8.2 Definitions
A conflict of interest in employment at the University of Iowa may arise when 1) an individual University of Iowa employee has the responsibility to make, or participate actively in making, decisions or recommendations relating to the employment status of another individual University of Iowa employee (hereafter, "decision-making responsibility"), or 2) there is a direct reporting line between two such individuals.
Given 1) or 2) above, a conflict of interest in employment arises whenever the two such individuals (hereafter, "related individuals") have a current or former relationship occurring outside the work setting that would make it difficult for the individual with the decision-making responsibility to be objective, or that for a reasonable person would create the appearance that such an individual may not be objective. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
- relationships by blood, adoption, marriage, or domestic partnership: partner, parent, child, sibling, first cousin, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, spouse, brother- or sister-in-law, father- or mother-in-law, son- or daughter-in-law, step-parent, or step-child; or
- romantic and/or sexual relationships or intense personal friendships, or significant business relationships.
For purposes of these rules, decisions or recommendations related to employment status include those related to hiring, salary, working conditions, working responsibilities, evaluation, promotion, and termination.
For purposes of these rules, the phrase "first neutral supervisor" means the person (usually the director, departmental executive officer, divisional head, dean of the college, or vice president in charge of the department, college, or unit) immediately superior to the one of the two related individuals who, if there were no conflict of interest, would have decision-making responsibility relating to the employment status of the other related individual.