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A happy coincidence
Cindy had recently been promoted as personnel manager in a garment retailing corporation. Her company planned to expand and open a number of new boutiques throughout Hong Kong. Cindy and one of her subordinates were responsible for recruiting shop managers and sales assistants for the new boutiques.
During the recruitment interviews, to her great surprise, Cindy discovered that one of the candidates was her cousin. She saw it as a happy coincidence and carried on to conduct the interview with the cousin herself without reporting their relationship to the company. She even gave favourable comments on the cousin’s performance at the interview.
Case Analysis
Given that one of the candidates was Cindy’s relative, there was a conflict of interest situation for Cindy who was responsible for conducting the recruitment interview. Cindy should have declared their relationship to the company as early as possible and observed the company’s code of conduct regarding handling of conflict of interest.
Even though Cindy would act impartially and her relative was the best candidate, under the conflict of interest situation, Cindy would still be perceived as abusing her influence over the recruitment process and hence causing unfairness to other candidates. Cindy should demonstrate her impartiality by avoiding and declaring the conflict of interest in accordance with the company’s guidelines.