MN601 | Report on the Project Management and Ethical Issues

1.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.

2.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.

3.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.

Answer:

PM Leadership

The case study that is given describes a construction business. The new manager of the construction business is Jim Rains who is newly appointed for the construction projects. Bob Moore was the superintendent of the construction site from the beginning of the company. Bob is serving the company for more than 25 years and is a good leader who is able to manage all his workers efficiently [7]. Bob has good leadership qualities and is able to manage all his workers under him. Bob himself is an efficient employee and cannot tolerate inefficiency in his project and among the team members which he handles. He wants to keep all his workers busy all the time. According to Bob, this will help to enhance their efficiency skills and can do much better work. Bob is a good leader because he also listens to the problems of his workers. His workers had denied to stay home for the rainy months. He had listened to their problems and allowed to come to work in the rainy season.

PM Execution

The project management execution was being well conducted by Bob, the superintendent of the construction team. Jim was newly appointed as a manager of the construction company and under his inspection all works were also going well. After Jim has joined the company, he was learning about the projects involved in the company very efficiently and was taking responsibilities of other projects as well [2]. But the problem arose at the time of spring months and winter months. In those months, the climate was rainy and workers were not able to work in that rainy season. In this situation, the work progress went slow and the carpenters had to sit idle without any work. Bob being the superintendent, was not ready to make the workers sit idle at any cost [8]. According to Bob, he have to work to be paid by the company. To make the workers work, Bob sends them to his own house for working. This is not an idea according to Jim. Making them work personally with the client’s money is not at all ethical for the company.

PM Risk Analysis

The risks for the given situation that can be identified is exceeding the cost budget and the time planned for the project construction. In the winter months and the spring months, the workers cannot work due to rain and Bob would not allow them to sit idle. The risks is analyzed when the workers were previously sent home in those off seasons [5]. The workers were not happy with the decisions as they were not getting paid. So, Bob decided to make them work by giving some other work. But it was very less amount of work which the workers were able to finish within 2 hours a day and sit idle for rest of the days. Seeing this situation, Bob decided to make them work for his personal work in his home. This was a risky job as if the client gets to know about this situation, the whole project may stop and the project might even be canceled.

Ethics Assessment

The ethical dilemma which can be analyzed from the situation is that workers in the rainy seasons that is for the winter months and the spring months sits idle without any work to do [6]. As because of rain, they cannot work outside and the work inside the roof very less and finishes the inside work within 2 hours shift. The ethical dilemma also lies when the workers are being paid without any work to do. Not working in the rainy seasons will also extend the duration of the work as well as the cost of the project.

The ethical dilemma that is analyzed is not according to law of ethics. Sitting idle and being paid makes the workers lazy and they will not will to work in other seasons. According to the law of ethics, the workers should be paid according to the work they do per day [3]. This might increase the cost budget of the project.  

Ethics Alternatives

Two alternative can be stated for the situation that is stated in the case study.

The first situation that can be considered is making the budget plan, project plan and the time schedule considering the weather conditions of the place. As in the rainy seasons, they cannot work properly, the workers will be contracted only for the month they can work. For other months they are not hired as a result the workers can find themselves work somewhere else. This option is profitable for the client as they can save their money.

The second option is to make the schedule plan properly where all the outside works are done before the rainy season comes. This is because if the roof construction is done, then the workers can sit inside and work on the inside progress. This option is profitable for the workers and the clients. Both will get profit by adopting this option.

Ethics Analysis

The alternatives that are taken for the given situation is appropriate for Ethical Decision-Making Framework [1]. All the facts that are included in the ethical dilemma are considered by adopting the two alternatives that have been suggested previously. Alternatives are taken if one plan does not work, the other works. Alternatives helps to keep a backup plan for any kind of decision taken for a project.

Ethics Application

The alternatives that are stated for the given situation are profitable for both the workers and the clients [4]. The alternatives that are state are also fruitful for the manager and the superintendent. The first option that is stated is more profitable to the clients as this can save their cost of building the project. But the second option will be fruitful to all the person involved in the construction process. The work will also be finished in time and there will not extra cost for the budget.

Ethics Action

The best situation that can be taken for the given situation is making the project plan efficiently as because by adopting this option, the workers will also get paid in the rainy seasons and the clients will also get their project construction complete on time. There will be no loss for the workers and the clients will also be profitable.

References

[1] Gale, Fister. "Dynamic sublimes, changing plans, and the legacy of a megaproject." Complexity (2017).

[2] Larson, Erik W., Clifford F. Gray, Ursula Danlin, Beverly Honig, and David Bacarini. Project management: The managerial process. Vol. 6. Grandview Heights, OH: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014.

[3] Greenwood, Michelle. "Approving or improving research ethics in management journals." Journal of Business Ethics 137, no. 3 (2016): 507-520.

Richardson, Gary L. Project management theory and practice. Auerbach Publications, 2014.

[4] Schwalbe, Kathy. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning, 2015.

[5] Ljungblom, Mia, and Thomas Taro Lennerfors. "Virtues and Vices in Project Management Ethics: An Empirical Investigation of Project Managers and Project Management Students." Project Management Journal 49, no. 3 (2018): 5-16.

[6] Swink, Morgan, Steven A. Melnyk, Janet L. Hartley, and M. Bixby Cooper. Managing operations across the supply chain. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education, 2017.

[7] Silvius, AJ Gilbert, Martin Kampinga, Silvana Paniagua, and Herman Mooi. "Considering sustainability in project management decision making; An investigation using Q-methodology." International Journal of Project Management35, no. 6 (2017): 1133-1150.

[8] Bredillet, Christophe. "Ethics in project management: some Aristotelian insights." International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 7, no. 4 (2014): 548-565.