It is now time to review a case study that focuses on ethical behavior.
Access the Open APM’s ethics case study resource provided below to read a scenario concerning ethics in projects.
Can you pinpoint a few instances of professional conduct highlighted in this scenario? Reflect on the skills employed to integrate ethical considerations into the decisions made by the individuals involved. Can you recognize them?
Share your responses in the discussion section below.
After posting your comment, proceed to the next step, where you will find some potential answers provided by APM for these questions.
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Workers are involved in making the goals of a business a success. The team/people who work for an organization must know the goals, mission and vision of the organization they work for in order to contribute to its growth and development.
From the scenario:
William lacks collaborative, team spirit and communication skills. He acted alone on the assignment given and forced his opinion on John. This action made John disappointed in him unlike karen who initially was too afraid to criticize John’s work while forgetting that for the organization goal to be met those involved will have to put their ego aside and have to work together for it to be a success. Eventually she was able to communicate with John regarding the challenges she was able to identify from the assignment, they worked together as a team (which involves active listening, effective communication, problem solving, decision making and resolution) to prefer solution to the assignment given. This makes both of them an amazing project manager.
From the case study, at first communication skills was lacking which led to some difficulties in the projects.
Mr John and Miss Karen was not able to communicate very well to Mr
I think Mr. William was a project manager but couldn’t communicate effectively with Mr. John. I feel he should have also carried his team members along.
Secondly, Mr. John was a good project manager who observed and did a great job getting to know his counterpart well before trying to go for the project. However, he also flopped in maintaining his company’s value; he just acted on what Mr. William told him.
Thirdly, Mrs. Karen is a better project manager, she not only puts her communication skills into use but also maintains the company’s value.
My Observations:
1. Mr William was a project manager but couldn’t communicate effectively to Mr. John and also did not carry his team along.
2. Mr. John was a good project manager who observed and did a great job on getting to know his counterpart well before trying to push for the project but also flopped in the area of maintaining his company’s value, rather he just took what Mr. William gave him.
3. Ms. Karen is a better project manager, she didn’t only put her communication skills into use but also maintained company’s value.
My observation from the scenario is that Mr. Williams do play his role as expected to, because of lack of incompetent and poor communication skills, also Mr. John played unethical role by agreeing with the approach introduced by Mr. Williams.
As a project manager you need to be equiped with the necessary managerial role communication.
From what I can deduce from the painted scenario, it showed that Mr Williams lacked communication skill which is crucial for every project manager. He didn’t carry his team member. And as a project manager it is expected that you always carry your team along. As a project manager, communication is highly important. John and Karen has good qualities to emulate as a project manager which is being a problem solver. Critical thinker and a good communicator.
Can you identify a couple of issues of professional conduct featured in this scenario?
Reflect on what skills were used to help bring ethics into decisions used by the people involved in this scenario. Can you identify them?
The 3 people involved in these scenario unprofessional conducts. To start with, Williams was very unprofessional in conduct by accepting alternative research over those involved directly in the project, he lacks communication, collaboration and worth ethic skills, and if he continues in such conducts, it will end up destroying his reputation. And also, John was unethical enough to have agreed to Williams approach when he came up with his outsourcing research, there should be a place for taking one stand as this will surely help the next stage of the business, John could have done better by standing on his ground for his own research and the two researches could have been placed side by side for a better and outstanding output. On the other hand, Karen was a little bit fearful to address matter that can actually spoil the reputation of the company, she could have prompted John’s earlier for a better idea and suggestions on how to solve the current issue, I see in this behavior that she lacks work ethic, by placing the relationship between her and John’s over the company reputation.
So the skills I can identify here are..
Communication skill
Collaboration skill
Cognitive approach
Research skill
From this scenario i can deduce that Williams lack teamwork seeing that he got something done behind his team’s back
Also the way karen jokingly pointed out some problems to john showed an effective communication skills
Seeking for help as a project manager when stranded for a solution is also important.
From this scenario it shows that Williams lacks communication skill which is crucial for every project manager. He didn’t carry his team members along.
What I see in this scenario is that as a project manager, it is expected of us to give everyone in our team opportunity to participate in decision making at least to know their views and make them feel important. As a project manager, communication is highly important. John and Karen has good qualities to emulate as a project manager which is being a problem solver. Critical thinker and a good communicator.
What I could deduce from the painted scenerio was that Williams lack communication skill and also he is an autocratic leader, Karen on the opposite was an good observer with a good communication skills garnished with problem solving skills and someone who think critically and a team player, John on the other hand posses agood listening skill and a Democrat who shares insights from other people’s opinion..