Conflicts of Interest
,Conflict of interest
When a person, such as a public official, an employee, or a
professional, has a private or personal interest (financial or
other) sufficient to appear to influence his or her ability to
exercise his or her professional responsibilities objectively.
Source: UBC Centre for Applied Ethics
,A real estate agent (buyer’s agent) who has an incentive to get you
to buy a house quickly and for a high price (to earn a quick, high
commission)
, A conflict of interest is something that a single person (or
entity) has. So if you think there might be a conflict of interest in
a situation, you should be able to answer the following questions:
1.Who has the conflict of interest? (if it is more than one person—if one
person has one interest and another person has the conflicting interest—this is
probably not a conflict of interest)
2.What are the conflicting interests?
1. What is the professional responsibility (or expectation of objectivity
or independence)? Ex: fiduciary duty.
2. What is the conflicting personal interest?
Within a company, often the interests of different stakeholders will conflict. This is not a “conflict
of interest.” So if the customers want the lowest price possible but this would require paying
employees less, you could say that the interests of the two stakeholder groups conflict but this is
not what is typically meant when the term “conflict of interest” is used.
In some cases, a company can be said to have a conflict of interest; for example, if their job is to
be objective in some sense but their personal interest (profits, success of business) might
compromise that objectivity (e.g., auditing firms).
,Conflict of interest
When a person, such as a public official, an employee, or a
professional, has a private or personal interest (financial or
other) sufficient to appear to influence his or her ability to
exercise his or her professional responsibilities objectively.
Source: UBC Centre for Applied Ethics
,A real estate agent (buyer’s agent) who has an incentive to get you
to buy a house quickly and for a high price (to earn a quick, high
commission)
, A conflict of interest is something that a single person (or
entity) has. So if you think there might be a conflict of interest in
a situation, you should be able to answer the following questions:
1.Who has the conflict of interest? (if it is more than one person—if one
person has one interest and another person has the conflicting interest—this is
probably not a conflict of interest)
2.What are the conflicting interests?
1. What is the professional responsibility (or expectation of objectivity
or independence)? Ex: fiduciary duty.
2. What is the conflicting personal interest?
Within a company, often the interests of different stakeholders will conflict. This is not a “conflict
of interest.” So if the customers want the lowest price possible but this would require paying
employees less, you could say that the interests of the two stakeholder groups conflict but this is
not what is typically meant when the term “conflict of interest” is used.
In some cases, a company can be said to have a conflict of interest; for example, if their job is to
be objective in some sense but their personal interest (profits, success of business) might
compromise that objectivity (e.g., auditing firms).
