Moral and Ethical Responsibilities in Professional Career - Desklib

This report discusses the moral and ethical responsibilities of organizations, with a focus on Balfour Beatty. It covers the importance of codes of conduct, leadership, and corporate governance, as well as the role of professional bodies such as RIBA and CIOB in bringing professionalism to the industry. The report also explains how Balfour Beatty implements codes of conduct and standards in the organization. Course code, course name, and college/university are not mentioned.

PREPARING FOR
PROFESSIONAL CAREER

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANISATION AND TYPE OF BUSINESS...............................3
2. MORAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ORGANISATION.....................4
3. LEADERSHIP AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE..........................................................5
4. PROFESSIONAL BODIES AND CODE OF CONDUCT.....................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The aim of this report is to comprehensively illustrate moral and ethical responsibilities
and codes of conducts, giving details of the moral obligations on the company. Code of conduct
is the references set by the organization for helping various stakeholders to identify a company's
values. Further, this report also includes leadership and corporate governance, importance of
having good leadership and strong corporate relations in the organization. Shading light on the
importance of standards set by professional bodies such as RIBA and CIOB and importance of
such bodies in bringing professionalism in the industry. And the way enhancement of
professionalism has taken place in the companies will be explained.
For this purpose the company taken is Balfour Beatty, it is a construction company,
having its headquarters in united kingdom. Balfour Beatty is an industry leader providing
construction services and has delivered many infrastructure projects, design builds, in both
private and public sectors across the globe. In this report company's code of conduct and
professionalism will be highlighted and how over the years company has built a strong ethical
culture and incorporated effective corporate governance will be discussed. Further importance of
professional bodies in bring better culture and professionalism will be mentioned.
MAIN BODY
1. OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANISATION AND TYPE OF BUSINESS
Balfour Beatty Plc, a construction company which was founded by George Balfour and
Andrew Beatty in the year 1909. The quoted organization is a multinational infrastructure group
based in UK and distributed the business performance in three segments such as infrastructure
investments, support services and construction services mainly in UK, USA and Hong Kong.
The rationale behind this construction organization is to develop, finance, build and maintain
innovative and efficient infrastructure which assist the daily life of the community at large
(Rissler, 2019). With a more than 110 years of experience the customers across the globe rely on
the working which aids them to meet the toughest challenges. The given company work includes
the civil engineering work, high-way services & asset management, refurbishment, modular
systems, interiors, ground engineering and structural strengthening, protection & repair. Balfour
Beatty is a leading fixed rail project contractors which delivers major infrastructure, track-work,
electrification, specialist plant, track systems and maintenance work. The modern rail
engineering work have its approach in the US and Germany too. Apart from the core market they

are expanding in international infrastructure market through joint ventures with the local partners
helps in establishing market in South-East Asia.
The quoted company is a Public Limited Company (PLC) which is equivalent to the
publicly traded company of a US. The mandatory use of abbreviation helps the investors to
figure out that an organization has listed on the London Stock Exchange. Role of the
stakeholders in the corporate governance is by handling the conflicting stakes resulting in better
decision-making and strategy. Robust programme of stakeholder engagement aimed at
understanding the interests of the group workforce, customers, investors, government and
society. Apart from this there is a network of business-led stakeholder relationships and mature
executive across the group which provide feedback in a timely recognition.
2. MORAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ORGANISATION
The moral obligation of a company refers to an obligation or a duty to handle the clients,
skilled or unskilled worker fairly and to provide quality services which are abided by the law.
The company's way of treating its stakeholders show the reputation in the market. It is further
divided into:
Responsibility to client: Balfour Beatty Plc have a sustainable strategy while working for
anyone and a robust code of conduct gain the trust of the customers and attract them to do
business again. They treat their customer's like the king of the market and complete the required
target on time.
Responsibility to employee: The duty of the quoted company regarding its employees is a
fundamental priority. The core work is related to the construction and the utmost obligation is the
safety and allowing them to manage the personal & professional work life within the
organisation (Taştan and Davoudi, 2019). The innovative and efficient infrastructure underpins
the daily lives of the employees.
Responsibility to society: The given company runs various strategic programmes for the welfare
of the community by funding charitable events, preventing the environment and promoting
healthy concern at workplace. Building New Futures' is a programme launched which sets goals
to achieve net zero emissions, zero waste and its positive impact on one million people by 2040.
Responsibility to labour: The construction industry responsibility towards the labour force is
awful as many infrastructure company's exploit the unskilled workers or labourer with the
modern slavery techniques like servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. The quoted

company have a robust check & balance system or strict code of conduct and must be abided by
the rules & regulations of the Labour Code, minimum wage rate, preventive measures working
with hazardous resource (Voutsadakis and Gonzalez, 2018.).
The ethical behaviour is important because it increased the performance of the
employees, job satisfaction, built fiduciary relationship between organization & its employees,
organizational commitment and the paramount ingredient has been the reputation of the quoted
company. The relation between the reputation and the ethics is directly proportional to each
other. Therefore, to have a good brand name or reputation the quoted company consistently work
towards the ethical culture by having a strict code of conduct within the organization. The
reputation could be measured on the ground the satisfaction of the customer's, treatment to the
employees, abided by the laws etc.
3. LEADERSHIP AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Leadership is the quality of an individual or a group which guide the other people of an
organisation. It is a vital management which direct an organization's resources to work efficiently
and effectively so to achieve the goals. Effective leader motivate, guide and clarify the purpose
to realize its vision and mission. Corporate governance is the systematic approach by which a
company is directed and controlled with the help of Board of Directors. While considering the
fact, leadership is an integral part of the good corporate governance (Chukwujioke, 2018). The
strong leader could aggrandize the productivity of the company by administrating the
subordinates to work with confidence, zeal, courage and determination.
Corporate governance has a significant role to lead an ethical business practices which
aids to financial viability by creating rules & practices which align the interest of the
stakeholders and determine the operation of the company to achieve success. Transparency,
security and accountability are the three pillars of the corporate governance.
Balfour Beatty Plc CEO, Leo Quinn who was appointed in 2015 has a huge role in the
company's growth and success. The great leadership skills of the CEO assist the quoted company
to enjoy strong cash performance as well as satisfying the stakeholders of the organisation. To
achieve good corporate governance the given organisation are:
Ensure director independence: The tenure of CEO represents the free working culture within
the organisation who is responsible for the long run success (Naciti, 2019). Regular evaluation of
the performance helps the construction company to maintain the corporate governance.

Transparency: It is essential for better corporate governance as the quoted company has a
system of openness to share or communicate the information with the stakeholders to solidify the
business reputation.
Aim for long-term value: The years of experience of the quoted organisation shows that they
are working for long-term value creation and committed towards the sustainable growth of the
company.
Manage risk proactively: With a solid risk management process, identifying and mitigating the
risk is the sign of good corporate governance and to avoid the bigger disaster resulting in British
top infrastructural group.
4. PROFESSIONAL BODIES AND CODE OF CONDUCT
Importance of the standards set by the professional bodies : In the construction and
architecture industry, various standards are set up by the professional bodies such as RIBA and
CIOB. CIOB stands for charted institute of building, it exists to promote public benefits in the
construction sector. Such professional codes of conduct not just holds members accountable for
complaints against them but also assist them in day to day practice. It judges the entire working
of the companies in order to determine those who are breaching it and works in favour of
industry and clients. It introduces new codes of conduct for the betterment of the industry and
improved measures such as sustainable development, ethical rules etc. such standards set by
professional bodies helps in building strong trust among the customers resulting into increased
revenues and strong goodwill for the companies (Rwelamila and Abdul-Aziz, 2020).
Importance of codes of conducts: code of conduct is a guide or reference for the employees in
order to support daily decision makings. There are pre-defined set of code of conduct for every
industry. Such code of conduct helpS and improves overall approach of the company. For the
construction company Balfour Beatty, such code of conducts helps employees and professionals
adhere to values and standards. It also helps in risk mitigation for the company and companies
measure employees performance against these benchmarks (McNamara and Sepasgozar, 2021).
Codes of conduct helps Balfour Beatty in maintaining environmental, anti corruption, labour
rules and regulations. Such regulations are always aligned with company's goals, visions and
missions, therefore abiding these regulations helps in improvement of overall performance of
company in the industry.

RIBA and it's helps in enhancing professionalism : RIBA stands for royal institute of British
architects, it has various codes of conduct based on 3 major principles i.e. integrity, competence
and relationships (Crosby, 2019). RIBA has introduced many standards and codes of conduct
which has helped to maintain the strong structure of the industry. It leads industry initiative to
improve the quality of construction or building. Over the years it has represented industry in so
many trade deals such as Brexit to improve working conditions and professionalism. It has
implemented many standards which resulted into bringing professionalism in the industry. Safe
guarding building quality, focusing on clientele expectations and considering zero waste and
environmental approach in building has been one of the greatest contribution of RIBA. Such
factors have helped in redefining professionalism in the construction industry. RIBA has a strong
influence on the industry as it has made the working conditions and business better. Members of
RIBA are working continuously abiding such standards and professionalism brought in by the
institute in order to maintain harmony and prosperity in the industry.
Incorporation of code of conducts and professional standards : for incorporating code of
conduct and standards, First company needs to analyse and identify its vision, missions and
goals. Second, various standard, rules, regulations and code of conducts are formed which are
aligning with the vision, mission and goals of the Balfour Beatty. At last such regulations and
code of conducts are being channelized and implemented in the upper hierarchy first, and further
flowing it down to the lower level of hierarchy. As, when an employee observes their bosses
follow this rules, they tend to understand the importance and are willing to abide by the same.
Professionals and employees should also being explained really well about the implications of
not following such rules. Mainly manager are the leaders who are supposed to provide support to
the employees to understand code of conducts and take such standards into practice. This is the
way Balfour Beatty adopted to imply code of conducts in the organization (Li, Zhao and Xu,
2019).

CONCLUSION
The above report depicted the moral and ethical responsibilities of the organizations, keeping in
mind the Balfour Beatty as the focused organization for the report. Background of this
construction company and business has also been briefly discussed. As, code of conduct is an
important factor in an organization, to have a respectable approach in the industry. Standards are
the set of important rules and regulations given by the industry to each member or professional
working in the industry (Ofori and Ceric, 2018, November). Further, highlighted the importance
of various codes of conduct required and implementation of the same has been mentioned in
detail. Report also highlighted various professional bodies such as RIBA and CIOB bringing
professionalism in the industry. Background of RIBA has been explained well to establish
understanding of the regulations and framework provided by it. and it's principles have also been
mentioned. The way adopted by the organization for implementation of the code of conduct and
standards for better working of the organization has been illustrated. Overall report has analysed
Balfour Beatty's corporate code of conduct and professionalism which is channelized in the
organization through various hierarchy levels with the help of professional bodies.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Chukwujioke, K., 2018. Effect of ethical leadership on corporate governance, performance and
social responsibility: A study of selected deposit money banks on Benue State,
Nigeria. Informing Science: International Journal of Community Development &
Management Studies. 2(19). pp.19-35.
Crosby, P., 2019. Competition Practices in the UK and the Role of RIBA. In The Competition
Grid (pp. 45-50). RIBA Publishing.
Li, C.Z., Zhao, Y. and Xu, X., 2019. Investigation of dust exposure and control practices in the
construction industry: Implications for cleaner production. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 227, pp.810-824.
McNamara, A.J. and Sepasgozar, S.M., 2021. Intelligent contract adoption in the construction
industry: Concept development. Automation in construction, 122, p.103452.
Naciti, V., 2019. Corporate governance and board of directors: The effect of a board composition
on firm sustainability performance. Journal of Cleaner Production. 237. p.117727.
Ofori, G. and Ceric, A., 2018, November. A new professionalism in construction: importance of
trust. In International Conference on Professionalism and Ethics in Construction.
Rissler, D., 2019. Delivering Olmsted Locks and Dam. Civil Engineering Magazine Archive.
89(6). pp.74-79.
Rwelamila, P.D. and Abdul-Aziz, A.R. eds., 2020. Improving the Performance of Construction
Industries for Developing Countries: Programmes, Initiatives, Achievements and
Challenges. Routledge.
Taştan, S. B. and Davoudi, S. M. M., 2019. The relationship between socially responsible
leadership and organisational ethical climate: in search for the role of leader's relational
transparency. International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics. 13(3). pp.275-
299.
Voutsadakis, E. and Gonzalez, C., 2018. Grenfell tower fire: the importance of ethics and
professionalism for the procurement of safe buildings and infrastructure in the
construction industry. Professionalism and ethics in construction: Improving the global
industry.
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