Gretta KelziOperations Manager/Ethics Insights Team| Esri Lebanon/PMIJdeidet Al Maten, Al Maten, Lebanon
“Being kind is very easy, being fair is very hard”
When I think about Fairness, I always ask myself If treating all people equally, is enough to be fair?
Moreover, being a project manager, operating in a disruptive environment, what are the triggers for us, as practitioners, to be/act in a fair way? Your thoughts? Saving Changes...
Gretta KelziOperations Manager/Ethics Insights Team| Esri Lebanon/PMIJdeidet Al Maten, Al Maten, Lebanon
Jun 16, 2020 3:30 AM
Replying to Alankar Karpe
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Fairness is about being balanced, impartial and unbiased. It is about what is right and reasonable in the way we treat ourselves and other. Fairness arises when we are dealing with differences and as a PM it’s our responsibility to be fair.
Thank you Alankar for being practical... This requires a deep knowledge and maturity of our human values. Saving Changes...
Gretta KelziOperations Manager/Ethics Insights Team| Esri Lebanon/PMIJdeidet Al Maten, Al Maten, Lebanon
Jun 16, 2020 1:59 AM
Replying to Eduard Hernandez
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I resonate the words of journalist Brit Hume "Fairness is not an attitude. It's a professional skill that must be developed and exercised".
Thank you Eduard, I would like to hear more about this, seems a very interesting approach. Saving Changes...
Albert AgbemenuManaging Director| Seag Focus Ghana LtdAccra, Ghana
It should not be a hard thing to be fair, if one is naturally an honest person. Whilst being fair in all your dealings, it is also possible that, your decisions may be misconstrued to be unfair at certain times just because someone may feel not favored in a situation. Be that as it may, as a morally upright person, being fair comes just natural without any intentional effort at it.
It could be hard to be fair if you are someone who does things positively ONLY when there are a set of rules or laws that controls your behavior. In that case, it will definitely be a very difficult thing for a crooked person to be fair in his or her dealings.
It is therefore in my opinion that, fairness may be seen as hard or not, depending on the caliber of person responding to the question. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Hi Gretta,
it is absolutely not hard to be fair, we all want to be fair and to be treated fairly and see all people treated fairly. So we like and appreciate fairness.
It is hard if fairness is competing with other values like e.g. honesty, responsibility, compassion and we perceive an ethical dilemma.
If we solve the dilemma (e.g. by applying PMI's Ethical Decision Making Framework or asking a mentor) and make a decision how to act, it also may be hard to have the courage to implement that decision.
The best way to solve an ethical dilemma though, is to make it go away. Can be done by reframing, changing perspectives, and not having to chose between fairness and the other value, but finding a solution satisfying both. A helpful tool for this is design thinking.
If you get into this situation (competing ethical values) more often, it can be a good sign as you are becoming more aware of ethics (if you are in a toxic environment, you should consider leaving though). You then can prepare yourself by planning for scenarios of ethical dilemmas like firefighters prepare for situations. Saving Changes...
