Civil Engineering January-February 2022 | Vol 30 No 1

18 January/February 2022 Civil Engineering themselves to a personal mission of “plain, everyday honesty.” We as individuals have to make regular values-based decisions, and while ECSA provides some guidance via the ECSA Code of Conduct , this is just a general guideline and does not cover every eventuality. Peter Drucker was an Austrian- American management consultant, educator, and author. He insisted that the first responsibility of a professional is Primum non nocere : first do no harm (to the public, to the environment, to the client and to the profession) as laid out in the Hippocratic Oath 2 400 years ago. “This is the basic rule of professional ethics, the basic rule of an ethics of public responsibility.” This can be taken further via the development of a personal mission state- ment. We can each ask ourselves, “What are my values? What are my strengths? How do I perform?” A personal mission statement responds to the above questions and then answers: “Where do I belong?” and “What should my contribution be?” before considering “What is my personal mission statement?”. It is a good idea to think this through as an engineering practitioner and write down a personal mission statement. ETHICAL DECISION MAKING For personal ethical decision making, Drucker encourages the use of the Mirror Test. In other words, given your decisions, can you live with the person you see in the mirror? The Mirror Test: Imagine making a decision or taking action and then looking at yourself in the mirror afterwards. How do you feel? What do you see in your eyes? Does it trigger alarm bells, violate your principles, or summon a guilty conscience? To help us deal with situations that might be murky or confusing, there are other simple tests to help guide one’s con- science and to develop a personal mission statement: Q Q Front Page Test: Imagine reading about your decision or action in the Sunday Times headlines, with your name and photo prominently dis- played. How would you look and feel, and what effect would it have on your reputation, relationships, and business prospects? Q Q Consequences Test: The conse- quences of unethical decisions can be severe, so it is wise to consider them in advance. Think not only of the potential financial losses associated with certain causes of action but also the reputational costs to you or your organisation (brand equity), relation- ship costs, and psychological costs (the burden of regret). Q Q Reciprocity Test: Imagine being on the receiving end of your possible action. How would you feel if the shoe were on the other foot (and you were getting kicked)? Q Q Universality Test: Imagine if your course of action was to become standard practice for all people at all times (a universal maxim). Would that be a good and just outcome? Q Q Role Model Test: Given the choice before you, what would your role model (or someone you admire, such as a parent, sibling, friend, mentor, or coach) say or do? Have you asked him or her? Q Q Loved One Test: This can work in two ways: First, like the role model test above, what would your mother or father (or grandmother or grand- father) say or do about this? Second, imagine your son or daughter (or other precious loved one, such as a spouse, close relative, or best friend) in this situation and consider how you would feel and what you would want them to do. Q Q Advisory Group Test: Do you have an advisory group, a men’s or women’s group, a ‘personal board of directors’, or a mentor or coach you can run this by to gather input and explore options? If not, why not start one? Or reach out to people you trust in this instance. Often, they have valuable experience or insights. Q Q Sanctuary Test: Finally, have you given the situation time for reflection? Have you slept on it? WHISTLEBLOWING Based on the above, what should an employee who feels personally convicted do if an organisation is breaking the law, or not living up to its stated mission? One option of last resort – if all other channels have been exhausted – is blowing the whistle, which has hap- pened on numerous occasions in various organisations. Whistleblowing is the act, for an employee (or former employee), of disclosing what he believes to be unethical or illegal behaviour to higher management (internal whistleblowing) or to an external authority or the public (external whistleblowing). Its status is de- bated: some see [whistleblowers] as traitorous violators of organisational loyalty norms; others see them as heroic defenders of values considered to be more important than organisa- tion loyalty (e.g., the public health, environmental respect). When an employee of an organisation makes public any illegal or illegitimate action of the organisation, there is poten- tial for undesirable public scrutiny and legal action may result. If organisations want to be proactive about the possibility of whistleblowers, they should develop internal policies and procedures, for ex- ample, anonymous reporting hotlines for employees. The establishment of a clear and specific definition of whistleblowing itself should be a fundamental component of every whistleblower policy. The fall-out for employees blowing the whistle on public and private sector misbehaviour has been brutal, with many whistleblowers not only losing their jobs but eventually their houses and some- times even their lives. Recently, the country was shocked by the murder of a government employee who had exposed corruption in the public procurement of Covid-19 personal protec- tive equipment. SOUTH AFRICAN LEGISLATION ON WHISTLEBLOWING There is South African legislation already promulgated to offer some protection to whistleblowers. The Protected Disclosures Act (26 of 2000) seeks to encourage whistleblowing and create an environment conducive to alerting authorities of corrupt practices. The act lists the Auditor-General and the Public Protector as institutions to which whistleblowers can disclose information. Both organs are important in achieving the purposes of the act and are equipped with specialists to deal with corruption and other illegal activities. This piece of legislation is supported by the Constitution , the Labour