Stakeholder Management: A Theoretical Analysis of the PMBOK® Guide

Author(s)

Randi L. Sims, Huizenga College of Business, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Steven B. Kramer, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Electronic Journal of Business Ethics & Organizational Studies

ISSN

1239-2685

Publication Date

2015

Abstract/Excerpt

Professional certification is an important part of many specialized occupations. For project managers, one certifying body is the Project Management Institute (PMI). To achieve their certification(s), project managers must demonstrate proficiency in a wide variety of associated skills and agree to abide by the PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. In this paper, we briefly review the underlying ethical theoretical foundation of stakeholder theory and the PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. We assessed the PMBOK® Guide to determine where the approach is one of management of stakeholders versus one of management for stakeholders. The areas where there may be inconsistencies between stakeholder theory, the expected codes of ethical and professional conduct for project managers, and the PMBOK® Guide were identified using content analysis. It is our finding that when project achievement is stressed in the PMBOK® Guide, project managers may fail to place a priority on their moral obligation to protect stakeholders and may fail to demonstrate the PMI established values of responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty.

Volume

20

Issue

2

First Page

34

Last Page

42

NSUWorks Citation

Sims, Randi L. and Kramer, Steven B., "Stakeholder Management: A Theoretical Analysis of the PMBOK® Guide" (2015). HCBE Faculty Articles. 113.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hcbe_facarticles/113