Ethical Project Management Page 1

Ethical Project Management

Katherine Turpin
Arizona State University – OGL321
November 17, 2018
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Ethical Project Management

Ethics are such an important piece of the business world and everyday life in general.

Having good work ethics are vital to not only your reputation but also your company’s

reputation. Projects are not immune to the need for good ethics. Project managers must make

sure that they use good ethics when making decisions that affect the team members, sponsors,

stakeholders, and the project itself. It is important to understand what good ethics are, what is

involved in using good ethics, and how ethics affect your project.

What are good ethics?

Ethics are moral principles that people use to make decisions. There are good ethics and

poor ethics. It all revolves around the decision that is made and the effects that the decision has

on the surrounding aspects. Good ethical decisions take into account the well-being of those

involved but also legalities and moral standings. One of the blogs that I read states:

“Ethics extend beyond your professional relationships to your relationship with your

community and the world at large. You should take time to reflect on what your values

and ethics are and how they affect your professional decisions. They are yours and you

control them and how you apply them, but you should know them” (Betterprojects.net,

2018).

You should always use good ethics in decision making especially when it comes to project

decisions. These decisions will not only affect your project but the team members, the sponsor,

the stakeholders, the business, and all reputations involved. These decisions could potentially
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follow you as a project manager around throughout your career and could be, depending on the

severity of the decision, either advantageous or detrimental to the company’s reputation.

When do these decisions occur?

There are many circumstances that come up where decisions must be made and there is a

fence that this decision sits on. This illusory fence is the dividing point between right and wrong.

This is where as a project manager you must choose the right side even though it may not be the

easier of the decisions to make. Let’s look at a few of these situations that can come up.

Working with stakeholders is something that a project manager always must do. These

stakeholders are not always from your organization. These stakeholders range from your

organization’s executives to vendors to customers. You are probably thinking that this is normal

right? Well, the problem arises when the stakeholder uses their power to pressure and try to force

a decision to be made that is unethical. Kliem states, “…some executives may be more powerful

than the customer and, thereby, pressure the team or the project manager to put the customer’s

interests aside even though the customer is paying for the project” (Kliem, 2011, p. 21). This is

unethical behavior and not good for anyone involved except for the egotistical executive only out

for his own good.

Another situation that can occur involves the financial end of things. Project managers

have to depend on management or the sponsor for the financial support of a project. This

sometimes can create situations where unethical decisions are made in order to “save” the

project. Lack of finances or slow coming finances can create a lot of stress when it comes to
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deadlines. Kliem states, “Such pressure can lead to actions, such as mischarging, to move the

project along rather than to adhere to established policies and procedures by following labor

charging practices or management’s direction” (Kliem, 2011, p. 22). Stressful situations can

cause someone to lean toward making decisions that are unethical and bad for the company.

There are simpler decisions as well that can be ethical and unethical. Hastily made

decisions can have a horrible effect on projects. Project managers must remember that decisions

they make could have long term effects and essentially follow them. Kliem states:

“Whatever managers and their team decide today will likely have an impact on the

project sometime after delivering the product or service to the customer. A decision to

change scope or content of the product or service, even if it goes under change control,

will likely have an impact throughout the supply chain at one time or another” (Kliem,

2011, p. 22).

As the project manager you should focus on getting things done and getting them done on time.

This should not cause you to make rash, unethical decisions though. Don’t make a decision that

can alter the project and its success too much regardless of needing to get things done.

There are so many different circumstances that can come up where you will have to

choose between right or wrong. Project managers need to make sure that they do not make the

wrong decision solely because it is the easier or faster route. The ethical decision is the right

decision no matter what. It may not make the road easier and you might still have time
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constraints that are stressful, but the ethical decision will not come back to haunt you later on in

a negative way. So, what happens when you make the unethical choice.

Unethical Consequences

Everyone has heard the statement about every action has a reaction. Well, every unethical

decision has at least one if not multiple consequences. One consequence that could occur is a

damaged reputation. Kliem states, “If ethical transgressions go unaddressed, some stakeholder

may not hold the project manager, the project, or the organization in very high regard” (Kliem,

2011, p. 31). Your unethical decision could tarnish these reputations to the point where it is not

repairable and could be a permanent black mark. This black mark can also extend to your

credibility. Kliem states, “Managing a project with little or no credibility can only result in poor

outcome for the project” (Kliem, 2011, p. 31). Tarnished credibility will cause the stakeholders

to second guess decisions that you make and will also cause them to have a level of distrust in

the success of your team and the project. The two black marks previously mentioned can have a

devastating effect on your career. People will not want to hire a project manager with these types

of marks because their decisions cannot be trusted. Finally, unethical decisions can lead to legal

consequences. Kliem states:

“If the project manager, as either a participant or a witness, knows an ethical situation or

transgression has occurred and does nothing to rectify it, he or she could experience legal

recourse. Project managers are responsible for the overall performance of the team;
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allowing ethical situations or transgressions is, in many regards, a failure in due

diligence, due car, and, most importantly, leadership” (Kliem, 2011, p. 32).

These consequences can vary in severity but are never good. In order to avoid these

consequences, you should obviously make ethical decisions. How do you make the ethical

choice then becomes the question.

How to choose ethically

When it comes to ethical decision making a project manager must weed through the extra

surrounding issues and focus on the choice at hand. A blog that I read stated the following:

“To be sure, matters that can be decided based on facts should be made on the basis of

facts. For example, a decision regarding the purchase of equipment can (often) be made

based on predetermined criteria. The problem, however, is that most important decisions

in organizations do not fall into this category – they have wicked elements that cannot be

resolved by facts because the “facts” themselves are ambiguous. Unfortunately, decision-

makers often do not understand the difference between the two types of decision

problems. A common symptom of this lack of understanding is that when confronted

with a wicked decision problem, many decision-makers feel compelled to clothe their

reasoning and choices in a garb of (false) objectivity” (Eight to Late, 2018).

Your values and morals play vital parts in these decisions. Kliem discusses to different pathways

that a project manager can take when making one of these decisions. Path A is choosing to take

action and Path B is to not do anything at all (Kliem, 2011, p. 34). When a project manager
becomes aware of an unethical situation they must choose one of these paths. They must choose

to either act on it and or turn a blind eye. There are two major reflections a project manager must

focus on when it comes to an unethical situation. The first of those reflections is the issue’s

sensitivity. Kliem states, “You have to determine the gravity of the situation or transgression,

which will help you to decide on the appropriate response” (Kliem, 2011, p. 35). Figure out how

important the issue is and how much attention it needs. The second reflection is the response’s

intensity. Kliem states, “Some responses have greater weight than others; in fact, some could be

overkill for the nature and type of an ethical situation and transgression that has occurred”

(Kliem, 2011, p. 36). The punishment must fit the crime. You cannot hand out a severe response

for a minor infraction.

Conclusion
Choose right over wrong every time. If you are faced with an unethical situation choose

to act on it rather than ignore the issue. If it feels wrong, it is probably wrong. Follow your gut. It

is imperative that project managers still to the ethical side of the fence not only for project

success but also for the security of a good reputation.

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References
Betterprojects.net. (2018). Ethics in project management. [online] Available at:
http://www.betterprojects.net/2007/06/ethics-in-project-management.html [Accessed 17
Nov. 2018].

Eight to Late. (2018). Objectivity and the ethical dimension of organizational decision-making.
[online] Available at: https://eight2late.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/objectivity-and-the-
ethical-dimension-of-organisational-decision-making/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2018].

Kliem, P. R. L. (2011). Ethics and project management. Retrieved from:

https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu