Whole Foods Market: Carroll's Corporate Social Responsibility

With sales of over thirty billion back in 2014, Publix is an American supermarket that has been listed on the top ten American’s largest private companies by Forbes in 2010. It is also the fourteenth largest retailer in America. Publix is privately owned and operated by its 176,500 employees, with its main base in Florida. However, “Publix has 1,103 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina” (Publix Funding) as well. Publix super markets are always trying to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly. For example, they create recycling programs, make sustainable choices of where food is purchased, use reusable grocery bags instead of plastic bags, and so much more. In addition to being more sustainable, they partner with many charities, including: Feeding America Foundation, United Way, and Greenville Habitat. These are just a few of the forty affiliates that Publix has connected with.

This paper will particularly focus on the food industry and will outline the ethical issue of food marketing towards children by reviewing the existing marketing ethics literature. The paper will evaluate the ethical responsibilities of marketing managers towards the issue of food marketing towards children and its impact. The paper will also explore and propose how managers of marketing can change their strategies to improve the ethical performance of the company by analyzing theories such as business ethics, social marketing and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It will discuss various theoretical approaches to marketing.

I will be comparing the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Social responsibility means that a company invests in communities, protects the environment, pays their taxes, provides equal treatment, provides adequate health care, etc. CSR is an act of maturity, where companies feel obligated to give back to those who assisted them in their success. A company needs both the employees and customers to be satisfied. Hence, companies feel obligated to give back to their community; a practice of appreciation and sympathy. I will begin with talking about the background of each company, followed by the employees, investors, customers, and environment.

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,

Because Company Q is a small, local grocery store in a major metropolitan area it can at times be very over whelming. Big chain stores are putting family owned stores out of business on a constant basis. This reason, along with social responsibility taking hold of companies, brought on by consumers demanding that companies adjust their thinking from a profit-seeking standpoint to being socially and ethically understanding to all consumers in their business ventures.

For the rest of the meal I’ll still need tomato sauce, I need spinach leaves, onions, garlic cloves, pecans, and basil leaves. Fortunately the basil and pecan nuts are easier to acquire because I happen to have garden at my house which does produce both of these ingredients. As for the other ingredients, the rest is purchased at the store, the only distinction is a great deal of this is not packaged previously, instead it’s fresh produce so the manufacturing process is not the same. For several years, Kroger has operated with agriculturalists and contractors to transport locally produced merchandises to grocery stores. There are two main farms specifically in Arizona where Kroger does obtain some of their fresh vegetables. These include Rousseau

In business, Anne Lawrence and James Weber (2014) identify enlightened self-interest as a corporation’s recognition that using corporate resource to serve others, including customers, employees, and the community as a whole, is in the best interest of the company. This social responsibility enhances the company’s image within the community, which increases both customer loyalty and satisfaction of employees. Some of the ways that businesses serve others is through philanthropy and backing environmental sustainability. Within his lecture on ethics and corporate responsibility, Dr. Kahlib Fischer (n.d.) encourages the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in that it provides mutual benefit to both the organization and the community.

John Mackery believes that Conscious Capitalism is a valuable concept that builds the business model affecting the major stakeholders, including: customers, employees, investors, suppliers, and communities (Kreitner, & Kinicki, 2013). Obviously, Mackery's desire to improve his company, leads to the understanding of how the Theory Y plays a major role at Whole Foods. Leadership effects all aspects of a business, and without the proper vision, planning and knowledge of how people react, success will be minimized. Observing human behavior, was an area of expertise in McGregor's Human Relation Movement, known as a people friendly friendly approach (Kreitner, & Kinicki, 2013).

Companies today are heavily influenced by the demands of customers and stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the social and environmental responsibility policies and practices developed by an organization to increase its positive influence and reduce its negative activity towards society (Parks, 2008). The business approach and corporate philosophy of an organization is easily altered due to economic pressures, technological improvement and stakeholder needs and demands. "Going green" or being eco-friendly is one such demand. Environmental and sustainability concerns originate most often from governments, consumer activists, and the general public (Schlosser, 2008). Thus, organizations must implement sustainability into daily practices. In addition, sustainability alters the nature of competition and drives companies to think differently about products, processes, and technologies (Parks, 2008).

I would say that Whole Foods would be located at the Philanthropic Responsibility level which is the high level because of Mackey's zero sum game or at the top of the pyramid following every criterion. Mackey stated that what’s needed for a company is to adopted social justice in which everyone gets an equal slice of the pie. This avoids the idea that one individual getting the larger piece and everyone else getting the smaller which cause lower morale in employees. Cooperate social responsibility is very essential in every enterprise.

CSR is the concept that businesses should balance profit-making with activities that benefit society, as Bruce Dayton believed “businesses should act in the best interest of society” (Target, 2015). Accordingly, Target’s commitment is to design tomorrow’s Target through our value chain, building community and creating a great workplace. As such, its 5 core beliefs: innovation, leadership, growth, inclusivity, and community influence its ongoing commitment to CSR. Furthermore, they achieve this by concentrating on:

Referring to Carroll’s global corporate social responsibility pyramid Whole Food should be located at the top (Kreitner, & Kinicki, 2013). The top represents Philanthropic Responsibility. Because it is the top, this also represents being a good global corporate citizen, being ethical, obeying the law, and lastly being profitable (Kreitner, & Kinicki, 2013).

Carroll (1991) organized different corporate social responsibilities as a four-layered pyramid model and called it the pyramid of responsibilities. The four different responsibilities - economical, legal, ethical and philanthropic are the layers of the pyramid. Corporate social responsibility involves the conduct of a business so that it is economically profitable, law abiding, ethical and socially supportive. To be socially responsible then means that profitability and obedience to the law are foremost conditions when discussing the firm’s ethics and the extent to which it supports the society in which it exists with contributions of money, time and talent”. And the different layers in the pyramid help managers

Ben & Jerry’s is a renowned Ice Cream company which becomes a social enterprise icon since it was founded in 1978 (Kazs, Page, 2013).And it is claimed that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is the best in the world for its comfortable environment, equitable system, and being kind to its cows by Time Magazine in 1981(Dennis et al, 1998).

Baker Hughes headquarters are located in Houston Texas and is a company that participates in the global petroleum industry and offers products and services for finding, evaluating, drilling, extracting, and producing hydrocarbons. (BakerHughes) These services operate in the Americans, Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. According to the last fiscal year, Baker Hughes has 24551 million dollars in revenue and makes a profit of 1719 million dollars. With the help of their CEO, Martin Craighead, and their 58,000 employees, Baker Hughes is ranked 119 in the Fortune 500, which is an improvement from last years ranking of 132.