Thesis-2007-Kang.pdf (6.54 MB)
Construction ethics management : a comparative study of practice in the UK and Korea
thesis
posted on 2013-08-09, 12:22 authored by Byung-Gyoo KangEthics training and ethical decision making are the principal areas in ethics
management. The importance of ethics management in business and society in the 21 st
century is well recognized. The construction industry also needs to practice its own
ethics management to incorporate the project based nature of the industry and the
various stakeholders of the project. Furthermore, many of today's large construction
projects tend to be executed by multi-cultural stakeholders. This research aims to
provide a basis of ethics training and ethical decision making for domestic and multicultural
construction environments, investigating the differences in ethics and culture ,
between UK construction and Korea construction. A conceptual linkage between
business ethics and construction ethics has been established, leading to the
development of a stakeholder model, a moral development model and the concept of
code of ethics for construction. In addition, the relationships between cultural
dimensions and ethical implications have been reviewed and identified to cope with
multi-cultural environments. Based on the findings and developments of the literature
review, the framework of ethics training for construction has been developed,
comprising both ethical components and cultural components. This framework
enhances the ethicalness of decision makers and is linked to the framework of ethical
decision making for construction. The framework of ethical decision making
comprises three levels and evaluation items, based on the stakeholder model, the
moral development model and Agent (virtue ethics) -Action (deontology) - Results
(consequentialism) concept. The three levels and evaluation items are individual level
(moral development), project level (code of ethics) and corporation level (corporate
reputation).
The validity of the framework of ethics training has been tested through questionnaire
surveys on ethical issues and cultural dimensions among UK contractors, UK
designers, Korea contractors and Korea designers. The UK and Korea have been
selected as a representative case of the comparative study ill construction between
Western Europe and Eastern Asia. The findings of the surveys showed high influence
of nationality and low influence of the profession on ethical perceptions and cultural
dimensions; and low influence of the demographic factors on ethical perceptions. In
addition, interviews with the construction engineers having wide experiences in the
UK and Korea have identified the causal relationships between cultural differences
and ethical differences. This causality has been confirmed through the interviews with
ethicians. The findings of the surveys support the culture-based ethics training for
construction. The validity of the framework of ethical decision making has been tested
and proved through a questionnaire survey in the UK and confirmed through the
interviews with the ethicians, indicating a positive improvement in the ethical
decisions.
The synthesis of ethical issues and cultural dimensions has led to new knowledge on
the causality between cultural differences and ethical differences, with examples
between UK construction and Korea construction. The findings identify the need of
cultural interpretation and the significant role of nationality, and justify the framework
of culture-based ethics training for multicultural construction environments. The
systematic framework of ethical decision making has helped the decision makers to
produce ethically improved decisions in an ethical dilemma. The findings and the two
frameworks in this research have made significant contribution to the areas of ethics
management in construction. This has been achieved by providing a theoretical and
empirical basis on how professionals can incorporate ethics in their everyday decision
making.
History
School
- Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Publisher
© Byung-Gyoo KangPublication date
2007Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough UniversityEThOS Persistent ID
uk.bl.ethos.504039Language
- en