6.1 INDIVIDUAL INTEGRITY

Project team members must often make tough decisions in dealing with various aspects of the project throughout the project life cycle. Complicated project circumstances develop when project team members are expected to make trade-offs in scope, time, and cost of the project while maintaining a focus on customer satisfaction. With this technical backdrop, the project professional must always focus on the right thing to do. Fortunately, most of the time, project team members can recognize right from wrong when making decisions that relate to project and technical issues (Harrison, 2002). Identifying the right thing to do, though, becomes more complicated in instances where one needs to go beyond the technical details to consider issues such as social responsibility, economic and environmental sustainability, and safety. In order to protect the project community and all stakeholders, the project team must adhere to all legal requirements, ethical codes, moral obligations, and professional standards. It is only then that the project professional has shown a commitment to ensuring individual integrity and professionalism . That illusive concept known as good judgment will be called upon in situations that lack clearcut answers. Project team members must have a collective behavioral pattern that emphasizes understanding, supporting one another, and sensitivity to ethical issues. Such a collective behavior will instill confidence among team members, thus leading to the most beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders (Carter, 2002).

A virtual team is different from a traditional team because regular feedback is scarce in the virtual team. On the other hand, a virtual team is the same as a traditional team because one's behavior still depends on an individual sense of right and wrong. There might be situations during the life of a virtual project where, for a variety of reasons, the decision making is delegated to an individual team member. The team member may not have easy access to other members of the team, or an unconstrained amount of time to think through a difficult situation, in order to determine the best course of action to follow. The immediacy of the event, and the lack of collocated team members when tough choices must be made, may mean that the team member is often on his or her own. Gradually, it may become the norm to take more risks in the virtual environment, since the team members do not have the luxury of holding a face-to-face discussion.