Small businesses generally operate on principles of trust, particularly if several family members are involved. You might trust any employee to lock up the office at the end of the day or provide any colleague with administrative privileges to your website. After all, you know these people. But as businesses grow and hire new employees, it makes less sense to trust everyone implicitly. Even if your business remains small, some workers may be motivated to put their own financial interests ahead of your company’s. For this reason, businesses of every size need a conflict-of-interest policy that outlines ethical expectations and the consequences of violating them. An employer, not an employee, decision To understand the problem, it helps to look at a fictional example. Let’s say that Owen is...
