We have often seen that project team members resort to unethical behavior in spite of presence of ground rules around ethics. At times there is a critical dependency on these team members and its difficult to get them out of the team.
Other than walking the talk by the project manager, how does one drive ethical behavior within the team? Saving Changes...
Can you give me an example of what you've seen as I have rarely encountered blatant unethical behavior from team members as there are usually organizational (e.g. HR) policies to discourage that?
Educating team members when they join on what they should or shouldn't do might be considered an integral part of the onboarding process.
Kiron
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1 reply by Dr. Deepa Bhide
Jan 17, 2019 8:45 AM
Dr. Deepa Bhide
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Thanks. Commonly seen when some team members accept gifts which has been stated upfront to be an unethical behavior
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LORI WILSONRETIRED - Technical Project Manager| RETIRED - LifePoint HealthClarkston, Wa, United States
Hello Deepa: I was a bit puzzled by this question, but have given it some thought and my response is by holding people accountable, by guarding the schedule and budget, by owning responsibility for the project I am leading are the best ways I drive ethical behavior. For example, there was a doctor being very rude and condescending to a nurse on our team in a meeting. After the meeting I asked if we could talk about the behavior. This was not easy for me because a doctor is at a higher educational and authoritative role in our hospital, but it was the right thing to do. We must not allow these types of behaviors to occur when we are facilitating meetings, yet I tried to approach this in a very respectful way. Since our conversation, the "unethical" or unacceptable behavior toward this nurse or others has stopped. Is this an example of what you were asking about? Saving Changes...
Sunil DalviProgram Manager| Philips Global Business ServicesPune,Maharashtra, India
I have seen several unethical things such as accepting gifts from Vendors, Plagiarism, taking short cuts(Not following complete process), Poor work ethic, social loafing, misuse of company property. The list could go on. The problem is awareness of business ethics, In certain cultures people are prone to think about short term gains and hence ethics don't even cross the mind.
I would suggest having awareness session among your team members about business ethics and clearly discuss what is not acceptable behaviour, like not accepting gift, moral responsibility towards organization and society at large. If you share examples with your team how short term gain caused huge loss to your organization reputation and career of that person would help sensitize the team. Saving Changes...
Khai Ng.IT PMO | IT Project Manager| TTGROUPHanoi, Viet Nam
I think this is a very difficult question. Many factors that impact behaviors of project team members and the most important thing is organizational culture and culture of the surrounding society that you will not be able to change, especially in the time box of project. I think you should request for support from the top executive or from someone who is the most respected man in your company to organize awareness session talking as Sunil Dalvi mentioned above. Also notice that things mostly depend on the behavior of the company's top executive, not the rules or regulations that are documented. Saving Changes...
Deepa, the project manager can not drive ethical behavior alone this has to be done top down and specially if the moral is down due to benefits cut and miscommunications allowing rumors to fly and turnaround rate is higher than the standard threshold
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1 reply by Dr. Deepa Bhide
Jan 19, 2019 6:41 AM
Dr. Deepa Bhide
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Agree Riyadh Salih!
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Lily MurariuResearch Council Officer Program Advisor| National Research Council CanadaCantley, Quebec, Canada
Thank you, Deepa, for this question.
Building an ethical work environment is a journey that organizations will need to embrace. This includes many elements among which, awareness, training, the commitment, and support of the senior management, performance management process that includes compliance to the existing code of ethics and code of conduct of the organization, full support from the human resources, are just a few of the elements to be considered in order to address this type of situation.
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1 reply by Dr. Deepa Bhide
Jan 19, 2019 6:40 AM
Dr. Deepa Bhide
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Lily, well said
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Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
I agree with what was said already. The most important thing about ethic is that as much as it is promoted by example it is also an organizational culture issue. I worked in a company where the leadership was blatantly unethical encouraging employee to rather embellish the truth than share bad news (or just outright lie), enter countries without the appropriate business visas etc. This set a bar so low that no single PM can raise it no matter how ethical their behavior is. So if you have issues with unethical behavior you need to drill down to understand where it stem from. If it is an individual problem
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1 reply by Dr. Deepa Bhide
Jan 19, 2019 6:39 AM
Dr. Deepa Bhide
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What will be important is to have the courage to challenge the leadership even at the cost of our own comfort and be able to act ethically regardless
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Al TaylorI.T. Contractor| IndependentWaterloo, Ontario, Canada
good discussion but.... re this: "We have often..."
Can u quantify 'often' ? tks!
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1 reply by Dr. Deepa Bhide
Jan 17, 2019 8:48 AM
Dr. Deepa Bhide
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Thanks. Often as in not so frequently but seen as incidents when we don’t expect any. Does that help
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Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Have the same question as most. That aside, leadership qualities and the ability to influence and impress upon those around you a level of honesty and doing the right thing - which may not always be comfortable.
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