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...
That's why you really need some guidelines, rules, ethics codes, etc. You as a project manager or team member cannot change the culture of a community, city, company, etc.. So you need to have those. 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
Thanks. Commonly seen when some team members accept gifts which has been stated upfront to be an unethical behavior Saving Changes...
good discussion but.... re this: "We have often..."
Can u quantify 'often' ? tks!
Thanks. Often as in not so frequently but seen as incidents when we don’t expect any. Does that help Saving Changes...
Alankar KarpeProject and program management, Speaker and mentor | WiproBangalore, India
Its the responsibility of project manager to set an environment where transparency and trust prevails and team does not resort to unethical behavior. If some members are behaving outside those rules, they should be reported and may be removed to keep the team's environment on track for success.
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1 reply by Dr. Deepa Bhide
Jan 19, 2019 2:41 PM
Dr. Deepa Bhide
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Alankar, I agree with you
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
How do you evaluate that is an unethical behavior? That is the key point. Are project managers that are managing projects to create chemical arms making an ethical behavior? Were project managers that worked in one of the biggest project in the history and one of the best project to learn project management making an ethical behavior when created the nuclear bomb in the second world war?. That is because, between other things, each organization created the code of ethics which has sense when in chase of unethical behavior somebody can act judicially against the person who performed the unethical behavior. If not the code is wasted. Beyond that, all related to ethic is an ancient topic to debate in the field of philosophy. I worked on that from years.
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1 reply by Anton Oosthuizen
Jan 22, 2019 6:53 AM
Anton Oosthuizen
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While your comment does raise some interesting questions I'm sure we all understand that she is referring to business ethics i.e. your moral compass in the business environment. You can still behave in an ethical way despite the objections some might have against what you are doing. What and how are different and are covered by different fields in ethics. But that is a separate and HUGE debate.
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.
Agree that this is the best practice, Saving Changes...
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
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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1 reply by Anton Oosthuizen
Jan 22, 2019 12:03 AM
Anton Oosthuizen
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100%! If unethical behavior is a matter of culture then it becomes very difficult to change just because if this - People lack the courage to speak up, and those who do, face the consequences. Almost any decision made is a result of groupthink.
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.
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
"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."
