文档介绍：Conflict of interest
In an article written for the Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, philosopher Michael Davis provides a clear analysis of conflict of interest (COI). He describes a conflict of interest as "a situation in which some interest of a person has a tendency to interfere with the proper exercise of judgment in another’s behalf." COI undermines good fiduciary judgment; it creates what Davis calls "a usual risk of error" that is likely to result in a faulty fiduciary judgment or action. Davis says, "A conflict of interest is like dirt in a sensitive gauge." Dirt makes the gauge unreliable, so you may think the gas tank is half empty when you are about to run out of gas.
He offers three reasons why conflict of interest is ethically objectionable:
The person with the COI may be negligent in not responding to it, for example, by failing to inform affected parties about the conflict. The negligence here may well be in underestimating how much the conflict could affect one’s judgment.
Insofar as others don’t know about the COI, they may be led to overestimate the individual's reliability.
Informing affected parties about a COI may still lead to impaired professional or occupational judgment because the individual may still offer advice that fails to meet fiduciary standards.
Davis correctly notes that there are non-financial as well as financial COIs. For example, a