You are the project manager responsible for a proposal for new work for your company. The competition is tough and your company really needs the business or else 50 people will be without work resulting in a reduction in staff. The business manager tells you we need to win at all costs. She pronounces, “I don’t care what it takes—we need the win”. In fact, your own job depends on whether you win or not. You are on an airplane and sitting behind one of the competitor teams. You overhear their technical and cost strategy and it is tempting to use that information. After all, no one knows that you heard it.
How do you proceed? Saving Changes...
John - as an Ethics MAG member, would you feel it is worthwhile providing greater visibility on PMI's home page to ethics (e.g. hot links to the code or the EDMF) than it is currently, and if so, could you propose that to the site owners?
Thanks!
Kiron
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1 reply by John Watson
Oct 11, 2019 11:22 AM
John Watson
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Great point Kiron ! The good news about PMI, is it has a lot of good information, and the bad news is there is a lot of good information, which a lot of it is not easily found. We at the EMAG are focusing our efforts on collaborating with the site owners to improve the visibility, accessibility and usability of the free resources that are available. The links below have a variety of ethics related content. The second link is a deeper dive than the first one and takes you to some tools which offer self and project team assessments, as well as an ethical decision-making workshop, and project bully identification. I encourage you to test drive them and we welcome and appreciate your feedback. The third link takes you directly to the Ethical Decision-Making Framework https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/resources https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/resources/toolkit https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/...g-framework.pdf
Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Oct 11, 2019 7:59 AM
Replying to Enrique Cappella
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Dear John:
Thank you for your contribution. This scenario may happen to anyone at any time. IN all our actions we need to invoke our personal and ethical values. Generraly speaking people need a motivation to behave and there is a difference about behaving motivated by the short term and the future. When we think about the future and the impact of our decisssions (there is always a consequence) we also need to answer the question: Can I live with this decission? Hence I strongly believe that the DMFprovides practitioner with a solid decission making framework to help us to become a better me.
Dear Enrique
What is the most appropriate behavior, in your opinion, under the circumstances described by John? Saving Changes...
John - as an Ethics MAG member, would you feel it is worthwhile providing greater visibility on PMI's home page to ethics (e.g. hot links to the code or the EDMF) than it is currently, and if so, could you propose that to the site owners?
Thanks!
Kiron
Great point Kiron ! The good news about PMI, is it has a lot of good information, and the bad news is there is a lot of good information, which a lot of it is not easily found. We at the EMAG are focusing our efforts on collaborating with the site owners to improve the visibility, accessibility and usability of the free resources that are available. The links below have a variety of ethics related content. The second link is a deeper dive than the first one and takes you to some tools which offer self and project team assessments, as well as an ethical decision-making workshop, and project bully identification. I encourage you to test drive them and we welcome and appreciate your feedback. The third link takes you directly to the Ethical Decision-Making Framework https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/resources https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/resources/toolkit https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/...g-framework.pdf Saving Changes...
Luis,
Thank for your interest. The link you reference is to one of our many articles
The links below have a variety of ethics related content. The second link is a deeper dive than the first one and takes you to some tools which offer self and project team assessments, as well as an ethical decision-making workshop, and project bully identification. I encourage you to test drive them and we welcome and appreciate your feedback. The third link takes you directly to the Ethical Decision-Making Framework you were inquiring about
Lots of informations is available at PMI but often not easy to find.
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1 reply by Valerie Denney
Oct 15, 2019 9:40 AM
Valerie Denney
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Vincent, are you specifically talking about the Ethics material or PMI material as a whole?
Saving Changes...
Amany NuseibehSpeaker, Global Leader | Optimal ConsultingSydney, Nsw, Australia
Thank you John for sharing this ethical dilemma. This situation is becoming more common in Sydney as coffee shops and restaurants are turning into "meeting rooms" that are more convenient, however they do not provide the privacy that such critical conversations require.
While the request from the manager is to "win at all costs", I am assuming that this is within the ethical and legal framework that would make any decision respectful, responsible, fair and honest. Using information that one coincidentally comes across would definitely give an advantage over competitors. However, is it ethical? Is it fair? As all competitors should have access to the same information. And if used, would one be able to have a clear conscious that they have done nothing wrong? Would it be better to refrain from engaging in the proposal and step down? or would it be better to stay while consciously refraining from using the additional information? and what about "unconsciously" using the information in the proposal?
Would one be proud and reflect happily in a few years time on the proposal? or would they be ashamed that the information has been used should this be on the first page of a newspaper / or twitter?
The PMI Code of Ethics and the Ethical Making Framework would help. My advice would be abstain from participating in the proposal, refraining from sharing the information maintaining honesty and fairness to the process.
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1 reply by Luis Branco
Oct 14, 2019 11:53 AM
Luis Branco
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Dear Amany
We have a very similar opinion about the most appropriate behavior.
Thanks for sharing your opinion
If the person continues to listen then it is an Eavesdropping act which is not ethical. Otherwise, it is sort of accidental overhearing. Using the information is not fair and not ethical by all work ethics and business conduct codes. The Project Manager should notified the person with information exposed about the situation so she or he takes necessary precautions.
It happened with me once but with a non-competitor person. I was on a flight from Riyadh to Dammam in Saudi and next to me was a gentleman closing a bid for an IT service tender. I was able to figure out what he was doing. I told him first that I'm a competitor to him and he was about to pass out :). Then I told him to be careful and that he was safe.
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1 reply by Luis Branco
Oct 14, 2019 11:50 AM
Luis Branco
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Dear Mohamad
What is the most appropriate behavior, in your opinion, under the circumstances described by John?
Saving Changes...
Lily MurariuResearch Council Officer Program Advisor| National Research Council CanadaCantley, Quebec, Canada
Thanks for this topic, John.
There are a large variety of tools available to practitioners and professionals for dealing with an ethical situation , and DMF is one of them. At any point in time we need to balance our personal and ethical values to the ones of the work related situations and act in good faith.
The DMF is one of the tools to be considered:
https://www.pmi.org › media › pmi › documents › public › pdf › ethics . Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Oct 11, 2019 11:28 AM
Replying to John Watson
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Luis,
Thank for your interest. The link you reference is to one of our many articles
The links below have a variety of ethics related content. The second link is a deeper dive than the first one and takes you to some tools which offer self and project team assessments, as well as an ethical decision-making workshop, and project bully identification. I encourage you to test drive them and we welcome and appreciate your feedback. The third link takes you directly to the Ethical Decision-Making Framework you were inquiring about
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Oct 14, 2019 9:37 AM
Replying to Mohamad Ali Makky
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If the person continues to listen then it is an Eavesdropping act which is not ethical. Otherwise, it is sort of accidental overhearing. Using the information is not fair and not ethical by all work ethics and business conduct codes. The Project Manager should notified the person with information exposed about the situation so she or he takes necessary precautions.
It happened with me once but with a non-competitor person. I was on a flight from Riyadh to Dammam in Saudi and next to me was a gentleman closing a bid for an IT service tender. I was able to figure out what he was doing. I told him first that I'm a competitor to him and he was about to pass out :). Then I told him to be careful and that he was safe.
Dear Mohamad
What is the most appropriate behavior, in your opinion, under the circumstances described by John? Saving Changes...
