Wholefoods Market, Do They Practice What They Preach?

un victimizeed aliments grocery, Do they practice what they pr for each one? Festus Acha, Jaesang Kim, Wanda Moss, Linda Pressley, Alioune Thiam The Johns Hopkins Cargony Business cultivate Management &038 organizational Behavior Professor Rick Milter present 22, 2010 undivided Foods grocery, Do they practice what they preach? Abstract The purpose of this paper is to raise a correlation between what is perceived ab pop a mode satisfying Foods securities industry and what is factual rough them. We intend to explore and investigate the following place points such as their fretting statement, vision, their strategy for success, and empowerment techniques.We pull up stakes timbre at how they motivate, compete with opposites, and the fount of inspiration used as a whole to promote cohesiveness passim their c atomic number 18. We want to feel fall out their communication techniques as tumefy as the emotional intelligence of their employees. It will be an experie nce to observe their group leadership in follow out rather than by hear translate. instruct and mentoring has to be an key function for such a world-wide governance as well as the travel taken for decision making and problem solving.We oblige centering come to make out that diverge is inevitable in any business and we want to greet what their plans for change ar and how it will be dealt with. Lastly we take our culture collectively and see proficient how unit Foods h gray-haireds up through our audited account of their leadership. Our leadership audit of unharmed Foods grocery, Inc. (WFMI) was ground on the following criteria agency &038 Vision Statement (Core Values) Strategy for Success Empowering Employees Motivation &038 Inspiration Competing without precaution Communication worked up Intelligence Team leadership EffectivenessCoaching &038 Mentoring Problem solving &038 decision making Organizational Change boilers suit Management We graded them on a slid ing scale of righteousness to Needs Improvement and based on the financial data and charge of their competitors such as Krogers, Safeway, and bargainer Joes their score was accustomed based on over whole movement in those atomic number 18as. Their biggest competitor being Trader Joes being a privately held connection it was difficult to mother financial information to do an effective comparison. on the whole Foods merchandise has a running history of being a family oriented company.It is excessively describe that upper management uses a hands off practice of eachowing its employees roll in the hay autonomy in decision making regarding the operation of their arguments. Based on primary information obtained through observations and interviews at doubled total Foods marketplaces throughout the Maryland area we are able to shed some severeness to some of the theories soon circulating. We also demand information that may array or allude to controversial information as well. During these interviews we discourseed with employees and the managers on duty.What we conditioned is what people say and what you see may non always be the same. Our secondary information was obtained through reports found through second troupe interviews, up to date journals and magazines such as Harvard Business Review. Vision &038 perpetration (Core Values) unanimous Foods Market came into existence on September 12, 1980. Workers for consentient Foods Market experience this organization as a positive paterna constituteic organization. It is characterized by very utmost trust levels, complete autonomy and accompanied by very little uncertainty.Their vision statement speaks of their objectives and goals reaching beyond a fodder retail merchant. It highlights its node satisfaction, wellnessy employee environment, profits, investments and stockholders always ending on a positive note. Their mission is to lead by example. Some of their core determine are things s uch as Ensuring they are selling the best property all natural and or organic proceedss available for resale. Making true their clients are always satisfied Support group members Invest in the community and the environmentGreat relationships with our suppliers and business partners consentaneous Foods truly supposes in creating wealth through profits and growth for the company and its employees. However, on March 17, 2010 one of our aggroup members Wanda Moss visited the totally Foods Market located at 1001 die Street, Balti more than, Maryland 21202. Her visit revealed that workers were friendly, outgoing, and very accommodating as she sought out a particular herbal seasoning to use in a sea nutrition casserole. Her curiosity and divert in their herbs and spices do G.Singh, an employee more relaxed as she divulged her interest in their company for a school project. Ms. Singh has been running(a) for the company for a little over four years she revealed. When questioned almost the mission of all in all Foods as it pertained to her store and she replied that they are very substantially to her and they act as family towards one another. The employee was asked one other question in regards to the companys position on unionized labor and she replied no one that she knows in her store wants to be in a union and that they like things just fine. Wanda Moss said she felt a defensive spirit as G responded.Nonetheless Ms. Moss continued to check out with her items and thanked the young lady for her beat. Whole Food Markets employees are very knowledgeable about the store and its practices well-nigh as if one has to rehearse. We have surmised all(prenominal) these employees are well nimble for inquisitions or the vision or mission statement of Whole Foods is tangible being practiced. We rated them good in their ability to mirror their vision and mission statement. Strategy for Success Which leads us to what is their marketplaceing strategy to remain undefeated and move forward?Information obtained from their website suggests that they rigorously will be vigilante assessing their current situations in all aspects of the business in which they operate and quiz as to how they can stay the front runner. Part of that plan is to draw out geographically in the future and give supposeation to altering their product mix to attract more main stream customers. Since they are not in reality clear on their plan of execution for expansion and introduction in altering their current mix, we rated them average and the need for improvement.Empowerment Their strategy will lead us to how they intend or are currently empowering their employees and low level managers to remain on the frontline for the business. What was learned is that their empowerment techniques meet to trust all day long. For instance the employees believe that with management placing an countless amount of faith in them, a high judge is fixed upon them. That same value is transferred to the customers and other stakeholders that attention them to remain profitable and a front runner in their field.Their CEO John Mackey is walking the talk by nurturing from the inwardly out to enhance the quality of wins distributed in all of their stores. The empowerment of their employees and or police squad leaders is unique and inspiring so we rated them excellent in this category. Inspiration Whole Food Market was taked by local business people who had the conviction that the natural food assiduity was ready for bigger stores. They decided to opt for the supermarket format that was hosted by notwithstanding half a dozen stores providing natural food in the initiate to draw inher States.In terms of nutrition, Whole Food Market claims to always step for the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and natural food possible. They believe that their products are the purest within the US and that eitherthing that you can pick up at the store will be healthy. The company also buys from local growers in order to support them and reduce their carbon footprint. That way, Whole Food Market is then really committed to military serviceing take care of the world around them and the support of organic farming and sustainable tillage helps protect our planet.The company also supports food banks and all sorts of little lending operations in order to leave something positive to the community. Whole Food Market also believes that its employees make the company. They select them carefully, making genuine that their determine and the Whole Food markets values are in sync. The company is trying to create a workplace where employees are pushed to improve and feel respected as well. Motivation Several components have to be taken into account when assessing the origin of employees motivation.One important factor that motivates employees is that Whole Food Market support advancement from within. In other words, they promote their current employees to dedicate for the higher responsibilities positions. correspond to Whole Food Market, once an employee has gained valuable knowledge, he may qualify to apply for any available opportunity in the Whole Food stores and facilities. Whole food makes a point to post all the openings for positions at aggroup leader level or higher only in their inherent job site.It prevents outsider to access high level responsibilities positions as well as it promotes current employee to expand their product knowledge, develop their skills, enhance their value to the team, and advance inside the company. Another important factor that keeps the employees motivated is the attain packages deliverd to them. Fortune Magazine disclosed Whole Food Market to be one of the 100 best companies to work for during the last 13 years. In 2009, Whole Food Market was part of the only 15 companies that would provide 100% coverage on their employees health insurance premiums.Their benefit packages incl ude health insurance, paid time off, retirement savings and chivalrous store discounts. The company also claims to be unique in the way it allocates benefit packages. Indeed, since every team member is important to the companies, they all get a voice when it comes to the content of their benefit packages. Team members will vote every three years to determine the content of the benefit packages allegeed by the company. This system results in dissimilar benefit packages harmonise to the country or region employees are working in.The Paid- Time Off policy, for example, is unalike depending on where the employee is working. For US employees, the paid time off depends on whether the employee is working regular or part-time. In Canada paid-time-off depends on the time spent within the company in years, and In the UK, every single employee gets 7 days and the adventure to add an extra day. The last factor (but not least) that we discovered to be pushing employees is the scholarshi p experience and the experience itself. Alioune Thiam, one of our team members interviewed a couple of employees at different positions.When they were asked the question what motivates you one of them spontaneously firmnessed that the learning experience was her principal source of motivation when the other stated that he just love the company and what the company does for the environment. Competition Based on the multiple interviews held with the store managers, Whole Food Market does not consider other giants of the food perseverance as threatening competitors. They acknowledge that other stores also carry organic food but they are convert that the high quality standard set is not rivaled.Employees also mentioned obtain at Whole Food Market as an experience where the customer and the team members are educated. They emphasized a lot about the learning experience that makes them unique and out of reach for other grocery stores. However, according to Hoovers, a business analysis company, Whole Food Market console has dangerous competitors. A business analysis of the Whole Food market shows us that The Kroger is the most important competitors to Whole Food Market nigh followed by Safeway and Trader Jos. compensate though these stores do not provide only natural, organic, healthy food, they do offer a wide novelty of food ranging from organic/natural to less healthy and more commonly found nutrition. Communication Communication is essential in any organization and it would appear that Whole Foods has communication as one of its top priorities. there is massive communication among team members as well as the different teams in each store. I visited the Whole Foods store in Mt. capital letter and spoke with Joe newfangled, Associate Customer Service Team Leader regarding how communication. Mr. novel stated that the employees feel that the communication is very transparent, from team leadership to team members. Any communication from the corporate offi ce in Texas is given to the regional offices. Information is then given to the stores and is disseminated to the team leaders who, in turn, give it to the team members. I asked about feedback from customers. Mr. Young stated that feedback from customers is promote. Whenever feedback is received from a customer, it is given to the team leader for whichever section it concerns. The question along with the answer is posted on a bulletin board for customers to see.This feedback response is commonly given within a week. However, some of the research that I have found indicates that team members are not allowed to say anything about working at Whole Foods on social websites, such as Facebook. According to some blogs, John Mackey uses pseudo names to become friends with some of his employees on Facebook to keep a tab on what is being said about the company. These employees face repercussions from posting on the website. Communication course of action Good. There seems to be good multi-d irectional with team leaders and customers.However, employees should be able to express themselves constructively through social websites and not feel they will be penalized. Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence is defined as an ability to recognize the meanings of emotion and their relationships and to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them. The employees I interview seemed to really enjoy working for Whole Foods. According to Fortune ergocalciferol Magazine, Whole Foods is dispositioned as one of the best places to work and has been for the past 10 years. When I visited the Mt. Washington store, the atmosphere had a relaxed feel.People seemed to enjoy shopping there and the employees were attuned to the customer needs. While I was speaking with Mr. Young, he greeted several customers by name. Mr. Young pointed out the core values of Whole Foods which are listed on huge someone placards in the store. The quality standards were also listed separately on placards. As I stood in line to purchase my items, the cashiers had a great attitude. They also knew customers by name, commented on their purchases one cashier spoke about the dinner and dessert from purchases of a customer.I also interview a long-time customer of the store. She stated she could not find anything to say negatively. She recently move for New Orleans and shopped at those stores as well as the store at Mt. Washington, Maryland. She felt the employees enjoyed working at Whole Foods and would stop whatever they were doing to help customers, even if it meant walking over the whole store to help them find products. She felt that the service and atmosphere of Whole Foods makes customers feel good about what they are buying there. In her opinion, the team members take gazump in the products that they sell.Emotional Intelligence Grade Excellent Team leadership &038 Effectiveness In the textbook The Future of Management, author Gary Hamel describe the type of management of Whole Foods. all(prenominal) store is considered a team and inside the each store, there are departmental teams. According to my research, this concept seems to work. Leadership decisions are make from the bottom up instead of from the top bolt down, which is the industry norm. Each departmental team has team leaders. It is very intriguing the way team leadership is chosen. The leader of each team is interviewed by a panel.The panel includes Regional Vice Presidents, various Team Leaders either from the same store or another store in the region, as well as a cross of team members. Mr. Young also said there is no seniority when choosing a leader. Leaders are chosen by the panel if they exhibit the ability to lead a team and not by how many years they have been with the company. Mr. Young also stated that when decisions affecting their team members need to be made, all team members are allowed to vote on the changes. For example, when it comes time to choose health care, the team members all vote for their health benefits.Team Leadership Grade Excellent Coaching &038 Mentoring Decision Making The Whole Foods culture is construct on decentralized teamwork. Decisions in Whole Foods are not made by upper management but each store has been appoint to make its decisions independent of the other. Critical decisions, such as whom to hire is made by those who will be directly impacted by the consequences of such decisions. Decision making in Whole Foods is made by teams. Each department and its team are responsible for all key operational decisions, including pricing, ordering, staffing, and in-store promotion.With regards to product selection, team leaders are given the authority to stock products they feel appeal to customers. Stores are encouraged to buy locally as long as the items meet the stringent standards of Whole Foods. With this empowerment given to teams comes accountability, which ensures that associates use their discretionary decision-making power in ways that drive the business forward. Part of Whole Foods strategy is to put decision right down to the front lines and hence teams make many important decisions. Problem resolving Teams maintain a culture in which open dialogue and regard is the norm.This is reinforced by openly addressing behavior that involves excessive criticism or cynicism. Not tolerating such behavior sends a strong signal to the team and sets behavior patterns. Team processes have a profound influence on team effectiveness. Effective processes ensure rigorous and optimal decision-making generate buy-in from team members, balance the influence each member exerts on the group and slander interpersonal conflicts while encourage constructive debate. Information and ideas of each team member is properly incorporated into the decision making process.Whole Foods has multiple processes built into its teams to achieve optimal team functioning. The tight linkage between business intelligence and decision-making authorit y at Whole Foods ensures that little problems do not have to compound into big problems before action is taken. Organizational Change Whole Foods Market started with a small single store. In 1978, twenty-five year old college dropout John Mackey and twenty-one year old Rene Lawson Hardy opened a small natural foods store, Safer Way, in Austin, in Texas.Two years by and by, John and Rene merged Safer Way with Clarksville Natural food product and then they opened the original Whole Foods market in 1800. Even though Whole foods Market focused on natural foods, it assay to change structure and management to improve its performance. In 1986, it was first time to purchase an existing store, when Whole foods bought the Bluebonnet Natural Foods Grocery in Dallas and converted it into a Whole Foods Market. After that, Whole Foods not only open new stores but also purchased their competitors in new regions. finished the expansion program, Whole Food Market reached out to potential customer s. Whole Foods Markets launched a private label called Whole Foods. Whole Foods Market tried and true to find smaller manufacturers who produced quality organic products. The private label encouraged customers to return to Whole Foods Market. Its own Whole Foods brand became the first retailer to maintain a private label line featuring organic food products. In 1996, in order to resemble other Whole foods store, Whole Food Market started to transform the Mrs. Goochs stores and made them adopt the Whole Foods Market name.The change in name caused a 5 to 10 per centum sales drop. After that, Whole Foods was more careful about changing the names of acquired stores. To improve productivity, Whole Foods established a centralized purchasing system. By the end of 1997, the system facilitated the company to track product apparent motion and prices. In addition, Whole Foods made a low priced private label, 365. The 365 products were different from the Whole Foods products. The 365 produc ts did not provide organic products, but they were priced about 20 percent cheaper. The 365 products attracted more customers who typically bought groceries.Moreover, Whole Foods Market has expanded into global market. In 2002, Whole Foods Market expanded into Canada and two year later it entered the United Kingdom. In 2010, Whole Foods employs 53,300people in more than 290 stores in the U. S. , Canada, and the UK. The tenth-largest food and drug store in the U. S. , Whole Foods ranks 324th on the Fortune 500 list, with annual sales of approximately $8 billion. Whole Foods Market has high standards and provides organic and quality foods. In 2003, Whole Foods Market was designated Americas first depicted object Certified Organic Grocer.Three years earlier, Whole Foods was the first theme food retailer to join the USDA advisory board to help increase the U. S. Organic Standards. In 2008, Whole Foods established stricter guidelines to reduce environmental impact and to require vendors to pass a third-party audit. Over the past decade, Whole Foods Market is increasing its reputation with organic, fair-trade, or locally produced food. Even though Whole Foods Market is a huge food store, it is going to change and to pursue what people need. Over the next decade, Whole Foods will offer more resources to emphasize healthful eating.If Whole Foods Market stops changing, it cannot hold out in the food industry. Overall Management Whole Foods Market believes that customer experiences anticipate and predict its business outcomes. Whole Foods Market also knows employee performance has influence on customer experiences. Therefore, Whole Foods Market tries to satisfy its employees by offering adequate compensation program, safe and friendly work environment. These facts are able to motivate and guide employees to increase productivity and effectiveness. Whole Foods Market also makes employees feel like a part of the company.So every employee takes an important role to achie ve its goals and their performances affect directly to the companys outputs. Especially, Whole Foods Market is a workplace to respect for all individual team members and self-empowerment. At Whole Foods Market, there are five values to affect the employees performance outcomes. First, Whole Foods Market believes one of the most important jobs is talking to team members. Whole Foods Market knows what its team leaders say and do affect their team members. If team members cannot trust the leader, they also do not trust the mission of the company.Each leader represents their teams. Whole Foods Market knows communication is very important. So each leader attempts to share the mission and core values of Whole Foods Market. Also, Whole Foods Market emphasizes a autonomous team structure. It organizes Whole Foods store and company into a variety of teams. In small team organizational structure, every member is vital and important. The contributions of every member make the success of the t eam. Whole Foods think self-directed teams are the key work unit of the company. So Whole Food pays more attention to each team.To discuss issues, solve problems and appreciate each others contributions, each team meets regularly. Whole Foods Market insists empowerment enhances the effectiveness of teams. When each team is fully empowered to do their work and to fulfill the organizations mission and values, empowered organizations have great advantage. Empowerment improves creativity and innovation. Whole Foods support individual team members. Next, Whole Foods Market attempts to optimize transparence to all team members because an important element of trust is transparency.Whole Foods Market allows every team member to access information that affects their jobs and annual individual compensation report. When a company decides to hide some information, the motivation is a lack of trust. Whole Foods is afraid that the information that would cause more harm than good if it was known. However, Whole Foods is willing to take the risk. Without transparency, Whole Foods cannot reach out to high level of organizational trust. Finally, Whole Foods is not able to create high trust organizations without love and care.We are more likely to cipher for love and friendship with our families and friends, but not from our work. If the leadership expresses love and care in their actions, then love and care will flourish in the organization. For example, everyone participates in the meeting and gives the opportunity to voluntarily appreciate other members in the group for services. Appreciating team members helps encourage every team member. They want to get involved in their teams and trust each member. As a result, in 2010, Whole Foods ranked 18th on Fortunes list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. Appendix Table of opportunities Table of opportunities Competitors list Leadership Audit References Diamond, D. (2009, October 1). Perception Vs. Reality. Progressive Grocer, 88(7), 34. Hamstra, M. (2010, January 1). Mackey No Longer chairperson? Supermarket News, 58(1), 1-7. Hoovers Company Records, 10952. Dow Jones Financial Data on Whole Foods Market. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from http//finance. yahoo. com/q? s=WFMI. Linda Pressley. Whole Foods Market. Mr. Joe Young, Associate Customer Service Team Leader, Whole Foods Store, Mt.Washington, Maryland. Interviewed on March 23, 2010 Ms. Fay Day, Whole Foods Customer. Interview March 24, 2010. Paskin, J. (2009, February 1). Growth slows, but mackey doesnt Keeping employees motivated. 18, 2, 24-26. Pressley, L. Whole Foods Market Interview. Retrieved from www. discoveryhealth. com. Whole Foods Market. Retrieved from www. wholefoodsmarket. com. http//www. hoovers. com/company/Whole_Foods_Market_Inc/ http//www. hoovers. com/about/100000489-1. html www. marketwatch. com/ http//www. wikinvest. com/stock/Whole_Foods_Market_%28WFMI%29