Chapter 95: Ensuring Individual Integrity

Professionalism begins with individual integrity, which is a state of being complete and incorruptible. You can look at integrity as a point of reference based on truth and honesty, and you can maintain your integrity by using this point of reference as a guideline for your behavior and decision making. Integrity identifies you as who you are. You demonstrate integrity by taking responsibility for your decisions and actions. If you don’t have integrity, people won’t know who you really are, and they won’t trust you. So, individual integrity is a very significant part of professionalism in any profession.

As a professional, you must set high standards, and you must aspire to meet those standards in all avenues of your life: be it work or at home. In that context, in project management, you maintain your integrity by being honest and truthful everywhere. For example, in the PMP exam, as well as while working in any company as the Project Manager.

Dealing with the PMP exam and PMI

For example, while going through the process of obtaining PMP certification, individual integrity demands that it is your responsibility to adhere to the following practices:

• While going through the process of obtaining PMP certification, provide accurate and true information.
• Maintain the confidentiality of the content of the PMP examination. For ex: Do not disclose the questions in the exam to other PMP candidates.
• Cooperate with PMI concerning any ethical violation and in collecting related information.

The same honesty, truthfulness, and openness that you exhibit during the process of obtaining PMP certification also applies while you are working in the field of project management.
Working in the project management field

The activities that you perform as a PMP include representing yourself as a PMP, advertising your organization and your services, and running projects. To maintain your individual integrity during these activities, it is your responsibility to adhere to the following practices:

• Be accurate and truthful in advertising and representing your qualifications, experience, and the services you can perform.
• Be accurate and truthful to the public in advertising and public statements. For example, if your project is going to damage the environment, don’t say it’s going to help the environment.
• Maintain and satisfy the scope and objectives of the services promised to the customer.
• Follow the applicable laws, regulations, and ethical standards of the city, state, and country of your workplace.
• Neither offer nor accept inappropriate payments in any form, such as gifts, which might qualify as bribery.

Trivia:
When you are in a foreign country, sometimes it can be tricky to figure out the right thing to do in a given situation. The trick here is if you are being asked to do something, such as pay some money to an official for getting something done, that is not legal or ethical in your country and culture, first investigate whether it is legal and ethical in the country you are in now. If you find it to be illegal and unethical there as well, but you are told it’s a common practice, do not do it.

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