Imagine you are a project manager and a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI). Alexia is a friend and colleague who works in the training department. She comes to you for advice about a potential ethical dilemma. Alexia is not a project manager or a member of PMI. She is a member of a team that is creating a training program for new sales people. This training program will consist of in-house training and online technical training.
The team is about to search for companies to purchase or create the online technical training needed. Alexia has been in the industry for many years and is an expert in the field. Given her experience, the project manager has asked Alexia to lead the team to define the requirements and come up with a list of vendors. Alexia knows the vendors in this field, she worked for one of them for 10 years, and she is still close with many of the employees.
Alexia’s sister is also in the industry; in fact, she is the local sales manager for a training company that will be a top contender for the job. Since Alexia has a family member and friends who work for two of the potential vendors, she has two potential conflicts of interest and has asked for your help in how to ethically navigate this situation. When she leaves your office, you pull out the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (Links to an external site.) and the ethical decision making framework provided in the Weekly Lecture.
1-What potential ethical violations exist?
2-Share at least three potential recommendations for navigating the potential ethical violations, and walk through the ethical decision making framework to show your thought process.
3-What is your final recommendation? Why?