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Harmonising safety and profit: ethical issues in the geotechnical activity of major
consulting companies
Harmoniser sécurité et profit: problèmes éthiques dans l'activité géotechnique de grosses
entreprises de génie conseil
Redaelli M.
Halcrow (a CH2M Hill Company)
ABSTRACT: Industrial enterprises aim at committing the lowest amount of resources and time to deliver a satisfactory product to the
client. In the civil engineering industry failure to deliver a satisfactory product, in the form of structures and infrastructures which
meet the required performance, may result in huge costs and loss of life. Conversely large uncertainties on the performance may also
result in an unnecessarily safe and wasteful design. In the present time, considering the environmental impact of construction
activities and the rapid depletion of finished resources, wasteful design is becoming ethically inacceptable. This paper discusses some
issues that are specific of geotechnical engineering, where uncertainties are larger and the use of subjective engineering judgement
and personal experience is more important than in other disciplines. Particular attention is given to problematic aspects of major
projects, like the fragmentation of tasks in many sub-packages and the ensuing difficulty in managing the flow of information at the
many interfaces. Practical suggestions are given to improve the compliance to ethical requirements in the geotechnical activity of
large consulting companies.
RÉSUMÉ : Les entreprises industrielles désirent minimiser l’usage de ressources et de tempes qui est nécessaire à obtenir un produit
satisfaisant pour le client. Dans l’ «industrie» du génie civil n’obtenir pas un produit satisfaisant, sous forme de structures ou
infrastructures qui parviennent au comportement spécifiée, peut résulter en coûts énormes et même faire de victimes.
Réciproquement, grandes incertitudes sur le résultat peuvent aussi produire un projet excessivement sûre et gaspilleuse. Aujourd'hui, à
raison de l'impact de les activités de construction sur l'environnement et de l'épuisement rapide de ressources finies, les projets
gaspilleurs deviennent éthiquement inacceptables. Ce papier discute des problèmes qui sont spécifiques de la géotechnique, où les
incertitudes sont plus grandes, et l'usage du jugement subjectif et de l’expérience personnelle est plus important, que dans autres
disciplines. Un’ attention particulière est ici donnée aux aspects problématiques de gros projets, comme la fragmentation des actions
dans beaucoup des sous-activités et la difficulté de gérer le flux d'informations a les nombreuses interfaces. Des suggestions pratiques
pour améliorer la conformité aux critères éthiques de l'activité géotechnique dans les grosses sociétés de génie conseil sont, enfin,
proposée.
KEYWORDS: ethics, decision making, risk, uncertainty, trust, communication, education, engineering judgement.
1 INTRODUCTION
This paper examines some ethical issues which are relevant
to the practice of geotechnical engineering, with special
attention to the activity of large, multidisciplinary consulting
companies. The relevance of the subject arises from the peculiar
nature of geotechnical engineering, which – in comparison with
most other civil engineering disciplines – operates under higher
levels of uncertainty and, necessarily, incorporates a remarkable
amount of subjective judgement in the decision making process.
Moreover, the recent evolution of civil engineering, in its
technical and commercial aspects, and the fast-paced changes
our planet is experiencing, demand a constant re-evaluation and
discussion of the principles of ethics applied to the civil
engineering profession.
The content of this paper expresses the views of the author;
it does not necessarily represent the position of the author’s
employer.
2 CODES OF CONDUCT, CORPORATE REPUTATION
AND BEYOND
2.1 Codes of professional conduct
The “code of professional conduct” or “code of professional
ethics” is generally the first - and often only - point of contact
that civil engineering students and practitioners consciously
have with their professional ethics. A code of conduct contains
a set of rules of behaviour for civil engineers, established at
national level by the relevant professional body. Such
documents are essential cornerstones in the civil engineering
ethical debate. However, due to the variety and complexity of
the civil engineering profession, as well as its dynamic nature,
the codes of conduct cannot be expected to always provide
readily applicable rules for each and every real-life situation.
The review and discussion of specific national codes of
conduct go beyond the scope of this paper. Since these
documents are nowadays very accessible, the interested readers
can easily expand their knowledge and understanding; for
example the ICE Code of Professional Conduct (Institution of
Civil Engineers 2008) and the ASCE Code of Ethics (American
Society of Civil Engineers 2006) are freely available on-line.
The codes of conduct mentioned above regulate the practice
of civil engineering in its entirety, as a macro-discipline. To the
author’s knowledge no specific code of conduct for specialist
