I hear a lot about conflict of interest at the board and executive level. Is it an issue below that?

Conflict of interest is possible and serious throughout all levels of staff. The Code of Conduct for staff, and staff training and orientation, should address it explicitly.

Service Conflicts

Most such conflicts arise when family, friends or business associates of the family are involved with the nonprofit. The October 2005 column mentioned one common issue, which is giving preference to family members when doing intake for services. This should be an easy-to-identify conflict, but some people do not realize it is wrong.

Many staff have decision authority over access to programs, wait times, amount of funding (such as a rental housing supplement), and which staff member or volunteer gets assigned to a client. Most of our human service organizations are over-burdened and under-resourced, so they cannot give timely service to everyone who needs it. Many people find it difficult to turn down a friend in place of a stranger, even if the stranger is a better fit for the program criteria, or to keep a family member waiting when a spot opens up, even if others are higher on the list for the next appointment or apartment.

This natural inclination can be partly overcome with well-written objective criteria and training in how to apply them. However, the perception of bias may remain, and you may also need to set up systems for people to self-identify when they are in a real or potential conflict situation and have the decision moved to another staff person. That way, justice is seen to be done. Even very small organizations can move the decision up a level; larger ones can shift it at the peer level. If there is only one staff person, and the board does not want to get involved in operations, use a volunteer committee to take a recommendation from the one staff person with a statement of his or her conflict and how the conflict has been handled.

Worse, there are times when staff members are offered inducements to make certain program decisions. I remember one interviewee who had considered accepting a Hawaiian vacation from a client while a decision on his file was pending – and she was not sure if that was a conflict!!!

Purchasing Conflicts

This is the other area where conflicts are only too common. Nonprofit leaders are usually too busy to find out how the meeting space got chosen, or the supplies bought. They hope the best value was obtained, but sometimes the business has been given to a family member or friend. Sometimes, inside information not available to other bidders was made available so the family member or friend could submit what appeared to be the best bid.

Again, the usual best solution is to hire honest employees who come forward and say that they have a conflict and might not be perceived as making a fair decision. They remove themselves from all aspects of the purchasing decision.

Influence Conflicts

Because many nonprofits are set up to serve vulnerable people, their staff may have regular contact with individuals who have few other supports in their life. A Meals-On-Wheels visitor might be the only person to come to an apartment in days. Personal care workers, especially those in palliative care, may seem to be the only people who do care. Relatives may be far away and some people outlive their friends.

Even in less sensitive situations, clients may be inclined to offer gifts because service was provided, as it always should be, with compassion and quality.

It is a conflict to accept gifts of more than nominal value. Such gifts are offered because of the job, not to the individual. It is acceptable to take gifts on behalf of the organization, and share those homemade cookies, or to receive a donation cheque payable to the organization. It is never acceptable to say yes to pieces of jewelry, or a personal share of a client’s estate. It may also violate the rules of your service contract with government.

Absolute amounts can be given as a guideline, but staff still need training in judgment. Train staff to see the situation from other viewpoints – might they be perceived as influenced?

Values Conflicts

Sometimes staff find themselves working in organizations whose mission, once they understand it well enough, collides with their personal ethics. Perhaps they did not initially realize that a human rights organization would respect same-sex rights, or that this family counselling service would mention abortion when helping a pregnant client learn her options.

Such people can be ethical and explain their conflict to their manager so they can be reassigned. If that is not possible, they either have to follow the organizational policies or leave. Hospitals are large enough to help some staff avoid conflicts most of the time; a small nonprofit might not be able to. And even if you avoid being assigned to clients who you cannot counsel in accordance with organizational policies, you must still be respectful to them in any dealings you do have. Staying quiet about your values conflict and giving clients incomplete or wrong advice (wrong in relation to organizational requirements) is totally unacceptable.

Unfortunately, some evil people even seek out organizations with differing values so they can hide their values within a position of trust. I have seen a man who championed women’s rights in his work but threatened, beat and raped some of his female staff. Organizations that serve children know that they might be a magnet for pedophiles and do not just rely on screening.

Resource Conflicts

It is a conflict to use organizational resources such as time or money for personal gain. If your organization pays for you to attend a conference, it is a conflict to skip the conference and use the time to make deals for your personal business sideline. It is a conflict to borrow from petty cash with the intent of paying it back later. It is a conflict to sign a form saying you went somewhere on organizational business when you were in fact at home drinking. It is a conflict to claim the cost of a hotel room when you actually stayed with your sister. These are at minimum disciplinary matters and most should involve calling the police too.

I think it is also a conflict to use organizational resources for programs the board and ED have designated as low priority, then say there was nothing left for the priority items. I hear this all the time in strategic planning sessions. The association board decides that timely communications with members is a priority, and therefore the time and monies that used to be spent on a hard-copy magazine twice a year will now be spent on e-mail lists and bulletins. A year later, there have been no e-mail bulletins and staff blithely explain there was no time left over after putting out the magazine. Duh.

Sometimes this is also a values conflict about what matters. Usually, it includes a lack of staff respect for the board’s right to make decisions about priorities or resources. And by the way, there is an aspect of personal gain in many of these situations – staff who know how to put out magazines but do not know how to do e-mail bulletins got to keep their job for another year without investing any time or effort in educating themselves.

Summary

This is far from an exhaustive list of the conflicts that might arise in your organization. It is intended to help you review the kinds of decisions that staff make every day. You can then consider what conflicts might arise and how they should be handled. Remember that the staff have the best knowledge of what situations they deal with, even if some need help to look at those situations in a new way.

Since 1992, Jane Garthson has dedicated her consulting and training business to creating better futures for our communities and organizations through values-based leadership. She is a respected international voice on governance, strategic thinking and ethics. Jane can be reached at jane@garthsonleadership.ca.

To submit a dilemma for a future column, or to comment on a previous one, please contact editor@charityvillage.com. For paid professional advice about an urgent or complex situation, contact Jane directly.

Disclaimer: Advice and recommendations are based on limited information provided and should be used as a guideline only. Neither the author nor CharityVillage.com make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in whole or in part within this article.