Running Head: ETHICS AND TRUST IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1

Ethics and Trust in Project Management

Jana Lee Cox

Arizona State University

OGL 321 – Project Leadership, Module 6

Professor Ben Pandya

September 27, 2020

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Leaven          

A loaf of bread contains several basic ingredients, like flour, eggs, oil, salt, and yeast.

The amounts can vary, and some can be omitted, depending on the type of bread desired. Yeast

or leaven must remain, however, as it differentiates a loaf of bread from a brick. By permeating

the dough, it grows tiny pockets of air, causing the bread to rise and remain soft and flavorful

after baking.

Project management also contains several components, including clients, stakeholders,

managers, team members, and objectives. Like bread, it also requires a key element, trust, in

order to thrive. Trust turns hostility into respect, distrust into confidence, and apathy into energy.

Project teams with trusting relationships work together, meet deadlines, communicate, and

produce quality products for stakeholders who trust them. Unlike other components of project

management, however, trust cannot simply be added in. It must be carefully nurtured and tended,

and can only survive through diligently implementing ethical standards and behavior.

Why Ethics Should Matter to Project Managers

In the book chapter on Ethics, Kliem (2011) reviews those violations frequently found in

projects. Some have legal and financial ramifications and are widely known, like non-

compliance and breach of contract, while others are more ambiguous and difficult to recognize,

like downplaying problems, over-promising but failing to follow through on commitments, and

communicating poorly. Violating ethical standards can damage credibility and reputations,

interfere with career advancement, and carry legal consequences. In each of these results, the

primary casualties are trust and productivity.

Kliem (2011) asserts, “Dealing with ethical failure is one of the most difficult

responsibilities that project managers have to perform” (p. 32). It requires making tough
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decisions and taking tough actions that, if not dispensed with precision or relevance, can amplify

the damage. Kliem notes project managers walk a fine line when dealing with ethical violations

and should realize that no decision will ever meet with 100% approval.

Desktop delinquency

In college, I was assigned to work in a group setting for one of my classes. It was a fast-

paced course, so within the first two weeks, we were tasked with not only performing the usual

introductory coursework but also organizing ourselves as a group and submitting our first big

paper. We divided the sections among us, and each member added their part in time to turn it in.

Unfortunately, two of our classmates neglected to properly cite their sources, and two others who

were assigned to review it didn’t catch the omission. The paper was returned with an implied

accusation of plagiarism and a warning that future violations would result in disciplinary action

against the entire team.

We were stunned. The response was delivered indirectly, not in person, and certain

ambiguities led us to doubt both our abilities and our instructor’s intent. Days passed while we

processed the event and its implications, expecting to hear from the dean at any moment. We

reviewed our mistakes and determined they were unintentional oversights—our teammates had

simply forgotten to add in the citations. Although we eventually reconnected with our instructor

to clear the air, we wasted valuable time working through the complexities and rebuilding

damaged trust.

Although the experience was uncomfortable for all involved, my professor recognized an

ethical violation had occurred and knew he was responsible to address it. Whether he had chosen

to take action or not, someone would have disapproved, whether it was college administrators or

erring students. Either way, the criticism would have remained.

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Guidelines for the project manager

Project managers face this same risk, although it can be minimized by “avoid[ing] a

response that will only aggravate the circumstances or that fails to resolve the issue” (Kliem,

2011, p. 38). Kliem offers guidelines that help managers formulate more appropriate responses

by first recognizing that ethical issues require a decision—to act or not to act. Either choice has

merits and risks.

Kliem (2011) further highlights “two major considerations . . . (1) the sensitivity of the

issues; and (2) the intensity of the response” (p. 35), to assist in this decision. Serious violations

require more intense responses, whereas minor infractions may need no response at all. Project

managers must collect the facts and evaluate criteria, such as magnitude, number of people

involved, context, intent, and impact, to determine whether action is warranted and at what level.

While these guidelines may have prompted my instructor to choose a different approach,

busy managers don't always have time to develop a clear and unclouded perspective. Kliem

(2011) notes that dealing with ethical situations is a complex task, often requiring subjective

judgments with incomplete information. He states, “The challenge is to rise above the constraints

of their paradigm, to make a decision and take an action, . . . to make a fair judgment” (p. 33). By

gaining a clearer perspective, managers can formulate a better response.

PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

Part of developing a clear perspective is understanding what ethics is. Professional

conduct, for instance, embodies more than simply avoiding litigation, just as trust is built upon

more than the absence of illegality. PMI’s (n.d.) code of ethics booklet highlights four categories

of professional conduct: responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty. Within these four

categories lies a comprehensive listing of ethical situations.

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These categories include not only major ethical violations and legal entanglements to

avoid, but also more common and relevant conduct for project managers to adopt, such as

owning up to errors, fulfilling commitments, managing conflicts of interest appropriately,

communicating accurately, and even avoiding gossip. PMI (n.d.) states, “we avoid in engaging in

gossip and avoid making negative remarks to undermine another person’s reputation” (p. 4).

Gossip destroys trust, and its presence in any environment obstructs progress and damages

culture.

The Lunchroom

Whether as gossip or negative, character-destroying remarks, words can in fact be used as

weapons, as I discovered in the social war-zone of elementary school. Bullying was a common

occurrence and everyone knew if you didn’t wear the right clothes or hang out with the right

people you were a target. When I reached adulthood, I assumed the bully culture was over. 

Years later, however, it all came back when I re-entered a school lunchroom with my

business partner to implement new lunch accounting software. The cafeteria supervisor

introduced me to her coworker who managed food distribution. During the lunch hour, they

chatted and laughed and appeared to be best friends but, when cleanup was over and the

coworker left the room, her supervisor began to criticize her cruelly. I was shocked. Life in the

schoolyard flashed before me with its popularity games and backstabbing. I knew if she would

criticize her co-worker, she would, at some point, criticize me, and from that moment forward,

my attention was divided between self-protection and finishing my job.

Like all ethical violations, gossip, backbiting, and character assassination damage trust.

When adults in the workplace engage in such conduct, they seriously weaken the organizational

culture which, in turn, affects morale and productivity. Project managers must “confront others
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who engage in these types of behaviors” (PMI, n.d., p. 4). It’s not enough to avoid them, they

must be addressed and eliminated wherever they occur.

Bad is Stronger than Good: Why Eliminating the Negative is More Important than

Accentuating the Positive

Gossip and other cultural misdeeds often have their origin in negativity. Contrary to

popular belief, Sutton (2011) points out that negativity in a team or workplace has a more

powerful effect than positivity. He asserts that one ill-tempered worker can undermine all other

positive efforts, thus, “the first order of business for any boss is to eliminate the negative rather

than accentuate the positive “ (Sutton, 2011, para. 2)—even if it means firing a bad employee.

Toxic attitude

My manager at work had been with the company for over five years. In the beginning,

her positive attitude elevated the company culture, but in recent years her mood had shifted.

Petty resentments built up and became a toxic energy field surrounding her work area. Our boss

worked hard to restore the joy but without success. Negativity continued to build, hindering work

and breeding gossip, condemnation, and distrust. Our boss finally addressed this difficult aspect

of project management and fired my manager. After she left, the work environment rebounded

with positivity and productivity, bringing with it a restoration of trust.

Why we notice bad

Interestingly, Sutton (2011) maintains that humans are hard-wired to notice the bad

before we notice the good. He maintains this is a protective attribute and that “managers [should]

work doggedly to screen out and stop bad people and bad behavior at every stage" (para. 18). As

project managers are responsible for responding to and preventing ethical issues, recognizing bad

is an important first step.

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Project Scope, Schedule, Resources – Pick Two

Among the many responsibilities project managers face, their primary duty is to manage

a project’s objectives. This is seldom easy as these objectives are frequently at odds. Egeland

(2019) addresses this issue and maintains that, if required to focus on only two of the three major

objectives, he would always choose scope and schedule. He asserts that scope is most important

because, if not kept under control, scope issues and creep will overtake all other objectives.

Schedule is his next pick because if it is not monitored and properly maintained, it too can create

extra costs that can jeopardize the project.

Harvard Simulation

This week’s Harvard simulation (Harvard Business School Publishing, 2013) focused on

scope and budget. Variables addressing scope were limited in the simulation, so I didn’t

experience scope creep, for instance, but I did work extensively with the schedule. As Egeland

(2019) also noticed, I found that keeping a project on schedule directly impacts the budget. He

didn’t mention, however, the many other factors that can increase costs, like team morale, which

I found had the most significant effect of the factors I could manipulate. One strategy I used to

manage the schedule and, in turn, the budget, was to aim for shorter time frames, supporting my

team so we could reach the target. By doing so, I was able to reduce both the schedule and my

costs.

Do resources matter?

Egeland’s (2019) final point was that resources, meaning employees, while vital to the

project, should be able to work independently with little oversight. Egeland states, “If you’re

looking for one area to lighten your project management load, it should be in the oversight and
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guidance of your project team resources. They are professionals and should be able to take

assignments and perform them effectively and efficiently” (para. 7). 

I did not find this statement to be valid in my experience with the Harvard simulation

(Harvard Business School Publishing, 2013). In fact, what I found was that all employees, even

highly-skilled ones, needed plenty of attention—even if it was calculated non-attention. Without

an abundance of meetings and coaching sessions, team morale lagged and stress levels increased

until progress halted.

Lack of progress is a major issue for project managers, since they are responsible to the

client for producing the agreed-upon product, on-time, and within budget constraints. If they are

unable to give all objectives proper attention, they must ethically choose the ones that will

provide the best overall results. While Egeland (2019) believes scope and schedule are the most

influential, I would choose resources (team management) and schedule, based on my Harvard

simulation (Harvard Business School Publishing, 2013) results, since both of these together

provided better results with the scope and budget.

Conclusion

Trust works best when it permeates an organization, like yeast leavens bread. Although

its presence may be difficult to recognize, its absence can’t be ignored. Project managers

maintain trust when they faithfully uphold ethical standards at all levels and respond

appropriately when violations occur. A responsible focus on project objectives increases

stakeholder trust, while eliminating negativity strengthens internal trust. Maintaining ethical

standards and behavior, therefore, while not one of a project’s main three objectives, is arguably

a project manager’s most important goal.

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References

Egeland, B. (2019, October 9). Project scope, schedule, resources – Pick two. Telerik Blogs.

https://www.telerik.com/blogs/project-scope-schedule-resources-%E2%80%93-pick-two

Harvard Business School Publishing. (2013). Project management simulation. Forio | Custom

Simulations for Training and Higher Education. Retrieved August 25, 2020, from

https://forio.com/simulate/harvard/project-management/simulation

Kliem, R. L. (2011). Why Ethics Should Matter to Project Managers. In Ethics and project

management (pp. 21-46). Auerbach Publications.

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=777157

Project Management Institute | PMI. (n.d.). PMI Code of Ethics and Professional

Conduct. https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/ethics/pmi-code-of-

ethics.pdf?v=04f68760-5b61-4c6a-a891-a5466b0b264d&sc_lang_temp=en

Sutton, B. (2011, October 24). Bad is stronger than good: Why eliminating the negative is more

important than accentuating the positive. Bob Sutton Work Matters.

https://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/10/bad-is-stronger-than-good-why-

eliminating-the-negative-is-more-important-than-accentuating-the-posit.html