In recent years, Nigeria is often cited in the international media in connection with corruption
and other unethical practices. The professionals in the Nigerian building industry are not
immune from the perceived national trend in ethical erosion. Moral philosophy or ethical
ideology has been used to explain individuals‘ reasoning about moral issues and consequent
behaviour. This study examines building industry professionals‘ ethical ideologies with a
view to understanding their ethical behaviour in professional practice. In carrying out this
investigation, building professionals in clients‘ organisations, contracting and consultancy
organisations within the industry were asked to respond to the Ethics Position Questionnaire
(EPQ) designed by Forsyth in order to determine their idealism and relativism level.
Subsequently, they were classified into one of four groups, representing different ethical
ideologies. The result indicates that the dominant ethical ideology of building industry
professionals is situationism. The study predicts that the attitude of building industry
professionals in practice, given the current socio-political and economic situation of Nigeria
would possibly be unethical because of the extreme influence situational factors have on
their behaviour. This finding is a bold step and necessary benchmark for resolving ethical
issues within the industry and should be of interest to policy makers. It is also useful for intra
professional ethical comparison.
Keywords: Professional,
