Ethical Decision-Making in Civil Engineering: A Reflective Essay

This reflective essay presents an ethical dilemma faced by a civil engineer in a developing country, where the engineer's recommendations are ignored by the CEO regarding the use of company staff versus an external contractor. The essay interprets the situation through the lens of normative and descriptive ethical theories. It applies categorical imperative from normative theory to analyze the right and wrong actions in the scenario, focusing on the implications of supervising and approving potentially substandard work. Furthermore, the essay employs descriptive theory to analyze the attitudes of stakeholders, considering how their perspectives might influence the decision-making process. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of consultation and the consideration of potential outcomes before making decisions in an organizational setting, highlighting the complexities of ethical decision-making in a professional context.

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Description
The dilemma scenario in this reflective essay is whereby I have been appointed to be a civil
engineer in a developing country. However, the position has been vacant for a long time, and the
company has given several responsibilities to other people. The dilemma situation here is that the
C.E.O of the company has ignored my recommendation to use company staff to accomplish a
project, yet am the one to supervise and approve payment for the contractor.
Interpretation
In interpreting the above dilemma situation, the essay is going to apply normative theory and
descriptive theory (Vitell and Hunt, 2016: p.40). Normative theory helps in analyzing the
situation to understand which actions are wrong or right in a particular case. Many normative
theories provide an ethical way of solving the problem; however, in this scenario, the essay is
going to apply categorical imperative as one of the normative theories to offer a solution in the
above case. Categorical imperative needs an individual to act in a way that its outcome will be
rational to everyone in the situation (Blay, Gooden, Mellon and Stevens, 2018: p.200). For
instance, it is for one to eat because he or she is hungry. In the above scenario, the C.E.O of the
company has recommended his contractor without involving me in the decision making yet he
expects me to supervise the work of the contractor and approve the payment. Applying the
universal rule of the certain imperative way of solving problems, the first question to ask me is
that is it right to supervise a work that the contractor will do poorly? Is it appropriate to pay
poorly done job? Is it essential for the C.E.O to consult while making crucial in the company?
The above questions will provide a final decision. The first thing is that I can fail to supervise
and approve payment because it is necessary to consult others while making significant decisions

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in a company. It is a universal benefit to the company because they need quality work not poorly
done the job.
On the other hand, applying the descriptive theory of ethics it requires an individual to analyze
the attitude of everyone that is concerned with the specific issue before coming up with the final
decision of the matter. The theory says that the opinion of every stakeholder will analyze what
they believe as the correct values, actions which are right and the one which can affect the
individuals negatively (Kagan, 2018: p.46). In this situation, the best decision I could take based
on descriptive theory, the first thing is to consult other stakeholders in the company. For
example, the staff and other senior officials. The views they give will provide the action I need to
take. For instance, it can be the norm of the organization to ignore the engineer while dealing
with construction matters (Miller and Blackler, 2017: p.57). If the stakeholders believe that the
action is right, I will supervise and approve its payment. Consequently, if they recommend
otherwise, it will be good to have a meeting with the C.E.O to explain what he needs to do before
making decisions.
Conclusion
After analyzing the case using descriptive theory and the normative theory, I now understand
that there are various approaches to solving a problem in an organization. However, one needs to
consult many people and consider the outcome of each step he or she wants to take before
implementing the decision.

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References
Blay, A.D., Gooden, E.S., Mellon, M.J. and Stevens, D.E., 2018. The usefulness of social norm
theory in empirical business ethics research: A review and suggestions for future
research. Journal of Business Ethics, 152(1), pp.191-206.
Kagan, S., 2018. Normative ethics. Routledge, Vol 3. pp. 12-186

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Miller, S. and Blackler, J., 2017. Ethical issues in policing. Routledge Vol 2. pp. 34-79
Vitell, S.J. and Hunt, S.D., 2016. Personal Moral Codes and the Hunt-Vitell Theory of Ethics:
Why Do People’s Ethical Judgments Differ?. In Business ethics: New challenges for business
schools and corporate leaders (pp. 30-49). Routledge.