Ethics and Project Management

Ethics plays a critical role in project management, but all too often, its importance is overlooked. This benign neglect can result in serious consequences to individuals and organizations, ranging from tarnished reputations to civil and criminal liability. Ethics and Project Management demonstrates the importance of making ethics a key consideration in managing projects and describes the impacts that occur when ethical transgressions arise.

Providing the tools necessary for project managers to avoid an ethical lapse that can put themselves and their organization at risk, this volume:

• Defines ethics and places it within the project management context
• Discusses the contents of the Project Management Institute’s code of ethics
• Enables project managers to recognize the trends that precipitate ethical dilemmas on a project
• Demonstrates how ethical concerns permeate the entire project life cycle
• Provides tips on establishing a governance protocol to ensure ethical compliance
• Explores legal issues that arise from unethical behavior
• Examines how ethical concerns on a project can have global implications, and how to operate in international settings with cultural differences

Each chapter ends with a Getting Started Checklist, facilitating immediate application of the concepts discussed and making it easy for project managers to determine whether they are in compliance with ethical standards. Providing a solid roadmap for the ethical health of a project, this volume is essential reading for all those concerned with avoiding the disastrous consequences of a cavalier approach to ethics.

About the Author

Ralph L. Kliem has more than 25 years of experience with Fortune 500 firms in the financial and aerospace industries. His wide, varied experience in project and program management includes managing compliance and information technology projects and programs.

He is the author of more than 15 books that have been translated in several languages. He has also published more than 200 articles in leading business and information systems publications.

Mr. Kliem is an adjunct faculty member of City University in Seattle and a former member of the Seattle Pacific University faculty. He is an instructor with Bellevue College and Cascadia Community College and a frequent presenter to the Puget Sound chapter of the Project Management Institute and other professional organizations. He also teaches Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and other project management seminars and workshops in the United States and Canada.