The Best Buy Case: Analysis - Essay Example

The Best Buy Case: Analysis The Best Buy Case: Analysis As the Best Buy’s organizational culture is based on creating diversity for people with physical and mental challenges, it is particularly important for the company to enhance a hands-on experience to train its employees on the inclusion of people with disabilities. For this, the company has to allot a certain percentage of its net income. It is advisable for the organization to conduct periodical workshop programs for keeping its employees informed of the significance of including people with physical and mental disabilities. The company may present the current statistics of the disabled persons employed worldwide, particularly in the United States, in order to inform its employees why it is crucial to include people with disabilities in the workforce. Likewise, as Harvey (n.d.) points out in the case study, the workshop program may stress the fact described in the case study that performance ratings of workers with disabilities were found to be nearly identical to those of workers without disabilities. Such a program can assist the company to convince its employees that people with disabilities would not put additional burden on them. In addition, it is better for the organization to make necessary arrangements for its employees to visit other worksite environments that successfully practice the inclusion of people with disabilities. This strategy would motivate Best Buy employees to create an effective worksite environment characterized with the great involvement of disabled persons. Finally, it is advisable for the company to offer additional financial incentives for its employees for encouraging them to enthusiastically deal with the inclusion of people with disabilities. 2. While evaluating the Best Buy’s performance against three focus areas for INCLUDE, it seems that the company’s operations address almost all focus areas effectively. The INCLUDE group effectually utilizes the disability training, resources and innovations. To illustrate, at the request of INCLUDE members, the Best Buy management team is creating a training program concerning Autism Spectrum disorders. In terms of resource utilization, another INCLUDE chapter created an end cap with an iPad demonstrating several apps that can really help customers with disabilities. In order to improve the firm’s performance in this area, Best Buy must keep itself up to date about recent innovations that are able to fill the gaps in the workforce and marketplace. Similarly, the organization takes great efforts to provide products and services expected by customers and thereby to serve a diverse market. For instance, members from one INCLUDE chapter collaboratively worked with Geeksquad employees to recognize products that are able to benefit people with disabilities (Harvey). In addition, an INCLUDE team recently attended a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Coalition conference for the purpose of recruiting new employees. Another INCLUDE team formed an ongoing relationship with a local school and a group of educated parents for serving children with special needs (Harvey). The company should pay particular attention to identifying the expectations of the diverse market it serves to improve its performance efficiency. For effectively passing information to the community that does not often appear on mainstream newspapers or new programs, the INCLUDE group must develop an extensive communication network that connects the team members with community. 3. Since today organizations are widely evaluated on the basis of their social responsibilities, it is recommendable for retail stores to develop low-cost initiatives to strengthen their relationships with customers with any type of disability. In this electronic era, firms may rely on technological advancements to communicate and maintain a strong relationship with disabled customers. To make it clear, retailer outlets can offer concessional rates or other special advantages for customers with disabilities and use modern facilities like emails or text messages to keep those customers informed of such offers. The firms may send messages to those customers when they plan to launch a new product/service that would meet the needs of disabled people. In addition, retail stores may provide disabled customers with a special discount for their each purchase above a certain price. For this, it is recommendable for organizations to give an electronic card containing the cardholder’s personal information and previous transaction details for their existing customers with any type of disability. Using this electronic card, it would be easy for retail stores to provide those customers with a fixed percent discount for their potential purchases. This practice would assist retail stores to give disabled customers a sense of protectiveness so that those customers are likely to remain loyal to the business. Similarly, it would be a great strategy for retail stores to arrange improved facilities to provide disabled customers with a great shopping experience. For instance, the retail stores can appoint one or two additional staff for serving the needs of such customers and arrange wheelchair or escalator facilities for them. 4. From the case study, it is clear that Best Buy’s industry provides the organization with incentives to develop a culture of inclusion of people with disabilities. The major reason for such incentives is that disabled persons are increasingly discriminated all across the United States. As cited by Harvey, according to a statistical report published by the US Census Bureau in 2008, when 16.5% of Americans aged between 21 and 64 had some kind of disability, only 45.6% of them were employed. When it comes to the employment of people with a severe disability, the percentage is far lower (30.7%). This statistical data suggest that there are millions of Americans with disabilities are awaiting a participation in the workforce. The US people have identified it as a sensitive socio-economic issue and they demand business houses to include disabled persons in their workforce to serve the needs of that vulnerable population. It is evident that no businesses can survive the current stiff market competition unless their operations are in line with the interests of the community. Similarly, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is another major reason that influencing the provision of incentives. The case writer clearly says that this federal legislation was designed to "prevent discrimination and enable individuals with disabilities to participate fully in all aspects of society" (Harvey). The US Department of Justice specifically states that the ADA prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of disability. By providing the incentives to create a culture of inclusion of people with disabilities, the industry encourages Best Buy to operate in well compliance with the federal laws. References Harvey, D. P. (n.d.). The Best Buy case: Committed to the inclusion of people with disabilities. University of Minnesota Read More