Scientific Research and Essays Vol. 5(23), pp.

3742-3749, 4 December, 2010

Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/SRE
ISSN 1992-2248 ©2010 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

How professional ethics impact construction quality:

Perception and evidence in a fast developing economy
Hamzah Abdul-Rahman, Chen Wang* and Xiang Wen Yap
Faculty of Built Environment, University of Malaya, Malaysia.
Accepted 11 November, 2010

There is a perception that majority of quality-related issues are caused by human factors. The issue of
professional ethics plays an important role in quality-related problems in a construction project. This
paper highlights the current level of professional ethics standard in the construction industry and how
ethics influences the quality of construction projects. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the
construction industry in Malaysia, a fast developing economy. Results indicate that various forms of
unethical conducts have significant impact on construction quality. This study concludes that
professional ethics is a pre-requisite to attaining sustained and acceptable quality in construction and
suggests several approaches to enhance professionalism among construction professionals to
improve quality in construction.

Key words: Professional ethics, quality-related problem, unethical conducts, fast developing economy,
construction quality.

INTRODUCTION

The adoption of ethical principles and the enforcement of defined as a system of norms so that both the morality
standards become matters of increasing importance to and behaviour of professionals could be dealt with in their
society as the number of professions and professionals day-to-day practice by this system. Professional ethics
increase and the work environment becomes more also ascribes moral responsibility not to an individual, but
ethically sensitive because the credibility of the entire to all professionals practicing in a particular profession.
profession is endangered when there are lapses in Carey and Doherty (1968) stated that it automatically tied
occurrence of ethical behaviour. It is important to up with more practical concepts and expectations from
understand the term “profession” before discussing the the public, encompassing issues such as competence,
issue of professional ethics in depth. According to responsibility and willingness to serve the public. Brien
Greenhalgh (1997), the essence of the word (1998) feels that the problem that faces any professional
“professionalism” can be defined as the possession and community is how could it regulate itself effectively to
autonomous control of a body of specialized knowledge, justify its autonomy, while ensuring that the clients of its
which when combined with honorific status, confers members and society as a whole benefit from the
power upon its holders. Professionals have always been profession’s and the individual professional’s actions,
linked with the notion of “service” so that a profession is rather than becoming their victims. It is one of the ethical
described as a group of people organised to serve a body quality control.
of specialized knowledge in the interests of society based Construction industry plays a substantial role in a
on the perceived relationship (Appelbaum and Lawton, country’s economy, irrespective of the country’s levels of
1990). According to Bayles (1989), professional ethics is economic development (Zantanidis and Tsiotras, 1998).
The construction sector in a country’s economy is an
important employer of a nation’s workforce as it employs
between 2 to 10% of total workforce of most countries
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: (Abdul-Rashid and Hassan, 2005). Malaysia had gained
03-7967 3203. Fax: 03-7967 5713. an impressive economic growth during the last three
 Abdul-Rahman et al. 3743

decades (Abdul-Rahman et al., 2005) and this sector had professional code of ethics (Toor and Ofori, 2008).
employed an estimated 798,200 workforce nationwide in Contractors on the other hand, are keen to make a profit
2004 (CIDB, 2006). The Malaysian Government had and hence their actions inclined to business ethics. Each
given a much needed boost to the country’s construction profession has its own interests, which are often
industry under the 9th Malaysian Plan where a total of divergent and competing in nature. Their diversity can be
880 projects worth RM15 billion is to be tendered (The a source of conflicting ethical standards and practice,
Star, 2006a). Nevertheless, much had been reported which may affect quality performance and accountability
about the performance of the construction industry in to clients or customers. The uniqueness of the sector and
terms of quality, productivity and safety. In addition, it the need to perform accountability among all participants
should be highlighted that the issue of poor quality in the places an imposed duty on the associated notions of
construction sector had been identified as a major ethics and professionalism in an integrated framework
concern even as far back as the mid 1980s (The Star, that should facilitate responsible and accountable
2006b). Generally, it is a rule that construction projects performance across the construction sector (Sichombo et
must be completed within the planned cost, scheduled al., 2009; Turk, 2006; Abdul-Rashid and Hassan, 2005).
time and required quality. Quality may sometimes be Profession is an occupation that requires both
ignored in this industry to cut the costs or to shorten the advanced study and mastery of a specialized body of
project time (Turk, 2006). To deal with the low quality knowledge and undertaken to promote, ensure or
problem faced by the industry, quality management is safeguard some matter that significantly affects others’
seen as an approach to achieve the required level of well being (Vee and Skitmore, 2003). Almost every
quality of the end product and had been given great profession has its codes of ethics to provide a framework
attention world-wide over the past three decades for arriving at good ethical choices. Therefore,
(Hiyassat, 2000; Berawi and Woodhead, 2005). However, professional ethics is a system of norms to deal with both
there is a perception that majority of quality-related the morality and behaviour of professionals in their day-
issues are caused by human factor. Therefore, the issue to-day practice, and ascribes moral responsibility not to
of professional ethics plays an important role in reducing an individual, but to all professionals practicing in a
quality problems and preventing inconvenience to all particular profession (Corvellec and Macheridis, 2010).
parties concerned. For the building and designing professions, the
The issues of professional ethics within the incalculable value of human life demands nothing less
construction industry affect a wide spectrum of than the highest moral considerations from those who
population. The local authorities, public works might risk it otherwise (Smyth et al., 2010; Mason, 1998).
department, client organisations, consultants, suppliers, The construction industry is a perfect environment for
contractors, home buyers, and users of public ethical dilemmas, with its low-price mentality, fierce
infrastructure, are all within the scope of professional competition, and paper-thin margin (FMI, 2006). Jordan
ethics. All those mentioned have their own contributions (2005) stated that unethical behaviour is taking a growing
towards the problems in hand, and issues of ethics and toll on the reputation of the industry. From a survey
integrity in the Malaysian construction industry. conducted by FMI, 63% of the respondents whom are the
construction players feel that construction sector is
tainted by unethical conducts (FMI, 2006). Surveys
conducted by researchers in Australia (Vee and Skitmore,
PROFESSIONALS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN 2003) and South Africa (Pearl et al., 2005) identified
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY several unethical conducts and ethical dilemmas in the
construction industry such as corruption, negligence,
The construction sector in Malaysia as that in most other bribery, conflict of interest, bid cutting, under bidding,
countries is made up of different sectors including client collusive tendering, cover pricing, frontloading, bid
groups, the federal and state councils, private shopping, withdrawal of tender, and payment game. It is
organisations, individuals, developers, contractors, evident that there exist significant areas of concern
suppliers, manufacturers and professionals, architects, pertaining to the ethical conducts practised by the
quantity surveyors, and engineers incorporating civil, construction professionals.
structural, mechanical and electrical. In addition, there There are many other efforts taken to increase the
are supporting regulatory bodies whose function is to ethical standards and integrity among the professionals in
inspect and to ensure that specialist installation confirms construction sectors worldwide. According to Pearl et al.
to standards set up by building byelaws. The main (2005), the regulatory professional acts relating to the
problem surfaced is the fragmentation of the different built environment professional sector in South Africa were
sectors in the industry (Hiyassat, 2000; Berawi and totally overhauled in the late 1990’s and a new suite of
Woodhead, 2005; Segalas et al., 2010). Construction professional acts were promulgated in 2000 to enhance
professionals exercise their own skills and judgement and the professionalism. Meanwhile, in America, the
they are accountable to the client and bound by their construction management association of America
3744 Sci. Res. Essays

(CMAA) had updated its code of ethics to include a wider in developing economies. Thus, the need to have a
range of professional services as well as professional proper system that ensures quality is critical, coupled with
services among construction players (CMAA, 2006). A high level of attention paid to quality management in
standard of professional conduct to govern the ethical construction industry (Dong et al., 2009; Abdul-Rahman
practices in the American civil engineering profession et al., 2006). Scholars indicate that quality management
was published by the American society of civil engineers. had been adopted by many countries in their respective
On the other hand, Australia had their own codes of construction industries including Hong Kong (Leung et al.,
tendering to enhance fairness and transparency (Ray, 1999; Au and Yu, 1999; Tang and Kam, 1999),
1997). In Malaysia, the government is very serious about Singapore (Low and Omar, 1999; Low and Yeo, 1997),
improving ethics in both public and private sector. For Greece (Tsiotras and Gotzamani, 1996; Zantanidis and
instance, the construction industry had introduced codes Tsiotras, 1998), Turkey (Turk, 2006), Jordan (Hiyassat,
of ethics for contractors to encourage self-regulation 2000), Saudi Arabia (Bubshait and Al-Atiq, 1999),
among the contractor in this sector (The Star, 2006c). Sweden (Landin, 2000), United States (Chini and Valdez,
Stakeholders of construction projects were asked to 2003), South Africa (Rwelamila, 1995) and Malaysia
enforce the existing code of ethics to safeguard the (Chew and Chai, 1996).
engineer's good name (The Star, 2006d). The Quality management is a complex effort that may not
construction industry development board (CIDB) of be fruitful if only technical aspects are focused and this
Malaysia also host integrity courses for contractors to had led to the modern concept of total quality
promote the importance of integrity and plans to make management (TQM) (Tan and Abdul-Rahman, 2005).
the course as a pre-requisite for contractors when Besterfield et al. (2003) defines TQM as both philosophy
renewing their registration (The Star, 2006d). Finally, the and a set of guiding principles that represent the
launching of the construction industry master plan (CIMP) foundation of continuously improving organization. Many
by CIDB in 2004 also handed in the master plan an tools, methods, and techniques have been developed
objective to enhance professional ethics in the local world wide in order to give substance to the concept of
construction industry. TQM (Geraedts et al., 2001; Berawi, 2004). A large
number of companies obtained the ISO 9000 standards
certificate as a first step towards TQM (Hiyassat, 2000).
QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION However, if people are not serious in implementing
INDUSTRY quality management, no matter how good the system is,
it will fail eventually. There is a strong perception that
The issues of quality have existed since tribal chiefs, majority of the quality-related problems are caused by
kings, and pharaohs ruled (Gitlow et al., 2005; Tabassi human-related factors, especially professionalism and
and Bakar, 2009). In a project scenario, quality can be ethics (Besterfield et al., 2003).
defined as meeting the legal, aesthetic (Arditi and
Gunaydin, 1997) and functional requirements of a project
(Berawi, 2006). Clients and customers, both from the PERCEPTION BETWEEN QUALITY-RELATED ISSUES
public and private sectors, nowadays place more AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
emphasis on the quality of products rather than the price
which was the major concern in the past. Hence, a rapid Besterfield et al. (2003) mentioned that quality is
expansion of international competition in quality had dependent on ethical behaviour, whereby quality and
occurred (Tsiotras and Gotzamani, 1996; Abdul-Rahman ethics have a common care premise which is to do right
and Berawi, 2002). In terms of quality in construction things right and it is a proven way to reduce costs,
industry, Turk (2006), citing Arditi and Gunaydin (1999), improve competitiveness, and create customer
mentioned that ‘high quality building project’ includes satisfaction. It is evident that low ethical standards among
factors like the design being easily understandable and construction professional will lead to quality problem.
applicable, conformity of design with specifications, These issues were highlighted in the media and received
economics of construction, ease of operation, ease of great concern of public (Fleddermann, 2004; NST,
maintenance and energy efficiency. Zantanidis and 2004b). As an example, the ethical-related case in the
Tsiotras (1998) and Abdul-Rahman and Berawi (2002) construction industry was the collapse of the Hyatt
mentioned that expectations for quality construction Regency Kansas City walkways (Fleddermann, 2004). It
projects will continue to grow rapidly as the number of is a hotel project in 1970s with walkways suspended over
affluent, educated and quality-conscious customers are the large atrium. With the intention to save the cost, the
increasing. subcontractor for the fabrication and erection of atrium
With the globalization of economy, construction firms steel suggested changes in the structure and it was
world-wide are actively engaged to achieve interna- approved by the consulting structural engineer. During
tionally accepted quality levels to ensure their fore-front the construction, part of the atrium collapsed and the
position in the emerging international market especially engineer came out with the report saying that the design
 Abdul-Rahman et al. 3745

was safe and ready to be opened for business in 1980. Table 1. Breakdown of response by type of company.
The tragedy happened one year after the completion of
the project during a dancing party in the atrium lobby. Type of firm Sent Responded Percent (%)
Some of the walkways on which people were dancing Contractor 275 40 14.55
collapsed onto the crowded atrium floor, leaving more Architectural 80 11 13.95
than a hundred people dead and almost two hundreds Developer 45 6 13.33
injured. Investigation was then conducted by the Missouri Quantity surveying 100 7 7.00
Board of Architects, Professional Engineers and Land Total 500 66 13.20
Surveyors reported that the original design was only
marginally acceptable to the Kansas City building code
where the walkways would only have had approximately
60% of the capacity required by the code. The situation choices questions in three sections: A, B, and C. Targeted
was even worse in the new design proposed by the steel respondents ranging from developer firms, consultant firms, and
subcontractor and approved by the engineer. The contracting firms were chosen from various professional
consultant was found negligence in its investigation of the organizations. To ensure the reliability of the questionnaire survey,
the sample size was compared to match the sample size
atrium collapse and places too much reliance on the
recommended by Krejcie and Morgan (Sekaran, 2000: 295).
subcontractor. Therefore, the engineer had been charged Several approaches have been used to ensure a high response
for negligence, incompetence, and misconduct. Both the rate. Questions were designed in a very straightforward way and
engineer and the consultant firm lose license of practicing. were pilot tested. The addressed used were the most updated.
This case strongly indicates that unethical behaviour will Every questionnaire sent was followed up by a phone call. If the
lead to quality problems and structural failures questionnaire form was not well received by the chosen respondent,
a copy was either sent again or was delivered through walk in. Five
(Fleddermann, 2004). hundred questionnaires were distributed and the rate of return was
In Malaysia, as an example, a newly opened specialist 13.2%. Table 1 shows the breakdown of response by type of
hospital in Johor Bahru was closed due to fungi attack on company. Data obtained from the returned questionnaires were
the equipments and walls. It found that many of the sorted out and analyzed using SPSS Version 15.
hospital’s equipments such as oxygen piping and
sewerage system are not according to the specifications.
This clearly shows the poor ethics of the contractor who RESEARCH FINDINGS
failed to do right things right. The contractor was given
three months to rectify problems including leaking pipes, Professional ethics in Malaysian construction
broken ceilings and faulty air-conditioning ducts (NST, industry
2004a). Another sub-standard quality of construction
project in Malaysia is the RM238 million Middle Ring A majority (77.3%) of the respondents’ firms practice their
Road Two (MRR2) flyover which was closed to traffic own code of ethics. Another 22.7% of the respondents
after cracks were found in 31 pillars and structural indicated that they do not have a formal code of ethics.
movements were detected (The Sun, 2004). The The findings show that most of the companies are aware
Government engaged an independent consultant from of the importance of ethics in work. About 34.9% of the
the United Kingdom to investigate the defects. The respondents indicated that their organizations have ethics
independent consultant identified that design deficiencies training programs for their staff. The frequency of training
and improper anchoring of the columns to the crossbeam programmes conducted in a year ranges from one to ten
were the main cause of the cracks (NST, 2004b). Design times. Apparently there is much room for improvement in
deficiency is found to be negligence on the design team terms of staff training in the areas of professional ethics.
and the repair works was then carried out at an estimated The survey results show that 74.2% of the respondents
cost of RM20 million. agree that the construction industry is tainted by unethical
conducts. Another 13.64% does not agree with this
statement and the remainder 12% either does not
RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES indicate their own stand or did not respond to the
question. The respond reflects that the image of the local
Consequently, in response to the perception, a study was
construction industry is tainted by unethical conducts
conducted to seek for the relationship between professional ethics
and the quality-related issues in Malaysian construction sector. It amongst the construction players.
should be noted that for the purpose of this survey, contractors and Respondents rated the types of unethical conduct
clients are regarded as professions and they are required to based on the frequency scale in Table 2. Means are used
demonstrate a high degree of professionalism in performing their to determine the average for each option. The average
task, in response to the Government’s effort who has introduced the options can be determined more accurately as each
National integrity plan to enhance integrity and ethics. The research
option would fall in one of the four ranges of means.
adopted a questionnaire survey as a quantitative method, through
which five hundred sets of questionnaires were distributed to Table 3 shows the rank of the unethical conducts based
selected respondents in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor state by post. on their respective means. In contrast, frequency
The questionnaire contains sixteen questions with multiple distribution can just tell which option is the most chosen
3746 Sci. Res. Essays

Table 2. Classification for frequency scale. Table 4. Respondent’s experience on compensation of tendering
cost.
Options Mean
None 0.00 ≤ Mean score < 0.75 Compensation of Frequency Percent Score
tendering cost (%)
Sometimes 0.75 ≤ Mean score < 1.50
None (Score-0) 32 48.48 0.00
Often 1.50 ≤ Mean score < 2.25
Sometimes (Score-1) 19 28.79 19.00
Very often 2.25 ≤ Mean score < 3.00
Often (Score-2) 15 22.73 30.00
Very often (Score-3) 0 0.00 0.00
Total 66 100.00 49.00
Table 3. Ranking of unethical conducts by construction players.
Mean 0.74
Categories of unethical conducts Mean Rank
Under bidding, bid shopping, bid cutting 1.67 1
Bribery, corruption 1.61 2 Table 5. Classification for ‘agreement’ scale.
Negligence 1.48 3
Options Mean
Front loading, claims game 1.42 4
Strongly agree 0.00 ≤ Mean score < 0.75
Payment game 1.32 5
Somewhat agree 0.75 ≤ Mean score < 1.50
Unfair and dishonest conduct, fraud 1.30 6
Somewhat disagree 1.50 ≤ Mean score < 2.25
Collusion 1.26 7
Strongly disagree 2.25 ≤ Mean score < 3.00
Conflict of interest 1.17 8
Change order game 1.12 9
Cover pricing, withdrawal of tender 1.06 10
Compensation of tendering cost 0.74 11 and 9.1% claimed that they did not experience such
conducts.
Rank no. 1 = Most frequent; Rank no.11 = Least frequent.

Determination of relationship between quality-related

option. Table 3 also illustrates eight unethical conducts issues with professional ethics
which their mean score fall within the categories of
“Sometimes” Meanwhile, two groups of unethical Nearly 73% respondents rated the local construction
conducts score mean values were in the range of “Often” quality level as “average” while 18.2% rated “Good”, but
and one unethical conducts score mean value falls under nobody rated “Excellent”. Tables 5 and 6 illustrate the
“None” option. Apart from that, one respondent reported options provided and the details of findings. In answering
that there were two more unethical conducts in the question that whether unethical acts contribute to the
construction industry. Buying tenderer and under table quality-related problems in construction industry, 40.9%
money was rated as “Very Often” happened in the respondents “Strongly Agree” and 53.0% respondents
Malaysian construction industry. “Somewhat Agree”. This shows that the majority (93.9%)
Table 3 illustrates the top five categories of unethical of the respondents agree that unethical acts contribute to
conducts in the construction industry, namely: (a) Under the quality-related problem in construction industry as the
bidding, bid shopping and bid cutting (categorised as a mean score 0.67 (Table 6) is within “Strongly Agree” rang
group); (b) Bribery and fraud; (c) Negligence; (d) Front as shown in Table 5.
loading, and (e) Claims game and payment game. A majority of the respondents (72.7%) agree that
Analysis showed that the top two most unethical unethical conducts can be the main cause of poor quality
conducts “Often” happened and the remaining three in construction industry with a mean score of 1.05. There
occurred “Sometimes”. Unsuccessful tenderer claiming are altogether 72.7% respondents chose either “Strongly
for compensation of tendering cost with mean 0.74 shows Agree” or “Somewhat Agree” that unethical conducts can
that “None” of these happened in local construction be the main cause of poor quality project. Respondents’
industry. As shown in Table 4, 48.5% of the respondents view on the current work ethics in the local construction
never experienced such conducts in the construction industry falls in the range of “Somewhat Satisfy” with a
industry. About 4.6% of the respondents did not mean value of 1.47. There were 43.94% respondents
experience any under bidding, bid shopping, and bid who rated it as “Strongly Dissatisfied”.
cutting exercise in the construction industry. In contrast, Meanwhile, 84.8% agreed that unethical conducts will
more than half (51.5%) of the respondents claimed that affect the effectiveness of quality management
they “Often” or “Very Often” experienced such conducts implementation of which about 57.5% of them rate the
in the industry. In terms of experiences in bribery and influence of unethical conducts which affects the
corruption, about 53.0% respondents ranked it as “Often” effectiveness of quality management as “Extremely high”
or “Very Often” while 37.9% ranked it as “Sometimes”, and “high”.
 Abdul-Rahman et al. 3747

Table 6. Whether unethical conducts contribute to quality-related problem.

Unethical conducts contribute to quality-related problem Frequency Percent (%) Score

Strongly agree (score-0) 27 40.91 0.00
Somewhat agree (score-1) 35 53.03 35.00
Somewhat disagree (score-2) 3 4.55 6.00
Strongly disagree (score-3) 1 1.51 3.00
Total 66 100.00 110.00
Mean 0.67

Table 7. Ranking of proposed way to enhance professionalism.

Proposed ways PM ARCH QS ENG Other Total

Leader as role model 20 5 7 2 4 38
Standard code of ethics 18 4 6 2 3 33
Heavier penalties 10 2 5 3 3 23
Ethical awareness 8 2 2 1 1 14
Compulsory for training 6 0 3 2 1 12
PM = Project manager/general manager/ CEO; ARCH = Architect; QS = Quantity Surveyor. ENG = Engineer.

Table 8. Results of Pearson’s analysis.

Satisfaction on current Quality level in local

work ethics practiced in the construction
construction industry industry
Satisfaction on current Pearson correlation, r sig. 1 0.249
work ethics practiced in (2-tailed) N 66 0.045
the construction industry 65

Quality level in local Pearson correlation, r sig. 0.249 1

construction industry (2-tailed) N 0.045 65
65

The respondents were furnished with a list of ways to in this sector is better and vice versa. The correlation is
enhance professionalism in construction industry. The significantly under a 0.05 level. The result strengthens
two top most chosen ways to enhance professionalism the point that quality and professional ethics are related
are “by leaders serving as role models” and “by setting a and professional ethics has a strong impact on the quality
standard of code of ethics” for the construction industry of construction. Results indicate that developing country
with 57.6 and 50.0% supporters, respectively. Table 7 should not jump into the quality band wagon without
shows the responses details on how to enhance taking care of the needs to strengthen ethics of
professionalism. participants involved in the construction industry.
A Pearson correlation analysis was performed on the
following two issues, namely: (1) Rating the quality level
in terms of performance and constructed product of the DISCUSSIONS ON RESEARCH FINDINGS
local construction, and (2) Current work ethics in the local
construction industry to determine whether or not quality All respondents agreed that the local construction
and professional ethics are correlated. Table 8 shows the industry is tainted by unethical conducts among construc-
results obtained from the analysis. The value of r (+0.249) tion players. The ethical standard in Malaysian
indicated that the level of quality in local construction and construction industry is considered lower. The survey
the work ethics are positively correlated. Quality level in findings show that only about 35% respondents’ firms
local construction industry will be better if the work ethics have conducted at least one ethical training program.
3748 Sci. Res. Essays

This shows that many other firms are unaware of the overcome unethical behaviours in the construction
importance of good work ethics and on the issue of work industry, immediate steps must be taken to ensure that
ethics among their staff. Meanwhile, a majority (74.2%) of all construction projects are led by managers who are
the respondents view that the local construction industry formally trained by professional ethics. Further, organisa-
is tainted by unethical conducts among construction tions are encouraged to stress on professional ethics and
players. The result of this study is parallel with foreign enforce it on every personnel. More than half of the
research conducted by FMI (2006) which revealed that respondents agree that leadership serves as the role
63% of the respondents in a survey agreed the model to enhance professionalism. Leaders should serve
construction industry is tainted by unethical acts among as role models among the employees as their conducts
construction players. Indeed, 84% of the respondents in normally have great impact on the whole company. In
the FMI’s survey who were comprised of construction summary, quality-related issues and professional ethics
players had experienced, observed, or encountered are greatly interrelated. The perception that quality-
construction transactions which they felt unethical. related problems are significantly impacted by human
Based on the survey, respondents indicate that factor is considered as reliable. Good working ethics is
unethical conducts lead to monetary loss and poor quality. therefore necessary in the construction industry as it has
Five unethical conducts were mentioned most by the significant influence on the quality and performance of
respondents, namely: (a) Under bidding, bid shopping, the product.
and bid cutting; (b) Bribery and corruption; (c) Negligence;
(d) Front loading and claims game, and (e) Payment
game. Failure to take control of the bidding exercise may CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
end up in under bidding by contractors, which will
eventually affect the quality of the end product delivered The findings indicate that unethical conducts have a
to end users. This is especially prevalent in public direct and negative impact on the quality of construction.
projects where contractors and suppliers with lowest There exist significant areas of concern in the Malaysian
tender bid are often awarded with the tender. Bribery and construction industry such as the ethical standards
corruption is another common unethical conduct noted. among construction professional considered below
Corrupted or bribed personal will bypass stringent average. One of the best ways to enhance professiona-
inspections and works procedures required during lism is through leadership with leaders serving as role
construction leading to sub-standard quality works that model for the staff. Although the economy growth is one
will affect customers’ confidence. Indication of relatively of the main concerns by many economists, it should not
high corruption incidents in the Malaysian construction be at the expense of poor quality because such a route
industry is comparable to the results of an investigation will later have a negative impact on the economy.
on corruption by transparency international (TI) which is a Unethical acts that exist in developing economies can
global coalition against corruption. It revealed that 10% of negatively affect the quality of constructed projects, thus
the total global construction in 2004 was loss to undermining the clients and users of those projects. If this
corruption in construction industry globally. This means situation continues, the development and reputation of
RM390 billion was burned to such unethical conduct in construction industry will suffer.
the global construction industry. Construction professionals are expected to behave with
Failures on the part of professional personnel to professional integrity and reasonable of care. They
exercise the duty of care result in poor workmanship, should strive to achieve good quality of work as they owe
inadequate safety standards on site, and design responsibility to the general public. Only when
negligence. Professionals in the construction industry professorial ethics are well practiced, professionalism will
should always exercise duty of care when conducting be enhanced and thus eliminating the quality-related
their responsibility. From the cases reported in the problems directly. The main public agencies of
newspapers, quality-related issues are found to have developing countries are encouraged to enforce existing
correlation with unethical conducts of the construction laws and procedures and to set a standard code of ethics.
players. More than two third of the respondents are not All construction players must be monitored to generate a
very satisfied with the quality in construction industry. standard scheme to measure the quality of work
This makes sense that there are many sub-standard achieved by contractors. Consultants should exercise
quality works found in the construction industry. More their duty of care in performing their works and not resort
than 90% of them agreed that unethical conducts to unethical behaviour for approving any sub-standard
contribute to quality-related problem and a majority work. The contractors should not earn profit in unethical
(72.7%) agreed that unethical conduct can be the main ways. Construction parties should always be alert and try
cause for poor quality project. The respondents also to avoid any unethical behaviour among the construction
agreed that unethical conducts will influence the players from happening. Further researches are
effectiveness of quality management implementation. recommended to study how to implement the concept of
Some claimed that unethical acts impacted on the total quality management (TQM) to improve unethical
effectiveness on quality checking and inspection. To situations in the construction industry.
 Abdul-Rahman et al. 3749

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