Impact of Ethical Values of Indian Project Managers on Software Project Performance

Abstract

As organizations are conducting more and more work through projects led by project managers; the world of global business is turning into a project oriented society. Though project success is critical for organizational sustainability; such success is indeed elusive across several industries. Project managers face a subtle tension in making the right decision, balancing varied interests of stakeholders and yet delivering the best possible outcomes. These paradoxical tensions are often rooted in ethics. Hence the ethical perspective in project management is deemed as crucial in recent times as projects fail to deliver their potential value. Given the ever increasing importance of ethics in project management juxtaposed with its very subjectivity; constant efforts have been made by researchers and PM practitioners to reify ethics in PM. A definite step in this endeavour has been the creation of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide by the Project Management Institute (PMI), USA. The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct enshrined in the PMBOK provide a standard to PM practitioners to do what is right and honourable . The four core ethical values as propagated by this standard are: responsibility, respect, fairness and honesty. These core values have been a popular guide for ethical behaviour in project management practitioners globally across all industries. newlineGiven the spectacular growth in the Indian IT and ITES sector, the emphasis on execution and success of global software projects is even more important. Despite such emphasis a repeated success in software projects has not been found. Hence software professionals need to rethink the entire realm of PM as with ever changing global markets an evaluation of software projects solely on the basis of technical parameters may not suffice. There is a requirement for multidimensional analysis of software project performance with particular emphasis on softer aspects. In this backdrop along with an upsurge of interest in ethical behaviour of project managers with concerned stakeholders in PM literature; our doctoral research attempts to study the perceived impact of ethical behaviour (evinced through the adoption of the PMI core ethical values) of Indian project managers on software project performance. Though the PMI provides a lucid definition of these four core ethical values along with their associated aspirational (expectation of conduct that we have of ourselves and fellow practitioners as professionals) and mandatory conduct (firm requirements); it is a predominantly western cultural view of what is ethical during the execution of projects. Moreover, the PMI does not provide any guidance to a project manager in dealing with ethical dilemmas commonly faced in day to day management of large global projects. Hence an endogenous understanding of these globally accepted core values from project managers in varied cultural contexts is imperative to any research on ethics and its subsequent impact on project performance. Such an understanding is not only worthwhile for the PMI but also will help project managers in ideating on the practical impact and challenges in the execution of these values within the boundaries of a project context. newlineThe major research objectives and questions of this study delved into the meaning, challenges if any, and the impact of PMI core ethical values on software project performance. Given the focus of our research, we have used qualitative research as an appropriate research paradigm and grounded theory to analyze our empirical data. Empirical data was collected from a top IT company, Comcast Integrated Solutions (CIS). A sample of 83 project managers (informants) were interviewed for the purpose of this doctoral research using the logic of purposive sampling. These 83 managers were spread across 11 project verticals and 15 accounts of CIS. This research presents the perspective of Indian project managers on PMI ethical values and its requirement in software projects, challenges associated with its viability and the impact of it on project performance. The research theoretically contributes to the domains of extant work on PMI ethical values in project contexts, role of ethics in projects and role of ethics on software project performance. The research also has provided practical insights into the challenges of practicing these core ethical values in project contexts at CIS and similar other organizational domains. Though limited to a particular context, the doctoral research nevertheless continues the tradition of studies in the past decade focusing on endogenous experiences in projects to make sense of project management processes and project performance. newline