Ethical dilemma:
The ethics of declaring personal relationships in business
May 2007
Your company has engaged a much smaller business to work on an important project. You are the key person responsible for liaising with the external company and you are also managing the project, which has now been worked upon for several months.
In the course of your dealings with the external business you have become close to one of their staff members, who you began socialising with outside of working hours. This has now developed into a relationship, which is very much in its early stages.
You are positive that the project is not being impacted upon negatively by your relationship with this person and that both of you are acting appropriately with regard to any confidentiality or conflict of interest issues which may arise.
You are concerned that if you make this relationship public, your colleagues will question your ability to manage what is a very important project in terms of your career. You are also concerned that this information will make its way to your ex-partner who also works for your company and you are not yet ready to let her know about this new relationship as you know she will react badly.
Ethical questions:
- What are the issues?
- Who are the stakeholders?
- What should you do?
- What would you do?
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