Organizational Behavior at Whole Foods

Introduction
This paper will discuss the organizational behavior concepts that relate to Whole Foods. These concepts include Theory X and Theory Y, human and social capital, the profile of the 21st century manger, Carroll’s Global Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid and the seven moral principles. Whole Foods Market is a supermarket chain that functions through several completely maintained divisions. The supermarkets are located in the US, Canada and the UK. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas and employed about 72,700 people as of September 30, 2012, of whom 16,400 were part-time employees and 3,200 were seasonal employees (“Company Profile”, 2013).

McGregor’s Theory Y Role at Whole Foods

In 1960, Douglas McGregor wrote The Human Side of Enterprise, which framed two sets of molds about human nature. The first one is Theory X is unenthusiastic and negative. It assumptions people don’t like working and must be forced to do their work, avoid responsibility and have little motivation. As Kopelman and et al. (2012) stated “the manager who holds Theory X beliefs may unwittingly engineer a low level of employee motivation and (ironically) lament to a colleague that you can't get good workers nowadays” (pg. 451). Theory Y is the counterpart. In this Theory, mangers assume employees can be self-motivated, committed, responsible and creative workers. Whole Foods hires people that are well-trained who flourish in their workplace because they are happy with their jobs. John Mackey, the Cofounder and Co-CFO believes that “happy team members result in happy customers (Kreitner & Kincki, 2012).

How Whole Foods Builds Human and Social Capital

Human capital is the productive potential of the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of individuals that generate economic output. Martin (2005) explained that” individuals exchange effort for reward, and acquire human capital in the expectation that their incomes will be higher” (pg.1013). Social Capital is the productive potential of solid, trusting and accommodating relationships. Whole Foods believes people are the key to their success. Whole Foods train their employees for achievement. In return from trainings you get teamwork, knowledge, respect, trust, shared goals and visions. Which builds the human and social capital and is necessary for the greater good of the organization.

Bringing Whole Foods to the Profile of the 21st Century Manager to Life

A 21ST century manger is more of a couch then ruler. They see themselves as part of a team and will make sure that team members are given all the resources needed to succeed. The mangers job at any organization is to hire good people and make sure they are trained well. Whole Foods believes in a conscious leadership. The leaders identify their own flourishing with the flourishing of the organization (Kreitner & Kincki, 2012). Whole Foods understand that in order to be successful, everyone especially mangers need to have the mind set of happy workers equals happy customers which equals greater success. In the past century’s mangers would only worry about their success and would walk all over their co-workers. Meinhard (2012) noted that you can hire the right employees, but if you badly manage them, they’re more than likely to mess up, rather than step up (par.1). If an organization want to succeed they need to replace the bad managers. The best way to find out how if a manger is in the 21st century is to ask their team members.
Whole Foods on Carroll’s Global Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid

Corporate social responsibility means that organizations have moral, ethical, and goodhearted responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law. Barnett (2006) wrote about how CSR requires organizations to adopt a broader view of its responsibilities that includes not only stockholders, but many other constituencies as well, including employees, suppliers, customers, the local community, local, state, and federal governments, environmental groups, and other special interest groups (pg.137). I would locate Whole Foods on top of Carroll’s global corporate social responsibility pyramid. They care about their community and the environment. They are committed to sustainable agriculture by supporting organic farmers, growers and the environment. They recycle, reuse and reduce their waste out of respect of the environment. They give back 5% of their profits every year to a wide variety of non-profit organizations and the community. Also Whole Foods sees their trade partner as supporters in serving their stakeholders. Treating them with same respect, fairness and integrity at all times that they would want in return (Whole Foods, 2013).

The Seven Moral Principles at Force at Whole Foods

The objective for mangers should be to rely on moral principles so their choices are honorable, suitable, and defensible. All seven morals should be seen at every 21st century successful business. Dignity of human life and autonomy, Whole Foods is an organization that believes all people need to be treated with respect. Every team member and customer has a value, dignity and has a right to self-determination. With the 21st century mangers at the company, honesty and fairness are important. They want people to be open and believe everyone have a right to know. Loyalty is a must for any successful business. Whole Foods wants employees who stay with the company, vendors and customers that keep coming back to do business. Fairness, Whole Foods tolerates diversity, realizes that the difference in people makes a company who they are and often those are the people that bring new ideas. Humaneness and the common good, Whole Foods gives back to the community. They were the first major retailer to offset 100% of our energy use with wind energy credits (Whole Foods, 2013). They also are set in green building, use solar power, company-wide recycling programs, internal green mission programs and support organics. John Mackey the cofounder and CEO states that their “higher purpose is a heroic one: to try to change and improve the world (Kreitner & Kincki, 2012).

What would Appeal to me about Employment at Whole Foods

Whole Foods understand they in order to keep customers coming their employees need to be happy. They follow Theory Y, make sure their team members have to trainings for success, and mangers seem to be in the 21st century. For the past 16 years have been listed as one of fortune’s 100 best companies to work for.

Conclusion
In summary, according to my research about Whole Foods Markets the organizational behavior concepts are very relevant. These concepts Theory Y, human and social capital, the profile of the 21st century manger, Carroll’s Global Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid and the seven moral principles all play a role in it. In order to have a successful organization the team members must be happy.

References
Barnett, T. (2006). Corporate Social Responsibility. In M. M. Helms (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Management (5th ed., pp. 137-141). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3446300059&v=2.1&u=esc&it=r&p=GVRL&sw= w&asid=d6bb76d60485724b04eda7036919a24b
Kopelman, R.E., Prottas, D.J., & Falk, D.W. (2012). Further Development of a Measure of Theory X and Y Managerial Assumptions. Journal of Managerial Issues, 24(4), 450-470.
Kreitner & Kincki. (2012). Organizational Behavior. 10th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Martin, P. L. (2005). Human Capital. In M. C. Horowitz (Ed.), New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (Vol. 3, pp. 1013-1014).Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3424300349&v=2.1&u=esc&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=b7072e114ba11d27fdc7eb29fdde5a10 Meinhard, C. (2012). Bad Managers: They ruin good employees. Sales & Service Excellence, 12(9), 12.
Whole Foods Market. (2013). In our Values and Mission. Retrieved From http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com