Whole Foods's Corporate Social Responsibility
The company I chose to discuss is Chick-Fil-A, Dan Cathy is the current President and CEO. Chick-Fil-A’s mission statement explains what they value and what their commitment is to the community. According to the Chick-Fil-A website “For the past 66 years, we have built a foundational commitment to service – service to our customers, service to our franchised Restaurant Operators and their Team Members, and service to our communities. This begins in the restaurant – one customer at a time.
The ethical success of Whole Foods Market and The Hilton Hotel was rooted from their similar contributions to the community and environment. Whole Foods Market is one of the most successful companies in the food industry, that is well known for their contributions to society. Furthermore, The Hilton Hotel is a worldwide company in the hospitality industry that is complemented on their contributions globally. In addition to being recognized for their corporate social responsibility. However these companies in different industries have many contributions in common, for ethical success beyond what's mentioned below.
Whole Foods seem to be a great place to work but the factors that would be an appeal to working at Whole Foods varies in the aspect of what is a person looking for in a company. Whole Foods, with $12.9 billion in sales, is tiny by comparison, but it’s had an outsize impact on the industry and defied the head winds facing its brethren by dominating in the food category that’s growing—one that, not coincidentally, it helped create (Kowitt, 2014). One factor that would appeal to me is working for a CEO like John Mackey. The things one can learn from a successful CEO that cares about the company and trying to fulfill its purpose. I aspire to be a CEO and hope to fulfill the purpose of my organization like John Mackey displayed with Whole Foods.
Of the seven magnificent moral principles, Whole Foods represents the Honesty principle most of all. The truth of the company is ingrained in every employee to have honor and integrity regarding the interaction with customers on a daily basis (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013 P24). The company was built on the foundation of wholesome honesty much like the foods they sell. The atmosphere in the store is friendly, organic, pleasant, and inviting for customers to try new products. The service provided to the customers of seasoned, veteran, insightful, and competent employees demonstrating integrity and honesty in every interaction makes for an extraordinary experience.
Whole Foods Market Whole Foods Market is an American supermarket chain that specializes in organic food and that is currently operating in the U.S, Canada and the United Kingdom. The organization’s main focus or mission is to sell and offer organic products that meet the criteria and quality standards that the company has self-created, some of these standards include the following requirements: minimally processed food that are free of hydrogenated fat as well as artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners and preservatives, as well as not promoting and selling meats or milks that utilize cloned animals. I decided to choose this organization because there are so many areas on which this company promotes and practices corporate social responsibility as well as sustainable
Whole Foods Company (WFC) was founded in Austin, Texas in 1978 when four local businesspeople decided the natural foods industry was ready for a supermarket format. Their aim is to search for the finest natural and organic foods available, maintain the strictest quality standards in the industry, and have an unshakeable commitment to sustainable agriculture. WFC started to implement a new vision of a sustainable future where companies, governments, and institutions will be held accountable for their actions, people will better understand that all actions have repercussions and also, it will be a world that values education and a free exchange of ideas by an informed citizenry. Their core values are to sell the highest quality of natural and organic products that is available, to satisfy, delight and nourish their customers, support team member excellence and happiness, create wealth through profits and wealth, serve and support their local and global communities, practice and advance environmental stewardship, create win - win partnership with their suppliers and promote the health of their stakeholders The company has Whole
Sue Desmond-Hellmann has brought a completely different organizational structure to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. An organizational structure is a system of shared beliefs and values guiding behavior. In particular, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann has brought a strong organizational structure, which is an organizational structure that is clear, well defined, and widely shared among the organizational structures. The specific strong organizational structure that Dr. Desmond-Hellmann has come up with is a value-based management which focuses on mostly non-monetary rewards such as allowing more people to live a better live than they would have without the organization. This is a great way for companies to view successes because it takes them away from solely focusing on the profit they are or aren’t making.
The Fresh Market’s, Trader Joe’s, Sprouts Famers Market’s, and Whole Foods’ stores are located near to each other in many locations. However, Whole Foods has a competitive and strategic advantage due to the size of its stores. As a result, Whole Foods can accommodate a greater number of customers. In addition, It can also hold larger inventory that its competitors.
The moral principle in force at Whole Foods that most accurately fits is Loyalty. However, Whole Foods does meet and excel at a few of the characteristics in the remaining six principles ((Kreitner and Kinicki, 1998, p. 24). The company expresses concisely that they have a responsibility to "customers, employees, investors, suppliers, larger communities, and the environment (Kreitner and Kinicki, 1998, p. 30).
Case Study: Chipotle 1. Is Chipotle a socially responsible organization? Social responsibility is defined as “proactive behaviors for the benefit of society,” and that is what the Chipotle Corporation is all about (Neck, sec 6.3). Currently, food corporations have no legal obligation to go above and beyond to serve the society as a whole; it is understood that maximizing profits – in any way possible - is the number one priority. However, as today’s society slowly becomes more health conscious, many fast food corporations are gradually switching from a defensive approach (where responsibility is recognized, but only the minimum is done), to a more proactive approach that involves finding solutions to problems that are putting our society
Stakeholder Theory Mackey’s leadership is based on stakeholder theory. Stakeholder theory consists of “A conceptual framework of business ethics and organizational management which addresses moral and ethical values in the management of a business” (“Stakeholder theory”, n.d., para. 1). Ultimately recognizing the responsibility to deliver value and effect change for all parties who may benefit or be at a loss for the decisions made within an organization. Stakeholder theory further solidifies Mackey’s commitment to leading his organization in the fulfillment of their mission – “whole people, whole food, whole plant”. Mackey holds Whole Foods to a standard in which the needs of shareholders are not put before the needs of “employees, customers”, the environment and greater society (Kowitt, 2015, para. 10).
Whitbread is a multinational hospitality company that operates hotels, coffee shops and restaurants with 45,000 employees which bases its headquarter in Dunstable, United Kingdom (B.co.uk, 2015). Whitbread owns the biggest hotel chain, Premier Inn and coffee shop chain, Costa in the UK as well as internationally in other 30 countries(Whitbread.co.uk, 2015). Moreover, they also operate family-friendly restaurants; Beefeater grill, Brewers Fayre and Table Table. Whitbread’s vision is to grow and expand through strong customer heartbeat and innovation to stay ahead in the competitive market.
Whole Foods Inc. is specialized when it comes to offering natural and organic foods for consumers to purchase, but they operate like any other grocery store, carrying a variety of different products ranging from fresh produce and dairy products, to meats and dry foods. Whole Foods Inc. uses vertical integration by providing some of its own products, such as the 365 brand, and by educating it’s customer on the qualities of the products that they offer in the store. While Whole Foods Inc. only operates in the grocery and food supply industry, they do still allocate their resources. A majority of their profits go back into the local communities where they receive some of their products. They have also put money back into their stores by making
Kent Holland has identified seven moral principles that managers can utilize to emphasize ethical decisions within their company. These seven principles are dignity of human life, autonomy, honesty, loyalty, fairness, humaneness, and common good. Whole Foods appears to include several of these moral principles within their business plan. The company’s pledge to sell high quality, nutritious foods to the consumer demonstrates their commitment to the dignity of human life. This principle highlights the right for everyone to live with consideration given to the fact that life is sacred and should be protected.
1) Evaluate how Nestlé 's approach to corporate responsibility was good for their business. Corporate businesses generally have to meet ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations. That is what is expected of the business world today. This is known as the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). However, businesses with short-term goal will rarely practice CSR since practicing it does not bring any benefit.
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