which of the following most accurately describes a conflict of commitment?

A conflict of commitment is when someone’s outside activities take so much time or energy that they interfere with, or appear to interfere with, the person’s responsibilities to their main employer.

Core idea in plain language

• A conflict of commitment happens when time and effort spent on outside work, consulting, volunteering, or other roles makes it hard to fully meet one’s primary job duties.

• It is about competing loyalties of time , not necessarily about money or financial gain.

How it’s usually defined

Universities and research institutions tend to define it similarly:

• University of Oregon: outside activities, paid or unpaid, that substantially interfere with the individual’s duties to the university.

• University of Michigan: time and intellectual energy spent on an outside interest that could interfere or compete with one’s ability to perform the full range of institutional responsibilities.

• Rutgers: time on non‑institution activities in excess of what policy allows, or that may be perceived to influence primary responsibilities.

• University of Iowa: outside professional activity, paid or unpaid, that may interfere, or appear to interfere, with fulfilling obligations to the university.

From these, the option that is “most accurate” in a multiple‑choice setting is typically:

It occurs when outside activities interfere with obligations to one's primary employer.

How it differs from conflict of interest

• Conflict of interest is mainly about personal financial or other interests impacting professional judgment or decisions.

• Conflict of commitment is mainly about over‑commitment of time or effort to outside roles that undermines performance of primary job duties.

Quick examples

• A full‑time professor spending so many days consulting for a company that teaching and mentoring suffer.

• A staff member holding a second job that causes chronic lateness, missed deadlines, or unavailability for core duties.

TL;DR: In your list of options, choose the one that says something like “It occurs when outside activities interfere with obligations to one’s primary employer” – that is the standard description of a conflict of commitment.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.