Ted Lockhart's Commentary on "Taking a Position of Influence"
Author(s):
Ted Lockhart
I
If I accept an appointment to the panel, then it appears
that I disqualify myself as an applicant for a fellowship.
Obviously, I would not be allowed to, and should not, review my
own application. However, assuming that not everyone who
applies will receive a fellowship and thus there is competition
for awards, even if I review only applications other than my
own, it would serve my interests to give unfavorable
evaluations to applications that are in competition with my
own, particularly those that appear to be strong. Therefore, it
appears that for me to serve on the review panel in any
capacity would place me in a conflict of interest. Perhaps
there can be situations in which conflicts of interest cannot
be avoided or in which allowing oneself to have a conflict of
interest is justified by other considerations. However, no such
considerations are evident in this situation. Thus I must
decide whether to accept appointment to the panel or to submit
a proposal; I may not do both.
II
This arrangement does not solve the problem for the reasons
stated above. There would still be a conflict of interest even
if I left the room when my proposal was being discussed, since
it would be in my interest to lower my evaluation of other
proposals against which I knew that my proposal was competing.
Furthermore, my membership on the panel might exert some
influence on the other panel members even if I were not present
when my proposal was being discussed. If so, this would further
distort the reviewing process. There are no factors apparent in
the situation that would annul the conflict of interest that
would result if I both accepted an appointment to the review
panel and submitted a proposal. If I accept the
vice-president's argument that it is important that the "best
people" serve on the panel for the good of the university and I
wish to do so, then I should choose not to submit a proposal.
Even if I think that I could be objective about the proposals
that I would review as a member of the panel, the conflict of
interest would remain. That conflicts of interest should be
avoided can perhaps be supported by rule utilitarian
considerations--i.e. in the long run more good would result
from the general avoidance of conflicts of interest than would
result from the general practice of not avoiding them. The
conflict of interest consideration seems to be the most
important consideration in this case.
Cite this page:
Ted Lockhart
"Ted Lockhart's Commentary on "Taking a Position of Influence""
Online Ethics Center for Engineering
8/17/2006 9:55:26 AM
National Academy of Engineering
Accessed: Tuesday, January 06, 2009
<www.onlineethics.org/CMS/edu/resources/csaindex/Influence/InfluenceLockhart.aspx>