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The ethics of managing conflicts

Thursday 3 February, 2022
by The BFSO

You’re a financial services executive with many years industry experience and were recently invited to apply for a position  on the board of a large Australian construction company. There are others that have been invited to go through the board recruitment process but you’re hopeful you’ll be successful given your qualifications and experience. You’re excited about this next step in your career.

You discover you were in the same University dorm as one of the executives at the company, although you weren’t close friends.

On the morning of your scheduled interview, a media story breaks, alleging the executive you knew in university was recently involved in a serious case of sexual harassment and bullying at the construction company.

Even though you are concerned about a perceived conflict of interest, you feel confident there is not an actual one and don’t think it needs discussion in the recruitment process.

What would you do?

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Photo by Kev Costello on Unsplash

Comments

There are 2 comments for The ethics of managing conflicts.

Re: The ethics of managing conflicts

Friday 4 February, 2022
by Kristin
I think that being transparent about this in the interview process is vital. Imagine if they were to find out later you had not acknowledged your relationship and it had been discussed at a board level. Your input would be tainted and trusting you in the future would be difficult. What's the worst that can happen - asking you to remove yourself from the conversation? Better than looking like you conceal things when it suits you.

Re: The ethics of managing conflicts

Friday 4 February, 2022
by Chris
I think it's important to separate these issues. Going for an interview is one thing; a sexual harassment case needs to be treated with the utmost seriousness and as such has legal counsel involved.

If it turns out during the case that there is a culture of sexual harassment in the company, this might result in you turning down any subsequent offer of employment post-interview.

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