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Integrating codes of ethics in Hong Kong construction organizations—practitioners’ perspective

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Abstract

Beyond the adoption of codes of ethics for moderating behaviours within an organization, there is need for change in the dynamism of ethics management in construction companies. This change is necessitated due to inability of ethical codes to function by its mere existence without proper integration into organization’s web. This study aims at identifying supporting factors (input factors) for code integration and the resultant factors as well as the relationship between the two sets of factors. Questionnaire survey was used to gather data from practitioners in Hong Kong construction organizations. Using Relative Importance Index (RII) and correlation analysis, findings revealed that commitment of managing director to ethics, communicating codes with employees and managers acting as role models ranked highest among the input factors, whereas building public trust, enhanced organization’s reputation and increased protection against lawsuits ranked highest among the resultant factors. There were great numbers of significant positive correlations between the input factors and the resultant factors with the exception of consistence of codes with international standards and increased company’s profitability which exhibited negative correlation. The highest significant positive correlation coefficient existed between training about the importance of ethics and subjective and inconsistent management standards are minimized which points to the importance of ethics training in establishing ethical standards. The findings can help construction practitioners to improve organizational ethical standard and be more result-focused in managing ethics.

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Acknowledgments

The work described in this paper was supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (PolyU K-QZ14).

Topic areas

The topic areas include compliance of business ethics; ethical decision-making in a business and its impact on firm performance; and business ethics, organizational structure and corporate governance. (Note: concurrent submission to the AJBE).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Olugbenga Timo Oladinrin & Christabel Man-Fong Ho

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  1. Olugbenga Timo Oladinrin
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  2. Christabel Man-Fong Ho
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Correspondence to Olugbenga Timo Oladinrin.

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Oladinrin, O.T., Ho, C.MF. Integrating codes of ethics in Hong Kong construction organizations—practitioners’ perspective. Asian J Bus Ethics 4, 15–33 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-015-0041-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-015-0041-3

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