I would like to provoke some critical thinking by claiming that I am ethical and, then by asking if you are. This simple statement and question can lead to complex considerations. For example, recently while attending an event with two dozen professionals, I asked each person to use a five-point scale to score their own ethical behavior and, then, to score his/her perception of the ethical behavior of others in their profession; five points was the most ethical. Interestingly, the average of the individual self-assessments for ethical behavior were quite high, an average of 4.5 on the scale. And, even more interestingly, the assessments of others in the profession were much lower, an average of 2.8 on the scale. Mind you, the same people giving themselves high ethical scores were being given much lower scores by their peers.
How You Look At ItI have concluded that ethics is one of those subjects that can depend on how one looks at it; not unlike the duck versus rabbit conundrum illustrated in the picture. My conclusion stems from a lifelong interest in the subject of ethics; I am currently serving as the Chair of the Ethics Member Advisory Group for the Project Management Institute. My thinking is that being ethical and being perceived as ethical are critical factors in project success; a successful project requires leadership, which requires followers, which requires trust, which requires ethical behavior.
Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Cultural Influences
How people look at ethics is very much influenced by what life experiences they have had, what values they have adopted, what culture they have adopted, what their religious views are, what organization they work for, what profession they are in. For those of us in the project management profession, it is worth noting the findings from a study titled “The Ethical Enterprise,” published in 2006 by the American Management Association, that found the number one reason for ethical compromise on projects was “pressure to meet unrealistic expectations.” For some project managers, those unrealistic expectations involve overly optimistic schedules, increasing scope without commensurate resources, and responsibilities far in excess of authority. Recently, the Project Management Institute, together with QED Consulting, released an ethics survey focused on several of these very factors. I believe that spending 15 minutes to take the survey is a worthwhile use of time, and I encourage readers of this article to do so; it is available at: www.projectmanagement.com/Practices/ Ethics/
Shades of Gray
Now, I want to acknowledge that relativistic views of ethics, where it depends on the way in which one looks at it, are not necessarily true for all people or all situations. When push comes to shove, some find ethics to be more of a black and white affair, at least for certain situations. For them, little judgment is needed, and they can see their way clearly through ethical dilemmas. For me, shades of gray exist; and I am far from being alone. Joseph Grenny, when writing about his research in the January 8, 2014 edition of the Harvard Business Review, stated “two-thirds of respondents report regularly witnessing either minor or major ethical infractions.” And “only half of those said they spoke up about the problem.” It seems as if ethics is a gray area for many, if not, for most people.
Help Available
To aid in cutting through the shades of gray, at least for members of the Project Management Institute, there is a Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (Code) that members are required to follow. And, there is an Ethical Decision Making Framework (EDMF). That framework includes a five-step process for addressing ethical dilemmas and can be used to address conflicts within a team, as well as other conflicts. Moreover, leaders within the Project Management Institute, have access to an entire ethics toolkit that they can use to help promote ethics within their portions of the organization. The EDMF and the Ethics Code, which are published in eleven languages1 and available to the public, as well as a host of other ethics resources, are available at: www.pmi.org/ethics.
Next Steps
So, let’s think about ethics critically. Let’s acknowledge that shades of gray exist for many of us much of the time. Let’s help our project management profession by taking the ethics survey. And, let’s help ourselves deal with ethical situations by abiding by the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and by using the Ethical Decision Making Framework when we are confronted with ethical dilemmas. The way I see it, ethical behavior builds trust within the broad and diverse set of people upon which the project is dependent for success. That accumulated trust serves as the basis for effective leadership and project success.
- Editors note: Already available in twelve languages – with Polish version which can also be found at www.pmi.org.pl
Chair of the PMI Ethics Member Advisory
Group (EMAG) and president of Zozer Inc.,
Roanoke, Virginia, USA.