Professional Ethics in Construction and Engineering

11 Implications in Practice for Ethics in the Construction Industry

The standard that a society should embody it is our own professed principles is a utopian one, in the sense that moral principles contradict the way things really are and always will be. How things really are and always will be is neither all evil nor all things good but deficient, inconsistent, inferior. Principles invite us to do something about the morass of contradictions in which we function morally. Principles invite us to clean up our act; to become intolerant of moral laxity and compromise and cowardice and the turning away from what is upsetting: that gnawing of the heart that tells us that what we are doing is not right, and so councils us that we’d be better off just not thinking about it.

Susan Sontag

11.1 Introduction

The above quotation clearly underpins the importance of ethical standards and principles in society. This chapter is largely focused on a research study conducted in Nigeria by Inuwa et al. (2015) and will consider the possible implications in practice when such standards and principles are not abided by or compromised in some way or form.

This chapter will explain the implications for the construction industry from unethical practices, which will include reputational damage and image considerations for organisations. In this regard it will report on high-profile cases that have received widespread press coverage and highlighted cartels, collusion on tenders, blacklisting of subcontractors ...