Western Mindanao State University
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Department of Computer Engineering
Zamboanga City
Name: Luis Roberto P. Soliman
Course & Year: BS CPE 2A
SUMMARY PAPER
While Ethics are important for all organizations and their employees and other
stakeholders, they are more important for project managers who execute complex projects and
interact with a wide variety of stakeholders. Indeed, being ethical and following ethical norms
can be said to be prerequisites for project managers who have to practice ethics and observe
ethical rules.
An aspiring project manager must be able to pull their own weight on projects. Slacking
off and dumping work on subordinates while hoarding all the credit is a big error. A project
manager’s duty entails the coordination of their members’ work efforts and collaborating with
them in making the project a reality. The macroscopic point of view is an important tool to have
in making sure that the collective picture the upper management receives is indeed real time
and authentic, the failure to report the true status may lead to several setbacks if not the
project’s overall failure.
The importance of ethics for project management can be seen from the way in which
project managers have to bid for projects after full disclosure of their capabilities and capacities
without resorting to hyperbole or exaggeration and during the bidding process, ensure that they
do not employ underhand means to bag the project. As the rest of the discussion indicates,
there are some red flags that project managers need to be aware of in all phases.
Ethics is a sensitive topic that many project managers must deal with when they are
managing projects meant to be patronized by the general public. The project’s size scales with
the probability that an ethical issue will arise and bring complications with it. When the project
managers and their superiors disregard these present issues concerning ethics among its
project’s concepts, the result may be catastrophic and deal several blows that may very well
shut the business down. Flunking stocks, budget issues, waves of lawsuits and even criminal
charges may come down upon the business should ethical standards be violated.
Project managers routinely face difficult ethical decisions that test your wits and your
critical thinking in making decisions to resolve this issue. The PMI Code of Ethics is an essential
component in the inventory of a project manager, this may be helpful if you intend to acquire a
PMP Certification or a helpful reference in case you already have one. Learning about electrical
dilemmas and how to effectively resolve them.
Accountability is when a problem arises, the person responsible for that problem steps
up and admits their errors. Unfortunately, it’s natural for humans to run and hide while placing
the blame on someone or something else to save themselves. Careers and reputations become
soiled and damaged because of this ill practice not only that, this complicates the problem by
obscuring it in cover ups and denials instead of just getting to solving it. An ideal project
manager must understand that mistakes come naturally and admitting to one’s fault is a better
way instead of hiding or placing the blame somewhere else; this process simply contributes
nothing positive and complicates matters more.
At the enterprise level, when projects involve large numbers of people and several
(sometimes dozens) of outside vendors, there are ample opportunities for stakeholders to give
inappropriate preference to certain teams or companies. As a project manager, you should
make sure that all parties involved in a project understand your company’s standards for bidding
and vendor selection, and that the definition of a conflict of interest is clear to everyone.
Indeed, bidding and prospecting for projects are the primary sources of unethical
behavior and unacceptable conduct. Take the example of global construction and infrastructure
firms bidding for the recently concluded Brazil Olympics. There were several allegations of firms
and their project managers employing unethical means to bag the projects and ensure that their
bids are considered before those of their competitors. Indeed, even for the Football World Cup
in Qatar in 2018, there have been multiple scandals that have come to light about the unethical
practices employed by firms and their project managers.
While some might justify the practices such as lobbying, entertaining the clients by
wining and dining them, and offering material and nonmaterial inducements to bag the projects
as being part of the ways of doing business, it needs to be remembered that once a project is
won based on such methods, the rest of the phases of the project are tainted and compromised
as the costs incurred for the above mentioned aspects have to be recovered. This means that
the project manager would have to look for ways in which to cut corners as otherwise, the
project would become unviable.
The point that needs to be emphasized is that just like other professions such as Doctors
and Lawyers, the field of project management has a wider obligation towards society and the
wider stakeholders including consumers and other members of society. Therefore, the project
managers cannot simply write off their responsibilities towards these stakeholders as yet
another expense item and forget about it. Instead, they must proactively seek to follow ethical
and normative rules of conduct at all phases of the project starting with the bidding and ending
with the project handover.
Consider for example what would happen if a project manager had spent considerable
money and time on the bidding and prospecting as well as on the initial scoping. He or she
would be under pressure to recover some of these costs, and this would reflect and have its
effect on the shoddy way in which the project is executed. This can result in the end product or
the end project compromising on environmental norms thereby posing a danger to society.
Indeed, being ethical also means that project managers have environmental and social
responsibilities to shoulder. These can be deemed inseparable from the overall ambit of ethics
and ethical norms that have to be followed.
Next, the actual people management and stakeholder management has to be done by
following ethical norms. For instance, project managers involved in large and mega projects
have a duty and obligation under law to keep the regulatory bodies informed and updated about
the compliance or otherwise with various environmental norms. At no stage must the project
manager hide information or fudge data regarding the compliance or otherwise with such norms.
Doing so would mean that the project manager is failing not only the rules of conduct but also
the broader responsibilities towards society.
Sometimes, other members would have a different goal or agenda in mind that clashes
with the collective idea of the group, this is when conflict of interest occurs. When a large project
is being carried out, the number of people involved also increase drastically. This is when some
members would have some biases towards a specific person or group involved in the project.
This is where conflict of interest comes in and is often the gateway to some illicit dealings and
misbehavior. One must understand the collective goal and the objectivity the role of a project
manager entails.
Workplace culture is something generally ignored but plays a significant impact in the
efficiency of the company. In all senses the workplace culture of today is a lot more respectful
and gender sensitive than the culture presents a few decades past. Project managers must be
able to discern and project an amiable aura which will invigorate their colleagues and thus
present a role model for the company’s moral code and code of conduct. International
collaborations or a company with multinational employees must practice a wide understanding
of their worker’s culture as to avoid disrespectful behavior which may derail the overall
productivity.
Health is wealth and not all professional activities have healthy or safe tasks at hand,
many jobs have inherent health risks which can lead to illness or death. The moral dilemma
here is whether the upper management should be straightforward and inform the workforce and
the public of these risks or not. These issues may arise in the healthcare, manufacturing, labor,
construction and other physically intensive industries. Nonetheless, all companies must care for
the well being of their workers, physical and mental alike.
There would be some who would say that while all this sounds good on paper, it is not
easy to follow this in the “real world”. They would contend that the real world of project
managers is vastly different from what is mentioned in theory or textbooks and hence, they
might simply shrug some of the points discussed here as sermons. To that, we would say that
while we understand the very real constraints and pulls and pressures that they face, we are
also of the view that one must start from somewhere and someone must take the lead, and
hence, while ethics and norms are difficult to follow, somebody has to make a beginning.
REFERENCES
https://www.clarizen.com/ethical-issues-project-management-deal/
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/ethical-dilemmas-project-management-7084