İNŞ 239 LAW AND ETHICS IN
CIVIL ENGINEERING
Lecture Notes -1
Assist. Prof. Dr. Serkan Kıvrak
EXAMPLE
 Your
site work contractor is behind
schedule and during excavation uncovers
a small dinosaur bone. Do you stop the job
and investigate or ignore and continue?
EXAMPLE
 You
are in the process of evaluating
electrical bids and your boss asks you to
share the low bid to date with his preferred
electrical subcontractor.
 What
would you do?
EXAMPLE
 Your
roommate, also a construction
manager, works for a competing firm.
Through him you have found out that they
are being considered for the same project
that your firm is bidding on. He has also
shared some of the bid presentation
material with you, which you perceive will
weigh the bid in their favor. Do you tell
your own bosses about this, potentially
giving your firm the edge?
EXAMPLE
 During
a sales visit, a sales representative
offers you a coffee mug with his
company’s name and logo on it. The value
of the mug is 5 dollars. Can you accept
this item?
 Does the answer to this question change if
this item is a 350 dollar crystal bowl with
the name of the company engraved on it?
EXAMPLE
You are an expert in environmental works. Assume
that you are a member of a team who is preparing
an environmental standard. At the same time you
are a manager of a construction company.

A soft standard can facilitate your construction
works.

But, can this standard create problems for the
society in the future?
EXAMPLE
Two construction firms doing the same job;
Firm A employs Turkish workers with 2000TL
salary
Firm B employs migrant workers with 500TL salary.
The migrant workers are happy with their salary.
Is Firm B right?
 Is the competition between the firms fair?
 Is this not a discrimination?
 Does this situation create a societal problem?

EXAMPLE



Mr X is working as a cost control engineer in
a consulting firm of a construction project.
The contractor invites him for a free holiday
in their holiday village. Mr X accepts the
invitation and makes a holiday with his
family.
After the holiday he checks the progress
payments and determine that there are some
lack of works which are not completed by the
contractor.
What should Mr X do?
EXAMPLE
 You
started as an engineer in a company.
You observed that the company dispose
the waste into a river near a village. A
worker said that ‘it’s a usual work. We do
this every time. And so far nothing
happened’.
 What
would you do?

A. Ask the company managers to stop this
application otherwise you would report to the media

B. Notify the environmental authorities about the
situation

C. Do not care. It’s not your job

D. Resign from the company

Difficult problem!!

In any case, you will be negatively affected.

However, Answer B seems to be the best
solution. Since benefit for the society comes
first.
EXAMPLE
 You
are working as a manager in a
construction company. You realized that
one of your subcontractors made
corruption in another project.
 What
would you do?
 A.
 B.
Do not care. It’s not your job.
Cancel the
subcontractor.
agreement
with
this
 C.
Notify the authorities about the situation
 D.
Report to the media
 Answer
B is the best solution. You should
not work with such companies.