Essay Conflict of Interest

Introduction

Conflict of interest takes place at the time of more than one interests and responsibilities of an individual on the personal and professional front, which collide thereby questioning the loyalty of the individual and making him unreliable(Cain & Banker, 2020). This essay provides an account of the ethical issue of conflict of interest. Conflict of interest is an ethical issue as an individual in such a situation is rendered as being incapable of serving justice to any of the involved parties.

Discussion

A person is presented with the ethical challenge of conflict of interest in the context of having vested interest regarding reputation, relationships and money which puts his decision making and judgement into question regarding being unbiased(Boatright, 2013).

In case of an incident of conflict of interest, the business entity or an individual is legally removed from the position of making decisions. For example, in the context of businesses, a conflict of interest can occur at the time of an employee selecting his gains irrespective of the duties towards the employers. Also, the exploitation of the personal position by an individual for individual gains is an ethical issue in this regard.

When the personal interests of an individual conflict with their professional interests owned to their employers, who have invested in them there is a conflict of interest as the ethical obligations of the individual are not fulfilled(Duska, et al., 2018). The duty of loyalty is predefined for the board of members of a corporation.

However, the instance of one of the members of the board of the company to make a decision, which would personally benefit him by causing disadvantage to the firm, would pose a situation of conflict of interest by the person towards the firm. For example, the decision of company board member to appoint his friend or a person of relationship in special position or provide promotion irrespective of merit and performance due to his personally vested interest is a conflict of interest.

Conflict of interest is hence seen as an ethical issue, which might end up in legal ramifications for the individual in addition to chances of loss of employment(Shaw & Barry, 2015). In case of any chances of conflict of interest not yet maliciously acted by an individual, there is a provision to remove such an individual from the decision making position which can result in a conflict of interest.

Self-dealing is a kind of conflict of interest wherein the individuals working in a company in the management level accept payments from other companies which personally benefits him but harms the firm in which he is employed along with its clients. Another kind of conflict of interest is the issuance of gifts wherein gifts are received by the managerial level staff of an organization from the clients.

Conclusion

From this essay, it is concluded that conflict of interest occurs whenever there is a clast amongst the personal and professional interest of an individual. Self-dealing is a type of conflict of interest by a member of the corporate fiduciary to take payment from other companies for personal gain and harm to the organization which employs them.

References

Boatright, J., 2013. Ethics in finance. 2nd ed. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Cain, D. & Banker, M., 2020. Do Conflict of Interest Disclosures Facilitate Public Trust?. AMA Journal of Ethics, 22(3), pp. 232-238.

Duska, R., Duska, B. & Kury, K., 2018. Accounting ethics. 4th ed. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Shaw, W. & Barry, V., 2015. Moral issues in business. 3rd ed. London: Cengage Learning.

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