What exactly is a Conflict of Interest (COI)?
Any organization’s working professionals must face the organization’s conflict of interest rules, which may be complicated. In the workplace, the phrase “Conflict of Interest” refers to an individual’s split loyalties when they engage in a similar activity that damages their primary employment, which is a violation of company policy.
For the most part, if an employee or an individual is earning money from a similar activity such as writing or consulting for external entities while also employed by an organization for which such actions result in monetary and nonmonetary losses, it is assumed that the employee violates their employment contract.
A conflict of claim is made when an elected official provides accommodations to those under investigation for wrongdoing while still serving in a profit position or when the elected official occupies a place of profit while serving in the legislature. According to the law, when a person obtains monetary and nonmonetary gains from an activity that results in financial and non monetary losses to their primary employer, a conflict of interest has arisen.
Organizational Rules as well as Regulatory Enforcement
This is why many firms have well-defined rules on conflict of interest, detailing the sorts of parallel activities that workers are permitted to engage in and those not allowed to engage in. For example, consultants doing an assignment for a client are not allowed to accept payment from the client or request or fulfill favors on the client’s behalf since the consultant’s primary responsibility is with the company that has hired them.
In this scenario, consultants have a legal obligation to notify their employers if their customers expect favors from them or request that they engage in a similar activity that is in direct contradiction with the company’s primary activity.
It should be noted that even gifts provided by the client may be subject to conflict of interest provisions, which is one of the reasons why many organizations require disclosure of all donations received from clients, as well as the prohibition of gift taking without the necessary permissions from the consultant’s superiors.
Information from a trusted source
Furthermore, when consultants have access to insider information, such as news about planned mergers and acquisitions, they may be tempted to utilize that knowledge for monetary advantage by trading on the stocks of the firms about which they have insider information, which is against the law.
In this particular scenario, such conflicts of interest are taken quite severely by the authorities, who have not shied away from sentencing such offenders to prison in recent years when those who have breached insider trading regulations have been found guilty.
As a result of this, consultants may be requested by their customers to fudge the financial statements or to endorse misinterpreted financial messages, in addition to providing overly exaggerated estimates regarding the company’s financial status. In all of these situations, the consultants must be on the lookout for the simple goals of their clients, as well as cautious about not breaching the law in the process.
Conflicts of Interest and How Consultants Can Handle Them
While it is human nature to succumb to seduction, consultants must remember that they are responsible to their businesses and their customers’ shareholders and have a duty and obligation towards the broader community as a whole. And although accepting gifts and other forms of financial and non-financial incentives is undoubtedly tempting, ethics and ethical norms require that they conduct themselves by the highest standards of business behavior.
In addition, as previously said, authorities have been pushing down hard on violators in recent years. As a result, consultants must be aware of the unlawful nature of actions that include a conflict of interest to avoid being caught. Furthermore, in the path of the 2008 financial crisis, many organizations have tightened rules and regulations, ensuring that even minor breaches are met with stiff penalties.
The Clear Conscience is the softest of all the pillows
All careers have the potential to generate income via unethical methods. It is recommended that professionals who come across a conflict of interest disclose the situation to their superiors or the compliance team anonymously if they believe that their bosses are pushing them to break the regulations.
Additional whistleblower protections are required for consultants who believe their concerns are not being addressed in situations where there is systematic abuse and misuse of resources and violations of regulations. When one’s conscience requires it, it is also necessary to follow that conscience, even if one’s work is at stake.
After all, it is possible to find a job elsewhere. Still, the harm to one’s reputation, as well as the possibility of persistent suspicions of wrongdoing, would prevent this from happening. When it comes to pillows, NR Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys, reportedly said, “The softest cushion is a clean conscience.”
