Q&A: EUCA’s Breslin Discusses Ethics in Construction

By Robert Carlsen

Though Mark Breslin, author of “Survival of the Fittest,” believes that rank and file union construction workers need to be tough and competitive in this day and age, they should not overlook the positive power of ethical behavior.

The book, published in 2005, says that rank and file on-the-job excellence is the key to the future of union construction. An excerpt: “No longer are great skills the only keys to increasing or maintaining union marketshare. Rank and file members need to have the proper attitudes and behaviors to accompany these skills. Attitudes and behaviors such as motivation, honesty, tolerance, teamwork, work ethic, productivity, and many more.”

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Compare this with the subject of a keynote presentation Breslin, CEO of the Engineering and Utility Contractors Association, made earlier this year at the first American Institute of Ethics seminar on the construction industry, entitled “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Breslin maintains that unless the construction owners, leaders and the field work force change behavior patterns, the industry will have trouble filling its ranks in the years to come.

The construction industry faces a long list of challenges related to behavior, Breslin says, including bid shopping, no-payment issues, lying, “lawyering up,” inflated claims, owner false claims, threats, and even employee embezzlement. “We were raised with following the Golden Rule, but can we teach it?” he asks. “Is it a learned response?”

After an initial report about the ethics seminar appeared in ENR.com in February, we recently revisited the subject with Breslin at EUCA headquarters in San Ramon.

California Construction: Though you brought out the fact that our initial report about your AIE presentation implied that contractors are the main culprits when it comes to ethics breaches, this is an issue that covers other levels of industry as well, right?

Breslin: Absolutely. This is a multi-party challenge with multiple breaches. Owners, cities, agencies, subs -- contractors aren’t the only ones operating in the gray area.

CC: What kinds of reaction have you gotten from your ethics presentations, in particular the AIE seminar in San Francisco?

Breslin: We were surprised about the reaction and what really surprised me was the reaction of the students who attended. I was profoundly distressed that no one has told them about the [ethics] challenge and reality, and how unprepared they were. And these were masters students from Stanford and UC Berkeley.

The reactions have spurred us at EUCA to develop a template about company and industry ethics that we’ll distribute free to the industry and to colleges. These will be suggestions, not mandates; we’re just saying it’s time to start preparing these people, and sensitizing them to this. More like role-playing and different scenarios with difficult decision-making skills.

CC: Are associations like EUCA leading the way when it comes to addressing codes of ethical behavior in the construction industry?

Breslin: No, at least not up until now. There’s the noble cause and then there’s the members’ comfort level of abiding by some code of conduct. They don’t really know where to go to get this information and that’s why we’ve gotten the reaction we did. If you ask most companies where they would go to help them develop a code, they couldn’t tell you.

CC: Your book, “Survival of the Fittest,” says that being tough and strong are essential elements to make it in this industry. Does that jive with what you’re saying about ethical behavior?

Breslin: Well, “Survival of the Fittest” is about recognizing your own personal code and sense of responsibility. Some people get it. My generation got it from their families.
You have to understand the end-game goal. Ethics and integrity are part of that goal and you can’t sort of put that off to the side and be a stand-up guy or a stand-up company. You want to be honest. But then you see that 80% to 90% of the new recruits coming to your door have no clue. School kids today are saying they have to do what they have to do to achieve the ends. All these young people are facing fierce competition – for college, jobs, careers, and all statistics indicate they’ve been basically cheating for the past four to eight years.
You can say to them, here’s our code of ethics here at XYZ Construction and they’re like “what?” They are way comfortable in the gray area. We need to be concerned and pro-active in addressing this.

CC: You mentioned at the AIE seminar that we should all be concerned about the generation X and Y people coming to take over our jobs as we begin to retire in masses. These young people now hop from job to job, so do you think loyalty will be a major issue for construction companies?

Breslin: Sure. Loyalty in the future is going to be about the contractors providing an ongoing opportunity to learn and evolve; not just a long-term job prospect. If we don’t supply this at the management and field level, they’ll just leave and go do something else. Leaders are going to have to change the culture of their company in order for employees to be loyal to it. Adopting a cutting edge management system rather than hanging onto old-school thinking. Management has to change and become more progressive and emphasize the human-resource development challenge and opportunity.

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