Project Management Foundations: Ethics
with Bob McGannon
Ethical Reporting Examples
The following represents two ethical reporting examples. Note these examples focus on firsthand accounts
only, and any witnesses have specifically given their authorization to be included in the report.
Many organizations have a standard form for submitting an ethical violation report. Review your company’s
policies to determine if such a template exists before submitting any details for an ethics violation in your
organization.
In the first example, note the detail of exactly when and where the incident occurred and that witnesses have
agreed to be included in the report.
Example 1:
Complaint lodged by: Sam Employee
Email: [Link]@[Link]
Date incident observed: June 20, 2018
Name of alleged violator: Miss Guided
Ethics code violated: Respect for All Employees Policy
Nature of the violation: Concern about the content of a report was expressed, but what was expressed went
beyond the report to attack a team member as an individual.
Factual description of incident: While expressing concern about a report lodged by Tommy Teammate,
Miss Guided, in a loud voice, attacked the report but continued to berate Tommy’s character and his family’s
ethnicity. This occurred in the CR4 conference room on June 20, during the 2–3 p.m. Business Analysis team
meeting. The two witnesses cited in this report were in the team meeting, heard the exchange in the team
meeting, and have agreed to be included in this report.
Witnessed and verified by:
Jane Sawit
[Link]@[Link]
Pete Heard
[Link]@[Link]
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You will note, in the second example below, there is no contention that a policy was breached. Because of the
breach, the factual report has been assembled, with the facts laid out simply and directly. The report is being
filed so (a) it is known and acknowledged that an ethics policy has been violated, and (b) that management is
being consulted for any action they deem necessary, given the breach and the facts at hand.
Example 2:
Complaint lodged by: Sally Stakeholder
Email: [Link]@[Link]
Date incident observed: September 20, 2018
Name of alleged violator: Judy Judger
Ethics code violated: Contract Award Policy
Nature of the violation: Contract extension was awarded to KinetEco Inc. without proper review of
alternative vendor options.
Factual description of incident:
• The supervising manager (Paul Policy) for the KinetEco Inc. staff members called me, surprised the
KinetEco Inc. contractors were still on-site after the end of their contracted time frame.
• KinetEco Inc. reported that Judy Judger had contacted them stating that they had a three-month
extension to their original contract.
• Judy has confirmed that she did so, stating that she believed the contract was to be extended if she
had not heard otherwise from Paul Policy.
• The contract does allow for a three-month extension, but due to the cost of the contract, according
to the Contract Award Policy, a competitive analysis needs to be performed before extending
the contract.
• Paul Policy does have additional work for the KinetEco Inc. staff and has been pleased with
their performance.
• Note: This report is being filed for record keeping, and to elicit guidance from management as to
how to proceed with the KinetEco Inc. team, and whether or not, at this point, a competitive analysis
should be performed.
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