The situation described is typically referred to as a personal conflict of interest.

Quick Scoop

When a friendship with an applicant could interfere with a hiring decision, it means the decision-makerā€™s personal relationship might compromise their ability to be fair and objective. In ethics and HR language, this falls under a personal conflict of interest because personal ties risk influencing a professional judgment that should be based only on job-related criteria.

What ā€œpersonal conflict of interestā€ means

  • It involves personal relationships (like friends or family) that could bias professional decisions such as hiring or promotions.
  • Organizations often require people in this situation to disclose the relationship and sometimes step back (recuse themselves) from the decision to keep the process fair.

Why it matters in hiring

  • The risk is favoritism or the appearance of favoritism, which can undermine trust in the hiring process and hurt other applicantsā€™ perception of fairness.
  • Many workplace ethics and research-ethics training materials use almost this exact example and label it a personal conflict of interest, distinguishing it from financial or institutional conflicts.

So, if a friendship with an applicant could interfere with a hiring decision, the standard term used is personal conflict of interest.

Meta description (SEO-style):
Learn what itā€™s called when a friendship with an applicant could interfere with a hiring decision, why it is considered a personal conflict of interest, and why that matters for fair hiring.

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