Ethics in Project Management

Ethics in Project Management

Ethics, or a sense of right or wrong is something that guides us through our existence.  Ethics influences our decision-making and impacts how others interact with us.  It is especially important to apply the highest of ethical behavior and standards in project management.  The Project Management Institute (PMI) echoes this viewpoint by reiterating, “Ethics is the compass that shows you the way”, “Ethics assists us in seeking the truth”, and “Ethics places you in a group that others know what to expect”. (PMI, 2017).  Ethics in project management strikes me as the essential oar in the water that keeps the stakeholders and project in safe “ethical” waters moving steadfastly toward the project’s objective.  Each stakeholder is unique in their own way.  They bring their diverse knowledge, personality, skills, abilities, and ethics into the project.  With this diversity and even with the best of stakeholder’s intentions, challenging ethical dilemmas could find their way to the forefront.  Even in the international arena ethical dilemmas arise; Mehwish Majeed tells of seven common ethical issues she has seen in project management, 1. Violation of basic rights of workers, 2. Ignoring health or safety standards, 3. Backstabbing, 4. Making shady deals, 5. Wrong people on the job, 6. Biasness, and 7. Blaming others (Majeed, 2012).  Her examples make a great case for global ethical standards in project management. Hitting closer to home, the lack of project manager ethics likely led to the VW diesel emissions scandal where an emissions defeat device was installed on hundreds of thousands of VW cars sold in the United States (Department of Justice, 2016). This resulted in harm to the environment, violation of U.S. law, and the loss of trust with U.S. VW owners who were lied to from this unethical behavior. Regardless of the types ethical challenges encountered; I would reason that the project manager must be prepared to take swift positive steps to keep the project upheld to a high ethical standard. The importance of project management ethics is very apparent.  Prompt corrective actions beg for an answer, sometimes the answer could lie in a grey area.  Nevertheless, a lack of corrective action or taking an unethical stance could possibly jeopardize the project and ultimately result in trust issues between the stakeholders, project manager, or even the consumer.