Essay: Case Study On Project Management Practice: Ethical Implications.

Leadership Styles

Assistant Project Manager Jim Rains was 26 years old, when he newly hired at a large commercial construction company, and assigned to work on a $34 million dollar university classroom project in the southeast United States. Upon arriving on the job site, Jim was introduced to the head superintendent Bob Moore who had been with the firm for 25 years. Bob was an exceptionally proficient organizer and was often requested by clients for the supervision of their construction projects. As the project began, things on a whole went smoothly. In fact, Jim was learning and taking on more project management responsibilities every day.

The winter and spring months brought many days of rain. Often, Bob would have to send several carpenters home because there was nothing at the construction site for them to do when it was raining. This did not sit well with the carpenters when they could only work 3 days per week (and were paid for 3 days work) because of rainouts. Other times, Bob would not send the carpenters home, but would have them sweep up the floors that were already under roof. This activity would normally take 2 hours with a crew of 4, but Bob would be forced to pay them for a full 8?hour day. Some days Bob, being one to hate inefficiency (and the potential loss of workers not returning to the site after being sent home), sent some of the carpenters (who would normally be just standing around and sweeping on rainy days) to his home to work. There the carpenters would work on interior framing, finish carpentry, and hang drywall in Bob's new addition. Bob figured that as long as the carpenters were just hanging around the site with little to do, they might as well earn their pay.

The third time Bob sent carpenters to his house on a rainy day; Jim decided to talk with Bob about the issue of billing the carpenter's hours to the job site construction cost. Bob was very noncommittal about the whole issue leaving Jim with the dilemma of confronting one of the company's best superintendents. After three more days of watching, several carpenters go to Bob's house to work, Jim could no longer tolerate the practice and told Bob that it was unethical to use company employees for personal work. Bob told Jim that if he did not send the carpenters home on rainy days they would get paid for basically doing nothing. By sending the carpenters to his house to use their skills, he was keeping his workers motivated and satisfied instead of laying them off or having them do small, time?filling jobs.

Getting nowhere with the superintendent, Jim had some major decisions to make. Should he go to the project manager or someone in the home office? What would the company think about some new employee questioning the practices of a long?term employee?

Because Jim was new to the organization, he decided to talk with Bob one more time and asked that he discontinue billing employee hours to the construction project if they were in fact working on Bob's own house. Bob again refrained from doing anything, only commenting that the workers would soon be able to work a normal 5?day workweek because the rainy season was about to end. Jim still could not let the issue go.

Write a report on the above case study that addresses the following issues; and carry out research on project management practice and discuss the ethical implications in this case.

Bob Moore is an experienced leader while Jim Rains is considerably new to the field of project management. One of the most significant responsibilities of a leader is to motivate the team in achieving the desired results. Bob has shown a similar type of leadership where he aimed in keeping the human resources of the project motivated even during the non working days [2]. In this context, the Bob has taken a decision of not only keeping his team motivated but also to ensure that there is no loss of the human resources of the project.  However, while taking the decision, Bob did not consult any of the team members of even Jim which shows the traits of autocratic leadership [3]. Jim on the other hand has shown a transformational leadership style where he decided to consult his team before taking any decision [4].

There are certain major issues associated with the execution of the project as the project could not be executed according to the plans. The winter and spring rains have considerably affected the normal operations of the project due to which the carpenters have no work other than to sweep the floors.  In this context, it is essential to identify the alternatives to the current process. Instead of paying the carpenters for doing works which are not related to the project, it was necessary to stop paying the carpenters in the non working days. This could have eliminated a possible budget risk from the project.

A possible budget and a schedule risk should have identified in the project plan. The normal operation of the project was hampered mainly because of the winter and spring rains which is a regular phenomenon. The project plan should have considered this natural threats that the project could encounter and it was the responsibility of the project manager to plan and schedule the project in such  a way that it is least affected by the winter and spring rains. The mitigation plan for the two significant risks associated with the normal operation of the project is to involve the carpenters to work indoors in the same project or in some other project of the same owner. s

One of the main concerns or issues associated with the current project is that the project superintendent Bob is paying the carpenters in their regular rates for doing nothing related to the project work and this is unethical that gives rise to the ethical dilemma in the normal operation of the project [1]. It definitely does not abide by the law as Bob is making and unethical use of the human resources of the project by sending them in his own house during the rains. According to the PMI code of ethics and Professional conduct, it is essential to maintain honesty and integrity in a particular work which is not flowed in this case as Bob has not been honest with the project owner.

Issues with Project Execution

The alternative choices that are available to the project manager are to either stop paying the carpenters till the project work can be re started or to engage them in some project works indoors [10].

The advantage of the first alternative is that, it will help in addressing the expected budget risks and will help in mitigating it [6]. As a disadvantage, the project manager might lose some human resources of the project.

The advantage of second alternative is that it will mitigate the risk of unethical use of the resources of the project while the disadvantage is that it will not mitigate or address the schedule risk [9].

In PMI ethical decision making process, a decision making phenomenon undergoes a number of stages. These stages are assessing the risk, looking for the present alternatives, analysis of the alternatives, application of the ethical principles and finally taking the decision [7]. On following all the steps, it can be commented that the candidate decision in this case would be engaging the human resources of the project in indoor works during the rains.

The candidate decision that has been taken would definitely result in greatest good since I prevent an unethical use of the resources allocated to the project. The carpenters if assigned to some other works of the project will help in mitigating the ethical dilemma [5]. In this way, the carpenters will be paid normally according to their daily rates and therefore will not get de motivated or even leave the project mid way.

The choice that has been made would definitely be fair and beneficial to ll the concerned parties as by this decision, neither the team member nor the project resources are in a loss.

In this context Jim being the project manager should take a strict decision in stopping the carpenters to do any personal work of Bob. The carpenters should be engaged in certain indoor works of the project which will result in greatest good [8]. Furthermore Jim should consult the higher authorities before taking any action against Bob. Prior to that Jim should talk with Bob once more to make him understand about the unethical condition that has arisen as a result of the decision that is taken by him and that it is necessary to prevent the carpenters do his personal work.

References

[1]. Crossan, Mary, Daina Mazutis, and Gerard Seijts. "In search of virtue: The role of virtues, values and character strengths in ethical decision making." Journal of Business Ethics 113, no. 4 (2013): 567-581.

[2]. Giltinane, Charlotte Louise. "Leadership styles and theories." Nursing Standard 27, no. 41 (2013).

[3]. Rast III, David E., Michael A. Hogg, and Steffen R. Giessner. "Self-uncertainty and support for autocratic leadership." Self and Identity 12, no. 6 (2013): 635-649.

[4]. Braun, Susanne, Claudia Peus, Silke Weisweiler, and Dieter Frey. "Transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and team performance: A multilevel mediation model of trust." The Leadership Quarterly 24, no. 1 (2013): 270-283.

[5]. Müller, Ralf, Erling S. Andersen, Øvind Kvalnes, Jingting Shao, Shankar Sankaran, J. Rodney Turner, Christopher Biesenthal, Derek Walker, and Siegfried Gudergan. "The interrelationship of governance, trust, and ethics in temporary organizations." Project Management Journal 44, no. 4 (2013): 26-44.

[6]. Too, Eric G., and Patrick Weaver. "The management of project management: A conceptual framework for project governance." International Journal of Project Management 32, no. 8 (2014): 1382-1394.

[7]. Phillips, Joseph. PMP, Project Management Professional (Certification Study Guides). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2013.

[8]. Durkheim, Emile. Professional ethics and civic morals. Routledge, 2013.

[9]. Kerzner, Harold, and Harold R. Kerzner. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

[10]. Harrison, Frederick, and Dennis Lock. Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge, 2017.