Preview

Unethical Practices

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3436 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Unethical Practices
TECHNICAL NOTES

Unethical Practices in Nigerian Engineering Industries: Complications for Project Management
O. E. Alutu1 and M. L. Udhawuve2
Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to establish the unethical practices in engineering industries and identify the various factors that could encourage unethical practices in the nation’s life with a view to highlighting the findings for corruption-free management of projects. A sample of 226 was randomly selected for the study from a population of 12,230 workers from selected companies in the manufacturing and construction industries in Lagos state. The data were analyzed using simple percentages and the chi-square statistics. The results revealed that organizations have a code of conduct that should generate in the workforce values such as accountability and integrity and that there are disciplinary and control measures to check malpractices, yet individuals still engage in unethical practices. Of all the 34 unethical practices studied, “people want to acquire wealth by all means to enhance public status” ranked highest, followed by “people are driven by their inherent greed for money.” The factor that contributed most to the unethical practices is economic pressures, followed by societal practices, vested interests of stakeholders in contracts, and last organization’s practice. The result also showed that there are vested interests in design, award, execution, and commissioning of projects by stakeholders of the projects and that unethical practices have serious negative impact on project management. DOI: 10.1061/ ASCE 0742-597X 2009 25:1 40 CE Database subject headings: Ethics; Construction management; Nigeria; Africa.

Introduction
Corruption is a dangerous societal disease, more dangerous than cancer or HIV/AIDS is to human beings Akintude 2001 . The level of corruption has gone so high in Nigeria that corrupt practices have been blamed for the instability of successive governments in Nigeria since the first


References: Akintunde, I. 2001 . “Corruption in engineering projects—The way out.” Proc., Anti-Corruption Seminar of 19th June, 2001, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Abuja. Aliyu, O. A. 2000 . “Abandoned projects: Question of maintenance or planning?” Proc., Construction and Civil Engineering Senior Staff Association CCESSA Seminar, CCESSA Newsletter, Lagos. Alutu, O. E. 2002 . “Unethical practices in Nigerian construction industry: The prospective engineer’s viewpoint.” Civil Engineering Dept., Univ. of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. Alutu, O. E. 2004 . “Keeping contract prize under control—The importance of a fairly accurate in-house estimate.” Civil Engineering Dept., Univ. of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors NIQS . 2003 . “High cost of construction projects in Nigeria: Causes and solutions.” NIQS Publication Service No. 2, Lagos, Nigeria. Obasanjo, O. 2000 . “Address on the occasion of formal signing into law of the Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Act 2000.” Times Press Ltd., Abuja, Nigeria. Obasanjo, O. 2001 . “Keynote address.” Proc., Seminar on Campaign against Corruption in Engineering Projects, Nigeria Society of Engineers, Abuja, Nigeria. JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING © ASCE / JANUARY 2009 / 43
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The Unethical Business Practices Performed by
    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Unethical Business Practices Performed by

    Coors beer, a household name in the beer industry, is produced by the Adolph Coors Brewing Company which is based in Golden Colorado. Exactly how big is the Adolph Coors Brewing Company? As of 2001, the company ranked number three in beer sales, expanded into all 50 states. Currently Coors is the world 's largest, single-site brewery. However, behind this imagery is a long history of discrimination, anti-labor policies, human rights violations and environmental ruin.…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Shell Oil in Nigeria
    • 1184 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Shell Oil in Nigeria

    Nigeria is considered to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Many different forms of corruption are familiar to Nigeria including political corruption, bureaucratic corruption, electoral corruption, embezzlement, and bribery. Corruption has even been said to be a viable enterprise in Nigeria due to the involvement of citizens, government officials, and private corporations alike. Two main factors help explain why corruption and bribery are so high in Nigeria, these factors include Nigeria’s complete dependence on the petroleum industry and profit-focused companies taking advantage of a less developed, vulnerable country’s government and social systems.…

    • 1184 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did France Start A Hundred Year's War Essay
    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Did France Start A Hundred Year's War Essay

    In Hundred Year’s War, it was not just a huge war but it contains a lot of wars between the English and the France. In other words, it was like struggle for national identity. Everything was started with the failure of French King Charles V died without have a male heir. So, it gave chance to the English King Edward III to start this war by declare a claim to the French throne. The war was begun to win over the lands in France.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ethical Violations
    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ethical Violations

    After reading the passage, I realized a few ethical violations could be recognized. Before a study or research could be conducted, all participants should be informed on the purpose of the research, what procedures are involved, benefits of the research and any risks related to the research. In psychology, one of the professional codes of ethics is that all participants must consent to the research and must be debriefed. In the Guatemala study, female commercial sex workers were injected with diseases such as gonorrhea, chancroid, and syphilis without their prior knowledge and consent. Secondly, the soldiers and prison inmates were infected with the disease by having sex with the infected sex workers without knowledge of them being infected or being participants in a research. Additionally, when the researchers found out that the soldiers were infected by the female commercial sex workers, they changed their approach by infecting them with gonorrhea through inoculations into the urethra, skin injections of chancroid and syphilis and also exposing the foreskin of the penis to other infectious material. This is again was done without their consent, hence they were decepted. Another code of ethics is the protection of the client’s welfare. Human participants should not be infected or injected, or put in any harm. Researchers must ensure that participants taking part in a research must be protected from physical and mental harm. For example, participants should not be exposed to risks greater than or additional to those experienced in their everyday life. Hence, most researches are done with animals to include rats, guinea pigs and monkeys.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ethical Violations
    • 1102 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ethical Violations

    WorldCom was a pre-eminent telecommunications company that dealt with the same ethical issues that many companies deal with today. Ethics is something that comes into play in every businesses day to day operations. A decision is it ethical or not, is something that every employee makes in today’s business environment. Ethics is a topic that needs to be talked about and reinforced on a reoccurring basis so that unethical events like what happened in WorldCom, do not happen. There were many unethical events that took place during the WorldCom era but failed corporate guidance, accounting abuse, and leadership greed are three that cause WorldCom to fall. These unethical events are what started the down fall of WorldCom in early 2000.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Unethical Business Practices
    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Unethical Business Practices

    Unfortunately, in recent times, we have seen a number of examples of unethical behavior in organizations, often tied to the organization's handling of finances. In this question, discuss ethical issues facing the top leadership or financial managers in today's corporate environment regarding their approach to the financial matters of the firm. What pressures exist that might encourage unethical behavior, particularly as it pertains to the firm's financial reporting or situation? How might these be mitigated? (You might want to conduct a search to identify examples or to examine actions suggested or taken to help mitigate these instances.)…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Unethical
    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Unethical

    While working in Bosnia middle aged men were having sex with 12-15 year old children, and sold them to each other as slaves. According to the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) lawsuit filed in Texas on behalf of a former DynCorp aircraft mechanic, "in the latter part of 1999 Johnston learned that employees and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and [participating in other immoral acts. Johnston witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased" (O 'Meara, 2002).…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Ethical Violations
    • 1906 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Ethical Violations

    Ethical violations is a topic which is commonly seen in the media about countries who the United Nations has classified or labeled as countries facing ethical issues such as human rights violations within the country. Ethics is a branch of philosophy, which involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.…

    • 1906 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Corruption In Adolf Hitler
    • 144 Words
    • 1 Page

    Corruption In Adolf Hitler

    Frequently when individuals receive great power they tend to act on their own personal immoral needs, and abandon individuals they serve for. Nowadays corruption has been ingrained deeply within society. Corruption is a cancerous agent that once introduced, no matter the medicine or treatment given, it will spread and until it takes a firm hold.…

    • 144 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Unethical Decision Making
    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Unethical Decision Making

    Bolt-Lee, C., & Moody, J.. (2010). Highlights of Finance and Accounting Ethics Research. Journal of Accountancy, 210(4), 38-41,10. Retrieved December 13, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Complete. (Document ID: 2158821481).…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Do You Think Is Unethical?
    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What Do You Think Is Unethical?

    The countrywide approved everyone to get their loans, no matter they have jobs or not, no matter they have income or not, no matter they have assets or not. The criteria they use may be unethical. They don’t care whether the documents are valid, whether they can verify the income, whether the appraisal is any good. They just care about getting the loan closed, in order to do another loan. The underwriters/ contractors looked through the loan as quick as they can. The loans are not looked at like they should have been looked at. They won’t think through with the common sense which is reasonable or not. ( teacher 10,000, waitress 12,000). On the instruction of their supervisor and lead. In the world of due diligence, they don’t use the word “fraud”. Even if it is suspected, they will say it seems like incorrect. 60% to more than 80% of the loans did not meet their policy.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Alternative Theories to Profit Maximization
    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Alternative Theories to Profit Maximization

    [2] Transparency International, 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), [internet] Accessed on: 13th November 2005, http://www.icgg.org/corruption.cpi_2005.html…

    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    How Effective Are Anti-corruption Strategies in Developing Countries?
    • 1526 Words
    • 5 Pages

    How Effective Are Anti-corruption Strategies in Developing Countries?

    Although corruption is not a new phenomenon, in recent years, corruption has become a major issue in developing countries; it is also widespread and part of everyday life. Not only that, corruption has become a serious obstacle in the development process of developing countries. Because of corruption good governance can be weakened, public policy can be misrepresented and it can also lead to misallocation of resources and harm the economic development (Bardhan, 1997; Rose-Ackerman, 1999, as cited in Siddiquee, 2009). Furthermore, Otusanya (2012) points out that “corruption has been a critical obstacle for social development in a number of countries because of the devastating effect the deprivation of funds has had on them”. In addition, many believe that most anti-corruption strategies in developing countries are failing and even with the anti-corruption strategies the corruption level remains high. Heeks and Mathisen (2012) believe that “anti-corruption is competitive: if successful it will create losers, and the corrupt tend to fight back” (p. 535). However, there are also a few countries known as successful examples in fighting corruption. This essay will show how effective is the anti-corruption strategies in developing countries by using Malaysia, Ghana, Hong Kong and Singapore as an examples.…

    • 1526 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Best Essays

    Corruption and Its Impact on Growth, Business and Government Effectiveness
    • 4260 Words
    • 18 Pages

    Corruption and Its Impact on Growth, Business and Government Effectiveness

    3. Mauro, Paulo. Institute for International Economics, The Effects of Corruption on Growth, Investment and Government expenditure 4. The World Bank Economic database - http://data.worldbank.org/ 5. The World Bank Government Effectiveness Index - http://data.worldbank.org/ 6. The World Bank Ease of Doing business Index – http://data.worldbank.org 7. Benjamin A. Olken and Rohini Pande. 2011 – Corruption in Developing Countries. 8. Bertrand Marianne, Simeon Djankov, Hanna Rema and Sendhil Mullainathan. 2006 – Does Corruption Produce Unsafe Drivers? 9. Journal of Information Technology and Economic Development 2(1), 39-53 tariffs, April 2011 39 10. Edward L. Glaeser – Corruption and Reform: an introduction 11. Alberto Alestina, 2001 – Corruption, Inequality and fairness 12. Andrei Shleifer, 1993 – Corruption…

    • 4260 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Best Essays

    Challenges to Vietnam's State Capacity
    • 2228 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Challenges to Vietnam's State Capacity

    O 'Neil, Patrick H. "States." In Essentials of Comparative Politics, by Patrick H. O 'Neil, 40. New York:…

    • 2228 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More

Related Topics