Whole Foods is a large international organization with thousands of employees. In the case study, the co-CEO John Mackey explained that the purpose of the organization was a heroic one. He explained that its highest purpose was “try and change and improve the world.” In order to accomplish that goal, he and the team members need to work in coordination to accomplish that goal. So McGregor's Theory Y in Organizational Behavior is prevalent in the way they do business. Management at whole foods is really just the mechanism to help find and bring people into the organization that assist the organization in achieving this goal. He recognizes that employees that are engaged, have the ability to make decisions and are able to do so effectively, and ultimately translates into conscientious customer service are ultimately more happy. When the staff is happy, their level of service is better, and then customers are happy, which equates to more revenue, and more profits (presumably) and in turn results in happy shareholders. It is a perpetuating evolution in business. True efficacy of this theory would dictate that the management team has the versatility to hire in the way they want, and to leverage resources that give them the greatest opportunity to achieve the goal of finding the right people but that subject was not broached in the case study.

Whole Foods recognizes that the success of their organization and its ability to achieve profitability and shareholder value is to hire good people that will continue to serve the customers. So, they build human capital by hiring the right people, and then training them properly, and empowering them to provide service they can be proud of. In addition to human capital, they establish social capital by sharing common values and missions, encouraging participation in the workplace, leveraging team work, and building