What should you do if you think you might be facing an ethical dilemma? How can you decide whether to take action?

An ethical dilemma exists when one or more principles of the code are threatened. You may have discovered something unethical, illegal or fraudulent going on where you work, or perhaps you feel that you have been asked to do something that compromises your professional integrity. Maybe someone is putting pressure on you to mislead, or to manage in a way that is inconsistent or goes against accepted standards.

Conflicts of interest and confidentiality issues are also ethical problems. In general, ethical issues should be dealt with by taking actions (called safeguards) to reduce them to a level where they are no longer significant or of any consequence.

If you are not sure whether something is significant, it can help to think about what a reasonable third party might think if they had the facts of the situation. How would you feel if someone you know discovered how you had acted? Would you feel proud or embarrassed by your actions?

For advise on ethical issues contact construction ethics@biim.eu