Professionalism in Construction Business - Essay Example

Professionalism in construction business Question: Some professionals believe that traditional professionalism is incompatible with the demands of many business focused employers. Discuss the accuracy and the implication of this belief. Note: The case, you should relate your answer to the employment of professional staff in construction, property or design related businesses. Where applicable you should also refer to professional institution, published research and case studies. The term “professionalism” has been widely used for many years. Traditionally is defined as the competence or skills expected from a professional in a profession. For example, a medicine doctor is regarded as professional because he or she has certain knowledge and skills which most other people do not have. They are expected to cure sickness of patients, and treat with correct medicine. Many universities and educational institutions have been using the term as the results of all educational and professional development programs. Their educational programs always aim to improve or develop “professionalism”. For example, engineering degree programs aim at developing professionalism of students upon completion of their training. In general, professionalism has many different ways of interpretations. When they are hired by an organization and when they get a paycheck, many think that they are professionals. Many people may be working in various jobs including may be truck drivers, restaurant managers, construction project managers, department store managers, real estate development managers. They do not become immediately professionals in their jobs. However the on-the-job traits that are associated with specific jobs define those people working in various positions will be defined as professionals. One example can be demonstrated to show that certain on-the-job traits associated with a specific job define professionalism. A house owner would like to repair his heating boiler. He then called a certified furnace repairman to fix his boiler. He has certificates to prove that he is professional who knows well about boilers. The repairman came to home to fix the problem. The repairmen did not talk nicely to the home owner. He did not clean his trashes after fixing the boiler. The house owner was really unhappy and unpleased with his treatment. Therefore, even though the repairman was certified with his certificate, he did not behave professionally according to the jobs’ traits associated with his job. Therefore, the meaning of professionalism is not sufficiently defined with the possession of qualifications, skills and being employed in a job. According to Brown and Perry (2006), a profession is a self-governing, self-disciplined group of individuals bound together by shared knowledge, values, language, and a general consensus as to what constitutes proper behavior. Because of their special self-governing status, professionals must do more than merely not cause any harm if their behavior is to he termed "ethical." They must act responsibly in the public interest and proactively address problems within their areas of professional expertise. Today, many professions have been under strong criticism for their unprofessional and unethical behaviors. Recently there were publicized scandals cases in which professionals were involved and their unethical and unprofessional behaviors were uncovered. For example, brokerage firms were accused of trading stocks using insider information. US Treasury bond offerings were manipulated by bond traders. Health care costs were inflated by doctors and professionals in medicine with ignorance of their ethical code of conducts. Bankers corrupted their professional practices when lending money with undervalued collaterals. Therefore, banks accumulated low performance loans nowadays which cause economy’s owes. Professionals are provided with greater autonomy by the society. They are given such honors because the society believe that they have skills and knowledge which they have specialized for a long period of time, for years, or even in some cases, it can be for entire life. Therefore, they are believed to be possessing specialized skills and knowledge in their filed or areas. The society always expects them to correct whatever there is a problem to be solved. In addition, the society also expects that the public interests must be kept in priorities in their problem solving. If the problem solving is outside of their control, they could express corrective suggestions and solutions. This expectation of society has led the profession bodies to set up their own professional standards. The professional standards they have specified and formulated. The professional standards have been changed due to ever changing their business environment which includes customers and their ever increasing demands and expectations from various professions. Nowadays, many businesses are operating with a central focus on their customers. Thus employers are highly concerned with staffing employees who are processing professional skills. Today, in addition to trading certificates, money, position, and status every employee has, many employers who have been long in their work say that professionalism concerns with attitude and behavior of employees. When you clam that you are a professional in your chosen profession, you must know how to perform your jobs; you must demonstrate the abilities and willingness to learn; you must show that you can cooperate with others; you must also demonstrate that you can get along with others both inside and outside of your organizations; you must show respect to others including those who are in higher positions as well as those who are in lower positions; you must make commitments to yourself and your jobs; you must avoid any behavior or actions that cause trouble to the company; and you must conduct your job ethically. Many employers are expecting their employees to professionally perform their jobs and to have the skills they are required to perform the jobs. First, a key personality or trait is to know when to perform your job and to avoid any inappropriate actions which may cause hindrances to you. Second, you must communicate well with others as a professional. In order to communicate you must be a good listener to other ideas and thoughts of other person with respects. Third, you must realize yourself that you are in the right light of your bosses. When your bosses come to you to talk and discuss on special assignments and projects, they must be always comfortable to come back to you and talk to you again. Otherwise, you may not be in the right light. If you feel that you have problem with professionalism, you may need to ask advice from your bosses so that you can improve your level of professionalism. Fourth, professionals must have correct integrity. When your employers see that you have committed conniving, then your integrity level would be in trouble. Many employers or bosses do not want to hear a lie. Fifth, professionals always show their respects to others. Showing respects does not mean that you must tolerate others even they are stepping on you. However, you do not need such tolerance but you need to talk to them that you will not tolerate such disrespect and mistreatment. Sixth, professionals must commit themselves to their jobs and agreement with the work they agree. In organization, you may be required to take other jobs that you do not perform routinely. When you are required to do so, you need to uphold the standards of quality and timeliness set by your employers. Many employers expect that professionals will respect others. When employees are overloaded, they must say that the work has been overloaded. The construction work is a complex work. It requires effective management and professionalism of staff who are involved in construction work. The development and advancement of new technology in buildings and constructions, improvement in technology of designs create more expectation from the society for those who are involved in the construction industry to professionally manage the cost, quality, and time. The society increases their demands on those construction businesses. In construction industry, the society place more expectations on increase professionalism which are far more than traditional aspects of professionalism which simply defines as necessary skills and qualifications to perform a certain job. Now construction professionals must have more components of professionalism. They include (1) expert knowledge, which concerns with specialization on know-how aspects on construction and building infrastructures, (2) autonomy to make certain decisions, (3) altruism, which concerns with the welfares of others and place in priorities for public work, (4) communication which refers to effectively communicating with others, respecting other people’s ideas and thoughts, listening to others carefully and respectfully, (5) authority which refers to power to make certain decisions on behave of the society and society place that power to professionals, (6) licensing and registration for conducting professional jobs which refers to people in construction industry to get license from professional governing bodies before they engage in any activities, and requirements for registration with the government departments in carrying out construction activities, (7) customer orientation which refers to understanding the real needs of customers and placing to satisfy and meet the requirements of needs in a high priority, abilities to read the mind of customers and analyze the need assessments, (8) abilities to learn, which refers to professionals with motivation to learn from their experiences, continue their life-long learning in professional development programs, (9) public recognition which refers to professional governing bodies and their associated professionalism must be publicly recognized, (10) trust which refers to gaining trusts and belief from people and customers, (11) collective identity which refers to having identity at aggregated level. These components of professionalism in the construction business are very important for both professionals as well as employers who are hiring them in order to serve their customers and satisfy the needs of them. For the employers, they need to screen, higher the professionals who are really having professionalism which assure to meet the needs and expectations of customers. In addition, they need to develop their professional skills by providing trainings and workshops as well as assisting them to continue in executive and professional development programs. For professionals, they need to adhere to the code of conducts or standards of professional practices. They must behave or act professionally in the organizations with integrity and professional ethic. These are nowadays very crucial for being recognized as professionals. Therefore, professionals must develop their professionalism that constitutes more components, which are imposed by more expectations from customers and clients. References Brown, B. and Perry, S. 2006. When Professionals Become Victims: The Ethical Implications of Self-perceived Victimhood. Business Forum, Vol. 27, No. 2. 15-19. Read More