Ethics and Transparency Best Practices: Best Buy

In December 2008, Best Buy Chief Ethics Officer Kathleen Edmond began blogging about ethics issues taking place at Best Buy. In 2009, Edmond was ranked #62 on Ethisphere’s 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics. Edmond made the list for her blogging efforts and the use of real cases (names and other sensitive information excluded) for discussion and also as a training tool for Best Buy employees.

The same year, Best Buy was named to Ethisphere’s list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies- to see the methodology for determining who makes the list, click here.

Up For Discussion

Some of the cases discussed on Kathleen Edmond’s blog are:

• Peer reviews, reasoning and conclusions of incidents that resulted in termination.
• Company policy and reasoning regarding the non-acceptance of gifts from vendors.
• Failure to document training, previous warnings and to follow procedures for reprimanding employees.
• Employees using company vehicles for non-work related errands.
• Violations of staff discounts, product “Street Dates“
• Employees falsifying inventory documentation.

Nothing to Hide

Each of the cases explain the incident, the initial discipline taken, the reasoning and case made by the peer review panel after further investigation of the incident, followed by some questions for discussion that Edmond brings up about factors surrounding the incident. If you take a look at the comments on the postings, you will notice that there are many that are made by Best Buy employees.

Many companies try to hide their ethics violations from the public. I think Edmond is taking an interesting stand by making these issues public- and always open for comment. Although some people criticize the transparency behind Edmond’s blog, I think that her blog serves as a great tool for communication and advice- people in similar situations can see how the incident was handled at Best Buy and either offer input to help better Best Buy policies or they can receive answers for handling these situations in their own workplace.

The fact that Edmond is going public with this information from Best Buy demonstrates her desire and commitment for the creation of a stronger ethical landscape at Best Buy.