Valerie Denney Associate Professor| Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University- WorldwideCleveland, Sc, United States
The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct identifies 4 values including responsibility, respect, fairness and honesty. I don’t know about everyone else, but fairness seems to be particularly challenging since the start of COVID-19. The PMI says “fairness is our duty to make decisions and act impartially and objectively. Our conduct must be free from competing self-interest, prejudice, and favoritism”. During todays state of crisis, change, uncertainty, and outright frustration for “normal”, how do you cope with the stress of fairness? What’s different and what have you done? Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Brain research indicates that emotions (and hence values) are created in everyones brain over childhood and adolescence. Parents, schools, friends, society influences how we perceive concepts like fairness, autonomy, honesty etc..
Nevertheless research also indicates that there are patters that might help us to navigate the world thru models. No model is accurate but some are helpful (somebody said thIs before). Good models are simple. And they are not deterministic but rather offer a hypothesis and maybe a probability of suitability.
Human societies everywhere seemed to have developed similar concepts all over the place and since long times. The 4F are an example for global presence: fear, flight, fight and mating.
Rushworth Kidder went a bit further and found the 8V.
Both can serve as mental models to understand the world a bit more.
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1 reply by Valerie Denney
Sep 13, 2020 12:11 PM
Valerie Denney
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Thanks Thomas,
I can always count on your to provide a broad-reaching perspective. While values can (and often do) vary from one individual to another. "Corporate" or "institutional" values are in place to set the culture for the organization as a whole. Such is the case for the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. These become the expectations for all who deal with PMI. As pointed out in one of the other responses, the mandatory values MUST be met, while the aspirational are, well aspirational. With fairness, the mandatory descriptions are rather narrow (in my opinion), but always being impartial and non-biased CAN be hard. It doesn't mean we stop trying. It is just a recognition that sometimes is it hard.
Saving Changes...
Valerie Denney Associate Professor| Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University- WorldwideCleveland, Sc, United States
Sep 12, 2020 8:05 AM
Replying to Thomas Walenta
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Brain research indicates that emotions (and hence values) are created in everyones brain over childhood and adolescence. Parents, schools, friends, society influences how we perceive concepts like fairness, autonomy, honesty etc..
Nevertheless research also indicates that there are patters that might help us to navigate the world thru models. No model is accurate but some are helpful (somebody said thIs before). Good models are simple. And they are not deterministic but rather offer a hypothesis and maybe a probability of suitability.
Human societies everywhere seemed to have developed similar concepts all over the place and since long times. The 4F are an example for global presence: fear, flight, fight and mating.
Rushworth Kidder went a bit further and found the 8V.
Both can serve as mental models to understand the world a bit more.
Thanks Thomas,
I can always count on your to provide a broad-reaching perspective. While values can (and often do) vary from one individual to another. "Corporate" or "institutional" values are in place to set the culture for the organization as a whole. Such is the case for the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. These become the expectations for all who deal with PMI. As pointed out in one of the other responses, the mandatory values MUST be met, while the aspirational are, well aspirational. With fairness, the mandatory descriptions are rather narrow (in my opinion), but always being impartial and non-biased CAN be hard. It doesn't mean we stop trying. It is just a recognition that sometimes is it hard. Saving Changes...
Valerie Denney Associate Professor| Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University- WorldwideCleveland, Sc, United States
Sep 09, 2020 10:42 PM
Replying to George Freeman
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Hi Valerie,
For me, fairness is always a challenge, whether it be from the perspective of evaluating [A] how I was treated, [B] how I am treating others, [C] how I view the treatment of someone else, or [D] the fairness of a policy or an event. In all these cases, the challenge is always in the reconciling of what-I-feel versus what-I-know.
For example, I’ve had many friends lose their jobs in the last six months (most of them in the project management field). My feeling towards the subject is that “it’s not fair,” however, my knowledge of the situation states otherwise.
Generally speaking, in difficult times, it’s easy to yield more to your feelings than to what you know. When this becomes the status quo, then all of our CoE values become more challenging to “do” and to “perceive.”
--- Mindfulness
George,
Thank you for this wonderful perspective. In some situations, fairness is straightforward. In others, it is the complex multidimensional problem you described. Saving Changes...
