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Ethics in project management
Exploring the importance of morality in projects
Alistair Godbold
e-mail: alistair.godbold@nichols.uk.com
3 April 2014
1
Ethics in Project Management
Ethics, bribery and trust in the world today
Why are projects different?
Why ethics and why now?
Why what we do now is not enough
What should we do about it?
Ethics
Moral principles governing a person’s behaviour
Corruption in the world today
90-100
Very
Clean
#stopthecorrupt
www.transparency.org/cpi
SCORE
0-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-100
Very
Clean
Highly
Corrupt
CORRUPTION
PERCEPTIONS
INDEX 2013
The perceived levels of public sector
corruption in 177 countries/territories
around the world.
CORRUPTION
PERCEPTIONS
INDEX 2013:
EU AND WESTERN
EUROPE
14 United Kingdom 76
15 Belgium 75
21 Ireland 72
22 France 71
26 Austria 69
28 Estonia 68
31 Cyprus 63
33 Portugal 62
38 Poland 60
40 Spain 59
1 Denmark 91
3 Finland 89
3 Sweden 89
5 Norway 86
7 Switzerland 85
8 Netherlands 83
11 Luxembourg 80
12 Germany 78
12 Iceland 78
RANK COUNTRY/TERRITORY SCORE RANK COUNTRY/TERRITORY SCORE
43 Lithuania 57
43 Slovenia 57
45 Malta 56
47 Hungary 54
49 Latvia 53
57 Croatia 48
57 Czech Republic 48
61 Slovakia 47
69 Italy 43
The perceived levels
of public sector corruption.
23% score below 50
Top: Denmark
Bottom: Greece
SCORE
0-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89
Highly
Corrupt
© 2013 Transparency International. All rights reserved.
50
The 2013 Corruption Perceptions
measures the perceived levels of
sector corruption in 177 countrie
territories around the world. To se
full results go to:
www.transparency.org/cpi
#stopthecorrupt
69 Romania
77 Bulgaria
80 Greece
Corruption in Europe
INDEX 2013:
EU AND WESTERN
EUROPE
14 United Kingdom 76
15 Belgium 75
21 Ireland 72
22 France 71
26 Austria 69
28 Estonia 68
31 Cyprus 63
33 Portugal 62
38 Poland 60
40 Spain 59
1 Denmark 91
3 Finland 89
3 Sweden 89
5 Norway 86
7 Switzerland 85
8 Netherlands 83
11 Luxembourg 80
12 Germany 78
12 Iceland 78
RANK COUNTRY/TERRITORY SCORE RANK COUNTRY/TERRITORY SCORE
43 Lithuania 57
43 Slovenia 57
45 Malta 56
47 Hungary 54
49 Latvia 53
57 Croatia 48
57 Czech Republic 48
61 Slovakia 47
69 Italy 43
Bottom: Greece
SCORE
0-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-100
Very
Clean
Highly
Corrupt
© 2013 Transparency International. All rights reserved.
The 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index
measures the perceived levels of public
sector corruption in 177 countries/
territories around the world. To see the
full results go to:
www.transparency.org/cpi
#stopthecorrupt
69 Romania 43
77 Bulgaria 41
80 Greece 40
What is a bribe?
The offering, promising, giving, accepting or soliciting
of an advantage as an inducement for an action
which is illegal or a breach of trust.
Recognising a bribe
Training
courses
Political
donations
Employment
contracts
Expenses
Direct cash
payments
Charitable
donations
Discounts
Gift giving
Joint
ventures
Favours
Excessive
hospitality
In-kind
benefits
Facilitation
payments
Off-balance
sheet payments
Inflated
invoices
Off-shore
agreements
Bribes by country
6
6.5
7
7.5
8
8.5
9
Briberyperception
Bribes by sector
5.2
5.4
5.6
5.8
6
6.2
6.4
6.6
6.8
7
7.2
Briberyperception
Corruption per year
Cost to the EU - €120bn
Bribes paid $1,000bn
Tainted Procurement $1,500bn
Wall Street Journal
Why projects are different
Project
Manager
Personal
values
impact
decisions
Profession Vs PM
Pressure to be
efficient
Ethics of a Project
Project
Country B
IndividualCompany A
Projects and Ethics
Why manage ethics?
•  Protect against damaging perceptions
Project, Company and Profession
•  Legal and moral backlash
•  Differentiator for customers and consumers
•  Develop and maintain trust
•  Attract and retain good staff
More efficient than putting in controls
Ethics are there!
Recognising the warning signs
“Everybody
does it”
“If we don’t
someone
else will”
“No one will
get hurt”
“It is not
against the
rules”
“They knew
the risks”
“They would
do the same”
“It’s the way
business is
done”
“Just this
once”
“None will
know”
“We need to
make up the
time”
“It’s worth a
lot of
money!”
Why now?
•  Increased pace of change
no time to catch issues and think
•  Complexity and international
different norms of behaviour in different cultures
•  FCPA and UK Bribery Act
BS10500 – Anti Bribery Management
•  EU Public Procurement Directive
•  OECD Combating the Bribery of Public Officials
What we do now does not work
Codes of conduct
•  statements of the obvious (obey the law, pay on time, don’t lie, respect others)
•  no practical use in dilemmas
Tick box culture
•  on-line training and assessment
•  ill-equipped people, company is fooling itself
Too little training
•  expensive and resource intensive (if you think education is expensive, try ignorance)
Have you ever been asked to …
Source: Business in the community, the importance of ethical leadership 2013
10% of managers have resigned as a result
Root causes of misconduct
Source: KPMG Integrity Survey 2013
Ethics is current
What is right and wrong is often
Subjective
Universally
non-binding
Ethics
Emotion
Right and wrong
Feeling
Approx 4 years
Rules
Codes of conduct
Law
Changing Values
Society
Not fixed,
change over
3-4 years
Professional
how you work
Fixed by age 21
Personal
honesty, integrity
Fixed at age 8
Values of a company and project
Depend on:
•  its history
•  the environment in which it operates
•  the education of its people
•  its leadership
Nichols Values
Banking
Executive pay
The Role of the PM
Views
Feelings
Leadership
Rules
Statements
Emotional Intelligence
•  the ability to perceive and
understand emotion
•  the ability to integrate emotion to
facilitate thought
•  the ability to manage emotions
Project
Manager
Stakeholders
Project
team
What can we do now
Codes
•  APM Code of Conduct
•  Company Codes and value
statements
•  Project Charter / Code
Leadership
•  Promote Values and walk the talk
•  Understand the theory
•  Ethical training and discussion
Profession
•  Separate 1st profession from
PM role
Action for PM - Promote Values
Define roles and responsibilities
Specify values and behaviours
•  named
•  make some measurable
•  use metrics, indicators
•  monitor, evaluate, control
Communicate about values
•  targets, status, involvement
Encourage lessons learned
Develop trust
• communicate clearly and transparently 82%
• tell the truth, regardless of how complex or unpopular 81%
• engage with employees regularly to discuss the state of the business 80%
• be front and centre during challenging times 79%
• be personally involved in supporting local charities and good causes 69%
• have an active media presence 53%
Source: Endleman Trust Barometer Survey 33,000 respondents in 27 Countries
Ethical Maturity
•  Understand the rules and theory
•  Understand morality of society and where it is going
•  Perceive the environment
•  Communicate and create the environment
walk the talk and be clear in thoughts and words
•  Train with Scenarios
grow from small and use real life applied to your project
Institutional structure – fixity and structure
Principle–doingright
Ethical Theory
Virtue Ethics
Deontological Ethics
• Kantian imperatives
• rights
• justice and fairness
Ethical Learning & Growth
• ethical egoism
Teleoglogical Ethics
• discourse ethics
• utilitarianism
Policy–doinggood
Individual process – adaptability and responsiveness
Until then – a rule of thumb
For the solution:
•  Which goals and priorities does it support or work against?
•  Does it reflect the values of the organisation and the decision makers?
•  What are the consequences for each of the stakeholders?
•  What qualms would the decision maker have about the disclosure of a
favourable decision to this solution?
•  What is the positive or negative symbolic potential if understood or
misunderstood by others?
•  How would my children look back on this?
Summary
It is not just about the law and doing the ‘right thing’:
•  manage the ethics and its image of your project as an asset
Good business
Need to understand theory to be able to:
•  feel, think and talk about issues
Warning signs
•  be aware and take action
Leadership and people Not Rules
Ethics in project management
Exploring the importance of morality in projects
Alistair Godbold
e-mail: alistair.godbold@nichols.uk.com
3 April 2014
47