Ethical behaviour

2. 300053 PROFESSIONAL PRACTICELecture 4 – Ethical Dilemmas Lecturer - Steve Krezo Discussion - Mary Hardie

3. Ethical behaviour • “Acting in ways that are consistent with what society and individuals deem to be good values” – Business Directory, (2016). • Ethical behaviour is characterised by fairness, honesty and equity in all relationships with individuals or groups of people, Banks et al., (2016). • Involves our morals and if our behaviour is right or wrong? • Ethical behaviour is required in every day life. Source: Wordpress

4. Values associated with ethical behaviour • Equity: Fairness, to hold all parties equal. • Fairness: unbiased, just, equitable and legitimate. • Dignity: knowing one’s true worth. • Honesty: truthful, sincere, fair and righteous in actions and speech. • Respect: avoid degrading, insulting, injuring or interfering; to treat with consideration. • Diversity: variety, to show a different kind. Source: Banks et al., 2016.

5. Ethical behaviour • In construction and engineering, ethical practice is required from all parties including design consultants (architects and other designers, principal contractors, sub-contractors, clients, owners and the working teams). • The construction industry, due to the large amounts of $ and profits, can sometimes be exposed to incidents which may lead to “unethical behaviour”. • A basic ethics decision when working in a construction company is….”should I accept tickets to the football game from a sub-contractor”. Source: Wordpress

6. Ethical principles to follow in the construction industry • Honest dealings with all. • Respect a fair and genuine tender competition. • High work standards. • Ensure structural efficiency, health and safety. • Safeguard employees and the employees of others we deal with (ie. Apprentices) • Do not bring the construction industry into disrepute. • Co-operate in advancing the building industry. Source: Master Builders Association (2016)

7. Other construction related ethical issues • Sustainability and the environment. • Environmental incidents and cover ups. • Insolvency or phoenix activities. • Good faith bargaining. • Ensuring sufficient Work, Health and Safety (WHS) standards are maintained. • Genuine redundancies. • Unlawful dismissals or terminations. • Union organisations with the correct entry permits (need to ensure they only do as they are specified to).

8. Instances of unethical behavior? • Leaking of classified/confidential information for the gain of yourself/others. • Collusive behavior. • Insider trading/information. • Continuing to trade knowing you are bankrupt (defrauding the people working for you). • Use your power/future works to avoid paying for current works. • Hold a contractor to legal requirements when to original scope has changed. • What is the ethical response for these scenarios? Source: eremedia

9. Unethical behavior in construction? • Granting of coal mining licenses with members having an invested interest. • Buying land when holding a position of power in Government from a separate Government department. • Voting on changes to planning laws to benefit personal interests. • Colluding with other tenderers about a contract price (increases the price of the trade/project). • Using a contractor who you know has not fully conformed to the tender requirements.

10. When dealing with ethical dilemmas: • Stay true to yourself. • Stay true to your team/s. • Be brave. • Can play it “dumb” and get the person instructing you to do it. • Do what’s right for you/your family. • If it keeps persisting, remove yourself from the environment.

11. Ethical and moral obligations in construction: Some scenarios You are the construction manager employed by the principal contractor: • The client has a very keen eye for detail and wants the highest quality finishes for the project. The client requests a full-time Quality Assurance (QA) officer on site to achieve this goal. The client offers an extra allowance to ensure this is achieved. • You tell the client what they want to hear… “there will be a fulltime QA on site to ensure the strictest quality is achieved”. • However, the project is behind in the construction program and you will instead use the QA to assist with the site administration duties. Is this ethically correct?

12. Ethical and moral obligations in construction: Some scenarios You are the construction manager employed by the principal contractor: • You are successful in winning a lump sum construction project contract. • You invite your sub-contractors to submit their prices for the tendering on the project. • Once receiving the tenders, you ask the cheapest price sub-contractors to reduce their price even further (simply as a means to maximise profits). • Is this ethically correct?

13. Ethical and moral obligations in construction: Some scenarios You are the construction manager employed by the principal contractor: • You realise that your team has made a mistake on site in relation to the electrical component of the project. • As the electrician is submitting other variations, you decide to claim the mistake as a variation to the client under the guise that the electrician is requesting a variation.

14. Electrical variation ethical scenario: • The electrician is unaware of the issues regarding the variation claim #3; he will be receiving the $28,000 regardless of the circumstances to correct the remaining works.

15. Ethical and moral obligations in construction: Some scenarios You are a sub-contractor tendering on the Form/Reinforce/Pour (FRP) component on a high rise apartment building: • You notice the documentation (drawings, details & specifications) is lacking in some areas and realise that if you win this tender, there will be multiple variations available (also known as predatory tendering). • Do you: • advise the principal contractor of the issues in the documentation to level the “playing field”? OR • Not advise the principal contractor; submit a low price to ensure you win the job; then claim variations to the contractor as soon as the construction contract is awarded to you?

16. Ethical and moral obligations in construction: Some scenarios You are a sub-contractor tendering on the electrical component for a factory in Western Sydney: • You are in the process of tendering for the “electrical sub-contract” in relation to a tilt-up factory construction. • You notice the documentation in relation to the electrical specifications in the main switch room is lacking crucial information… • Do you: • Bid on the project and not advise the principal contractor about the errors relating to the electrical switch room? • Request for a Request for Information (RFI) highlighting the issue to the contractor in a non-offensive way.

17. Ethical and moral obligations in construction: Some scenarios You are a civil engineer who has won a successful tender to be the principal contractor on the construction of a railway bridge in Bankstown: • You invite for tenders on the pre-cast component of the project and you notice that one of the potential sub-contractors has missed a crucial piece of information and they are the cheapest tenderer due to the error. • Do you: • Advise them of the error and ask to re-submit? • Continue with the quote and award the successful tender to them, knowing they have missed a crucial component in the estimate?

18. Ethical and moral obligations in construction: Some scenarios You are the construction manager working on two projects for a construction company: • The two projects are for two different clients, at the current stage: • Project #1 is making a loss, • Project #2 is making a profit. • Should you allocate all your time costing to project #2 as its making a profit, and by doing so, you are helping project #1 balance the books?

19. Ethical and moral obligations in construction: Some scenarios You are the site engineer on a residential project managing the construction of 10 townhouses: • As the project is slightly behind schedule, you are in charge of managing the painters in an effort to speed up their production. • You hear a old rumour that painters “thin out their paint product” with some water and that on some jobs to speed up production, painters “skip the final coat”. • What is the best way to combat the potential quality issues that arise from the allegations against painters on your site? • Painters have been used as a hypothetical scenario.

20. Discussion on ethical and moral obligations in construction and engineering • Questions???

21. Assessment in this unit More information will be added progressively on vUWS Check regularly for updates