Improving Ethical Decision Making through the Lens of Graduate Project Management Students

The purpose of this paper is to examine the practiced application of the Ethical Decision Making Framework (EDMF) by graduate project management students (as a proxy for practicing project leaders and managers). This research extends management practice by improving one of the tools available to project managers in decision-making. The methodology used a quasi-experimental setting by collecting and analysing student papers that applied the EDMF. This approach identified what the participants did well, what they struggled with, and which questions were most and least used. This resulted in improvements to the EDMF toolset, from both a macro and micro perspective. Macro improvements focused on question structure to reduce complexity and increase understanding and combining specific steps. Micro improvements included adapting the framework beyond project management and adding a broader focus on stakeholders. This study provides a focused approach to ethical decision making by adding to the practitioner toolkit.