CC BY
32
ETHICAL ISSUES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
© Zlateva R.St.*
«Demetra Development» LTD, Republic of Bulgaria, Shumen
This paper outlines the ethical issues arising in connection with the performance of project management consulting and analyses the practice in Bulgaria. The place of the Code of ethics is substantiated and the role of professional associations in project management is commented.
Keywords: professional ethics, Code of ethics, project management, management consulting.
Over the past seven years the project management consulting has been among the most popular services sought by the organizations in Bulgaria. That has been determined by the increased opportunities for donor financing and by the projects realized by the companies.
Under the conditions of enlarged volume of implemented projects and growing intensity in the use of consultants, requirements related to the provision of ethical service inevitably have appeared. The consulting service is an affordable way to provide knowledge and skills that are expected to be used in the interest of the client. In many cases that is done not only in front of the client, but also in the public eye. However there remain relatively unexplored specific ethical determinants of project management consulting, which represent the base of many organizational problems and project risks. The purpose of this paper is to identify the situation in the field of ethical issues and their impact on the project management consulting practice.
The fact is that the project management is accompanied by constantly changing demands and conditions, unforeseen events, economic and political crises, against the background of the global competition. All this reflects on the consulting by loading it with some uncertainty, insecurity, challenge, need for rapid response and timely correction of certain aspects of tasks and management processes. In this regard, increasing importance acquires the ethical behavior of the consultants which marks functionally their differentiated obligations in a way that will lead to increased efficiency.
The professional ethics regulates a set of implicit, specifically defined norms and codes of conduct that guide individuals in decision-making in their various professional roles. Moreover, a contradiction may arise between the individual and professional ethical principles. Obviously, the functionally differentiated ethics specifies the generally accepted moral principles and norms applying them to a certain professional field.
General manager, PhD.
14 ЭКОНОМИКА И УПРАВЛЕНИЕ: АНАЛИЗ ТЕНДЕНЦИИ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВ РАЗВИТИЯ
The management consulting services are among the services where the generally accepted ethical norms are not able to adequately regulate the professional activity. «Professional ethics» in this case means a set of qualities - individual and inherent in the professional community as a whole, that appear under the particular conditions of performing the services and exert a synergistic influence on its reliability and effectiveness.
Ethics in project management consulting performs the following functions:
- Assists in the successful professional activity prioritizing the human relations;
- Provides achievement of goals - socially and economically important for the society;
- Combines the public and personal interests within the professional community;
- Connects moral values with ethical relations created in connection with the service provided;
- Creates trusted contacts through commitment to ethical behavior.
- It could be claimed that defining ethical issues on the one hand and their public discussion, including through the professional codes of ethics on the other hand, are the two basic ways of the issue settlement.
The ethical challenges related to project management consulting may occur in the following directions:
- Between the consultants as natural persons and/or legal entities - defamation of colleagues, theft of ideas and technologies, defining somebody else’s work as personal achievement, unfair competition, damaging reputation, etc.;
- Between a consultant and a consulted organization - promising results that can not be obtained, using sample documents, which normally do not consider the specifics of different clients, violation of trade secrets, manipulation of the actions of the organization, overrating the service, violation of agreed terms, creating conditions for further consultation, misuse of resources, etc.;
- Between a consultant and organizations outside the consulted one but related to the field of consulting - conflict of interests, bribery, disclosure of trade secrets, provision of confidential information, etc.;
- Between consultants in the consulting organization - lack of objectivity and impartiality, lack of diligence and competence, perfunctory performance of work duties, unwillingness to take responsibility, ruining trust etc.
Naturally, all these problems exist, pouring into one another. The starting point for professional behavior is the personal ethics, because even during the functionally differentiated actions, the decisions are made by the individual according to the principles of his personal ethics.
The analysis of the practice outlines some features of consultant’s duties that affect to some extent the quality of the service provided in the field of project activity:
Менеджмент
15
- • The pace of implementation of the consulting service is dictated by the indicative terms and legal basis of donor financing, i.e. the consultant performs actions at a set pace. Therefore the field of project activity imposes on the consultants requirements for physical endurance, ie ability to not reduce their working capacity and be able to carry out the work at the set pace.
- The consultant usually performs services on several projects concurrently. The quality of the work performed in this case is provided at the expense of rational distribution of tasks.
- The optimum use of consultant’s working hours by engaging him with various projects and tasks, determines the need for such organization of the service that may provide switch over and allocation of resources.
- The consultant works in a field, characterized by continuously collecting, collating and comparing information about upcoming and ongoing projects. This requires extensive use of prediction and forecasting methods.
- In terms of project management, the consultant is required to have the ability to absorb and implement a significant amount of knowledge and to form various skills and habits.
While rendering the service, the consultant must be aware of:
- the human factor in the organization;
- the methods for optimization of the service;
- the changes happening in the environment external to the organization;
- the opportunities for targeted influence on changes.
The consultant has to be able to:
- assess the problems and their possible influence on the service performance;
- achieve quality performance of the assignment;
- monitor objectively the level of the activities performed;
According to the researchers, the professional code of ethics integrates into a system the morally permissible standards of behavior that are desirable and acceptable to all [1, p. 415]. Some authors state that the professional consultants abide in practice by strict professional standards and certain ethical standards, which are governed by the associations. The professional community builds its models of conduct and standards for assessment. It is responsible for professional competence and moral responsibility of its members. The professional associations aim at grouping natural persons and legal entities with similar professional activity as well as at maintaining high professional and ethical standards [2, p. 95].
In Bulgaria there exist professional associations that relate to project management no matter of what scale and scope they are. Some of them are oriented to management consulting and people management in general. Others are closely associated with project management and consulting services for the absorption of EU funds and programs. The problem is that the employers do not prefer to use
16 ЭКОНОМИКА И УПРАВЛЕНИЕ: АНАЛИЗ ТЕНДЕНЦИИ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВ РАЗВИТИЯ
only consultants from professional associations, and that the majority of professionals are unwilling to ally professionally. And note - the professional associations serve for self-government and self-regulation of professional and ethical conduct of its members through the establishment of standards of conduct and standards for assessment. The readiness of the consultants and their decision to show ethics at the workplace begins with the availability of personal qualities.
Overcoming the violations of acceptable standards of conduct is realized through self-regulation and / or market regulation, including the elaboration of codes. It could be claimed that they are an important tool for the management of the professional ethics. Like any professional community whose activity is important to the society, the consulting community has documents that define ethical principles, norms and rules of business conduct. Moreover - basic ethical norms and recommendations for the content of consulting are set out in the ethical codes of professional associations in the field of management consulting.
NAME YEAR OF ESTABLISHMENT
1 9 9 7 2 D 0 0 2 0 0 3 2 D 0 6 2 0 0 9 2 0 1 2 2 0 1 5
BULGARIAN ASSOCIATION OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTING ORGANIZATIONS (BAMCO)
BULGARIAN ASSOCIATION FOR PE OPLE .
MANAGEMENT (BAPM)
BULGARIAN PROJEC T MANAGEMENT
ASSOCIATION (BP3.LA)
BULGARLAN" ASSOCIATION OF EUROPEAN PROGRAMS
CONSULTANTS (BAEPC)
Fig. 1. History of establishment of the professional associations of management consultants
Tracing the history of the establishment of associations related to project management, it was noted that they originated from a wide profile associations to highly specialized ones. Probably the establishment of other associations can be expected such as associations of consultants for each donor program, associations of consultants as per regions for planning, etc.
The presence of four professional associations raises the question about the orientation of the potential members: Which of association would represent them the best? Is it respectable in its field of activity? How far can it serve their interests?
The Code of Ethics of the Bulgarian Association of Management Consulting Organizations builds around four pillars - customers, contracts, fees and occupa-
Менеджмент
17
tion. It covers twelve ethical rules and norms of activity. In terms of customers they target honest, competent and objective service, privacy and confidentiality. Qualifications and professional capacity, proven experience, knowledge and expertise, objectivity and independence are required for the performance of the contracts. With respect to the fees, it is stated that they must commensurate with the work done and responsibility assumed [4].
Bulgarian Association of People Management and development base their ethical code on the scope of the mission, participants, goals, social responsibility and actions outside the Association. It is noted that the association unites professionals who create and develop the processes of human resource management in different organizations. Among its objectives is to ensure the supply of specialized professional knowledge and support. Social responsibility is oriented to human resources, personnel, customers and society. Crucial is the understanding of people as the most valuable and productive resources for organizations [5].
Bulgarian Association of Project Management aims to contribute to sustainable development of the country by improving the quality of implemented projects and their professional management. It supports the practical, educational and scientific activities in the field of project management, introduction of professional standards for the preparation and management of projects, recognition of occupations related to the project management, observance of professional ethics and rules by persons who passed certification and / or recertification [6].
The Code of Ethics of Bulgarian Association of European Project Consultants defines the principles and rules of conduct for its members to ensure professional ethics and equality in carrying out their activities under the market conditions, to impose self -regulation etc. Under the Code, the consulting companies and the independent experts working in the field of European programs, who are members of BAKPC, voluntarily observe the principles of integrity, honesty and good faith in their relations with the customers [7].
The review performed showed the following important points:
- The associations adhere to a set of values, some of which have been modified over time. The behavior recommended by them is exposed as a model to be followed independently and everywhere. The Codes of Ethics mark the area of personal responsibility and promote the initiative. They indicate the behavior that corresponds to the accepted ethical principles, norms and rules. Concurrently they also mark deviations from the ethical standards. Last but not least they contribute to detect and correct ethical violations in timely manner.
- The availability of a clear approach to ethical issues allows the establishment of intolerance to the possibility of problem arising, loss of reputation and seeking of responsibility. Codes help to resolve moral dilemmas arising during rendering the service. At the same time they inform about unwanted behavior which even in certain cases can be considered illegal. The specialized literature states that behavior at work can
18 ЭКОНОМИКА И УПРАВЛЕНИЕ: АНАЛИЗ ТЕНДЕНЦИИ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВ РАЗВИТИЯ
be regarded as ethically legal, unethically legal, ethically illegal and unethically illegal. It is noted that illegal actions are always unethical, but legal ones are reviewed from the point of view of ethics, depending on the objectives and the system of personal values. There is actually a violation of ethics in varying degrees. So sometimes the consultant is required to maintain a level of possible ethical actions closely binding him to the values that determine the behavior of most people [3, p. 63].
- The review made supports the assertion that there are professional standards and certain ethical standards related to the practice, which are regulated by the associations. The Codes induce the ethical behavior. The pressure on the consultant can come from many directions. The project management professional community builds its models of conduct and standards of assessment and demonstrates concern for the professional competence and moral responsibility of its members. A number of reasons thereof may be highlighted but the most important ones are as follows: achieving competitiveness, recognition by society and expression of professionalism.
- The ethics of the consulting service regarding projects requires active behavior, which reflects not only meeting but exceeding the requirements of the job. It covers the way activities, which may not be required, but expected to be provided, are taken up and pursued; the way future opportunities and problems are forecasted and efforts made to overcome the problems.
In accordance with these codes the members of associations undertake voluntarily obligations to refrain from violations of professional ethics. However, their effectiveness is determined by the inspections and exactingness. In order to be effective the code should not be simply declaratory. It must contain explicit requirements applicable to the field of work. Considering that the method of voluntary self-regulation can not replace any legal norms or the system of government regulation, the following recommendations focused on impacts on the ethical conduct of the consultant can be made:
1. To develop a procedure for assessment of the ethical aspects of the job performance of the consultant;
2. To stipulate an order for appealing the outcome of the assessment when creating the concrete structure of the Code;
3. To elaborate a technology for promotion of ethical practices, whose performance will make the consultants feel appreciated and their behavior will be noticed.
It can be concluded that the ethical behavior of the consultant has the following features, which respectively also create problem areas in the performance of the service:
- corresponds to the mission of the organization;
- focuses on long-term benefits;
- provides control over environment;
- is directed to a priory set objectives;
Менеджмент
19
- is orientated to committed action;
- is active and proactive;
- is distinguished by its need for achievement.
The construct «ethical issues in project consulting» reflects generalized expectation or belief about the way in which the professional contingent examines the cause and effect relations between their own behavior and the project environment. Ethics in the context of the professional activities of the consultant is necessary because it ensures competitiveness and financial - economic stability not only to the participants in the consultation process.
Ultimately, the project consulting is in the public interest, no matter whether the projects are public or business ones.
References:
1. Сотирова Д. Бизнес етика. - С.: Нов български университет, 2009.
2. Тодорова К. Утвърждаване на управленското консултиране като про-фесионална област // Икономически изследвания. - С.: ИИИ при БАН, 2011. -С. 89-135.
3. Шаталова Н.И. (ред.) Консультирование в управление человеческими ресурсами: учебное пособие. - М.: ИНФРА-М, 2010.
4. Етичен кодекс [Electronic resource]. - Access regime. - URL: www.bam-co.bg/index.php/bg/about-bamco/code-of-ethics (Retrieved: 15.01.2015).
5. Етичен кодекс [Electronic resource]. - Access regime. - URL: www.bhrmda.bg/bg/22/cat.html (Retrieved 15.01.2015).
6. Процедури по сертификация и ресертификация и правила за сертифи-кационната комисия на БАУП [Electronic resource]. - Access regime. - URL: project.bg/wp-content/uploads/Proceduri-2014.docx/ (Retrieved: 17.01.2015).
7. Етичен кодекс [Electronic resource]. - Access regime. - URL: http://www.bakep.org/images/pdf/about/BAKEP_Etichen_kodeks.pdf (Retrieved 17.01.2015).
ИНТЕГРАЦИОННАЯ ОТКРЫТОСТЬ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫХ КОРПОРАЦИЙ
© Прокофьев С.Е.* *, Павлюкова О.В.*
Финансовый университет при Правительстве РФ, г. Москва
В современных условиях эффективное управление экономической ситуацией невозможно без интеграционной открытости государственных
* Заведующий кафедрой «Г осударственное и муниципальное управление», доктор экономических наук, профессор.
* Ассистент кафедры «Г осударственное и муниципальное управление», кандидат экономических наук.
