Whole Foods Market Executive Summary

Organizations are tasked with maximizing resources to increase their competitive advantage in the marketplace. The most important resource supportive of the success of an organization is personnel. As such, it becomes essential for an organization to develop measures which increase the performance of employees leading to growth and development. In order to be effective, the performance management process needs to be a continuous. It is not sufficient to merely have an annual discussion regarding performance. This is a topic which needs to be visited frequently in order to support the development of employees. Whole Foods Market is a democratic based organization which looks to do away with old guard management practices (Fishmen, 1996, para. 11). Whole Foods feels that bureaucratic oversight has no value to their business model and their employees. As such, whenever possible, they minimize non-essential intervention (Fishmen, 1996, para. 36). It is no surprise that this

However, according to a Gallup study which surveyed over 50,000 human resource professionals, there are a number of essential components which are necessary to drive employee performance (Oberoi, 2013, para. 9). The components to be addressed in the proceeding text can be applied to any business as long as they compliment the goals and culture of the organization. If this is true, the components should provide the organization with the support needed to maximize human resources. The Gallup poll surveyed human resource professionals in twenty-two companies and asked what components make performance management programs/systems impactful (Oberoi, 2013, para. 9). Rather than focusing on “process elements” the poll focused on “people elements” (Oberoi, 2013, para. 9). The following text applies the findings of the Gallup poll to the performance management measures used by Whole