Code of Ethics
The purpose of Code of Ethics
The PM² Alliance was founded by project management professionals committed to professional excellence and to a common vision: sharing the benefits of the PM² Methodology with the world.
The Code of Ethics seeks to inspire PM² Alliance members and affiliates and help them maintain the highest ethical and professional standards. Comprised of aspirational principles that members and affiliates can choose to adopt rather than a set of standards that are enforced on them, the PM² Code of Ethics promotes professional excellence through ethical criteria that transcend typical professional and legal obligations.
Encouraging ethical decision-making and conduct, it aims both to complement organizational policies and practices and to facilitate their application. Outmost, the Code of Ethics reflects a consensus on the importance of “doing the right thing” and behaving responsibly towards stakeholders and society, while its application ultimately relies on members’ and affiliates’ genuine willingness to apply it.
The Code of Ethics needs to be signed by everyone who works with the PM² Alliance, as well as by the people and organizations that are certified by it. It is also expected that PM² Alliance members, and everyone who works with the PM² Methodology, will adhere to it.
Key Principles
- Commitment to Stakeholders:
- We keep stakeholders’ best interests in the forefront of our minds. We are willing to do the best we can to serve their interests and objectives, to protect their personal integrity, and to ensure their personal safety and security, individual growth and financial welfare.
- Commitment to Excellence:
- We endeavor to identify and follow best professional practices, and commit to continually improve our knowledge and skills in order to do so.
- Respect:
- We respect cultural, political and economic diversity: our relations, transactions and practices with stakeholders rely on mutual respect and appreciation.
- Transparency and Truthfulness:
- We cultivate openness and disclose information appropriately to facilitate professional efficiency and promote trusting, mutually beneficial, sustainable relationships with stakeholders.
- Trustworthiness and Accountability:
- We deliver what we promise, and take ownership of and responsibility for the results.
- Integrity:
- We apply the principles laid out in this code consistently and will not compromise some in favour of others.
- Social Responsibility:
- We are aware of our impact on the community and aim to promote a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable environment.
Ethics and Best Practices
The standard of conduct that reflects the above principles could contain, but need not be limited to, the following best practices:
Commitment to Stakeholders
We take care to identify stakeholders’ expectations and needs as they change over the duration of the project.
We identify and protect stakeholders’ best interests as required by professional, legal and ethical considerations.
We address and consolidate stakeholders’ diverse needs, proposing appropriate solutions that accommodate those needs.
We apply fair billing procedures and provide honest and accurate progress reports.
We endeavor to bring results of the highest value for stakeholders and care for both the quality and sustainability of the results.
Commitment to Excellence
We strive for the best results possible, applying solutions that meet stakeholders’ needs while maximizing the use of available resources.
We ensure a healthy and safe working environment, applying the highest health and safety standards.
We commit to maintaining and developing our professional competence through relevant lifelong learning.
We do not require or permit people under our control and supervision to engage in projects that exceed their competence, as this is defined by their education, training, certification status, and experience.
We ensure that our business partners also apply the above standards.
Respect
We do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, culture, religion, national origin, disability, social status, economic status etc.
We do not abuse our power in any way and do not engage in harassment, sexual or otherwise. We take precautions to ensure abuses of power and harassment do not take place.
We respect the cultural values and customs of others to the extent that these do not violate the ethical principles set out here and are not contrary to the projects’ goals.
We manage conflicts stemming from social and cultural differences with cultural sensitivity.
We respect others’ contributions, compensate them fairly and acknowledge their contributions in front of others.
Transparency and Truthfulness
We encourage stakeholders to express their expectations, needs and other considerations freely.
We protect stakeholders’ rights and privacy as required by legal and ethical considerations, and explain any limitations on confidentiality.
We respect confidentiality and only disclose and/or discuss confidential information with people who are entitled to the information.
We provide stakeholders with the information they need to make well-informed decisions and to participate productively in the project.
Trustworthiness and Accountability
We are committed to delivering what we promise.
We set realistic goals, exercise regular cost and quality controls, and take appropriate corrective actions when needed.
We provide reasonable notice if we cannot meet our professional obligations, either permanently or temporarily.
We recruit the most suitable people and business partners for a project and support them with the knowledge, equipment and methodology needed to deliver the desired results.
We maintain accurate and timely records and take measures to protect the confidentiality and security of these records, access to which shall be permitted to the extent that it is legally authorized or required.
Integrity
We fully comply with any home and host country laws and regulations which are applicable to a specific field of professional practice.
We do not initiate or contribute to any fraudulent act either intentionally or unintentionally due to ignorance or negligence, which involving gains in any form coming from projects undertaken.
We are honest about our professional qualifications, which include our education, training, competence, credentials and experience.
We uphold and promote high ethical standards. We remain on our guard against all forms of bias, even when we are working under the influence of companies, corporations, institutions or governments whose practices or policies are morally deficient.
If there is evidence that the law or professional and ethical standards have been violated, we react immediately to protect the stakeholders, either working collaboratively with the persons involved to resolve the situation or, if necessary, formally reporting the person who committed the violation to the appropriate internal or external authorities, regulatory bodies or associations.
We identify and appropriately handle potential conflicts of interest, either by avoiding them or disclosing them to the affected parties.
Social Responsibility
We endeavor to create sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships with stakeholders, which are respectful of economic, social, and environmental concerns.
We foster awareness of any harmful individuals and/or project-related environmental and social impacts, and strive to minimize them.
We consider a project’s environmental, economic, and social impacts and prepare for them in both project design and management.
We solicit community input and utilize local experts, resources, goods and services when appropriate to optimize the social and environmental outcomes.
We maximize the use of available resources and search for and apply solutions that minimize environment costs.
We are interested in achieving long-term results that ensure sustainable development.
Personal & Professional Virtues
A virtue is a strength (or excellence) of the person who possesses it, and is expressed as the healthy mean between the extremes of excess and deficiency — a mean that is not universal but subjective, will vary between individuals and their respective circumstances and should be determined by good judgment. The emphasis on moral virtues is placed on the proper control of one’s disposition and actions, for the purpose of helping us discover the right principles of conduct, to know what we ought to do in given situations, as a means toward the achievement of some higher and more inclusive goal.
The virtue of prudence (practical wisdom) refers to our ability to carefully consider how we can achieve our goal. Prudence is characterized as an ‘executive disposition’ because its outcome is something to be executed. It can be examined on two levels: the level of purpose (our ability to set worthy goals) and the level of deliberation (our ability to carefully consider the course and the means of our actions so as to achieve the desired goals).
It is through intuitive insight that the mind grasps the principles of conduct that may point the way toward success and happiness. The virtue of insightfulness refers to our ability to perceive things correctly, to examine circumstances correctly, to understand the relationships between things, to analyse and synthesize. It determines our capacity to learn what is the right thing to do and what is not, and to transfer this knowledge to various contexts in order to achieve our best interest that contributes to our well-being.
The virtue of courage refers to the management of risk taking, and it is described as the productive mean between cowardice (a deficiency) and audacity or fearlessness (an excess). A courageous person pursues (not necessarily without fear) the right goals, for the right reasons, in the right way, at the right time and for the right amount of time. Therefore, a person who is courageous acts and endures whatever is logically required for the attainment of a worthy goal. Courage (which always involves a risk) is a necessary means for the further development of one’s capacities.
The virtue of honor refers to our disposition to seek honors and recognition from others. This virtue is defined as the mean between lack of ambition (when we seek less honors and recognition than we deserve or we have no desire for honors) and over-ambitiousness (when we have an excessive desire for honors or when we seek more honors and recognition than we deserve).
Honesty refers to our ability to tell the truth about ourselves and demonstrate to others who we really are, without denying or exaggerating our qualities. This virtue is the mean between self-deprecation (deficiency) and boastfulness (excess).
The virtue of fairness refers to our disposition to act in such a way that allows benefit and damage to be fairly distributed to those who deserve them, either between ourselves and others or amongst others. Fairness is the mother of all virtues, and for one to be truly fair they have all virtues developed (‘Fairness is superior to all virtues and excellent – Aristotle’).
The virtue of generosity refers to the management of things that are of value (e.g. time, money, knowledge, information, other assets, etc.). It is defined as the productive mean between stinginess (deficiency) and wastefulness (excess). For example, knowledge needs to be shared with the right person, at the right time, in the right quantity, and in the right way, in order for it to be used in a productive way. Therefore, in meeting the needs of others, the amount of one’s generosity should be governed not only by their ability to give but also by whether this amount will be in harmony with the long-term interests of those being served. One should follow the guidance of reason, as generosity is something that needs to be exercised with wisdom if it is to promote one’s own and others’ good.
The virtue of friendliness refers to the management of our amicability in our interactions with others. It is defined as the mean between rudeness (deficiency) and obsequiousness (excess). A rude person enjoys conflict, without taking into consideration whether it displeases or embarrasses others. An obsequious person demonstrates servitude and is mostly interested in being likable to others, avoiding conflict even at great personal cost.
The virtue of humor is described as the mean between boorishness and buffoonery. The boorish person does not enjoy humor, might even be unduly upset or annoyed by it. On the other hand, the buffoon is someone who enjoys humor in excess, expresses it in an unproductive way, with inappropriate timing or frequency, possibly causing annoyance to others.
The virtue of calmness refers to the management of anger. It is the mean between spiritlessness and irritability. Spiritlessness refers to the lack of anger (deficiency), while irritability refers to the excess of anger, in its duration, intensity and frequency. The calm person desires to remain calm and not get carried away by passion or rage, but always within reasonable limits.
The virtue of temperance refers to the management of our desires and is the mean between insensibility and intemperance. A temperate person is one who desires moderately and reasonably all those pleasures that promote health and wellness.
The virtue of magnificence is defined as the mean between paltriness and vulgarity. Paltriness prevails when someone contributes to a cause with a miserly disposition. On the contrary, vulgarity is displayed when someone contributes excessively, much more than is required or expected.
The virtue of magnanimity is defined as the mean between meekness and vanity. A meek person believes that they do not deserve great honors while they actually do deserve them, whereas a vain person believes that they deserve great honors while they actually do not deserve them. The magnanimous (magnum=great) consider they deserve the greatest goods (wealth, influence, prestige, distinctions etc.) when they do indeed deserve them.
Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress. It means “bouncing back” from difficult experiences. It gives people access to their own cognitive resources, enabling cool-headed analysis of what might have gone wrong and consideration of behavioral paths that might be more productive. Resilience is not some magical quality; it takes real mental work to transcend hardship.