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or me, in simple terms, ethical professionalism is the adoption of a system of moral principles enshrined in the way we do business in the best interest of our clients and society in general. Of course, it is not as simple as that. In principle, it should be a method to enable professionals and their professional bodies to set a baseline expectation for what is socially acceptable in terms of how we make decisions and solve problems. Ethics plays an important part in both the structures of a company and how its employees carry out their duties. Leading by example is a key factor in governance and must represent best practice, which, in turn, reflects positively on employees.
Honesty and integrity
FEBRUARY 2021
33 BUILDING ENGINEER
My role as Chair of the Membership and Professional Standards Committee, is concerned with professional ethics and how CABE as an association – representative of more than 9,000 professional members – ensures that the correct guidance and governance is in place to assist members in undertaking their roles and tasks with honesty and integrity. CABE’s Technical Director, Richard Harral, recently wrote a piece in the journal about ethics. He noted that although people believe they are behaving ethically and have the best intentions, they aren’t incorporating ethics in a meaningful way in dayto-day behaviour, which means that ethics remains a concept rather than a practice. I would agree. I believe this behaviour flows from natural instincts rather than planned actions. We must ask ourselves
IMAGE: SHUTTLESTOCK
Richard Flynn CEnv CEng FCABE, of Flynn & Shaw, Ireland, discusses what ethical professionalism means to him and whether he is seeing changing behaviour patterns in the industry
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
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18/01/2021 14:07
