ABSTRACT
The first question, if we are to address professional ethics and professional values for construction and property professions must be to ask: ‘What exactly are “professions”?’
The realistic answer is that we do not know for sure, we only really know what they are not-they are not the same as other occupations and they do not seem to have a great deal in common. The term ‘a profession’ is seen as a lay term with no precise denotation, there is no obvious explanatory trait linking together the various construction professions beyond the simple fact that they are called professions and that the term is imposed by society at large to identify a commonality which may not exist. Indeed, we identify closer with the terms ‘architect’, ‘engineer’ or ‘surveyor’ than any generic label of ‘construction professional’.
