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Unit 4: Project Analysis and Selection

know is that in some cases the situation quoted was a no-win situation for the mining Notes
company involved. Let’s take the example of a Canadian company operating in Ecuador
as an example.
According to the article by staff reporter Brett Popplewell in the Monday, November 23,
2009 edition of the Toronto Star, the company is engaged in a project to build an open pit
copper mine in Ecuador. The mine has provided jobs for one Ecuadorian community and
is popular with it as a result. Another community is fiercely opposed to the project because
they fear the mine will negatively impact their small farms and this has led to conflict
between the two communities. The Ecuadorian ministry of mines is on-side with the
project but apparently has done nothing to quell the conflict between the two communities.
Allegations have been made by members of the opposed community that the guards
hired by the mining company have used excessive force in dealing with protests against
the mine. The guards, or course, are Ecuadorian citizens. Another story in the same paper
quotes an accusation of gang rape at a mine in Papua New Guinea, again unproven. The
latter allegation is so serious that the paper did not mention the mining company the
accusation was leveled at (they did mention the company involved in the Ecuadorian
accusations). A third allegation involved a company operating in Argentina. The allegation
is that the company used threats to force an Argentine government official out of office.
The companies claim to have followed all the mining laws, rules, regulations, and standards
of the countries they are operating in. They further claim to have followed their own code
of ethics. These ethics have been developed and implemented at significant expense in
some cases. In some cases the spokesperson answering the allegations on behalf of the
companies is the Vice President of Corporate Responsibility which is some indication of
the emphasis placed on ethical behaviour by these companies. Whether or not these
companies have been effective in adhering to the laws of the countries they operate in and
their own codes, it is apparent to me that they have honestly tried to do so. What went
wrong then?
The problems these companies are currently encountering can be traced back to the factors
previously mentioned. Implementing the code of ethics crafted by their CSR organisations
will inevitably inflate costs at some point during some projects. Is it possible for a
corporation to have two organisations that are in conflict? You bet. Remember we’re
dealing with people here and as everyone who has worked with others knows, a working
relationship leads to differences of opinion. For a team working on a project, the project
manager will ask the team members to forsake personal agendas for the good of the
project. When the conflicts are operational and conducted at the executive level this approach
doesn’t always work.

The initiation of the mining project, in the case of the Ecuadorian mine, was enough to
initiate a conflict between the two communities in the area of the mine. One suspects that
there may have been issues between the two that pre-date the mine. So how does all this
concern the project manager? The issues the Canadian mining companies are experiencing
demonstrate the difficulties it is possible to face when doing business in a foreign country.
These examples are probably extreme. I’m sure that not many software projects will lead
to a corporation facing allegations of physical abuse or rape. On the other hand, the
underlying factors will affect any project. The question is what can a project manager do to
address these factors?
The first step is for the project manager to understand all the issues that can affect the
project, including preexisting local issues. Is it reasonable to expect a project manager to
have foreseen the conflict between the two communities involved in the Ecuadorian

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