Intra-Industry Ethics – Can We Pull It Off?

It’s easy for an outsider to an industry to get on their ethical high-horse and point their finger at others who are walking along the ethical line and perhaps even crossing it.  It’s easy for regulators, government, and academia to point their finger at industry and tell them to clean up their act.  However, it is hard for someone to point their finger at themselves and even harder to point it at the people for whom they are working.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could live in a World where people policed themselves?  A World where people draw their own line in the sand when it comes to how far they should push the ethical boundaries.  If we could achieve this utopian World of ethical nirvana, in theory, regulation would become unnecessary and our ethical problems would be solved.  But of course, theoretical nirvana is impossible to achieve, but the question is if we can start to move in that direction.  After all, self-policing is by far the best and least costly form of policing.

The construction industry isn’t the only industry that has ethical problems.  We can all turn to banking and say, “Well, look at them, so get off my back.”  We can also look at healthcare and the folks in “big pharma” (perhaps I’ll elaborate at another time).  While regulation in industries like construction, banking, and healthcare can help keep things in check, its power is dwarfed by what could be achieved if we took a look in the mirror and started making improvement on our own.

However, this is hard to do – for a lot of reasons.  Companies are in intense competition with each other and improved ethics can often lead to a decrease in short term profits and perhaps market share.  I know that in construction, companies that get the work are often the ones that can sweep the most under the rug and cut costs in ways that are not always the most ethical.  Regulation can only do so much.  We have to do the rest and push the ethical line back in a more sustainable direction.

But alas, it’s also easy for me to say this.  I run my own business and I don’t run (as much) of a risk of being labeled a whistle blower.  After all, while theoretically possible, I probably won’t fire myself.  In the corporate world, whistle blowing is considered by many to be a career killer.  However, I’m not so sure this is true and in the AEC industry, it may not be true at all.  Construction is a tremendously fragmented industry with the overwhelming majority of companies being very small.  If one were to leave an organization or make comments as to the ethical standards of an organization, the chances of long term ramification are, in my opinion, less.  However, when there are cable bills to pay and next generation I-pads to purchase, the easiest thing to do is look the other way and pretend its all just not happening.

Maybe one day contractors will tell themselves when to stop and not a regulatory body.  Maybe this can also leak into other industries and people will start to put the brakes on doing something even though it could be more profitable in the short term.

How can this happen?  Well, I’m not really sure, but when it does, there will be no doubt that Intra-industry ethics is the way to go.

Since I’m very good at coming up with great ideas and then skimping on the details about how to make it actually happen, I’d love to get some feedback from the illustrious readers of this post.  Leaving comments is cool.