...Core Values and Strategy, Organizational Behavior and John Mackey CEO at Whole Foods Market 2013 A Case Study J H W State College This paper was prepared for Organizational Behavior September Semester, taught By Professor Core Values and Strategy, Organizational Behavior and John Mackey CEO at Whole Foods Market 2013 Introduction This case study research investigation will evaluate the organizational behavior theories and John Mackey’s Management concepts of Core Values and Strategy “Conscious Capitalism” approach at Whole Foods Market. The five organizational behavior theories that were chosen for this study are; Theory X/Y , human and social capital, the profile of the 21st century manager, Carroll’s Global Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid, and the seven moral principles. Whole Foods Market was founded in Austin, Texas, by four businesspeople that decided the natural foods industry was ready for a supermarket. The original Whole Foods Market opened in 1980 with a staff of only 19 people and became an overnight success. Most of the success was attribute to the quality standards, a devotion to community and environmental responsiveness, a healthy growth model and highly-regarded employment practices. What Role Does McGregor’s Theory Y Play at Whole Foods? Theory Y believes employees are proficient in setting goals on their own; they can do it with little to no guidance from others. They are responsible, willing to take on new...
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...Whole Foods markets are the world’s leader in natural and organic foods with stores in North America and United Kingdom .Their mission is Whole Foods-Whole People- Whole Planet. Whole Food stands for searching for the highest quality and natural foods possible. Whole People mean that the people their hire are passionate about healthy food. Whole Planet means they are committed to helping take care of the world around us. McGregor’s Theory Y is one of the two theories contrasting assumptions about human nature. Theory X assumptions were negative and pessimistic; McGregor felt this was the typical behavior of how managers were perceived by employees. Theory Y was a modern and positive set of assumptions about people. McGregor believed that managers could accomplish more through others by viewing themselves as self-energized committed, responsible and creative beings (Kreitner & Kinicki, p9). McGregor’s Theory Y plays a very important role at Whole Foods. In the table on page 9 number 3 under the Theory Y column states that people generally become committed to organizational objectives if there are rewarded for doing so .John Mackey the CEO of Whole Foods states that they want their employees to be happy because happy employees make happy customers and happy customers will refer people to the place of business there for bringing more customers (Kreitner & Kinicki, p30). This case brings the profile of the 21st century manager to life by implementing many if not all of the items...
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...Lella McLemore Duane Saari BME-214614-04 Organizational Behavior 18 February 2013 Belief and Support of Human Capital: Case Study Analysis of Whole Foods What role, if any, does McGregor’s Theory Y play at Whole Foods? Explain? The primary focus of this case study analysis shall be to examine the methods of Whole Food’s distinctive approach and development to the implementation of creative management strategies and how they can continue to successfully help them to maintain growth in their company. The underscoring premise of McGregor’s Theory Y primarily rest on the assumption that that the role of management is develop the potential of their employees and help them to realize their potential to meet the common goals of their organization (Steward, 2010). With this underlining thought in mind McGregor’s Y Theory plays an intricate and crucial role at Whole Foods. According to our textbook, Organizational Behavior, by Robert Kreitner and Angelo Kinicki, and the company’s primary mission directives, Whole Foods goal is for upper management to share the responsibility with their frontline managers in the development of a successful work environment (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013, p. 30). Whole foods promotes their employee teams to be self-directed and take initiative and responsibility for operating together for the benefit of their entire business organization. To this end John Mackey, Cofounder and Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market promotes through the application of McGregor’s...
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...***************************************************************** Instructor's Grade on Assignment: Instructor's Comments: Business Ethics and the Moral Foundation of Effective Leadership Introduction In the global business spectrum, ethics play a huge role within any form of business where key ethical principles such as morals, values, and judgment determine the overall success and direction of the company. Managers and entrepreneurs who make moral determinations behind ethics build trust and create positive relationships with their employees, consumers, and investors. This form of ethical behavior leads to substantial growth for the corporation along with maximizing profits and building a great reputation. Ethics in business is the upmost importance in keeping a company stable and an essential component to a successful and effective long term business leadership. When making business decisions, organizational leaders who fail to remember,...
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...Whole Foods Markets Based On the Congruence Model Name Institution Whole Foods Markets Based On the Congruence Model Introduction World Food Market just like any other established organization, regardless of size and the capacity to facilitate production, enters the business world with expectations to meet targets for the desired outcomes. The desired outcomes in most instances rely on the possibility of implementing the appropriate business strategy from which a baseline is derived to attain the set goals and objectives through systematic planning, execution, and review. Imperatively, the current world economy is directed by the evolving market dynamics. Currently, Whole Foods Market is regarded as the most prolific and reputable organization in the global industry. For Whole Foods Markets to achieve goals and objectives set by the top management through the implementation of top quality strategies instituted to steer the organization to new heights. However, with many prolific organizations as with Whole Foods Markets, challenges are not unavoidable and quite inevitable. Whole Foods Markets have encountered numerous challenges that have impacted the organization’s ability to achieve its postulated projections as depicted by the current higher rates of competition within the natural food industry, a fledgling economy and the inherent problem of identifying and acquisition of business locations (Thompson, 2012). Consequently, Whole Foods Markets have come up...
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...Whole Foods Case Study Whole Foods Case Study Whole Foods started from humble beginnings and has emerge into a major corporation. It’s success results from its dedication to its human capital. I will discuss Whole Foods investment in human capital, its high-involvement management, democratic model, and globalization. Human Capital Whole Foods uses human capital as a course of competitive advantage by investing heavily in their employees. They have created a so called “work place democracy.” Whole Foods has been ranked as the top 100 companies to work for best companies to work for by Fortune magazine. (Hitt, Miller, Colella 2015). The company has basically given the employees self worth and have allowed them to be a part of the company and its decision process. It has been transparent in allowing access to financial records and limiting executive salaries. Employees at Whole Foods feel that it is their company. This promotes commitment and dedication to the employees and the company. High-Involvement Management High-involvement management contained in Whole Foods when concerning it’s associates is achieved by creating a team structure. There is not just associates and a manager, the company has developed a team concept. Each employees is assigned to a particular team that specializes in a certain product, department, or product line. Each team has a team leader that interacts with the store manager. Team leaders are highly trained and well versed in their department...
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...Chapter 8 Case: Whole Foods Vanessa R Brown Michael Finn Organizational Behavior Janurary 29th, 2011 Discuss how the basic interpersonal communication model that is presented in Figure 8.1 can be applied to the impersonal nature of an online forum. First interpersonal communication is communication between two or more people in an organization. In figure 8.1 the message contains the thoughts and feelings of the sender in which he or she hopes to evoke in ther receiver. The primary components of the message is contained in the words, ideas, symbols, and concepts chosen to relay the message. The feedback may or may not be activated in the model. Feedback occurs when the receiver provides the communicator with a response to the message. Also, feedback occurs when information is fed back to the sender that completes two-way communication. However, basic interpersonal communication can be applied to the impersonal nature of an online forum. It can be applied by using computer mediated communication to send messages throughout an organization. The delivery of the message and how it is perceived from the receiver will depend on the response to the message. You can set up meetings and conferences when everyone is in different locations, particularly sales jobs involving travel. It can also be used by managers to communicate with there employees when away from the office or to just simply provide information or update on company status. How does defensive communication enter...
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...Whole Foods Michael K. Cooper Sr Principles of Organizational B– Business 322 Professor Christopher McGrath July 27, 2011 Whole Foods 2 Abstract In this paper I’ll discuss interpersonal communication, defensive communication and how it transforms the way people communicate. How we communicate in most cases makes up what other people think and observe of us. Poor communication often is the main problem in a troubled relationship, both professional and personal. To better understand communication a person must acknowledge many different aspects, including speech, body language, and context. Context, the time, place, or occasion when communication is encoded, has a very large role in transmitting a message. Without the right context, a message could be perceived as the opposite as it was intended. The best way to begin to understand the communication process is to understand the interactive communication model. First, there is a sender who encodes a message to the receiver. Noise interfering with the communication of a message is called a channel. The receiver then decodes this message depending on the context of the situation, and the speaker’s credibility. I will also discuss the ethical behavior of Mr. John Mackey CEO of Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods 3 Discuss how the basic interpersonal communication model that is presented in Figure 8.1 can be applied to the impersonal nature of an online forum. Interpersonal...
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...convenience stores; wholesale clubs (Sam’s); restaurants and fast food chains and natural food stores (Whole Foods, Wild Oats). Generally the concentration of competitors has been fragmented by geography. However, through recent consolidations, the emergence of regional and national chains has started to prevail along with the decline of the independent/local shops. This consolidation activity has allowed many companies to spread their fixed costs over a wider range of output, thus creating more efficiency in operations. Often, it is cheaper for a company to acquire an incumbent due to the location of their stores and access to customers rather than to raise the capital for entirely new stores, which is how Whole Foods has been able to expand following their growth model strategy. Whole Foods acquisition growth plan has helped them to gain enough economies of scale to better compete with the Wal-marts and Sam’s Clubs. THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES Price of substitutes plays a role in determining a company’s profitability. Organic food is priced at a premium to conventional food reflecting the high labor costs in cultivating the product. The price premium may be one reason why organic food has not become main stream. Another reason is that consumers either lack education about its benefits (or don’t care) so that the price premium does not appear to be justified. However, when comparing upscale organic and prepared foods to competitors such as restaurants, the benefit/cost ratio appears...
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...Project; we the students are require to generate a report using the Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model to conduct an analysis of Whole Food Market’s inputs and how they align with the current company strategy, as well as its outputs. In this case study we will use the strategy we previously discussed in Module 1 and using the Porter’s three generic competitive strategies to analyzed organizational categories input to the strategy using the congruence model. The model should be able to help us determine how aligned the inputs are with the strategy. The model will give us three categories for inputs: the environment, resources and historical inputs and three categories for outputs: organizational level, group level and individual level to help us determine the congruence of the outputs. While conducting the Congruence Model we will use the inputs and outputs categories to determine the organizational level congruence of the Whole Food Markets; using all these various aspects the model will give us a good vision of the current organizational structure and performance of the company. Lastly we will analyzed all three level of organizational inputs and outputs and determine how each of these categories interact with each other to determine their similarity to was the Whole Foods Market business strategy. 2- Whole Foods Markets Inc. Strategy The Whole Foods market’s business strategy is based on their reputation and differentiation from other firms in the Grocery industry. The company...
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...In 1960, Douglas McGregor wrote a book and formulated two contrasting assumptions about the importance of work attitudes and behaviors on performance. McGregor theorized that the way employers’ treat and value their employees would determine their actions and values, and drive how they performed on the job (Chertis & Mujtaba, 2014). Theory X was an outdated, pessimistic view and viewed all workers in a negative way. Theory Y, on the other hand, was a more modern, positive assumption. McGregor believed that a manager could accomplish more through others by viewing them as self-energized, committed, responsible and creative beings (Kreitner & Kinicki, p. 9). McGregor’s Theory Y plays a role in the way that John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Food Markets runs his business. McGregor theorized that people would become committed to organizational objectives if they were rewarded for doing so. Mackey believes similarly. He believes that it is the manager’s job to seek out and hire the most appropriate person for the job. He believes that if you train them well that they will be happy in the workplace and will provide better customer service as a result. He believes that happy employees make for happy customers and happy customers make referrals to other people, which make happy investors (Kreitner & Kinicki, p. 30). Mackey didn’t emulate McGregor’s Theory Y completely. He came up with his own philosophy and called it conscious capitalism (Chertis & Muitaba, 2014)...
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...Case Study Assignment One (1) Student name: _Noria Hadfeg_ MGT- 3620- Organizational Behavior Prof. Castro WHOLE FOODS MARKETS Pages: 534-538 Case Questions 1. How would you assess the emotional intelligence of Mackey? -He is known for being casual, opinionated, and very direct. On a scale of CEO directness, Mackey might rate an 8 or 9 . On a scale of CEO competitiveness, he is off the charts as judged by most observers. Current and calculating, forthright and aloof, humble and arrogant, good-natured and prickly, rebellious and open-minded, and impatient and impetuous. Mackey calls himself pro-customer but acknowledges that he runs a store with higher profit margins and prices, often than almost any other grocer. 2. How would you evaluate Mackey in relation to model of goal setting and performance? Identify specific behaviors and decisions to assess Mackey with respect to the dimensions of this model. Mackey is a strong supporter of free market economics. He is one of the most influential advocates in the movement for organic food. Mackey is a major philanthropist who has contributed up to $1 million a year to animal welfare groups and other charities. 3. What model of leadership does Mackey best represent? Identify specific examples of Mackey’s behaviors and decisions to support your interpretation. Transactional leadership model, involves motivating and directing followers primarily through appealing to their own self-interest...
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...Organizational behavior is defined as actions and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another and toward the organization as a whole, and its effect on the organization's functioning and performance. During the course of this semester I never thought that I would learn so much about why companies are the way they are because of their behavioral structure. “Behavior is a product of individual, group, and organizational influences and, as such, we draw upon the concepts and theories of Organizational Behavior (OB) to better understand behavioral processes at these levels.” (Boyd, 2011) Organizational behavior consists of management functions, globalization, managing workforce diversity, organizational behavior, culture, diversity, diversity programs, job satisfaction, emotions in the workplace, leadership, leadership styles, motivation, values, ethics, decision making, types of training, sources of stress, and resisting change. There are a few of these topics that I will discuss and research in this essay. The first topic that I will discuss is motivation in the workplace. Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge. It involves the biological, emotional, social and cognitive forces that activate behavior. In everyday usage, the term motivation is frequently used to describe why a person...
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...Kinicki and Kreitner (2012) describe Human Capital as individual intelligence, vision, skill, self-esteem, ethics, and emotional maturity. The two describe Social Capital as productive potential based on strong relationships, goodwill, trust, and cooperation. The Whole Foods enterprise is a prime example of valuing Human and Social capital. Whole Foods has many examples of valuing Human Capital. The first example is that they hire the right people for their culture. Whole Foods team members believe they are changing the world through integrity and having the highest values. Management employs individuals with these same values. The second example is the training model utilized at Whole Foods. The organization believes in producing well-trained...
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...ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR “Organizational Behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structure have on behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.” (Robbins, Judge, Sanghi 2009, 13th edition, Prentice Hall) . From the above statement we can say that, organization behavior shows how people behave in an organization and how their behavior affects the working of the organization. To understand organizational behavior we first need to know what an organization is. According to Robbins (2006), an organization is a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or a set of goals. Now we can clearly state that organization behavior is a distinct area of expertise which studies - individuals, groups and structure. It puts in these studies gained, in order to make organizations work more effectively and efficiently. Organizational Behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives. (http://www...
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