The Seven Moral Principles Of Whole Foods

Whole Foods Market has a company wide philosophy of spreading awareness about their point of views concerning environmental sustainability, quality standards, animal welfare, and commitment to bettering the planet. The German culture encourages progressive acts of affection that conveniences the prosperity of the developing world. (Whole Foods Market, Missions and Values)

Whole Food’s belief is treat an employee well and watch your profits soar. Whole Food’s belief

Whole Foods has the Philanthropic Responsibility on Carroll’s global social responsibility pyramid, mainly for their involvement in educating employees, and customers on the importance of lifestyle changes in eating more organic, healthy foods. Moreover, Whole Foods involvement in volunteer work through the communities they serve; however,

Servant leadership in Whole Foods Market goes beyond serving the employees and the customers of the stores. Although, employee and customer based servant leadership does exist, Whole Foods Market believes it has a responsibility to apply servant leadership to their communities as well. Whole Foods Market teaches servant leadership through modeling from the top down. In 1985, Mackey devised Whole Foods Market “Declaration of Interdependence”. He wanted to develop a new stakeholder philosophy for the company by removing the mindset of simply working to increase profits. Makey stated, “They would at all times keep in mind the needs of employees, customers, suppliers, the environment and community as well” (Flock, 2010). This servant leadership conviction begins with John Makey. In 2006 he sent a letter to all the team members in the organization. In the letter he stated as of January 1, 2007, he would reduce

Whole Foods has many important values. For example, they believe that their customers are the most important stakeholders and the lifeblood of their business.[8] Whole Foods has five major stakeholders; John Mackey (CEO), James Sud, Glenda Chamberlain, Walter Robb, and John Elstrott.[9] Whole Foods selectively chose where to do business based on their average customer. Whole Foods knows that its products are for health and food enthusiasts.[10]

Barbara Farfan (n.d.) explains that, “Whole Foods Core Values define how Whole Foods leaders and employees interact with their products, customers, employee team, shareholders, communities, suppliers, and align everyone behind the mission of improving health in general.” For example, Whole Foods believes in satisfying their consumers by selling the highest quality of natural and organic products obtainable. The company strives to maintain the highest standards of quality, not only in the products they offer but in supporting excellence in the development their employees, communities, and the environment. Whole Foods direct core values as listed on the company website (2015 Whole Foods Market IP. L.P.), also

B. Mission Statement - Barbara Farfan who writes for about.com states, “The mission statement of the Whole Foods Company and Whole Foods Markets begins with its motto, which is "Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet" The Whole Foods mission explains and defines what that motto means. This mission explanation includes..."Whole Foods - We obtain our products locally and from all over the world, often from small, uniquely dedicated food artisans. Whole People - We recruit the best

If you were to ask people if they enjoy going to work on Monday, I am sure most of them would give you a funny look, and say “No”. Americans dislike of their jobs is very evident. To see the magnitude of this just look on social media. On Fridays, there are vast amounts of thank god it’s Friday (TGIF) memes indicating how happy they are that they are done with work for the week. Many American simply do not enjoy working. However, a select few actually do. They enjoy their jobs and their co-workers. Sure, they may be far and few between, but if you ask one of the 54,000 Whole Foods Markets employees you are sure to get a “Yes”. If fact, not only does Whole Foods Markets employees enjoy their work, their company is one of the top 100 companies to work for according to Fortune.com. What is so special about Whole Foods Market that their employees actually enjoy their jobs, and what is makes them different from all the other companies out there?

Whole Food goes by a management philosophy called conscious capitalism meaning "the ethical treatment of customers, employees, and the environment is the main mission and basis for organizational culture (Cheretis& Mujtaba 2014,p.7)." This is a management philosophy that was created by the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey. The philosophy was made to empower people, which is the customer, employer and investors. The three aspects will improve socialism as a whole. It's a win-win for the entire system and he value that is shown to employees in this system ignites enthusiasm to work. It’s just a trickle-down effect for the customer to feel valued and profit begins for the shareholder. People is what makes a successful business and Mackey shows

Carroll’s global corporate social responsibility pyramid is a model that summarizes the responsibility of multinational corporations to ensure they are pursuing certain responsibilities correlating to philanthropic, ethical, legal, and economic aspects (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). On Carroll’s global corporate social responsibility pyramid, Whole Foods would be located on the Level 4. Level 4 focuses on economic responsibility, and Whole Food is infamous for their policies relating to economic responsibility. Whole Foods consistently works to provide their customers with organic food that is produced from humane and environmentally conscious vendors (Cheretis & Mujtaba, 2014). Whole Foods also works with their vendors to ensure they have a relationship

The business level strategy that Whole Foods Market utilizes is differentiation strategy. Whole Foods is focused on selling natural and organic foods. The intention is that customers will value the high quality of the organic food and eventually pay a high price. Also, WFM nurtures customer loyalty by providing unique products. For example, Whole Foods features “foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.” (7) Also, Whole Foods has implemented animal welfare standards. The animals are not treated with antibiotics when preventing diseases and infections or when developing their growth. Additionally, to demonstrated customers that they care for the farm animals they developed a 5 Step Animal

Whole Foods exemplifies all four principles of Carroll’s Global Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid. From the information we are provided regarding Whole Foods the company aspires to be profitable. Whole Foods has a responsibility to be profitable for all the consituents, and in doing so secures survivability of the company. Profitability is the foundation required to allow participation in social responsibilities.

Whole Foods’ core values are indeed sincere, especially where a sense of community is concerned. For example, Whole Foods sponsors the program, “Whole Planet Foundation” where small loans are granted to individuals in impoverished areas of the world to start a small business utilizing a special skill or trade; Whole Foods also assists with financing low-interest loans to local farmers to ensure their continued livelihood to provide locally grown produce and livestock; Whole Foods also participates in their annual “5% Day”, where 5% of the day’s net profit from each store is donated to a chosen local non-profit charity. Whole Foods does not limit their motto and core values just to print – they are proactive in what they believe in.

When beginning the evaluation process for Whole Foods it becomes essential to first look into the culture of Whole Foods. Whole Foods breaks down the store operations into “teams” and these teams are grouped by which departments the team members work. These teams aren’t just a result of the departments that exist within all retail markets, rather each team member is responsible for ensuring that the operation of the team runs smoothly and is profitable to not only the team but also the store, the organization, and the community it operates within. Each team functions on its own and as a part of the bigger team, which is the store.

Whole Foods Market Inc. has developed into one of the most prominent supermarket chains that only market foods without artificial preservatives, colors, flavors and etc. Starting in 1978 as a small vegetarian store and now has developed into a $13.7 billion that has just recently been bought by Amazon. Whole Foods started the efforts in the grocery industry to base its food based on healthy living. This calls for food products to be sourced responsibly and call on innovative solutions that can improve Whole Foods environmental footprint. By doing so the company provides a strong contribution to the communities it does business in. While there is no argument to the accomplishments of Whole Foods, the company has not been free of criticisms. For example, the company has been accused of placing local stores out of business which has resulted in mixed responses from some of its customers. Some other ethical issues also include the questionable activity by CEO John Mackey and an antitrust investigation. This analysis will provide a background on the ethical dilemma Whole Foods had to undergo.