Project perspectives: are you ethical? (15 de enero, de 2012).

PM Network Staff, (057748)

Project Perspectives: Are You Ethical?

PM Network Staff - January 15, 2012

At a previous job, I was hired to manage a project that was

foundering. I threw myself into defining requirements,
developing a realistic ROI and getting the right stakeholders
involved. Meanwhile, the CIO and COO battled over
whether the project should be cancelled. I came to the
realization that the project was much more complex than I'd
originally thought and would likely not provide the benefits
that had been initially estimated. Recommending that the
project be cancelled felt like signing my own pink slip
[discharge notice], and I knew that I would make an enemy
out of the COO, who had invested a lot of personal power
into the project. But it was the right thing to do.

Mike Leisegang
CEO, Know-It-All Project Management Training,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Hannah Molette, PMP
independent contractor, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Ethics is critical in every aspect of business today. Over the
years in my role as a project manager, I have learned that
you should value your integrity. Being a person of sound
ethical behavior is challenging at times, but acting with
great integrity is like a parachute or a safety net. Nine times
out of 10, the evidence you have left behind in an unethical
act will be discovered at some point in the future.
Ethics in project management is, in my opinion, the way
stakeholders choose to inhabit the project “space” and
make it the suitable reality they desire. Without ethics, no
projects are possible.
My most challenging ethical dilemma is one I face every
day—making the right choices to guarantee project success
while making sure the project is where stakeholders want it
to be. All other ethical dilemmas come about as a
consequence of this.

Sonya Surrett, PhD, PMP

Robbins-Gioia, Oxford, Alabama, USA