Project Management 101 - Part 2 The Morals of Ethics

What’s the difference between ethics and morals?

So, Morals are a set of personal beliefs on what a person believes are the right way to behave. And Ethics are a set of rules on how to behave.

Let me give you an example: cannibals believe that it’s Ok to eat people; it’s morally acceptable. However, it not acceptable to eat members from your own tribe. This is an unwritten rule that most cannibals subscribe to: it is unethical to eat your own kind.

Not only do morals determine our personal conduct, but it also establishes how we feel we should treat others. Should you give money to panhandlers? Do you stop to help someone stranded on the side of the road? Ethics are then the rules that, for a given enterprise (or tribe), guide you to what you should do. Whereas morality is a philosophical discussion, ethics is a framework of rules and laws. Still, these laws are determining what is generally in the best interest of a society as whole.

Throughout history, people have had moral objections to laws. Take the draft or segregations: these are just a couple of examples of what individuals felt were morally wrong, but that the Government is arguable determining are ethically necessary for society as a whole.??

As a project manager, you may make hundreds of decisions each day, some decisions may pose an ethical dilemma: a decision on what is right or wrong.?

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has established a code of ethics for its members. The codes consist of Honesty, Responsibility, Respect and Fairness.

In business, honesty is just being transparent and truthful in your dealings, without compromising an ethically strategic advantage. Being transparent during a poker game is likely undesirable. The poker game itself, may be considered unethical or even immoral. But lying is being dishonest; not giving up trade secrets is not.

Being honest also means owning your mistakes. Take responsible for your actions and don’t assign blame to someone else. Every action has a path of decisions and consequences. Bad decisions usually have bad outcomes. Following bad advice is a bad decision.

Which will you blame for the outcome: the advice or the decision to follow it?

Respect another’s position and opinions and allow them to express their ideas. Treat people the way you want to be treated. This is simple politeness. Listen and let someone finish their sentence. Remember a simple fundamental rule: a statement in error will be made as fast at it taken to be offensive. Therefore, a simple pause will often de-escalate a potential conflict. In other words, let the first pitch go.

You, as a Project Manager, probably have a good instinct for what is acceptable and what is probably not. You still need to familiar with core values of the Company, their ethics policies, and the Law. These policies range from what information you share with a friend at the competition, to the size of the gift you can receive from a vendor. There are rules covering how to bid work, operate in compliance with government regulations, and most significantly: safety.

Observing safety rules is a major ethical issue as it directly impacts the lives of others. You may not be aware of what impact your behavior may have on others. What you may think isn’t a big deal, like not wearing a hardhat in the ROW, says a lot about how you regard the concept of safety and may bring into question what else you will disregard or what decisions you’re capable of making.

Fairness by far is the most difficult of these codes of ethics, as it the most subjective. How do you make a decision that is fair to everyone? Most likely, a decision will be considered unfair to the person having to make the compromise or concession.

So, to be fair, you need to be honest, responsible and respectful.

Being fair is the ability to make a decision or judgement without bias or prejudice, where the outcome is equally agreeable to all parties involved. The truth is that nothing is equal.

For example, if you have two cookies to give out, who gets the bigger cookie? How do you decide? What factors go into your decision? Is someone more deserving of the bigger one? Would a smaller cookie actually be better for that person? No matter how carefully you cut these cookies, someone will benefit, and someone will lose.

A possible definition for fairness in Project Management is the abstract concept of

what is perceived to be agreed to between two parties under contract and what the content, or assumption of what the content in the contract says, is what is fair.

In a fair agreement, you would think that both parties get an equal amount of cookie; but that’s probably not the case. So, again, you’re faced with making a decision that is fair, or equal, to all parties. How do you do this?

Managing fairness is very much like managing risk. There are three primary ways to deal with fairness that are some of the same ways you would manage risk: avoid, accept, and mitigate (negotiate).

1.??????Avoid.

What’s truly fair is for everyone do what they agreed to do. Not what was verbally promised; but what is contractually stipulated or spelled out in the contract or purchase order. So, to avoid any debate on what is fair for the contractor to do or the supplier to provide, make sure your contracts and purchase orders are clear, accurate and inclusive.

All assumptions will lead you down a thorny path of uncertainty and ambiguity with unfairness written on every sign post.

2.??????Accept.

Sometimes there’s no way to avoid the situation and you simply have to make a decision on who gets the bigger cookie based on what makes sense to you at the time. This is the probably the worst way to deal with the situation as you will definitely have some unhappy players. It may just have to be what’s best for the project, whether it’s actually “fair” or not.

Generally, you can only do this if you have the leverage or upper hand to do so. You’re holding all the cookies and plan to keep them for yourself.

3.??????Mitigate.

If you’re unsuccessful in avoiding making a fairness decision, the best recourse is to sit down with all parties to come up with a negotiated outcome that is agreed to by all. Not everyone will be happy, but everyone will likely get something they wanted. The person with the best negotiation and persuasion skills will likely get the “fairest” part of the deal.

Most often the question of fairness will come up on a project when you receive a change order from a contractor. Is the scope and value of the change order fair? Is it a valid omission of the scope? Is the value of work reasonable? Was this covered in the contract?

Is it fair that the contractor actually submitted a change order? Is it fair to reject the change order?

Your personal concept of what’s fair will be very much driven by your personal moral beliefs. Ethics have a basis in accepted laws, rules, and norms. Whereas morals are guided by personal beliefs. To determine what’s truly equal and impartial for both parties, the subjective bias needs to be removed and a fixed reference has to be determined. Again, this reference is the executed scope of work, contract or purchase order: This is what sets the standard for fairness: deliver what has been agreed to.

We may feel that altruism or kindness needs to play into our decision on what’s fair or not, especially if the original agreement seems to be lop-sided. However, as a PM, you need to manage what you know. And as difficult as it may seem sometimes, fairness and the perceived right thing to do may not be the same.

We can’t change the rules of the game while it’s being played.

Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn’t mean treating everyone alike –John Wooden, head basketball coach at University of California (10 NCAA Nation Championships in 12 seasons).?