Lukhele, T M; Botha, B and Mbanga, S (2023) Exploring the nexus between professional ethics and occupational health and safety in construction projects: A case study approach. International Journal of Construction Management, 23(12), pp. 2048-2057. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
Notwithstanding that the construction industry is an enabler of economic growth in developing countries, the industry continues to be susceptible to a myriad of unethical behaviours. While previous research has established that ethical issues have, to a great extent, affected the integrity of and the production in the industry, much less is known about the ethical dilemmas in the context of safety and health performances. Despite that the construction professionals have a moral obligation of ensuring health and safety in the delivering of construction works, previous studies have not dealt with the ethical dilemmas underlying the noncompliance with the occupational health and safety regulations in the industry. To address this gap of knowledge, a case study approach is used to explore the nuances of ethical dilemmas in association with the occupational health and safety performance. For methodology, a semi-structured interviews together with document review techniques were applied in three construction projects in South Africa (SA). A qualitative conventional content analysis revealed five broad themes of health and safety risk factors which could be associated with unethical practices. The findings of this study offer a theoretical insight which assist to understand that addressing the professional ethics in the construction industry is pivotal to the improvement of the health and safety performance in the delivery of construction projects.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction projects; ethics; occupational health and safety; South Africa |
| Index terms: | ethics, integrity, case study, unethical practices, construction industry, economic growth, risk factor, construction work, construction professional, professional ethics, occupational health and safety, content analysis, health and safety, developing country, interview, South Africa, regulation, methodology, construction project |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, operations management, data analysis and analytics, ethical practice, research methods, economic development, professional development, development economics, Geography, health safety and environment, production management, occupational health and safety management, political science, environmental hazards, industry analysis |
| Topics: | International Construction, Information Management, Research Practice, Project Management, Geographical Context, Health and Safety, Sustainability, Governance |
| 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