Conflict of Interest Report: Ethical Theories and Recommendations

This report delves into the multifaceted issue of conflict of interest, examining its implications within the National Health Service (NHS). It begins by defining conflict of interest and exploring various ethical theories, such as deontology and utilitarianism, to provide a framework for understanding ethical dilemmas. The report investigates the role of business in society, particularly within the context of the NHS, and identifies key stakeholders and their potential impact. It analyzes examples of how ethical choices affect other companies and provides recommendations for the NHS to mitigate conflicts of interest, including enforcing policies and addressing issues like nepotism and self-dealing. The report also references relevant literature and provides a detailed analysis of the issues, concluding with a call for greater transparency and ethical conduct within the healthcare sector. The report also discusses the implications of gifts and other potential conflicts of interest, emphasizing the need for clear ethical guidelines and policies within the NHS to maintain public trust and ensure fair practices.

Conflict of Interest.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................6
PART 1- B)Kind of ethical theories:...............................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
PART 2............................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
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INTRODUCTION
It refers to the situation within a corporation between peoples when they become
unreliable because of clash among various professional and personal affairs. Such a situation
arises when an organisation or individual has a unconditional interest (Austad and et. al., 2013).
There are different reason for conflicts such as money, status, knowledge that makes them
unbiased while decision making. Conflicts of interests has two kind of relationship that are one
person in a position to have a relationship in one unconditional situation and vice versa. There
are different concepts to explain conflicts of interest with some example such as:
 When a public official personal has interest of conflicts with his professional position.
 With a person that has conflicting responsibilities.
Similarly in private industry, most organisations have develop policies and process that
help in reducing the situation of conflicts of interest. For instance, many companies have develop
policies that makes a sound restriction on hiring relatives at various post and in different
situation.
Why should this be explored as an ethical question?
 Gifts become a conflicts of interest in many situation and is considerer to be an ethical
question in various ways. It is very usual practice to many doctors to ascertain and
declare their conflicts of interest before they are examine through academic and oral
presentation or before handling any or related patient document to the general public
(Braithwaite, 2013). In hospitality both the giving and receiving of gifts are useful in
facilitating business practices. The acceptance of gifts, services in hospital are related to
the issue of COI and could leave an organisation assailable to accuse partiality or untruth.
There should be consistent with other aspects within a company's ethic policy that help in
encouraging high standard of individual honesty and integrity. In this situation business
entity can have a clear, unequivocal policy according to the ethical environment of
company (British Medical Association, 2012). In context of some common interest and
benefits of hospital, concern of ethical nature that have been explained by both medical
profession and community. Some of the basis concern are explained to this ethical
question:
1. The possibilities that can be associated between doctors and drug entity that may serve a
common commercial objective and grasping interest of practitioner in-fact of legitimate
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care, educational goals therefore compromising the initial ethical obligation of doctors to
patients and also disjunctive the loyalties of physician and sabotage the basic certainty on
that objective relationship depends.
2. The actual risk that involved in drug promotion that will inappropriately influence
doctors decision making.
3. evidence and prevent separately according to assessment of data.
How might the company want to think about the role of business in society?
 The company Like NHS has an important role in business in society, as it is clear that in
any market economy growth, business plays a huge role that are considered to be the
engine of an economy. With the large infrastructure national health services provide a
huge number of job to the people that help in making money and goods and services so
that demands can be fulfilled. Nowadays, communication is becoming most popular and
effective ways to transform information and reaching a large number of people. After the
utmost invention and medical discovery that will be beneficial to enhance the quality of
life and also increase the living of many people. In resent time medical companies
improve their resources by developing material and ideas that must meet demand made
by clients (patients), other companies or various other public clinician.
You will also need to outline who the key stakeholders are and in what way they are affected?
 Stakeholders are described as a person, group those have interest or concern in an
organisation that can affect or can be affected by the different decision made by board of
director, objective and policies (Chatterji and Fabrizio, 2014). The main important of
stakeholders within company is that they are always tries to buy or sell share according to
the market values of share. Some of the basic stakeholder within NHS are creditor,
director, employees, government and their rules and agencies, owner, supplier from
which the business draws its resources. In large public companies like NHS the more
number of stakeholder it have more advantages such as:
1. they helps to accumulate an understanding to subordinate with important and other
delicate stakeholder.
2. They are the one that provides a plan to first overview about the groups and possible
problems that has to be deal while making appropriate price to share.
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3. The main important of stakeholder is that, focus to avoid conflicts and improve the way
of financial planning and increase the profitability of company.
Research into examples of how ethical choices impact on other companies
 In a research with respect to many organisation it is observed that business ethics are an
area of corporate bodied responsibility in which companies are legally and socially
obligated to perform or conduct a business activity in an effective and ethical manner.
Business ethics are most important set to make business decision that helps to suggest
what is right and wrong (Greenhalgh, Howick and Maskrey, 2014). This help to outline
that business should gratify, it help to gain trust within its customer and create value for
its clients. Business ethics have a positive impact on different aspect to business such as:
1. Assist to build ethical standard: this step is related to formalizing expectations and keep it
clear about behaviour that might or might not be accepted within company. It simply
means to formulate a code of ethics that help to figure out the best way to conduct a
business in NHS and they should be made familiar with other employees of company.
2. Approval positive behaviour: It is very crucial to approve the performance and potential
of employees, so that result are in favour of company. Manager of companies in medical
industry keeps it simple to reward its employees in various manner. For example if a
nurse have attended ore number of patient in a month there is a chance of increase in the
pay level and salary.
Recommendation for what the company should do.
Enforcing Policies: It is not always to ascent ethical values all the time and concept will
be necessarily be broken. It is necessary for companies to do a proper possession for worker
responsible should be preclude the prolongation of any absolute behaviours and shot them before
they will become uncontrollable. So it can be said that it is a situation that arises when an
individual has competing interest or loyalties. There are various types of activity that create
possible conflicts of interest includes:
Nepotism: This the activity related to giving favours and profits to close friends or
relative often by hiring them.
Self Dealing: This condition is related when a person is a position in a company has
outside conflicting interest. So it has the core concepts of professionalism.
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These events are main reason for creating conditions that may rise conflicts of interest,
but not to a criminal activity. For example, when a business manager appoints his family
member such as daughter, son etc. that might not be a conflicts of interest unless he started
giving some extra advantages or preferential treatment to his family member. The extra
preferences may be like giving more salary than other or uneven increase in the pay level.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Austad, K. E., and et. al., 2013. Changing interactions between physician trainees and the
pharmaceutical industry: a national survey. Journal of general internal medicine. 28(8).
pp.1064-1071.
Braithwaite, J., 2013. Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry (Routledge Revivals).
Routledge.
British Medical Association, 2012. Medical ethics today: the BMA's handbook of ethics and law.
John Wiley & Sons.
PART 1- B)Kind of ethical theories:
Deontology: According to this class of ethical theory, makes sure that employee those
are involved in decision making process should adhere to its obligation and duties and focused
on ethical standard. This substance that an individual will follow responsibility of another person
or society. It is observed that an individual that is adhere to the deontological theory will be able
to produce consistent decision as this is the main part of their duty (James, 2013). This kind of
ethical theory may contain many positive attributes, but on the same time it has flaws also that
could be a drawback. In deontological morals an act is reasoned virtuously good because of any
diagnostic of the state itself, not because the goods of the action, as it holds that at most of acts
are virtuously compulsory careless of their consequences for manlike benefits. Synchronic of
such morals are such expressed as work for a interest, merit is reward etc. By comparing,
teleological ethics (also called consequentialist ethics) grip that the base standard of quality is
exactly the value of what an activity brings into existence. Deontological theories have been
statement formalized because their cardinal principle lies in the conformance of an action to
some rule or law. There are various types of flaws such as there will be no logical or analytic
basis for determinant of an individual responsibility. For example a business man may decided
that he is responsible to be on time and in formal attire at the time of meeting that have an
influence of the other employees.
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Utilitarianism: This theory is based on ability if an individual employee that helps hem/
her to predict the uncertainty of an action going to be performed or those action that are presently
in progress within company. In businesses there are are basically two kind of utilitarianism such
as act and rule utilitarian. Basically the act utilitarian is used to describe the definition of theory
in an another context such as, a person performs the act that will be benefited to the people most,
unless and until personal felling or constraints are not connected such as different laws. On the
other hand the rule utilitarian is related to laws and concerned with the effectiveness and fairness
of activity. The added benefit of this is that it values justice and includes beneficial at the same
time. In the last it was concluded that, this study was helpful to modify synthetic abstraction
reflecting the aggrievedness in the range of property within NHS and across the various ranges
of employees. In order to capture the organisational diversity, three case study are applied such
as an acute trust, a care trust and a specialist trust. According to the assumptions these case
studies would be different in term of geographical prepared, the figure of object from which
employment are provided, the variety of services provided and the number of organisation for
further increasing the purchasing of services and good. Therefore it is described a core factor to
the whole study related in determining the companies like NHS factor and aspect that provide a
clear and detailed picture of context. In many hospital gifts register have a certain value must be
recorders. This is useful in making effective process of open and transparent and support to
avoids accusations of impairment. It is observed that relationship involving medical professional
and the pharmaceutical industry raise a very crucial concerns and contention within both the
learned profession and the broader community. This relationship includes clear desirable aspects
such as cooperative effort of medical industry with other cooperative, government and prescribe
in respect to attain the quality use of medicines and also some clear ethically justifiable one like
attitude of luxury gifts or wealth for amusement expense by doctors. In business every
organisation has a different set of values that might be in an written form in documents of
company or vice versa. It is very necessary for writing down a set of common held values that
help a company to defines it culture and beliefs in doing their business activity. The difference in
values, culture and beliefs make companies different from other organisation in market. In large
companies such as construction, medical, petroleum the member of particular industry is
subscribe to a common set of values, it appears to be united and unique from other when it deals
with numerous issues.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals:
Chatterji, A. K. and Fabrizio, K. R., 2014. Using users: When does external knowledge enhance
corporate product innovation?. Strategic Management Journal. 35(10). pp.1427-1445.
Greenhalgh, T., Howick, J. and Maskrey, N., 2014. Evidence based medicine: a movement in
crisis?. Bmj. 348. p.g3725.
James, J. T., 2013. A new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital
care. Journal of patient safety. 9(3). pp.122-128.
Lupton, D., 2012. Medicine as culture: illness, disease and the body. Sage.
PART 2.
Ethical leadership is the respect which is given to followers. An ethical leaders shows
respect all members of team by listening them carefully and value their efforts. The ethical
leaders always know how to do right thing at right time.
Characteristics of Ethical Leadership:
Justice:
An ethical leader should always be fair and just to every team member. There should not
be partiality among team members (Lupton, 2012).
Respect Others:
As it most essential trait of ethical leadership, that leader must respect its followers. They
should being generous while follower put their viewpoints.
Honesty:
There is no need of saying that a leader should be honest and loyal. As honesty is
important for leaders because followers trust honest and dependable leaders. An ethical leaders
convey facts transparently to every one.
Focus on team building:
The leaders without teams are nothing as they should focus more on an effective team
building. The goal of organisation or leader can not be achieved by a single employees as to
achieve the goals promptly and effectively leaders should focus on team building.
Value driven decision making:
In ethical leadership, all decisions are first checked to ensure that they are in accordance
with organisational values. As only those decision should be implemented which meets the
requirement of goals.
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No tolerance for ethical violations:
An ethical leaders expects employees to do the right thing at all times, not just when it is
convenient for them. A leader should never tolerate the any ethical violations from followers.
Advantages of theory:
Ethical manager embody a set of characteristics that makes them a manager. Managers
are the first who go beyond merely following policy and obeying laws.
 Being a manager, one should be committed to honesty, fairness and excellent work
ethics.
 The manger should value the individual as well as workers.
 As being a manager one should know how the objectives are met, it is necessary to know
that employees used the ethical way to meet the objectives (Manners, 2017).
 Being a manager one should always model ethical behaviour like one should not shift
blame.
Personal Ethics:
Personal ethics refers to morality which reflects general expectation of any person in any
society. It is concerned with respect of autonomy of others. Personal ethics enable an individual
to comply with law. It enables a person to not to take undue advantage of others.
Reason for unethical behaviour
No code of ethics:
There high chances of unethical behaviour in organisation if there is no code of ethics. As
code of ethics is a proactive approach to unethical behaviour.
Impact of Peer Influence:
As demonstration effect influence most the employees to do unethical behaviour in
organization. Employees think if everyone is doing than it must be right.
As these are the condition where unethical behaviour arises in organisation. It can be
controlled by organisation by setting up proper code of conducts (Rosenbaum, 2015).
In an organisation has not explicitly spelled out the values it support to take its decision
and perform various actions, it has its different values. It is clear that values are common for a
reason for a particular organisation that it represent. Organisational values often cover the
following areas within a company such as;
1. It is related to the compliance with rules and legislations.
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2. It is related to the employment of staff.
3. With the relation of different customer services.
4. Basically related to the receiving of gifts from different customer and supplier.
5. It helps to prevent discrimination in an organisation.
6. The main reason is relate to providing quality standard product and services to customer
and giving them gifts.
When an organisation and its employee are responsible to act in an ethical manner the
following are the unexpected result and the benefits that are describe below:
1. A powerful institution image as society gives more importance on the ethics of the
enterprise global. It is crucial that company function reported to the regulation that
society consider to be acceptable.
2. It helps to improve the quality of products and work. When worker enactment ethically
they are much probable to guarantee that their occupation meets the superior standards
expected within a company (Rothman, 2017).
3. With the help of organisational values criminal acts are decreased. When worker direct
ethically condemnable activity is get rid of. These activity can scope from fetching
stationery portion away to being caught up in defrauding the company.
4. The major advantage is that it helps in increasing company profits. Whilst accumulated
company profits are non a ground for impermanent ethically, they are a possible welfare.
When customers perspective an organisation as being ethical they are much likely to
select and deal with that organisation.
For growth and development it is very necessary for every organisation to follow the
method of compliance which will be beneficial in making easy decision and maintaining long
term stability and sustainability. In business entity compliance is describe to a response made by
an individual in order to made a request, these may be explicit such as foot in the door
techniques and implicit or implicit like advertising. There are basically various method or
strategic and the importance of them in an organisation are described below:
Foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique: It is a compliance plan of action that purpose at
acquiring an individual to accept to a ample request by mortal them to accept a modest petition at
basic. The rule concerned is that a little understanding creates a slave between the petitioner and
the pursuit. Even though the applier may only have in agreement to a provide asking out of
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courtesy, this helps in forming a bond. When the applier attempts to reassert the decision to
themselves it might be misguided for a reliable unit with the petitioner or an interest in the
susceptible of the pursuant. When a approaching petition is made, the requester will tone duty-
bound to act systematically with the earlier request (Sah, 2012).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that conflict of interest are the main reason
due to which performance of employee, improvement power and productivity of company can be
decrease. Report shows different kind of ethical theory such as Utilitarianism and Deontology
that are helpful in companies. It is crucial for companies to follow method of compliance and
organisational values are important part for any business entity.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Manners, R. A., 2017. Professional dominance: The social structure of medical care. Routledge.
Rosenbaum, L., 2015. Reconnecting the dots—reinterpreting industry–physician relations.
Rothman, D. J., 2017. Strangers at the bedside: a history of how law and bioethics transformed
medical decision making. Routledge.
Sah, S., 2012. Conflicts of interest and your physician: psychological processes that cause
unexpected changes in behavior.