Paul PelletierProject management key note speaker, author, corporate lawyer, and executive| Paul Pelletier Consulting Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality”.
Desmond Tutu, Social Rights Activist and retired Archbishop, South Africa
This quote applies to bullies as well as it applies to elephants. Bullying can be as harmful in the workplace and on projects as it is in schools and other areas of soceity causing the well understood harmful physical and emotional impacts plus a long list of challenges for project managers and the organizations where it is taking place. Sadly, the rates of workplace bullying across the globe, despite efforts to eliminate it, are increasingly dramatically. Projects are subsets of workplaces and since project management is, for the most part, an activity that involves working very closely with others, the impact of a bully in a project is potentially lethal to project success.
There is also an important connection between the "Neutrality isn't an option" expression and ethics. The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct included as part of the standard for Responsibility the statement "We report any illegal or unethical conduct. " In other words, the Code says that neutrality isn't an option. Saving Changes...
"Neutrality isn't an option", when law clearly defines a criminal intent or a an unethical practice in work environment. It has nothing to do with bullying, as we do not apply law when we deem it useful for us, it has to be applied in all circumstances if crime has been committed, we cannot remain neutral to the crime and law is blind on these aspects. But when we come to ethics, we apply them judiciously, impartially and appropriately. PMI Code of Ethics is only rigid about those ethics which are criminal in intent and MUST be reported upon like a crime. Even for that there is a system of checks and balances to ensure no bad report is entertained. For all practices dealing with malpractice of ethics, PMI is not that rigid and just prohibits its inappropriate application. Saving Changes...
