Best Buy is a multinational company that hopes to enriches lives through technology. They sell consumer electronics such as computers, appliances, cell phones, video games and, so much more. They have products for just about anyone and offer them through their retail stores, online stores, and call centres.
Yes, it is! According to the 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute, Best Buy has, for the seventh time, been recognized as one of the global leaders in ethical business practices. They did this by expecting their employees, suppliers, and partners to stick to the company values.
What makes a company ethical?
Ethical companies are generally considered to be those that:
Do not cause damage to the environment, Doesn’t exploit its workforce, orDoesn’t produce harmful products.
In fact, they are ethical when they show integrity, respect, and fairness for their consumers, employees, and the environment.
How is Best Buy an ethical company?
Best Buy exhibits its ethical standing not only by fairly charging their consumers for their products; but through their CSR policy, their environmental goals, and more evidently, how they treat their employees.
The company’s values also serve as the blueprint to their policies and the ethical principles that their stakeholders are expected to adhere to and these include:
Showing integrity, respect, humility, Keeping their promises to pay their employees and suppliers, and To have fun while working their best.
In this regard, Best Buy does more than celebrate their employees’ diversity, or honour their human rights. They also practice fair employment practices which include pay, benefits, and the long- term health, safety and wellness of their employees . These practices often strive for a respectful, safe and healthy workplace that is free from harassment, bullying and abuse. Best Buy maintains this by enforcing safe training policies that prohibit and prevent workplace violence, as well as providing the necessary PPE (personal protective equipment) for their employees.
Best Buy’s environmental goals include their pledge to be carbon neutral by 2040. They will do this by reducing transportations emissions, invest in permanent renewable energy sources and offer eco- friendly products to their consumers to promote a sustainable life.
Their CSR (corporate social responsibility) policy enhances the company’s reputation as it promises a responsible supply chain, a decrease in their carbon emissions whilst selling products, providing accurate product information for their consumers, and to recycle.
Speaking of recycling, Best Buy has a program that provides a convenient way for consumers to responsibly dispose of their old devices. Consumers can either trade in their old devices for a gift card that will allow them to upgrade to the latest technology. Or, they can recycle it, and this program has not only collected at least 409 pounds of electronics each minute the stores are open, but has extended the company’s environment goals.
Why is this important?
Business ethics are the guidelines on how a business is supposed to conduct themselves and is based on the personal ethics of the company’s owner. Ethics are important because it helps create long-lasting positive effects for a company by increasing productivity, employee morale, and profitability through CSR.
CSR is a business policy that ensures that a company’s operations are socially responsible, meaning they are ethical and beneficial for communities, the economy, and the environment. This policy aims to help companies give back to their communities by helping shareholders feel more connected with the world around them.
Other business ethics include the company being:
Transparent by accurately representing facts, Compassionate by showing genuine kindness, understanding and care for the livelihood of others, Loyal to their stakeholders by making benefitting decisions for everyone, and Accountable by taking responsibility and accepting the consequences of their mistakes.
Ethics may also help a company expand their marketplace and improve business relations; it allows the company to have healthy competitions with other companies that offer similar quality goods and services. It also results in effective leadership as a manager who follows the ethical guidelines is likely to leads others by example. This means that they would be able to credit and help others, admit their mistakes, accept, and give constructive criticism, thus resulting in minimal discipline and trust issues among staff.
The cost of a company being unethical
Companies that conduct themselves unethically may suffer from:
Increased absenteeism, lack of productivity and employee morale, stress, and general poorer employee performance. A greater the loss of critical skills due to the high number of employee turnovers, meaning that a high number of employees were likely to quit. Financial penalties if they are caught not complying with the legal framework. These penalties may push them to the brink of being closed.
How to know if a company is unethical
According to the Ethics Resource Centre (ERC), unethical conduct can be identified in a company if employees:
Misuse company time by conducting personal business during work hours,Abuse subordinates by making them work longer hours so to manipulate them for the employee’s own personal gain, Steal or tamper with something they are not entitled to, and lie about it to their employers, “Gift” their colleagues something valuable, in exchange they influence a business decision that may personally benefit them, andViolate company internet policies by browsing social media during work hours as they may believe that this act is victimless, that the victim is far away, or the damage would be delayed.
Even if a company is profitable, without ethical guidelines, it will lose its long- term sustainability and not succeed. Ethics guide how the company should conduct itself by showing integrity, respect, and accountability humility for all its stakeholders. It also benefits the company through CSR programs which increases productivity, employee morale, profitability; and it improves business relations through effective leadership.
However, some companies do not conduct themselves ethically and this is noticeable when employees misuse company time, abuse subordinates, steal, lie, bribe others and violate the company’s internet policy. So, it is a good thing that Best Buy is an ethical company, because if they were not ethical, they would be subjected to large penalties, least of all the poor employee performances and high turnovers.
