The discourse of ‘Respect for People’ in UK construction

Abstract

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is mobilized to investigate some of the assumptions that lie behind the text of the Respect for People reports (2000 Respect for People Working Group. 2000. A Commitment to People ‘Our Biggest Asset’ Rethinking Construction [Google Scholar], 2004 Respect for People Working Group. 2004. Respect for People: A Framework for Action Constructing Excellence [Google Scholar]), part of the ‘Egan agenda’ in the UK. The concept of respect is examined, contrasting the humanist view of people as ends in themselves with the instrumentalist view in which human beings are treated as means to an end. Conceptualizing people as an asset encourages this instrumental view. Similarly, the ‘business case’ argument for respecting people means that improvements to working conditions are judged purely in accordance with their contribution to efficiency and profitability rather than in terms of moral imperatives (not killing people) or fairness (not discriminating against them). Investigation of the structural, institutional and discursive context of the text reveals it to be a response to conditions at a particular historical moment: labour shortages; the desire to avoid or pre‐empt regulation; changes in the wider prevailing discourse; and the need to give the impression that ‘something is being done’. In conclusion it is suggested that, while the Respect for People discourse may be seen as a way of containing and defusing potential critique, it could also be drawn on by those seeking to improve working conditions.