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. The team leads in esscence are like store managers. They can make decisions concerning products in their department. Potential associates are voted on by the employees as part of the interview process.
Democratic Model Whole Foods democratic model of selection could interfere with the development of a diverse workforce by the associates nominating associates “just like them”, for example, if a team had all white males, there could be a great possibility that the would offer employment to a white male instead of female or someone else of color. A good counter measure is to leave name, gender, and race out of the interview and selection process. The team leader should conduct the initial interview and ask general and technical questions. The answers should then be annotated along with a summary of the candidates qualifications. The voting associates will vote according to the question and answer sheet provided and the summary of qualifications with no name, gender, or race. The sheet would just indicate candidate one, two, etc. This I feel would be a fair and balance way of selecting employees.
Globalization
Globalization of Whole Foods will be beneficial as long as they adapt to the areas and cultures in which they operate. Everything is not like Texas. As the company explores to other countries the cultural environment will play a big part. The willingness to adapt or adopt help to reflect cultural and regional differences within each country. A good example of adapting since Whole Foods has meats as a product certain countries do not eat or allow the consumption of certain types of meats. Whole Foods ability to remove that particular product from that location would be beneficial.

In conclusion, Whole Food’s commitment to you human capital and ensuring that their employees are well taken care of promotes commitment and dedication to their company. It keeps good employees and always them to be able to make decisions concerning the company. Their democratic model had proven to be affective in hiring quality associates. The high-involvement management ensures that they have highly trained and committed managers.

References
Hitt, M., Miller, C., & Colella, A. (2015). A Strategic Approach to Organizational Behavior. Organizational Behavior (4th ed., pp. 1-6. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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