In a typical year, Best Buy opens, relocates or remodels 50 or more stores around the country and manages 1000+ existing locations. The employees involved in this work interact with numerous contractors, plumbers, electricians, painters, movers, landscapers and other trade professionals. Along the way, our people often build strong personal relationships with these vendor partners – a natural result of our “Having Fun While Being The Best” culture. These relationships, in turn, sometimes lead to employees asking vendors to give them bids for work on their private homes, and the work being bid at a competitive rate and paid for by the employees.
On the surface, all seems well with this scenario. The employee knows the caliber of work of the vendor and has a solid relationship with them. Why look somewhere else?
However, when it comes to business ethics, the reality of the situation is sometimes less important than the perception created. Some things to consider:
1. Is it OK for our employees to engage company vendors in private contracts unrelated to their work on behalf of Best Buy? Why or why not?
2. What if you were the owner of a construction company that has bid unsuccessfully for Best Buy’s work in the past? How might this situation look to you? Explain.
3. Is it an ethical problem if something only appears to be a conflict of interest? If so, why?
4. Have you ever encountered a workplace scenario where the line between personal and professional relationships became blurred? How did it turn out?
1. Is it OK for our employees to engage company vendors in private contracts unrelated to their work on behalf of Best Buy? Why or why not? It is more then okay to use vendors in private contracts. Best Buy forbidding the use of all of it’s vendors would be unethical. Using a vendor is simply trusting Best Buy judgement that they have picked the best option. The vendor won the bid for their quality, cost, and speediness so why would I use them.
2. What if you were the owner of a construction company that has bid unsuccessfully for Best Buy’s work in the past? How might this situation look to you? Explain. While it would look like the bidding process was unfair, how something looks is not proof it was unfair. It is no different than the favoritism that happens here at Best Buy, looks very fishy but without proof it is just leadership picking the best option.
3. Is it an ethical problem if something only appears to be a conflict of interest? If so, why? No it is not an ethical problem at all, it is a public relations problem. A brand spoiled by the allegations of fraud or ethical wrong doing will be soiled in the minds of the public for a lifetime. If Wal-Mart started fair pay and stopped gouging vendors they would still be known for their overtime fraud and taking out life insurance on employees.
4. Have you ever encountered a workplace scenario where the line between personal and professional relationships became blurred? How did it turn out? No, even though I have friends that I work with at work I am not the fun guy you hung out with this weekend, I am your coworker. We may joke outside of work but I will not have a friendship compromise my work ethics.
The mere perception or appearance of an actual conflict of interest undermines trust and confidence in the system. That said, it seems artificial to force an employee to choose from an “unknown” in the phonebook or something akin to that just to avoid that impropriety; especially when the employee has first-hand experience with the quality of work of the contractor.