Abstract
Internationally there is a wealth of evidence to show that ethical practices in the built
environment industry are not at desired levels and do not comply with good practice
articulated by United Kingdom (UK) professional bodies. The context of this research
is the UK construction industry, but drawing on case studies in the UK, United States
of America (USA) and Malaysia.
This research aim is to investigate and assesses the phenomenon of construction
ethics and its management within the built environment industry. By doing so, it
facilitates progress in comprehending ethical difficulties, dilemmas, and possibilities
in the built environment industry. Also, it contributes to the creation of evidencebased strategies aimed at promoting integrity, transparency, and accountability
which is achieved through identification and analysis of unethical practices within the
industry through reviewing literature; this helps to identify root causes that contribute
to unethical practises with emphasis on (but not limited to) organisational culture,
competitive pressures, inadequate oversight, and lack of personal morality.
In this study of construction ethics, several fundamental questions are addressed to
better comprehend industry ethical challenges and implications, and to explore the
most prevalent ethical quandaries faced by construction professionals. These
include documented aspects of unethical principles, bribery and corruption, safety
violations, environmental damage, unfair labour practices, and conflicts of interest.
Another fundamental question this study addresses, is regulatory frameworks and
how it influences ethical construction practices. It explains how rules and regulations,
such as construction codes (provided by professional bodies), labour laws (provided
by the government), environmental restrictions, and anti-corruption measures,
contribute to ethical behaviours.
The study also focused on ethical obligations of construction professionals towards
their workers, the influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the
construction industry, the effects of technology (specifically on Artificial Intelligence)
and its potential to improve ethical practices in construction, and concerns regarding
whistleblowing and reporting unethical conduct.
A quantitative methodology (questionnaires) were used as a survey tool to make an
objective determination as to whether or not professionals working in the built
environment, including students understand the fundamentals of construction ethics
in relation to the documented literature. The questionnaires were administered
electronically via Microsoft Forms and a total of 71 respondents submitted their
responses. The quantitative questionnaire consisted of 10 Likert based questions.
On the academic demography, the minimum level of education held by the sample of
the industry professionals was Advanced level (A’ level) and the highest level was
post graduate (master’s degree and higher). Study findings provided insight of what
is considered ‘important’ or ‘not important’ on given ethical aspects using coded
values ranging from 0-5. On the correlations calculated (from different pairs of
questions), the minimum obtained was +0.22 (considered weak with association),
when interpretated in context, suggests that on the subject of research, even weak
correlations are meaningful. For example, in some social sciences or medical
research, a correlation of +0.22 may be regarded significant, particularly if the
variables under study are complicated and influenced by a variety of factors. The
maximum correlation calculated was +0.65 (considered strong with association) of
which, when interpretated in context, highlights that in many domains, +0.65 is
regarded meaningful and important. It suggests that changes in one variable are
somewhat consistently correlated with changes in the other variable. This is
especially useful in subjects like social sciences, economics, psychology, and natural
sciences, where the interactions between variables can be complex and influenced
by a variety of factors. Therefore, this determined that the null hypothesis was
rejected with p set at less than 0.05 (p < 0.05), thus implying that the outcome is
deemed statistically significant, hence, in summary, the overall results
obtained evaluating the ethical values that construction practitioners believe in, is
essential to making better ethical decisions, fostering an ethical culture, adhering to
rules, controlling risks, cultivating stakeholder trust, raising professionalism, and
supporting the sustainability and social responsibility of the construction sector.
Nevertheless, future research is recommended to further explore and evaluate ethics
within the construction industry.