From the course: Project Management Foundations: Procurement

Dealing with conflicts of interest

From the course: Project Management Foundations: Procurement

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Dealing with conflicts of interest

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Just imagine you're a project manager working for a mid-size digital marketing company where you have to acquire CRM software for your project. In the process of evaluating solutions, your college buddy approaches you about buying the software from his company. He tells you it would be a win-win because he can get you special pricing. This type of situation has to be handled with care, so the decisions that are made are both objective and fair. Regardless if there is an actual conflict of interest, it could be perceived as one. You see, everyone has personal interests and relationships they care about. It's human nature. However, it becomes a conflict of interest when you have to make a decision that puts your personal interests above the interests of your team or organization. In this case, serving one interest causes you to undermine the other. You never want your organization to think you're putting your needs above those of your organization, especially if you wear multiple hats. There may not be many, if any, checks and balances in place, so it's up to you to avoid conflicts of interest. So how could you deal with a situation like this? Well, you'll want to manage perception. You can do this by: Being transparent in your actions, sharing information with your organization, including others in the decision-making process, removing yourself from the decision-making process, and bringing in an independent party to evaluate options. Although there are other ways you can avoid conflicts of interest, these are the most common. The key is to declare your potential procurement biases and look for biases in others on your team. This way, you can do what's in the best interest of your organization, reduce the risk of a perceived conflict, and potentially use your college buddy's company. Now that's what I call a win-win-win.

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