Project Management Essay: Scope Compliance and Ethics

Ethics is a powerful weapon to project managers to uphold as they have the hardest job worldwide. Project management is unique in terms of specialization where there is a likelihood of being surrounded by individuals in a disciplinary focus, which is narrow, and wider perspectives are needed. In project management, managers work in unique circumstances with organizations or persons who have an indirect or direct interest in their project outcomes. Project managers may work with suppliers or vendors, managers or executive from their organization who has a significant influence may lead to a conflict of interests. In that regard, matters of ethics are of much importance to the project managers to enable them to avoid the ethical dilemmas that may occur. Some of the ethical issues that should be taken care of by the project managers include communication, competing priorities. Additionally, performance pressure, dysfunctional motivation, extreme behavior, repressive culture, commitment, responsibility, and accountability should be considered. Conflicts of interest can become a challenge to an employees allegiance, Bribes and kickbacks are quite, Breach of contracts and agreements. Therefore, in the book, Ethics and project management, Kliem explains that inadequate employee health and safety, Lack of employee rights, arbitrary employment at will, No due diligence and due care and Legal noncompliance. In that case, this topic will entirely focus on reasons as to why project managers should abide by the ethical issues.

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Communication is one of the ethical issues that should be prevalently taken care of by the project managers in order to avoid hurting their credibility. Project managers take 90 percent of their time to communicate with stakeholders that are as per the PMI. In that regard, they should be responsive and open to insights and questions. They should always speak the truth to avoid integrity running because if they lose credibility, the project is lost respectively. Therefore, it is advisable for Project managers to use open and honest, horizontal and vertical communications as one way of abiding by with the matters of ethics. In the article, voices on project management Skrabak et al. explain the importance of focusing on project execution instead of bureaucracy. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain good communication during the implementation phase to ensure that everything has been done as expected. The strategy can be used to maintain good relations between the project managers and employees, thus ensuring that everything has been done as per the required standards and on time.

Stakeholders have competing priorities that bring confusion to the project managers. Leading them to make unfair decisions that could impact the stakeholders expectations during priority resolution process. In that regard, the level of integrity and trust towards the project manager is negatively affected. In such terms, project managers are required to make decisions that favor the customer. Performance pressure is another ethical issue that should be taken into consideration by project managers to avoid problems. Dysfunctional motivation is another moral issue that should be carefully handled. In the article, easy in theory, difficult in practice, by Bondale explains the need to incorporate the views of the key stakeholders in project management. The stakeholders should be engaged in the project execution phase because any form of dissatisfaction can result in descent from a section of them, hindering the timely achievement of results. Project managers as one way of being ethically upright should show extreme behavior. Project professionals and managers need to consider Repressive culture keenly to shun ethical precarious. Accountability, responsibility, and commitment are other ethical issues that the project managers should uphold. In that case, project managers are required to be responsible for the achieved result, Carry out the commitment, and Follow the promise.

Project managers should have balanced long and short term to avoid trouble. In addition, they should ensure that there is a fair competitive advantage and accurate reporting. Furthermore, they should make sure that there is no low-balling, padding, be careful with insider trading, safeguard the standard quality, and avoid circumvention. Shun away mischarging deals, conflict of interest, kickbacks, and bribes. Breach of contract relationship should be terminated, ensure adequate safety and health of the employee, their rights and employment should be arbitrary at will. Project managers should comply with the regulations and laws to prevent civil and criminal penalties. Also, observe due diligence by responsibilities, procedures, and standards to avoid the unethical and illegal behavior. In such terms, if project managers fail to comply with such ethical issues severe consequences will automatically occur. Such as legal implications, this will take place if they cannot rectify ethical transgressions or situations that have already occurred. Another one is careers hindered; credibility and reputation tarnish because people have lost faith in the organization. The article, Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, explains the necessity of maintaining professionalism by doing what is considered honorable and right. In that regard, ethics matters a lot in project management; therefore project managers need to observe and take care of the ethical issues keenly to avoid unnecessary dilemma in an organization. Thus, according to the professional conduct and the code of ethics, it is the duty of a project manager to uphold respect, fairness, honesty, and responsibility.

References

Bondale, K. (2016, June 12). Easy in theory, difficult in practice | Thoughts on project portfolio and change management challenges from Kiron Bondale. Retrieved from https://kbondale.wordpress.com/

Kliem, R. L. (2012). Ethics and project management. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Project management institute. (2016). Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Skrabak, J. L. (2016). Project Management.com - Voices on Project Management. Retrieved from http://www.projectmanagement.com/blogs/286796/Voices-on-Project-Management