The Ethical Concerns of a Construction Industry in an Ever Changing World

Running head: DISSERTATION
The ethical concerns of a construction industry in an ever
changing world
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

2
DISSERTATION
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all of those who have helped listened and encouraged me throughout this
study. I am indebted to my supervisor ......................... whose guidance, advice and
patience have been immeasurable. My sincere thanks to all members of the...............
[Mention your university/college name], both staff and students, whose continuous
support have made this thesis possible.
I would like to thank all of the participants in the study: students, teachers and Local
Education Authorities, for the time and help given throughout. Without their participation,
this research would not have been possible. In this context, I am also thankful to them,
whose research work helped me to execute this paper well.
Finally, I thank my family, without whom this thesis would not have been started or
completed! Your encouragement and support have never faltered; thank you.

3
DISSERTATION
Abstract
The following work is based on the ethics in construction industry and the effect
that can happen on their negligence. The work has addressed the different concerns
faced by the workers of the industry and has also addressed the different factors that
leads the companies to such negligence. The researcher has selected the secondary
research methods to complete his study as the earlier sources of work that were done
by the other researchers were considered to evaluate the particular case. Another main
reason for the selection of the secondary research method was the lack of adequate
time to conduct the primary research procedures like survey, online questionnaire
surveys, semi structured and structured interviews. The researcher has provided
different themes based on the construction industry which has provided the political,
social and other different considerations for the same. The concluding part of the
research has is quite different from the other researches as because the researcher has
provided a number of recommendations as well as a reflective part which mentions
about the experience of the researcher on the following issue.

4
DISSERTATION
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.....................................................................................................8
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 8
Background of the Research..........................................................................................10
Rationale of the Research..............................................................................................11
Definition of Ethics......................................................................................................... 13
Research Aim.................................................................................................................14
Research Objectives......................................................................................................14
Research Questions.......................................................................................................14
Significance of the Research......................................................................................... 15
Structure of the Dissertation...........................................................................................16
Chapter 1: Introduction...................................................................................................16
Chapter 2: Literature Review......................................................................................... 17
Chapter 3: Research Methodology.................................................................................17
Chapter 4: Data Analysis............................................................................................... 17
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation................................................................17
Summary........................................................................................................................18
Chapter 2: Literature review...........................................................................................19
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 19

5
DISSERTATION
Business ethics.............................................................................................................. 20
Code of conducts and ethical principles.........................................................................20
Unethical behavior in construction industry....................................................................22
Overview of ethics in construction industry....................................................................23
Professional ethics.........................................................................................................25
Ethics in construction industry........................................................................................26
The increasing need of construction ethics....................................................................28
Personal ethics...............................................................................................................29
Ethics of the contractors in terms of safety and change orders......................................29
Summary........................................................................................................................30
Chapter 3: Research Methodology.................................................................................31
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 31
Research Outline........................................................................................................... 32
Research Philosophy..................................................................................................... 33
Positivism....................................................................................................................... 33
Interpretivism..................................................................................................................34
Realism.......................................................................................................................... 34
Pragmatism.................................................................................................................... 35
Justification for using interpretivism philosophy.............................................................35
Research approach........................................................................................................36

6
DISSERTATION
Inductive.........................................................................................................................36
Deductive....................................................................................................................... 36
Justification for using deductive approach.....................................................................37
Research Design............................................................................................................38
Explanatory.................................................................................................................... 38
Exploratory.....................................................................................................................38
Descriptive..................................................................................................................... 39
Justification for using descriptive research design.........................................................39
Research Strategy......................................................................................................... 39
Justification for using case study strategy......................................................................40
Data collection technique...............................................................................................40
Justification for using secondary data collection technique............................................41
Data analysis process....................................................................................................41
Justification for using qualitative analysis.......................................................................42
Ethical Considerations................................................................................................... 42
Research Limitations......................................................................................................43
Summary........................................................................................................................43
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Findings..........................................................................44
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 44
Theme 1-Social, Economic and Political Impact of Ethics in Construction Industry......45

7
DISSERTATION
Theme 2: Social Responsibilities of Construction Companies.................................47
Theme 3: Example of Ethics in different Nations of the world..................................49
Theme 4: Challenges faced by Construction Companies.......................................50
Theme 5: Professional Ethics in the Construction Industry.....................................55
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations............................................................56
Conclusions....................................................................................................................56
Recommendations......................................................................................................... 58
Reflections..................................................................................................................... 59
References and Bibliography.........................................................................................60

8
DISSERTATION
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
In view of the size and the globalization of the world, construction industry has
often been cited as plagued with different graft and malpractices. The most common
issues that comes to the forefront are the tendering practice, sub standard quality of
material, lack of proper knowledge on safety, avoidance of safety measures, payment
problems, corruption from lower level to upper level and other such similar problems
has been a case of intense pain for the construction industry worldwide. Construction
industry is one of the most important industries that is said to be the infrastructure of the
business practices of the world (Mok, Shen and Yang 2015). In the recent past there
are many reported cases involving building collapse, bridge collapse, damage and
improper planning has led to the loss of lives and acted as a barrier to the economic
progress. This has happened mainly due to the shortcuts of the contractors, negligence
of the contractors, lack of proper supervision, absence of involvement by the superiors
of the company and many more as such. Therefore the lack of ethics harms the
construction industry. Ethics can be defined as the system of different moral principles
by which human actions and proposals may be judged good or bad, or right or wrong,
the rules of conduct recognized in the following respect of a particular class of human
actions and the moral principles that are followed by an individual. A company operating
in the modern market is always judged by the reputation it earns in the market and a
bad reputation can cause severe damage to the operations of the business.