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client's proprietary information such as the operations of the business might be exposed during the process of space‐planning of a facility. Financial information that could be of use to a competitor of the client will likely be shared with the designer, at least to some degree. When doing design work for the government or even some private businesses, the designer might be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement. A nondisclosure agreement means that the person—in this case the designer—cannot tell anyone not connected with the project any private or sensitive information about the project or the client.

      Even one's employers own all sorts of propriety information that employees must keep in confidence. Financial data, client lists, and discounting policies are a few examples. Firms try to combat this issue by having employees sign nondisclosure agreements. In addition, employees are not allowed to take proprietary information with them upon termination or voluntary separation. Such information may range from binders of information provided to employees to design work done by the employee.

      Whether the proprietary information belongs to the design firm or a client, the owner of the proprietary information would not want an interior designer—or anyone else—to divulge the information to competitors or to the public. If the employee shares that information with someone outside the firm, the employer could both fire and/or sue her. This behavior can also result in an ethics complaint against the designer.

      Issues related to competition can also involve ethical consequences. The free‐market system creates rivalry between businesses—in other words, competition. When there are many businesses that offer the same or similar services or products, the competition can be intense.

      Many interior designers feel that there is not much of a problem with competition in interior design. However, this is not really true. All design firms are in competition with each other, in one way or another. Architectural firms, retail stores, and vendors who sell directly to the client are also competitors of interior designers. In a practical sense, they are not likely to be pursuing the exact same clients, but some are. And when the economy is slow, even more designers are competing for the same clients. Regardless of the size of the interior design firm and how well the local economy is doing, plenty of competition exists among interior design firms.

      When competition is fierce, temptations to bend ethical and even legal rules can and do arise. Many respond to this by saying “What goes around comes around,” meaning that if someone yields to the temptations of unfair competitive practice, eventually it will catch up with him. For example, a designer who does not obtain the contractor's license required by local laws to sell certain products will one day be reported to the registrar of contractors and possibly put out of business.

An ethical crossroad concerning a competitive market can be arrived at from another direction. Rather than designers disregarding competitive ethics, clients can put designers into a position that tests the interior designers' ethics. Some clients shop around for design ideas and prices, which in some ways is fine. Sometimes, however, a client who has a contract with designer A takes drawings prepared by designer A to designer B so as to get a lower price on merchandise specified for the project. What is designer B to do?

      Of course, there are many other kinds of actions that can be considered unethical. One issue that is addressed in the codes of ethics is representing an individual or the company as member of an association when it is not true. Dishonesty is an ethical issue. When applying for a job, providing false information on a job application about work experience is an example. Perhaps the designer tells the client that he has the proper credentials to prepare the working drawings needed for the job as required by local laws—but the designer does not have the credentials.

      Why do some people behave unethically? According to Brown and Sukys, it is because people (1) are motivated by self‐interest, (2) are careless, and (3) see no harm in the behavior.⁵ When someone places his own interests before those of others, he may be behaving unethically. Consider the case of a design student who includes work in her portfolio that has been done by someone else but represents to a potential employer as her own. In reality, she cannot do that quality of work, so she has put self‐interest first. The employer at some point will figure out that something is not right.

      These issues provide a background for looking at professional conduct and ethical behavior in the interior design profession. The demand for ethical behavior does not apply only to interior designers who have joined one of the professional associations. Rather, ethical behavior should be practiced by anyone involved in this profession and in business in general.

       Commissions and Kickbacks

      It is not uncommon for interior designers to receive a commission from some vendors when the client purchases products directly from the vendor. These commissions constitute additional revenue to the interior designer. It is not usually very large and is paid to the designer only if the client actually orders from the vendor.

      These commissions raise ethical debates and ethical problems. Is the interior designer required to tell the client about these commissions? According to the code of ethics from professional associations, it is necessary to disclose all forms of compensation to the client. Some interior designers debate whether their colleagues should accept these commissions at all.

A clear conflict of interest and unethical situation occurs when a designer receives a kickback. According to the Cornell Law School Web site, kickbacks “entail the return of a certain amount of money from seller to buyer as a result of a collusive agreement.”* Kickbacks are clearly improper and are not the same as the commissions described in the previous paragraph. An example of a kickback is when a vendor gives a special discount to one designer for specifying or bidding on a project but not to other designers who are also bidding on the job. Another example of a kickback is when someone gives a payment of some kind as a very special inducement to favor the specification of one product over another. It is important to note that the discounts or commissions that vendors regularly give to interior designers are not illegal or unethical. It becomes unethical only when the special price is given for special treatment, such as in the preceding examples.

In commercial interior design, a practice that might be considered unethical, but can also be an appropriate business practice, is buying a job. Some firms lower their price drastically on services or bids on goods in order to be awarded a project. Buying a job refers to the practice of pricing the goods or fees at an unusually low level in order to make the sale. Some feel it is unethical because it sets a price with which other firms cannot compete. Others argue that setting a very low price is merely a marketing and business tool to enter a market, to obtain a specific type of work, or for other reasons that are legal and essentially ethical. However, how would you feel if you owned a firm and discovered that you had lost three recent projects to a firm that did not charge a design fee and offered to sell the merchandise to the client at a very substantial discount?

*Cornell Law School, www.law.cornell.edu/wex/kickbacks

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

      Samantha goes to the home of a new client. The client shows her boards and plans that obviously were not prepared by the client, although no designer name is on the boards. Samantha would really like to do this project, because the client is a well‐known celebrity and her company needs the business.

      If you were the interior designer who had originally prepared the drawings and boards given to Samantha, what would you want her to do? What would you want her to say to the client?

      It is argued that we learn our values and morals as we grow up and that our ethics spring from those years of learning. Value systems and moral conduct as a professional should, then, be ingrained from what we have learned from parents, relatives, teachers, clergy, and friends. As professionals, how we conduct our business relationships with clients, colleagues,

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