Conflict Of Interest Between The Job Steve example essay topic

Tim Horgan PHL 203 MW Conflict of Interest Upon reviewing the facts in the case of Steve Charles, it is clear that he violated the conflict of interest policy or did he? As far as Steve was concerned, he felt that he had done nothing wrong. Evidence does conclude that at no point did Steve Charles intend to profit from Ridgeway's dealings with DEMC or OIST. The primary point in this investigation was as to whether Steve's situation was a failure to reveal his personal activities or a conflict of interest. The real question that remains to be unanswered is why didn't Steve file any kind of report with Ridgeway disclosing his outside investments if he considered himself clean of any conflict of interest? The case of Steve Charles goes much deeper than just a conflict of interest violation.

Steve was involved in not only one, but two companies. Steve had invested in gas and oil properties owned by DEMC (Diversified Energy Management Consultants). His involvement, however was short lived due to the company bankruptcy in 1989. The other company was Offshore Instrumentation Specialists of Texas (OIST) which Steve was part owner.

It was then found that OIST and Ridgeway worked together in August of 1989 which was on an unsolicited basis. Alex Elon, a long time friend of Steve, had part ownership and operated OIST. Internal Security later found that Alex Elon was consequently involved in a second company was found under the name DEMC. Perhaps the most troubling evidence was that some of the DEMC employees contracted to Ridgeway were under Steve Charles at the time and were in Alan's Department. However, this information was found only after Steve Charles had terminated his involvement in the first company named DEMC. Internal Security began questioning Alan's involvement in the investments which Alan swiftly negated.

When asked about Steve's performance, Alan said that Steve performed better than anyone in the field. At no point did Alan ever question Steve's ability to fulfill his duties. Alan was also in shock to hear that Steve had not disclosed these investments to him or anyone else at Ridgeway. Alan believed that there was no conflict of interest between the job Steve was hired to perform and his personal interests.

When it came time to question Steve himself, he admitted to all of his personal investments and knew he was guilty of failure to disclose investments under the Conflict of Interest policy. In the session with the Internal Security department, Steve produced evidence of his sale of ownership in OIST in 1990. More importantly his recent association with the company DEMC owned by Alex Elon was only coincidental with regards to the use of its personnel on a contract basis. Following the questioning, Alan was faced with a tough decision. The Conflict of Interest policy states that failure to disclose would result in termination. A meeting would be held with a final report deciding whether punishment would be appropriate.

Alan, being Steve's supervisor, was questioning why Steve did not disclose his personal investments with Ridgeway or Alan. Alan knew that no conflict of interest existed or was Steve just a psychological egoist. There is reason to believe that Steve was acting in his own self-interest because if he was clean of any conflict of interest then why wouldn't he have just disclosed his investment information and cleared it with Ridgeway. In the case of Steve Charles it is clear that he failed in telling anyone of his activities outside of the company. I feel however that there was no conflict of interest with respect to Ridgeway, but on the basis of psychological egoism Steve was getting greedy and felt that Ridgeway was not paying well enough for the hard work he maintained. Feeling shortchanged Steve took it upon himself to improve his own well-being and that of his family by making secret investments through investments in similar companies in which he had many contacts.

At the same time Steve was very altruistic with regards to his job and maintained a very high level of performance. Alan should see that in Steve's case that the selfish actions outweigh the altruistic ones and if I were to make the decision I would send Steve elsewhere.