ABSTRACT

One of the chairs interviewed by Douglas Long and Zivit Inbar commented that, long before he was able to show that an ethical issue existed and that the board needed to act, he had ‘a gut feeling’ that something was ‘not quite right’. It was this ‘gut feeling’ that prompted him to further investigations. Other chairs admitted to having similar ‘feelings about the ethical correctness of something’, yet went on to say that, once they had ascertained the activity was legal, they took no further action. Every project has an economic and social impact on the organisation. Sometimes the impact can be so great that project failure could have seriously adverse effects on the organisation’s viability; others, of course, may have more of an impact on the project champion’s ego than on organisational sustainability, but both economic issues and ego need to be considered. The reputation of both the organisation and the project champions can be at risk in a project.