Lecture 6.

2
Ethics in Project Management

MN601 Network Project Management

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 Outline

Ethics in Project Management

1. Role of the Project Management Institute (PMI)
2. PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
3. Ethics Glossary
4. PMI Glossary
5. PMI Ethical Decision-Making Framework
6. Case Study: Challenger Disaster
7. Conclusions
8. References

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 Role of the Project
Management Institute
• Project Management Institute (PMI) states:
– Ethics is the discipline of “how to do it best”
– To guide behavior and help with tough decisions, PMI have crafted a 
Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and an
– Ethical Decision-Making Framework
– To deepen your knowledge and perspective, it provide numerous 
articles, papers and webinars 
– When unethical behaviors arise, take action. Use the PMI 
ethics complaint and review process and see the specialised resources
available

Taken almost verbatim from https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics

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 Role of the Project
Management Institute
According to the PMI:
• Project management is driven by decisions, often dozens or more per day
• Some decisions are small and barely noticed while others are prominent
• Some require deep thought because they involve people, resources and
the environment
• And sometimes these factors are in conflict, creating a dilemma and
perhaps significant risks
• While project managers normally know what to do, how to do it can
become a puzzle — especially when stakeholder interests conflict
• Like all leaders, project managers build trust by the way they make
decisions
• Here again, the “how to do it” can be puzzling yet is instrumentally
important

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 PMI Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct
PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (excerpts):
• This Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct describes the
expectations that we have of ourselves and our fellow practitioners
in the global project management community
• It articulates the ideals to which we aspire as well as the behaviors
that are mandatory in our professional and volunteer roles
• The purpose of this Code is to instill confidence in the project
management profession and to help an individual become a better
practitioner
• We do this by establishing a profession-wide understanding of
appropriate behaviour
• We believe that the credibility and reputation of the project
management profession is shaped by the collective conduct of
individual practitioners
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 Ethics Glossary
• Abusive Manner - Conduct that results in physical harm or creates intense
feelings of fear, humiliation, manipulation, or exploitation in another
person
• Conflict of Interest - A situation that arises when a practitioner of project
management is faced with making a decision or doing something that will
benefit the practitioner or another person or organisation to which the
practitioner owes a duty of loyalty and at the same time will harm another
person or organisation to which the practitioner owes a similar duty of
loyalty
• The only way practitioners can resolve conflicting duties is to disclose the
conflict to those affected and allow them to make the decision about how
the practitioner should proceed
• Duty of Loyalty - A person’s responsibility, legal or moral, to promote the
best interest of an organisation or other person with whom they are
affiliated
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 Ethics Glossary
• Project Management Institute (PMI) - The totality of the Project Management
Institute, including its committees, groups, and chartered components such as
chapters, colleges, and specific interest groups
• PMI Member - A person who has joined the PMI as a member
• PMI-Sponsored Activities - Activities that include, but are not limited to,
participation on a PMI Member Advisory Group, PMI standard development
team, or another PMI working group or committee. This also includes activities
engaged in under the auspices of a chartered PMI component organisation—
whether it is in a leadership role in the component or another type of
component educational activity or event
• Practitioner - A person engaged in an activity that contributes to the
management of a project, portfolio, or program, as part of the project
management profession
• PMI Volunteer - A person who participates in PMI-sponsored activities,
whether a member of the Project Management Institute or not
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 PMI Ethical Decision-
Making Framework
PMI Ethical Decision-Making Framework
1. Introduction
• This PMI Ethical Decision-Making Framework (EDMF) document describes
steps that can be used to guide an individual in the project management
profession through a process to make a decision when confronted with an
ethical dilemma.
2. Purpose
• The purpose of this document is to supplement the PMI Code of Ethics
and Professional Conduct with an aid project management professionals
who are confronted with an ethical dilemma can use.
• Comments or questions about this PMI EDMF document can be provided
via email to the PMI Ethics Member Advisory Group (Ethics MAG):
ethics.mag@pmi.org.

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 PMI Ethical Decision-
Making Framework
PMI Ethical Decision-Making Framework
3. Background and Context
• PMI has recently succeeded in raising the Code of Ethics and Professional
Conduct (Code) awareness level within the organisation.
• Efforts by the Ethics MAG (formerly the Code Implementation Advisory
Committee) and the ethics Community of Practice (COP) are continuing to
increase awareness.
• A decision was made for the Ethics MAG to build on the ethics awareness
levels by focusing on members’ ethical decision-making capability and
accountability.
• Toward that end a PMI EDMF has been developed that members can use,
as a companion to the Code, to guide their ethical behavior.

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 PMI Ethical Decision-
Making Framework
PMI Ethical Decision-Making Framework
4. How To Use The PMI EDMF
• For use by individual members of PMI and for use by PMI credential
holders; it is aspirational and not mandatory
• To be used as a guide for critical thinking throughout the ethical decision-
making process, it is represented as a sequence of questions and sub-
questions to stimulate the user beginning with the recognition and
assessment of the issue, and ending with a decision and action
• PMI EDMF is not entirely prescriptive and does not include every possible
step or question useful for making an ethical decision, users are
encouraged to be stimulated by the PMI EDMF to challenge themselves
with additional steps and questions.

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 PMI Ethical Decision-
Making Framework

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 PMI Ethical Decision-
Making Framework
1. Assessment: Make sure you have all the facts about the ethical dilemma
and ask these questions:
• Does it abide by the law?
• Does it align with the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct?
• Does it agree with your employer’s and client’s code of ethics and
conduct?
• Does it align with your ethical values and those of the surrounding
culture?

• If it does not abide by the law, seek legal council

• If the answers to the above questions provide substantial facts to make a
case, go to the next step
• If you are not sure, you may need to gather more facts or ask a trusted
person for advice

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 PMI Ethical Decision-
Making Framework
2. Alternatives: Consider your choices by asking the following
questions:

• Have you listed possible alternative choices?

• Have you considered pros and cons for each possible choice?

• If the answers to the above questions result in a viable

solution, go to the next step to analyse your candidate
decision
• If not, you may need to gather more facts and complete your
research

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 PMI Ethical Decision-
Making Framework
3. Analysis: Identify your candidate decision and test its validity with
these questions:
• Will your candidate decision have a positive impact or prevent harm to
project managers, PMI staff or volunteers, clients, your employer’s
organisation, other stakeholders, the environment, or future
generations?
• Does your candidate decision take cultural differences into account?
• Looking back, will this decision seem like a good idea a year from now?
• Are you free from external influence to make this decision?
• Are you in a calm and unstressed state of mind?
• If the possible impacts are acceptable, proceed to check your decision
against ethical principles in the next step.
• If not, consider taking time to test another

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 PMI Ethical Decision-
Making Framework
4. Application: Apply ethical principles to your candidate decision by asking
these questions:

• Would your choice result in the greatest good?

• Would your choice treat others as you would like to be
treated?
• Would your choice be fair and beneficial to all concerned?

• If these or other traditional philosophical questions evoke doubts or seem

to create a new dilemma, you might need to reconsider your decision,
review the facts, the options and the implications
• If the answer is “Yes” and your candidate decision seems consistent with
other ethical principles, move to the next step to decide and take action

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 PMI Ethical Decision-
Making Framework
5. Action: Make a decision after considering these questions:

• Are you willing to accept responsibility for your decision?

• Could you make your decision public and feel good about it?
• Are you ready to act?

• If you are comfortable with your decision, take action.

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 Case Study:
Challenger Disaster
Launching into Unethical Behaviour
By Ann E. Tenbrunsel and Max H. Bazerman
Acknowledgment: This document has been taken, for educational purpose, directly from:
http://freakonomics.com/2011/06/01/launching-into-unethical-behavior-lessons-from-the-challenger-disaster/

January 28, 1986

• Challenger space shuttle disintegrated 73
seconds after launch
• Killing all seven crew members
• Common explanation: O-rings failed
• Behavioural ethics lens illuminates a much
more complicated, and troubling picture
• One that can help us avoid future ethical
disasters

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 Case Study:
Challenger Disaster
• When individuals saw a decision through an ethical
frame, more than 94% behaved ethically
• When individuals saw the same decision through a
business frame, only about 44% did so
• As a “management (also called executive) decision”
ethical consideration — i.e. saving lives — faded from
the picture
• We need to learn to make ethical decisions

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 Case Study:
Challenger Disaster
• Reward system at Morton Thiokol (maker of the booster)
also contributed to the disaster
• Most likely, managers at Morton Thiokol were rewarded
for pleasing clients, in this case NASA
• When it became clear that NASA didn’t like the “don’t
launch” recommendation, Morton Thiokol managers
consciously (or subconsciously) realised that their reward
was in jeopardy
• And they reacted to protect that reward
• This does not work well for behaviors—such as safety or
ethical decisions
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 Case Study:
Challenger Disaster
• Parallels between the fatal Challenger launch decision
and more “ordinary” unethical behavior in corporations,
politics and in society
• We see them when we look at the way decisions are
framed: “No harm intended, it’s just business,” or
“That’s the way politics operate”
• We see similarities in the limits of analysis, examining the
legal but not the ethical implications of a decision.
• We see the power of rewards on Wall Street, where
shareholder monetary value is focused on to the
exclusion of nearly everything else
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 Quiz:

1. Explain the implication of the following unethical

behavior with examples from real life:
• Abusive Manner
• Conflict of Interest
• Duty of Loyalty

2. Often unethical behavior is justified with statements such

as “No harm intended, it’s just business,” or “That’s
the way politics operate.” Explain what steps you
would take to overcome the possibility of unethical
behavior in the face of such comments made by your
boss
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 Conclusions

• The Project Management Institute (PMI) plays an important

role in setting the ethical standards for all project managers
• PMI provides a Code of Ethics and guidelines for professional
conduct to help project managers and all project stakeholders
in following the ethical guidelines
• Ethics and PMI Glossary of ethical terms is helpful in clarifying
some of the ethics related issues
• The PMI Ethical Decision-Making Framework should be used
in coming to an appropriate decision when faced with an
ethical dilemma

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 References
Acknowledgement: Some of the text in this lecture is taken almost verbatim from the
following references:
PMI website and documents:
• https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics
• https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code
• http://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/ethics/ethical-decision-making-framew
ork.pdf?sc_lang_temp=en
• http://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/ethics/pmi-code-of-ethics.pdf?sc_lang_t
emp=en
Book:
Ethics and Project Management
By Ralph L. Kliem, PMP
CRC Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4398-5261-3

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