Ethics and Professional Responsibility Essay

Introduction

Professional ethics is a paramount aspect of any profession, particularly in project management. The project management institute [PMI] has developed professional standards of conduct and code of ethics that serves as ethical standards for its members (Pells, 2006).

There are two main aspects of the standards for the PM profession. To begin with, the major foundation of ethical conduct is honesty, which generally implies the absence of specific characteristics, such as lies, theft or cheating. Honesty facilitates the optimal application of project management skills which leads to better interaction and trust amongst the project personnel, including managerial stakeholders, clients and the civilian (2006).

Secondly, project management standards must consolidate ethical characteristics necessary for the experts to win public admiration or respect. Such characteristics must reflect dedication to moral behavior and project. A moral project is one that is useful for the society, and which must not cause any form of destruction such as international terrorism, systems sabotage, environmental degradation, harm to people, or other adverse projects (2006).

Ethical and professional consideration of foreign cultures

In this regard, I have chosen a geographical project approach. Usually, a geographical project involves interaction of the researcher with people, areas, and things.

Importantly, when conducting a geographical project, a geographer should observe honesty at all times. They should not by any means fabricate the research findings or commit plagiarism. Also, they must conform to the government’s regulations for the protection of researchers, the environment, human subjects and the general public in their work settings (Association of American Geographers, 2009).

Geographers who deal with human subjects should seek appraisal and authorization from their respective Institutional Review Board [IRB] and fulfill their IRB requirements for informed consent, alteration of research conduct, and accountability with regard to adverse events. The basic considerations of IRB are; review and disclosure of grant donors, appraisal of communication to subordinate staff, and disclosure about the utility of research findings (Association of American Geographers, 2009).

Nevertheless, geographers should be responsible for analysis and fulfillment of any ethical issues at the same time reporting such issues to the IRB, so long as they are not covered by the board and it relate to geographic study and the use of geospatial information. Lastly, profession should familiarize with the applicable credentials on which the IRB protocols are founded (Association of American Geographers, 2009).

Based on the IBS guidelines, the following important principle should be considered when conducting a research project. They include (Association of American Geographers, 2009):

1. Respect for the public: – all the members of the community are entitled to an informed consent when they participate in a certain research project in order to have their privacy protected to the extent achievable.
2. Equity: – refers to the sharing of study outcomes with the persons and the communities involved to a reasonable and legal extent.
3. Beneficence: – implies the optimization of reimbursement while minimizing occurrence of harmful effects of the project. Also, the desire to learn from the project should be coupled with the thought of the short-term and long-term impact of the project on the human population, and the biodiversity of the area under survey.
4. Respect for values of sustained environmental conservation, landforms, climate, natural resource, biodiversity and ecosystem.

Research project concerning indigenous people, ethnic minorities and marginalized populations are usually characterized by specific challenges which require special approaches in spite of the participation of the locals. Possible issues involve physical or social prejudices to participants from within or without their associates; infringement of intellectual property, and threats to the practicality of the team and its region arising from documented information and/or the data collection method.

Research project in the above circumstances should be performed with pre-informed knowledge of the proper protocols, and the cultural, social, or legal consequences that may occur.

As far as the local participation is concerned, the foreign professionals are required by the ethical code to relate with the indigenous respectfully to achieve joint reimbursement and reciprocity by taking into consideration the following measures;

1. conducting open discussion with the locals in orders to gather their views about the project;
2. instilling the conviction that the project is for the community’s own good;
3. working hard to achieve the objectives of the project that will guarantee improvement of the community social status and the community involvement in the project.

The global society

The leaders in government, non-governmental organizations [NGOs] and business, presently appreciate global economic progression as “the best way to increase prosperity within and among countries and to create opportunities for millions of people, especially in the developing world, to secure a decent life for themselves and their children” (business ethics, p. 7).

Nevertheless, the challenge is to find the appropriate balance between prospective global standards, values and norms and the local community expectations, business performance, and cultures (business ethics, n.d).

Based on national and organizational variations, it is apparently inappropriate to expect all organizational ethical and professional standards to be similar. However, multinational organizations operating in various countries need to take into consideration the basic validity of a code of ethics that was designed in the country of its headquarters.

In case of disparity in the ethical concerns by country, implementing a code of ethics designed for a specific country on another may obviously be counterproductive. Thus, exotic professionals representing a multinational organization should be informed that their personal views of ethical issues may not agree with that of the indigenous participants (Schlegelmilch and Robertson, n.d cited in Business ethics pdf, n.d).

Reference List

Association of American Geographers. (2009). Statement of Professional Ethics. Washington DC; BrowserMedia. Web.

Business ethics. Responsible Business Conduct in an Emerging Market Economy. Web.

Pells, D. L. (2006). Professional ethics – the most important subject for the PM profession. Web.