The ethical dimension of project management

Abstract

As project management evolves it is faced with all the challenges of an emerging profession with regard to education, standards of practice and certification, and ethical issues. This paper uses a model of the project managers’ thinking competencies with a special emphasis on ethical thinking as a reference point to develop an approach to teaching practical ethics to project managers. It is proposed that the project management profession has now matured to the point of being willing and able to discuss and debate ethical issues, set ethical standards and guidelines and educate their members in ethics. Although ethics is a highly philosophical and complex discipline it has valuable practical methods to offer the modern project manager.