Ebekozien, A; Aigbavboa, C; Nwaole, A N C; Dako, E O and Awo-Osagie, A I (2023) Quantity surveyor's ethical responsiveness on construction projects: Issues and solutions. International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 41(5), pp. 1049-1066. ISSN 23984708
Abstract
Purpose: Studies showed that construction consultants' ethical negligence is a contributing factor to the time and cost over-run of projects. There is limited research on the issues that may have hindered construction consultants' ethical responsiveness during contract administration. Studies regarding influencing factors in the context of Nigeria's quantity surveyors' (QS) ethical responsiveness are rare. Thus, the study aims to investigate the perceived issues and proffers initiatives to promote QSs' ethical responsiveness on construction projects in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach: To determine the perceptions of QS regarding ethical responsiveness, a phenomenologically driven perspective via face-to-face interviews was conducted with 12 senior professionals in Lagos and Abuja that showed interest in participating in the study and were interviewed. A thematic approach was adopted to analyse the collated data. Findings: Economic, societal and professional issues emerged as the three groups of issues that hindered QS's ethical responsiveness on construction projects in a developing country setting such as Nigeria. Findings show that for ethical responsiveness to be expressed on projects, key stakeholders should be ethically responsible. This is currently missing, especially in public construction projects. Initiatives that can promote key stakeholders' ethical responsiveness on construction projects are examined in this paper. Practical implications: The paper embraces an important practical implication because practices associated with QS's unethical responsiveness and behavioural impacts on construction projects were identified. This will stir both the regulatory professional bodies and policymakers to enforce and implement feasible initiatives that can promote key stakeholders' collaborative ethical responsiveness on construction projects. Originality/value: This paper is amongst the few papers that attempted to uncover issues that hinder QS's ethical responsiveness on construction projects in a developing country setting via a qualitative approach. Since these issues are rampant in developing countries, findings from this paper can be used to promote QS's ethical responsiveness in other nations with similar unethical issues.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction practitioners; construction sector; ethics; Nigeria; quantity surveyors; responsiveness |
| Index terms: | Lagos, public construction, professional issue, quantity surveying, contract administration, influencing factor, Nigeria, qualitative approach, ethics, methodology, construction project, Abuja, construction sector, interview, developing country, negligence, construction practitioner, face |
| Subjects: | psychology, ethical practice, risk assessment, profession, data collection methods, institututions, building construction, industry analysis, liability law, research methods, Geography, production management, contract management, development economics, professional development |
| Topics: | International Construction, Legal Issues, Contract Administration, Organizational Design, Engineering Principles, Information Management, Research Practice, Project Management, Geographical Context, Risk Management, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here