From the course: Project Management Foundations: Ethics

Real-world ethics: Organizational behavior

From the course: Project Management Foundations: Ethics

Real-world ethics: Organizational behavior

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- There's something just as important as your ethical behavior. It's your organization's behavior. Here's the scenario to reveal some potential ethical issues due to organizational norms. You've just started working a new company as a project manager. This month, when reviewing the hours reported to your project, you notice something unusual. Sam, who's also new to the company, reported a 30 minute lunch each day, but you've seen him consistently take longer lunch breaks. You held a meeting with Sam, and his response really surprised you. Sam works on multiple projects, and he said that his other teammates told him it was okay to take longer lunch breaks when needed, but to only report 30 minutes because that's what everyone does. You inform Sam that's not how you manage and report time on your project, and you'd like him to report only actual time worked on your project. Sam was disappointed, but said he understood the importance of reporting time accurately. But now you have a dilemma. Do you report this? You've only been with a company a short time, so maybe this practice is typical. You decide to have a conversation with your manager, as it your responsibility to report potential ethical issues. Your manager acknowledged that people take longer lunch breaks on occasion but the practice is only to report 30 minutes of time off. She also said management is monitoring the situation, but they don't have any plans to address it as a problem because the work is getting done. So does this represent unethical behavior? Probably not, but that doesn't mean there isn't a problem. If people only record part of the time they take for lunch and record the remaining lunchtime against projects, we have data integrity issues. This practice produces inaccurate cost data for projects. If contracted personnel are treated the same way, then they could be charging the company for work time over and above what they actually produce for a project. Both of these situations could lead to future projects being rejected as too costly when that might not really be the case. So what are you to do to address this? First, point out the concern to management, while understanding they may or may not decide your point of view means they should change their practice. Second, I'd produce a cost report, with estimated time worked estimates, along with an explanation of why you made those adjustments. That way your project records will reflect a more accurate cost picture for future project estimates. This allows you to behave ethically, with an understanding of how your organization's practices affect your deliverable integrity. To expand your experience and understanding of ethical practices, I've included extra scenarios in the exercise files so you can further test your ethical judgment.

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