Over the course of the last decade, organizations in the United States have been faced with balancing financial needs and ethical considerations. In many cases, organizations must consider what practices can be utilized to help maintain a healthy ethical climate in the organization while still enabling the business to remain highly profitable. Increasing pressure from stockholders in the organization can serve as the impetus for leaders of the organization to choose profit-making schemes over ethical considerations. This is an issue that is well illustrated in the cases of both Enron and WorldCom. With the realization that ethics has become such an important issue for the development of organizations and professionals, there is a clear impetus to consider the specific techniques or tools that can be used to keep business ethics commensurate with economic growth and profit. Using this as a basis for investigation, this research considers an examination of what it means to practice architecture ethically. Specifically, this investigation examines the particular services that should be provided by the architect and how much profit the professional should garner for his or her services.
[...] As noted earlier, “Since they affect ways of life and corresponding values, determining which decision is appropriate in all such cases is clearly an ethical problem.”[21] With this in mind, it is clear that ethical issues in architecture must be addressed in terms of compensation because of the impact that architecture has on society as a collective whole. Using this as a basis for developing a specific plan for compensation for architects, it seems reasonable to argue that architects should be paid a base salary for their services. [...]
[...] the current literature suggests that there are a myriad of ethical issues which impact the development of the professional. As such, it is important to consider a wide range of ethical issues that can, and do, impact the architect in practice. Reviewing some of the basic ethical considerations that must be addressed by all architects, one author makes the following observations: all agree that an architect is obligated to see to the safety of the occupants of his or her project, whether by assuring egress, avoiding toxic materials, or resisting seismic loads. [...]
[...] Using ethical guidelines as a means to structure compensation for architects is a direct means to tie the work of the architect to the needs of all stakeholders involved in the development of a new project. Although specific compensation rates will be predicated upon the particular context of the job and the education and experience of the architect, bonuses for the utilization of ethical practices in the development of new projects will certainly augment any professional's salary. Bibliography Barista, Dave. [...]
[...] Architects, Ethics and Compensation Given all of the ethical considerations that must be addressed in the context of architecture the central question that remains is: how should compensation for architects be determined in light of all of the ethical issues that must be addressed in this profession? With the realization that architecture carries with it such a high philosophical and legal burden, it would seem logical to develop a pay scale that would be commensurate with all of the effort that must be put into the completion of a single work. [...]
[...] In other words, by structuring compensation scales in this manner, architects will be forced to address all ethical considerations in the development of a specific project. Over the course of time, this will revolutionize the profession. Conclusion The specific compensation scale recommended the in this investigation is predicated upon the idea that architects must fully understand the ethical implications of the work that they create. When architects are contracted to complete a specific project their role in development is one that extends beyond just the functional nature of the building. [...]
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