Ethical Challenges in Project Management: A Case Study Analysis

This case study examines an ethical dilemma faced by a project manager named Greg, who is pressured by his superiors to release software early without encryption to satisfy a client and secure future contracts. The situation highlights a conflict between business objectives and ethical conduct, as skipping encryption could compromise the software's security and the company's reputation. The CEO, CIO, and program director all exert pressure on Greg to prioritize the early launch, potentially at the expense of ethical practices. The assignment explores Greg's options, the consequences of his decisions, and the importance of adhering to ethical codes of conduct. The case study emphasizes the need for managers to make decisions that are ethically sound, even if they might result in short-term losses, and the importance of considering the long-term implications of their actions on the company's image and customer satisfaction. The case references ethical frameworks and provides a framework for ethical decision-making in project management.

Running Head: Topics in Ethics
Topics in Ethics

Topics in Ethics 1
The purpose of this task is to enlighten the readers about the ethical dilemma situations occurring
with people in their professional environment and how they deal with it. The below mentioned
task, talks about the ethical dilemma faced by the project manager as well as the program
director while working on a project. More details about the task are discussed below:
The video talks about a situation where the project manager is pressurized by the program
director, who is further pressurized by the CIO and the CIO is pressurized by the CEO of the
company to perform certain actions on behalf of the company. In this case, the client is not
genuinely satisfied with the work which the company is doing which gives a hint to the CEO that
the client might not give further orders to the company. This can be a great loss for the
organization due to which the CEO identified a way to satisfy the client by providing them
software before the prescribed time. This will increase their satisfaction level but for the project
manager needs to ignore certain activities which are important to perform for the successful
implementation of the software. Resulting to which the CEO pressurized the CIO to present the
software one month earlier for which the CIO asked the program director to talk to the project
manager regarding the matter because he is the person who is head of the whole plan (Al-Saggaf,
2016).
Here comes a situation of ethical dilemma which was faced by the project manager Greg. The
top management of the company wanted to launch the software early so that the clients get
satisfied with them and sign upcoming contracts with them only. The team was asked to launch
the Willis project early without encryption, so that they can easily provide it a month early.
Encryption is an important part of developing software as it refers to process of converting the
information in code language so as to restrict the outsiders from accessing the confidential
information (Coghlan, & Brannick, 2014). Encryption is an important part of the job of a

Topics in Ethics 2
software developer and if this step is excluded by the management team then it might affect the
reputation of the company in future the application get hacked. But the top level management
asked the Greg to provide the software without encrypting. The situation is that either Greg can
agree to the opinion of program director and provide the software without encrypting the data or
he can deny to perform such actions without can affect the image of the company in coming
years as hacking of the software will direly affect to the work done of the company only (Al-
Saggaf, 2016). So, the ethical dilemma is that either Greg can forget the ethical code of conduct
of his job and become greedy to attain the bonus and promotions and provide software one
month earlier; or he can convince the program director to not to perform such actions as they can
negative impact to the image of the company in long run (Wachs, 2017). The consequence of
hacked software can lead the company to pay penalties. As the upcoming project of Willis is
worth 3 million so if the company is able to get that project with them, then it can become very
profitable for them and the employees as well. But the condition to attain this project is that they
need to forget the ethics behind the Willis project and provide them early (Lawrence, & Weber,
2014). Also, the senior developer of the project also said that encryption for the project is vital
but they cannot launch the software (with encryption) one month before actual launch. So, either
ways the project manager need to lose one thing while attaining the other. As on one side there
are profits and growth opportunity for the company and on the other side there is the ethics
which the project manager needs to overlook while completing the project (McLeod, Payne, &
Evert, 2016).
Under such circumstances, it is the duty of the manager to always opt for the decisions that are
right irrespective of the loss or profit which the company or they might face. According to the
doing ethics technique, it is important for the management to find out the non-ethical and ethical

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activities related to the scenario. Further, as the doing ethics approach gives suggestions to do
what is right for the organization, so with that respect it is suggested to Greg (project manager)
that he should try to convince the program director to tell the CIO and CEO about the cons of the
early submissions of the project (Crane, & Matten, 2016). Lack of encryption can lead to
company and its reputation into major trouble. Apart from that, the management should not look
at the profits which they will receive after non-complying the ethics, instead they should think of
long run. In this way they can make the right decision which is good for the image of the
company in future as well. Wrong decision will give them temporary profits but it can make
them suffer in future but right decision in this case can help the company achieve greater level of
satisfaction of the customer through their services and loyalty (Anderson, 2016).
Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, it should be noted that it is the responsibility of
the management to follow up the ethics and code of conduct in order to initiate the project
successfully. The project manager should not forget the ethical activities for the 3 million profits
earned by the company.

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References
Al-Saggaf, Y. (2016). Scenario 3: Early Launch. Retrieved on March 18, 2018 from <
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5M7ohdZ6qA>
Al-Saggaf, Y. (2016). Scenario III 3 Program Director Listens to team. Retrieved on 18 March
2018 from < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
annotation_id=annotation_1909438763&feature=iv&src_vid=v5M7ohdZ6qA&v=JjLK_J
jAu48>
Anderson, D. L. (2016). Organization development: The process of leading organizational
change. Sage Publications.
Coghlan, D., & Brannick, T. (2014). Doing action research in your own organization. Sage.
Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2014). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy.
Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
McLeod, M. S., Payne, G. T., & Evert, R. E. (2016). Organizational ethics research: A
systematic review of methods and analytical techniques. Journal of Business
Ethics, 134(3), 429-443.
Wachs, M. (Ed.). (2017). Ethics in planning. Routledge.