“The greatest victory is the victory over oneself”
The Buddha
When working on a project, we often question whether our behavior or decisions in those project circumstances are ethical. Have we applied appropriate ethical principles to the specific issues of the project? Have we considered the problem from multiple perspectives, or do we assume we possess the “truth” and decide everything?
First, we need to ask ourselves if we truly understand ethics, the concepts and forms that reflect the most general aspects of things and phenomena in reality and the relationships between them, and the principles, universally defined and acknowledged, that help us perceive and adjust our behavior to align with the goal of bringing welfare to people, communities, and society.
To live an ethical life, one needs to clearly understand and distinguish between ethical and unethical concepts, and between ethical and unethical actions. Fortunately, humanity shares a common understanding of universal ethical concepts such as: honesty, integrity, trustworthiness, impartiality, fairness, altruism, respect, politeness, kindness, selflessness, honesty, empathy, compassion, understanding…; and concepts describing unethical behavior or motives such as: deception, trickery, dishonesty, prejudice, injustice, ruthlessness, rudeness, selfishness, greed, indifference, heartlessness, stubbornness…
Among these ethical concepts, responsibility, respect, impartiality, and integrity are ethical values widely recognized and applied in project management.