1.0 Overview
Conflicts of interest occur when an individual who involved in making a decision struggled to produced the required task due to his or her personal views towards the project. Therefore it will corrupt the objectives of the project.
The conflict of interest presents, due to many factors. The employees who deal with a project might miss use any information which they gathered under different project, to favour the current assignment. The decision might change if the person is to gain something by completing the project such as bonus by the employer therefore they might work excessive numbers of hours to finish the project. The company might use any information that they posses in order to take the lead if they know the competitor personally. Also, lack of interest by the staff who are involves in the project is a major factor. Such as, redundancy moving jobs and on coming vacations will cause staffs to lose interest in their work.
Every construction site is unique. Conflicts are common incidence within the construction project. The client, subcontractor and supplier directly or indirectly involve in most of the construction project. Everyone needs to share their roles and responsibilities, bearing in mind, the obligation of construction conflicts are in Cost, Time, and Quality. Conflicts resolution is important for every construction body. The conflicts of interest produce combined attach of serious factors and arguments. Interaction method is one of the details to resolve every situation in construction industry. Conflicts arise in many areas such as procurement selecting system. The procurement depends on the factors that influence the project alteration
Example:-
Case 1
A person has been allocated by his organisation to deal with a given company’s construction issues and materials. There are many businesses provide relevant materials for the company. This staff already knew that his brother is one of the businesses which seek to get the offer from the company. The staff took the decision without disclosing this crucial information to the board of managers and chose his brother to receive the contract. The influence caused by his brother is one of the conflicts of interests.
2.0 Implication
There are some implication relates to conflicts of interest. Loss of trust and breach of confidentiality occur when the employee misuse the vital information. In addition, in order to complete the project the relevant party could desire or not disclose any cruel detail to the employer. Therefore, the employee can lose their job. In more serious circumstances, the employer can take legal action against their employee for breaching the Code of Ethics.
3.0 Professional Etiquette
Each organisation will have their Code of Ethics. It is contains set of laws to promote the company well being and penalize any unaccepted behaviour among the employees. Model employee should follow the Code of Ethic appropriately in order to have a professional etiquette. The employer and employees should behave with integrity. They should practice fair dealing when it comes to their project and clients. Most of all, clients seek an honest company rather than efficient one. The clients need to make important decisions depending on the advice they receive from the managers or the project workers of the organisation. The advice they receive should not be influenced or corrupted through self- interest or the company interest. Furthermore, no members of the organisation should be force to or voluntarily involved in any lawful dealings which will alter the outcomes of the project. Under any situation, that if someone witness or know any details of unlawful act, they should take any measure to prevent and report to the organisation promptly.
The project co-ordinator should acknowledge the objectives of the project. Under any circumstances, the objectives should not be changed unless the client or the management wish to do so. The project manager should examine all the relevant details keeping the objectives in mind. The judgment should derive from the enquiries made purely according to the objectives. Any judgment which obtained without keeping the objectives of the project will result in conflicts of interest.
Bribery is a major breach of the Code of Ethics. All members should know that any kind of gifts taken in order to provide a service in any aspect will result in disciplinary action. Any documents produced relates to the project should be drawn according to the rule and never produce a forged documents. Anyone who has a contact with a client should act in a professional manner. They should not provide false information or mislead the clients. They should be truthful and unbiased. They should not judge the clients with own opinion.
Data protection act and confidentiality guidelines prevent a member of an organisation to misuse the information without the owner’s knowledge. In order for the company to assist the clients, the clients will provide many vital confidential details. The members of the organisation cannot use those details for their personal activities or misuse them for a different project. If a member leaves an organisation in order to work for another one, they can only use their experiences to work effectively in their new job. They cannot re-use any confidential information that they handled from the previous employer in order to impress the new employer or otherwise. The members of the organisation should show utmost care in the clients’ interest when they are dealing with projects. The organisation will not survive without their clients. In order for the clients to use the same company numerous times, the organisation should promote trust. They should be trustworthy in everything they do such as advice given by the company, investigation of the project, promotion of any product or idea, carry out the work without expecting something in return and handling the sensitive details.
The employees who involved in any project should undertake tasks that they already posses training or qualification. Hence, they should not willingly or not take any duty that they are not authorised to do so. Efficiency and accuracy of each work undertaken for a client is also an important factor. They should not lack in speed and expect something in return to speed up the work. Each document should show accurate details which gathered without misusing the information or the position. The imbursement for the work done by the organisation should not vary due to the clients’ financial capabilities. They should treat everyone with dignity and respect. In all manors, they should advertise their company Ethos for its fullest strength.
4.0 Quality Standards
Each company should have the Code of Practice in place and should have internal policies to deal with and manage the conflicts of interest. The quality standards will monitor the application of these policies. These policies must be appropriate to each company. The policy should take consideration of the company’s structure and its magnitude, the products it sells or administer, the knowledge of its clients and the types of service it provide or engages in. Big organisations will point an officer to deal and responsible for all employees to deal with the conflicts of interests. The employees can seek advice regards to conflicts of interest and it can be treated confidentially if needed.
Free training should be offered to all the members of the organisation to recognise the conflicts of interest. Also, the training should include ways to manage and eradicate the conflicts of interests once they have been identified. The training should be ongoing so the employees will be familiar with any up to date information. Place any suitable measures to manage and control the conflicts of interests. In addition, the measures should be tested regularly in order to recognise any weak areas. The policies should be update according to any new findings. The Code of Practice should be accessible to all the clients.
4.1 Avoiding methods
All the employers should promote rigorous training methods to avoid the conflicts of interest. The conflicts of interest will not arise if each company bide by their company rules. The company should carefully plan the way to employ the directors and other relevant staffs. The staffs should be familiar with all the procedures which they need to follow. Therefore, they need to be qualified to work in this sector. They would have gained most of the relevant information by following their course. Once they are qualified, apprenticeship is useful for them to gain the on-hand experience. The recruitment procedure should be followed with caution. The company should not allow anyone to employ their relative unless they fulfil the required criteria when the company advised the vacancy. Nepotism should be banned.
The decision making directors of the company should not have any other business commitments such as, own another or in charge of a company. In addition, they should not involve with political office. In some cases, the company was placed in a difficult position by the directors due to the directors having two corporate positions. Two cooperate position is harmless as long as the two company will not meet as a competitors. Directors should avoid having a position in the public office in order to not to get influenced by any political views. Credibility of a person who makes the important decisions is very vital for a company to keep their high standard among the construction industries.
The employers should keep the business and the personal assets separate from each other. Hence, under any unfortunate circumstances, the company will not be damaged if the employer needed to proceed with any bankruptcy due to the employer’s personal problems.
All the directors and the managers should be approachable with equal opportunity in minds, by other staffs. They should be an authoritarian but friendly. They should be in a position to recognise the employers’ work load.
References
Griffiths,M.,Griffiths.,I.(2002).Law for purchase and supply,3rdEdition,The charted institute of purchase and supply: Londonhttp://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/About/What/International/mifid/key_topics/conflicts/index.shtml(Accessed:04 August 2010)
