Unethical Practices in Nigerian Engineering Industries: Complications for Project Management

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to establish the unethical practices in engineering industries and identify the various factors that could encourage unethical practices in the nation’s life with a view to highlighting the findings for corruption-free management of projects. A sample of 226 was randomly selected for the study from a population of 12,230 workers from selected companies in the manufacturing and construction industries in Lagos state. The data were analyzed using simple percentages and the chi-square statistics. The results revealed that organizations have a code of conduct that should generate in the workforce values such as accountability and integrity and that there are disciplinary and control measures to check malpractices, yet individuals still engage in unethical practices. Of all the 34 unethical practices studied, “people want to acquire wealth by all means to enhance public status” ranked highest, followed by “people are driven by their inherent greed for money.” The factor that contributed most to the unethical practices is economic pressures, followed by societal practices, vested interests of stakeholders in contracts, and last organization’s practice. The result also showed that there are vested interests in design, award, execution, and commissioning of projects by stakeholders of the projects and that unethical practices have serious negative impact on project management.