This paper describes Whole Foods and how it relates to the question of: How does the company use the following to achieve organizational effectiveness? In this regards, it examines motivational tools, including benefits, rewards and development, among other sections.
Whole Foods is, needless to say, an innovative, committed and overall fantastic company with clear goals in mind. This section will describe how the organization has come to be where it is at the moment, a successful enterprise with happy employees. In order to answer this question the paper will talk about various tools and strategies, all described below.
Perhaps one of the most important places to start is by looking at the procurement strategies that the company utilizes for its development. This is important because these are the most vital part of the Whole Foods chain, and these employees must be kept happy in order to keep serving the company. Unlike many grocery stores, Whole Foods only deals with pesticide-free, organic companies. There are a few dozen companies that supply to Whole Foods, and they are all detailed briefly below:
Whole Food Company -- a grocery store with wholesome food (not a health food store)
Wellspring Grocery -- a grocery store with home-grown, energetic workers who changed the way people shopped for food (i.e. encourage great nutrition)
3. Bread & Circus -- a store that sold both natural food and wooden toys
4. Mrs. Gooch's -- a store whose owner opened it because she was interested in natural foods after trying to alleviate her allergies
5. Fresh Fields -- a second generation natural supermarket store
6. Bread of Life -- an organic store that housed natural food products and a juice bar
7. Amrion -- a small store founded in Colorado that sold various health-related products
8. Merchant of Vino -- a wine retail store that also picked up gourmet and natural foods
9. Allegro Coffee -- a coffee company that was also promoting natural and wholesome production
10. WholePeople.com -- an e-commerce subsidiary
11. Nature's Heartland -- a store that opened with the goal of providing cost effective but natural and good foods to customers
12. Food For Thought -- a community business in California that also focused on the natural foods industry
13. Harry's Farmers Market -- a market that was known for natural, fresh, delicious foods, that began in Atlanta and soon proved the superiority of these products over traditional foods
14. Select Fish -- a processor and distributor from Alaska who provided fish from fisheries that had both high quality but that also utilized techniques to ensure ecological health of marine life.
15. Fresh & Wild -- a UK company that also promoted natural foods and that won numerous awards in Europe
16. Wild Oats© Markets -- a vegetarian natural foods store
The reason this list was given was to demonstrate the various aspects that the company has utilized to achieve its success. This is, thus not attributed solely to the fact that it has fantastic products, but also to its partnership, that has spurred development with many other similar companies, that now all work for or are somehow incorporated in Whole Foods. This is very important because it proves how the company has achieved organizational effectiveness through very simple, yet very effective motivational tools, such as the constant promotion of organic and healthy foods in a variety of forms and from a variety of companies.
Of course, with specific respect to its employees the company also utilizes tools such as benefits and rewards or recognition. One of the benefits of working at Whole Foods is that a person will be trained from the beginning of his or her career. Due to the environment of the store, all people are friendly, and it is truly a joy to go there, as it is bright, well-organized, and pleasant. On a more technical aspect, however, the company provides employee benefits as well.
The company provides a full page on its website (detailed below), as to what it does exactly to make its employees happy. If one goes to this link one will find the following:
"Our company has been recognized by FORTUNE magazine for the last 13 years as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America."
Furthermore, the company provides section in which it explains it medical care, personal wellness accounts for team members in the U.S., medical care, dental care, vision care, health care reimbursement account, 401k account options, emergency fund options, stock options, paid time off, life insurance, disability insurance, and the list goes on and on. After taking a look at this particular list one does come off with the impression that the company does a lot for its employees.
Of course Whole Foods is a great company. It has great products and a fantastic environment, but when it comes to organizational management, is it that perfect? One must ask this question due to the fact that some employees come out disgruntled. Such stories are published online, but will not be referenced here, simply because one must keep it official. Yet one must always question this in order to be fair. The best way, however, to get a good impression of the overall functioning of the body is to speak with employees and management firsthand.
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