What Will You Do When Business and Ethics Collide?

Consider the case of a small consulting engineering and construction management firm recently organized by an out-of-work engineer. The firm begins, as many do, undercapitalized and using the owner’s private residence as an office.

After being in business for less than a year the owner receives a telephone call from a local manufacturer with whom he has successfully completed several small assignments and is asked if he would be interested in designing and managing the construction and start-up of a $3 million addition to the plant. The owner of the firm is ecstatic to have such an opportunity but presently he is his firm’s only technical resource. His other resources consist of one computer and one license for drafting, word-processing, and spreadsheet software. The business currently has no legal form (corporation, partnership, or sole-proprietorship) or standing and maintains no insurance of any kind.

Upon receiving the invitation, the engineer conducts discussions with several engineering and drafting acquaintances who express an interest in working part time to assist in completing the project. He also determines that he can use credit cards to purchase two more computers but cannot presently purchase another seat of drafting software.

After several discussions with the potential client the engineer provides a proposal to complete the requested work for a fee that is considerably lower than the customary fee for the region and succeeds in convincing the management of the company that he is capable of successfully completing the project on the desired schedule.

I tell you this story, my story, more than fifteen years after it took place. And, in telling it I ask you, the readers, “Was it ethical to actively pursue and subsequently accept this assignment?” I do not pose this question for you to sit in judgment of me, but quite to the contrary, for you to consider what you would do and then decide if you are comfortable with the direction that you believe you would take. My thoughts on my behavior, fifteen years subsequent, follow.

As I look back on this event (and many others that I have lived through) I have come to the conclusion that I did not act ethically when I chose to actively seek this assignment. I say this because the first canon of the ASCE Code of Ethics states that “Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public….” In retrospect it appears that my focus was on the acquisition of what I considered to be a “plum” project and not the prospect of providing an excellent service to the client. When I received the telephone call my focus was immediately drawn to the fee that I hoped to earn and the prestige that this project would bring to me. I failed completely to recognize and analyze the risk to the client and communicate it to him. In hiring a firm that was not recognized by the state as a legal business entity, that was not appropriately insured against the accidental or malicious acts of others or himself, and that clearly did not have unfettered access to the resources necessary to complete the work, the owner unwittingly accepted significant risk. I now believe that I had a clear responsibility to review those risks with the owner to be sure that he was making a well-informed decision. I did not bring these matters to his attention because I feared that if he evaluated them wisely he would not choose my firm to complete this assignment that I so deeply desired. I now believe that it is impossible to act ethically if my focus is on me! Possibly the single most difficult aspect of living ethically is that it requires that my focus be on “the safety, health, and welfare of the public” first, no matter what.

In the story that I have related to you I did not act illegally nor did I act with malice. I judge my acts as unethical because I acted with self-focus and, in doing so, led others to make uninformed decisions. In retrospect, since the company remained my client long after the successful completion of the project, it seems likely that if I had acted ethically, I would still have been awarded the assignment. It has become a comfort to me, over the years, to see that good outcomes often result from what initially appears to be very unethical behavior. I am glad that others have not often been called upon to pay the price for my self-focus.

One thing that I have come to understand in the passage of time is that one of the fundamental questions (if not the fundamental question) that people continue to seek to answer is whether the universe is a friendly or hostile place. If I assume that the universe is a friendly place I will live with the belief that “good” will prevail and in that assumption I can act without fear (of not being awarded a “plum” project, for example). If I assume that the universe is a hostile place my focus will be on self-preservation because, as often as not, “bad carries the day.” I do not believe that I can construct an ethical life if I am not convinced that the universe is friendly. Most ethical decisions are related to giving something up or doing something that I may perceive as unpleasant for the benefit of another. Without the belief that “good will win the day” I am very unlikely to do either!

It is my strong belief that capitalism seems to be the optimal economic framework for the advancement of human society. However, without a solid ethical foundation, capitalism quickly develops into self-devouring chaos. A society living under capitalism without an ethical control (which cannot be achieved by government controls) reminds me of a human body living with cancer. Over time the cancer will consume the body and lead to its chaotic death.

The thought that I can benefit at the expense of others seems to me to be an illusion, and the history of earlier great civilizations convinces me that I am correct in this belief. It is my belief that an ethical life demands that I conduct my business affairs for the benefit of my clients and the public and that the compensation and other rewards for this service are by-products of my work, not objectives upon which I should focus. The ASCE Code of Ethics does not require that I “hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public” as long as I receive the rewards to which I think I am entitled. I believe that I must do so, irrespective of the outcome to me personally or to my business!

Now, I ask you the question, “What will you do:There are no universal or “cut and dried” answers to these questions. There is, however, one very wrong answer to each. That answer is the one that you utter but, when called, fail to act upon. When I claim to uphold a code of ethics but live a life outside of its tenets, I am a fraud, and I believe that is wrong. People of good conscience will forever disagree on appropriate courses of action in a given circumstance, and more times than not, either will yield a beneficial outcome. A life of fraud, however, may yield benefits to a few but it also causes pain and difficulty to many innocent bystanders. I ask these questions in the hope that you will consider them and that you will be prepared to answer them by your actions when the time comes.

If you are a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers I again remind you that you have agreed to conduct your life within the guidelines of the Code of Ethics as follows:

In the next issue I will ask you to consider the case where a contractor, engaged in the construction of a new public water system filtration plant, finds itself seriously behind schedule and over budget and decides to shut the project down because of a dispute over the acceptability of certain structural materials the contractor wished to incorporate into the project. The contractor claims that the engineer is being unreasonable in demanding that materials be provided as specified in the contract documents. The contractor also claims that the reason the materials in question are not acceptable to the engineer is that the engineer’s plans contain errors and the design is improper.