Organizational Behavior of Whole Foods Market

Organizational Behavior in Whole Foods Market

Define Organizational Behavior.

In any business or organization there is a structure of interactions that orchestrate performance of the organism and define the success or failure of the organization. The study of organizational behavior is has become a science unto itself. It is the study of employee behavior, perceptions, decisions, and emotional responses and how these behaviors affect the organization as a whole and within the teams or departments. Organizational behavior studies have consistently found a positive relationship between the quality of leadership and the company’s return on assets. Research has revealed that leadership, performance –based rewards, employee development, employee attitudes, and other characteristics are important screening tools for selecting companies with the highest and most consistent long-term investment gains (McShane, 2014, p. 5).

Describe Whole Foods Market.

Whole Foods Market is a retail grocery store that concentrates its sells in organically grown and environmentally friendly products. Whole Foods Market began as a small independent grocery store in Austin, Texas in 1980. It has grown to 431 stores in North America and in the United Kingdom and are a leader in the world’s natural and organic foods retail market mix. Much of their growth has been from mergers and acquisitions of competitive companies such as Fresh Fields, Wild, Fresh and Wild, Mrs.Gooch’s, and Food for Thought (Market, 2015).

As an organization, they emphasis high quality foods, support local farmers, and promote the empowering of their employees, while reducing their impact on the environment. According to their website, they value quality standards, responsible farming, seafood sustainability, animal welfare and caring for communities. They espouse eight core values that are the backbone of the company culture and how they aspire to do business with their customers, supply partners, employee communities and others. These eight core value statements are as follows:

1) Selling highest quality natural and organic products available

2) Satisfy, delight and nourish customers

3) Support team member excellence and happiness

4) Create wealth through profits and growth

5) Serve and support local and global communities

6) Practice and advance environmental stewardship

7) Create ongoing win-win partnerships with suppliers

8) Promote the health of stakeholders through healthy eating education

All of these values reflect the foundation of their continuing commitment to high quality, eco-friendly retail offerings in the market today (Market, 2015).

What stakeholders are impacted by the actions and decisions of Whole Foods?

To Whole Foods Market, their customers are their most important stakeholders. They seek to provide their customers with stores that are fun, inviting, and reflective of the individual communities served. By providing products, as defined above, they will ensure customer loyalty and by taking good care of their customers’ needs they will in effect satisfy their other stakeholders as well. They value providing a friendly competition and seek to continually improve their offerings for their customers. They have multiple other stakeholders, such as their suppliers, partners, employees, and material stockholders. They promote buying from local farmers which helps the local government and gives back material to the communities. If they chose to buy from big-box wholesalers, the prices may be lower but the quality, show of local support and competitive market niche would suffer.

Give examples of how Whole Foods creates a “people-centered” culture for employees.

At Whole Foods Market, they strive to create a working environment that motivates their employee team members to be responsible for their own success, all team members are part of self-managed teams that meet to discuss issues and collaborate to solve perceived problems affecting their team area. This empowers their employees and creates ownership within the organization. Whole Foods also offers many employee benefits such as generous store discounts, medical, dental, and vision insurance, paid time off, team member stock options and retirement savings plans, and a team member emergency fund. They also encourage their team members to participate in volunteer community projects for the betterment of others. All of which nurtures their core value and commitment