Isabelle Jensen

Arizona State University

Scenario E

Being a project manager comes with lots of smaller complications that one may not think

about, which includes ethical decisions. Making decisions for a project can be difficult, and then

throw in the question of is it ethical or not and it makes it even harder. However, this question

could save a PM from getting into loads more trouble. In the simulation, we can easily change

the number of employees, their skill level, the budget and timeline, but this certainly wouldn’t be

ethical if it were a real project as I can’t hire and fire people that quickly. I decided to focus on

ethics with the blog posts I chose and how it relates to the decisions project managers make.

The first blog post I chose, 10 Steps for Ethical Decision Making, focused on how

someone can ensure the decision they are making is ethical. There are many different questions

one can ask themselves about the particular decision to figure out how ethical or unethical it is,

one example is ‘How culturally sensitive is the decision or the person it will affect?’ (Harrin,

2011). In the book Ethics and Project Management they talk about how there are two general

ethical categories, hard and soft. Hard ethical issues are those that have legal and financial

ramifications and soft ethical issues are those that are more difficult to identify and may have

less severe repercussions (Kliem, 2012).

For the sake of our simulation, I am going to dive deeper into the soft ethical issues I

find. In the simulation, and even in everyday life, there can be soft unethical decisions being

made without the person knowing about it. With the questions the blog post gave me to figure

out if a decision is ethical or not, I can easily figure out if these ‘hard to identify’ unethical

situations are ones that I may be making without realizing. The one I most closely related to was

the commitment, responsibility and accountability (Kliem, 2012). Lack of all three of these can

result in project failure and I know that they are decisions people, including myself, make every
 Isabelle Jensen
Arizona State University
day. Personally, there are many times where I put something off because I don’t want to do it or

cancel a meeting because I wasn’t prepared. These soft unethical decisions, while they don’t

have severe repercussions, can cause many issues in projects. A new goal I am setting for myself

is to realize when I am making these decisions in the moment and stop myself before continuing

on with it by asking myself ‘Is this an ethical dilemma?’ (Harrin, 2011).

The next blog post I chose was called Letting People go with Transparency and Dignity

which talked about a different side to ethics that not many may think of, how to let people go

ethically (Rockwell, 2012). In PMI’s article Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct they

determine that honesty, responsibility, respect and fairness are the values of ethical conduct in

the project management field (PMI, 2021). With these in mind, it is best to think about the

situation before someone decides to let one of their team members go. Personally, letting

someone go is the hardest part of working in a team and being a leader. There is no easy way to

let someone know that they aren’t doing the best job or cannot be a part of the project anymore.

However, it is best to be transparent during this process or else it could end up in an ethical

dilemma.

In our most recent simulation discussion, Professor Wisehart prompted a great question

of ‘How does visibility and transparency create loyalty and trust?’ which lead me to dig into this

issue a little deeper. When someone isn’t transparent, especially when letting someone go, they

are creating a buildup of unanswered questions and problems that will eventually burst and cause

a major issue. This lack of transparency can create a distrust between not only oneself and their

team, but also oneself and upper management. The blog post gives a great point, if someone

doesn’t tell the organization everything about the situation, they will make things up causing

even more issues (Rockwell, 2012).

 Isabelle Jensen
Arizona State University
All of these lessons are ones that will be extremely useful in my future career as a project

manager, however, they can also be useful in my life now. As an accounting assistant who also

deals with the HR issues in my office, ethics is the biggest part of my job. I must assess what is

‘right’ and ‘wrong’ about each situation presented to me. I also have a duty to keep things

confidential, if I don’t keep them confidential then it becomes unethical. Going back to the soft

unethical dilemmas, there are many ways I can also use this lesson to avoid situations like these

at work. Instead of putting off a task because it sounds daunting, I could tackle it in the moment

and be responsible. Although putting off a task doesn’t sound unethical, this is why a soft

unethical dilemma is harder to identify and can build up leading to more issues over time.

Overall, I learned a lot from this week’s ethical lesson, specifically pertaining to project

management. I have taken classes on ethics before, but there are so many different sides to

ethics, especially when diving into a specific field of work. Ensuring that a project doesn’t fail or

get into a major issue requires the project manager to think through each issue asking themselves

if it is truly ethical or not. I will refer back to the blog post with the ten questions I may ask

myself if I am unsure of a particular situation. By doing a simple task like this, I can save my

whole project from an ethical disaster.

 Isabelle Jensen
Arizona State University
References

Kliem, R. L. (2012). Ethics and project management. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.

Harrin, E. (2011, November 17). 10 Steps for Ethical Decision Making [Web log post].
Retrieved 2021, from https://pmtips.net/article/10-steps-for-ethical-decision-making

P. (2021). Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct [Web log post]. Retrieved 2021.

Rockwell, D. (2012, January 24). LETTING PEOPLE GO WITH TRANSPARENCY AND

DIGNITY [Web log post]. Retrieved 2021, from
https://leadershipfreak.blog/2012/01/24/letting-people-go-with-transparency-and-dignity/