and as a result, health policies and procedures governing the construction sites are affected. Also, race, ethnicity, and minority groups exert noticeable effect over job employment, orientation, and internist. Therefore, age, gender, race, and ethnicity are addressed in term of their effect over the construction business and future impacts as a result.
Age: age is the primary determinants of work in any field. The construction work is such a demanding field that requires experience and skills to operate. IT is discovered that most of the construction workers are aged since they have many experience years in the field. For example, in 2013 research was made on Chinese construction workers and it was discovered that over 35,000 workers were above 55 years. However, since a lot of energy is needed in some areas, the youths are called to take on those works requiring more energy. This is because the ageing population can easily be affected by the heavy workloads. However, trades off for skills, experience and physical energy is not required. Therefore, companies were encouraged to group workforce into groups according to their ages. This can be done by placing the elder workers in areas that require more skills and experience but with minimal demand for physical energy, assign the older workers with training of young workers and giving those roles of supervision mainly of safety responsibilities. The concept of age has changed the demographic construction in such a way that the biggest population currently engaged in the construction industry is composed of the medium age group between 30 to 65 years (Barnes et al. 2004). Age in construction may have some benefits by grouping the workforce base on their ages. Older people have all the experiences required to guide the young generation in constructing firm buildings. The young ones also have the energy of constructing and so all age groups involves are equally important. In addition, age plays a great role of promoting the construction company, as the older people train young ones, the process becomes continuous and the industry never lacks labors to conduct activities. Some advantages to that might be, job employments to the youths may get challenging if older people hold their positions longer than usual. Another disadvantage is that relying on older people for construction at times leads to imperfection of work at the construction site. Certain age may not be able to carry out a particular activity as oppose others.
Gender: the term gender is used to refer to conventions based on the responsibilities, behaviors, characteristics, and relation that men, women, girls and boys. In the past, the construction field was mainly for men due to the cultural beliefs that women are generally weak. However, in the current construction company, women n adman practice construction irrespective of their gender. Although the discrimination of outright is prohibited by legislation, statistical data from various sources indicate that the construction industry is mainly composed of men and boys compared to women and girls. Basing on the population data of United Stated regarding construction industry, men engage in construction of buildings, roads, and other infrastructures compared to women (Barnes et al. 2012). In other counties like China, the women population engaged in construction is higher than of other countries. The reason behind this may be that the rate of work segregation in China is lower than that of other countries mainly in America, Africa, and Australia. Women are considered to be delicate and since the construction industry is risky, men are meant to take on the construction work. Besides, the behaviors and perspectives concerning safety of women make them to be minority in the construction industry. However, limited advantages associated with gender in the construction industry and some of them include women are truly weaker than men and this makes them to be a minority group at the construction site. On the other hand, a disadvantage of gender discrimination is that women are denied the right to engage in construction activities. Due to gender, the demographic construction has changed through including both men and women in the construction industry. One of the advantages of age in the construction sector is that it reduces the rate of discrimination as it engages every gender to participate in the field (Battu & Soalne, 2002). However, the disadvantage of gender in this industry is that women who are usually weak may fail to reach the company’s expectations making it fall into loss of revenue.
Race: race is not among the main determinates of the construction industry. However, in the past, construction is predicted to have been brought about by civilization and so specific races and ethnic people were considered to be better constructors than people from other races. To assess the effects of cultural diversity in the population of the construction industry, the National Research Council conducted a research on the issue of racism some decades back. This research included demographic changes like age, sex, race, and education (Battu & Soalne, 2002). It was discovered that all these demographic apply in a couple of occupations including construction industry. Although some occupations take the racial demographic as an important to include women, the construction company employs few women since it requires a lot of technicality. Women are also from specific races are considered to have better construction tactics. The discrimination based on racism may affect other races, which it is by itself is a disadvantage.
Ethnicity: several construction companies that have a workforce which is ethnically diverse usually have the potential of providing better services to their clients. Companies in this condition also offer greater opportunities to their employees. (Bamford & Watson, 2013) discussed the ethnic black minority groups in Asia, who have come up to show interest and persistently progressing in the construction industry. The research also indicated that the population in United Kingdom that is estimated to be ethnically diverse in future together with the black Asia minority ethnic group sees its future earnings in the construction industry. A workforce that is ethnically diverse attracts both the employees and customers and also increase innovation in its approach. Some construction companies believe that having a diverse workface together brings about better ideas that motivate and increase innovation. Furthermore, opportunities meant for ethnic groups are encouraged by law. The Equality Act 2010 fights over ethnic discrimination and it continuously provides current powers that are employed by public entities to apply procurement in promoting equality. If a public entity supports a construction company that is said to practice discrimination it its operations, then the public organization is responsible for the acts (Equality Act 2010). The intention of this is to place the business of construction in a spotlight. The concept of ethnicity is affected by the demographic construction in that some people within those ethnic groups do not suit in the group.