Cooperation in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) Project Team: The Impact of Ethical Climate among General Contractor

For an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project team, cooperation between different functional departments has been concerned as the core factor which lead to success among all phase. However, researches about the role of general contractor in cooperative behaviors are still limited. This study aims to explore the relationship between ethical climate in EPC project's general contractor and cooperation within its different branches. Ethical climate questionnaire (ECQ) is used to identify the atmosphere in general contractor. Data are collected from 192 respondents which have EPC contracting experience, and analyzed by partial-least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We find out that some dimensions such as rules and code, efficiency have a positive effect on cooperation. The results show that the working environment which rules can be followed willingly and the work can be done efficiently tend to have more cooperative behaviors. Despite the linkage between ethical climate and cooperation, it also suggests in this work that the ways to improve cooperation, such as holding ethics training workshops and heavier punishment on unethical behavior or individuals. Also, we broaden the use of ethics related theory in construction project and industry.