Discuss this statement in detail within the context of the Malaysian environment. ‘Conflicts of professional interest frequently arises in the working environment of an engineer’. Discuss the statement and propose the appropriate solutions for overcoming the problems. Abstract Conflicts of professional interest frequently arises in the work environment of an engineer is one of the situation happened in Malaysian environment. There are a few factors who cause the situation happened. The main parties that will involve in the conflict of interest are the developers, contractors and consultant engineers. In order to overcome the problems, the conflict have to be figured out and overcome the problems with optimal solution. The conflict should be decrease as to help the company growth better. Introduction Conflict always happen on our surrounding, especially in the world which is full of sophistication and complexity. We face many kinds of conflicts in daily life which involves our family, friends and colleagues in learning or working environment or even the boss. Everyone has his/her opinion and interest on a certain issue or thing. When one is disagree with another person’s point of view and interest, conflict will occur. In Malaysia’s working environment, to work as an engineer in the related field, these conflicts can’t be avoided. However, the conflict of professional interest is a current issue in the career of an engineer. If this type of working environment does not improve or changed, it will bring negative effects to the employer, employees who are working in the company and also the company’s own reputation. A true profession is an occupation which requires skills and knowledge in a specified field that was for the benefit of the society. A professional able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills which they done by training and it was used to provide service which is unique and it was used to serve the community. A professional was a person who can distinguish others from all the occupational groups by showing their expertise in the particular area of which utilizes the knowledge and skill which he already had. The knowledge and skills which an engineer has was a result of training, researching and experience. Through these processes, an engineer was able to develop more critical knowledge and professional ideas. What they learnt was tested, examined and evaluated before they are qualified as a professional engineer. Through disciplined academic training and experience, they will obtain a certain level of knowledge in their area of practice. It required certain level of standards, also with rules and regulations to ensure that the person can be called as a professional engineer. Problem Statement As mentioned in the earlier section, conflict occurs as a result of different opinions and interests in one from that of others. Engineers involved themselves in the industry which is a wide, fast-growing and competitive profession. The main parties that will involve in the conflict of interest are the developers, contractors and consultant engineers.
Objectives
To figure out the conflict happen among the engineers with professional. To overcome the conflict between professional and the engineers.
Discussion A construction project needs a quite big amount of funds. A construction developer mostly was an organization involved in the act of acquiring, buying goods, services which works for a land and also the construction activity of the land. There are also wealthy individual developers which can build construction project by having considerable amount of funds, but it is more common for a group containing all wealthy individuals which forms a development company to separate the lost and risk of a construction project. They are usually considered as business men that do investment in the property to build building to gain more profit. As an engineer, it is important to think what others think. The developer side will only consider about the cost and profit issue. An engineer should be reporting about the amount and cost of the material used in the construction project. Besides that, any raise of price of material well also affect the distribution of developer’s funds to each sectors regarding the construction project. The next party would also have conflict of interest with the engineers was the contractors. Contractors will also have concerns on the cost of the project but it is not the main issue for him. The main task for him was to ensure the progress of building the project within the timeframe and will be completed at the expected date. It is important that engineers let the contractors know how to arrange the human resources available at the construction site. Contractor also would needed to be suggested to follow the schedule for the construction project as any delay in time will cause a lost in the construction cost. Another side which has the conflict of interest was the consultant engineers. Consultant engineer’s job was to ensure the construction were carried out in relevant and was following the engineering codes and complying with international best practices. The main responsible for the consultant engineers was to keep an eye on the quality of working activities in the construction site. It is important that the safety measurements of a construction site are following the protocols set by the local government. Workers or anyone authorized to enter the construction site must wear safety helmets and gloves as prevention to any incident that may happen when they are in the construction site. A first aid emergency centre should be at standby condition with simple medical assistance and staffs on site. If any accident occurs, the casualty was able to get treated at instant. One of the types of conflict in the working environment was conflicting client interests. The classic case involving conflicting client interests occurs when a forest professional is required to serve a client whose interests directly clash with those of another current client. Obviously, a forester representing a landowner in a timber trespass case cannot also work for the logger who allegedly committed the trespass, but many more subtle situations can also present conflicts.
Another type of conflict which will be occur was financial conflicts. Financial conflicts of interest are not always as clear-cut as one might assume. For example, when a forester who owns a partial interest in a wood-using manufacturing plant sells wood on behalf of a forest landowner, the forester has an obligation to make the landowner aware of this other business interest. The solution was first, the engineer must recognize, before accepting an assignment from the second party, that there is a potential conflict of interest. A prudent engineer will explain to the municipality’s representative that a report was prepared for one of the land developers. The municipality may well deem this to be a conflict and select another engineer for the assignment, thereby ending the potential conflict. Alternatively, the municipality could decide that there is no conflict and be willing to continue with the engineer. However, this does not resolve the engineer’s potential conflict, because the developer, who is the first client, is not party to this decision. The engineer should advise the municipality that the assignment will be accepted only if the developer agrees in writing that there is no conflict. Once that written agreement is obtained, the second assignment can be accepted. If no waiver is provided, the municipality may agree to retain the professional engineer generally but obtain a different one for this specific land owner. Solution of to this issue was first to create mutual respect. Building trust between the engineers is key in this case. We should know that everyone who works in the company has his/her own vision and commands on the company in terms of the company’s policy, the organization of the company and the company’s future prospects. We also should understand that engineers might perceive a conflict of interest, and that the perception would damage mutual understanding and credibility. The lack of trust by engineers might be extended to the entire management of the company. The loss to the company might be substantial, but we need to put the interests of the company’s employer and its employees before their personal interests. We should able to understand the concerns of the engineers to the company and try to acknowledge and respect the suggestion given by them. Avoiding the conflict would guarantee continued mutual respect between the engineers. Establishing common goals and objectives of the company are vital. The common goal can unite all the staffs of the company which allows them to fight together to achieve the goals set by the company. The objective of a company is to establish a foundation or the base for the company. Shared objectives can help engineers to be motivated in their work and became more innovative to produce better and useful solutions which make sure that they can reach the objectives. If the engineers have positive relationships and work together as a strong team, it will reduce the conflict of professional interest as they are moving in the same direction for sake of the company. The company was able to obtain more benefit and profit. More than that, the company was able to improve its performance and will be having a better future. In a company, effective communication has a very important role to avoid conflict of interest. It is nice to see engineers having meeting each week discussing about the issue of the company. However, if the outcome of the
meeting was still unable to solve the problem, this was considered an ineffective communication. Another example was only one of the sides was giving opinion and suggestions but does not receive any feedback from others. It was known as a one way communication, which was also ineffective. The strategy of having an effective communication was information should always be clear and easy to understand for everyone involved. It may have different communications plans for different sides in a meeting such as the administration board, the engineers and the technicians. Just go straight to the point, expect what information they want to hear and present to them. A two-way communication should be build up. Both sides listen, discuss and debate the opinions and suggestion given and came out with a best solution as the outcome of the meeting between the engineers. To decrease the gap of conflict of interest between two parties, each person needs to be considerate. It should be a good practice if one was able to put himself/herself in their shoes. As an engineer, it was good to provide your own ideas and opinions. But, what is more important was to consider what they will feel and think if they accept the opinion and ideas given by your side. As an example, if one of the engineers proposed the idea of a new product, there will be concerns on the design, cost, building material, target customers, and functionality. Therefore, before proposing an idea of your own, try also to consider the problems and difficulties which will be faced by the other engineers or departments. However, it was impossible to take consideration for all the sides, but at least you tried your best to reduce the burden of the other engineers and departments when the proposed product was approve to be mass produced. It was a challenge to an engineer to optimize all the resources of a company and produced a solution which can benefit the company and give good reputation to the company. Developing a positive relationship between the engineers is important. If the trusts were built in the organization, they will be more likely to compromise and work towards goals. Therefore, having good working relationship among engineers will reduce the conflict of interest. In a working environment, engineers meet different peoples from different department. Everyone has his/her standards and restrictions towards their position. As an engineer, building good relationship will help to develop your working practices and were able to understand the point of view of your colleagues and able to know how they think and how they solve problem in different ways. What you practice will influence others to practice the similar approach in the whole working environment. Having good relationship also improves your networking skills, which able yourself to have wider access to more information. It will also be a stepping stone for your career development. Engineers faced a lot of issues and decision making moments in the working environment. There should be having frequent discussion for a quick solution. Engineers solve issues by providing solutions to solve the problem. Discussion can be made during meeting to find out the best way to overcome a problem. The discussion also can be done in small groups which involve members from the same department. The outcome of the discussion was to solve the problem in only one way which was effective, reasonable and acceptable by all the members of the group. If no discussion was been done
between the engineers, everyone will do their routine job in their own way. When problems arise, there will be conflicts on the method used was not good enough which may lead to argument. To avoid the conflicts and argument, engineers should make discussions often. Conclusion As a conclusion, the conflict of professional interest should be decrease to a minimum in the working environment of Malaysia. This would help companies grow stronger and better. It allows the employees to imagine the future of the company’s plans and visions. It will also help the development of an engineer’s personal value and career. It is important to change the working environment of a workplace which can produce a more effective but still competitive environment. Reference: http://nazrulanuar.com/author/?page_id=1234
