This case study examines Greyston Bakery, a Yonkers, New York–based company founded in 1982 by Bernie Glassman on the premise that profitable enterprise and social responsibility are mutually reinforcing. The paper explores the company's core terminal values—family security, freedom, equality, self-respect, and happiness—and how its open-hiring philosophy translates those values into practice. Drawing on Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's motivator-hygiene theory, the paper analyzes what motivates both the organization and its workforce. It also considers how supply chain partnerships and workforce development programs extend the company's community impact, and concludes that Greyston's model offers a replicable template for socially responsible small and medium-sized enterprises.
"We don't hire people to bake brownies; we bake brownies to hire people." — Greyston Bakery Benefit Corporation Report (2013)
There has been a growing recognition among businesses of all sizes and types that investments in their communities can pay major dividends in terms of corporate goodwill and increased profitability. As the epigraph above indicates, one company that has been in the vanguard of this movement is Greyston Bakery, based in Yonkers, New York. To date, Greyston Bakery has leveraged an enlightened approach to human resource management and corporate social responsibility into a thriving business that supports a wide range of community-based support services for those in need.
The purpose of this report is to provide a case study of Greyston Bakery based on the company's publicly available information, a case study by Deborah Leifziger (2013), and relevant scholarly and peer-reviewed sources. The report is organized into four main sections. The first section introduces the report, including its purpose and organization. The second section provides a description of the Greyston Bakery case study, including an assessment of the company's values, motivation, and teamwork, followed by a description of the research results. Finally, a summary of the research and key findings are presented in the conclusion.
Greyston Bakery was founded in 1982 (Mission & History, 2016) by Bernard "Bernie" Tetsugen Glassman, a former aerospace engineer and practicing Zen Buddhist priest (Reed, 2011). From the outset, the overarching mission of the company was to identify opportunities to employ people who would otherwise be unable to secure meaningful employment due to their life circumstances — including disabilities, immigration status, substance abuse problems, a criminal record, or homelessness — and the company's sustained profitability was essential to achieving this mission (Leifziger, 2013). The case study reports that the company's newly installed CEO, Mike Brady, was concerned about how best to fulfill this laudable mission and further expand its positive impact on the community. Although Brady possessed the professional credentials and experience needed for this enterprise, he also faced significant constraints, including a factory operating at less than full capacity and questions about whether to diversify the company's product line to capitalize on emerging consumer preferences such as gluten-free baked goods (Leifziger, 2013).
In addition, Brady was concerned about identifying optimal sourcing approaches that were congruent with Glassman's vision for the company and his commitment to the PathMaking initiative, while also reducing the company's debt (Leifziger, 2013). According to Leifziger, "One of the core concepts Bernie infused in the company was the concept of PathMaking. Inherent in this concept is that all people are on a path, moving forward with their lives" (p. 1). Finally, despite the organizational culture established by Glassman that placed a high priority on these efforts (Langton, Robbins, & Judge, 2016), it remained unclear to Brady how best to promote the Greyston brand. Although the new CEO understood that improvement requires measurement, he had not yet determined which metrics were best suited to measure the impact of the company's CSR initiatives (Leifziger, 2013).
Five terminal values can be discerned from the company's publicly available information, the Leifziger (2013) case study, and the relevant literature: (1) family security (taking care of loved ones); (2) freedom (independence, free choice); (3) equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all); (4) self-respect (self-esteem); and (5) happiness (contentedness). Each of these terminal values is reinforced by the company's commitment to providing employment opportunities for anyone who wants a job that pays a living wage. As Thompson (2012) notes, "Organizations such as Greyston Bakery in New York provide compelling examples of for-profit urban social enterprises that have developed successful businesses while also providing jobs in their respective urban areas to individuals with considerable barriers to employment" (p. 115). Likewise, the company's website states: "Greyston is a force for personal transformation and community economic renewal. [W]e create jobs and provide integrated programs for individuals and their families to move forward on their path to self-sufficiency" (Mission & History, 2016, para. 2).
These five values are also at the core of the company's stated mission to help marginalized people while creating and sustaining a profitable enterprise. Russo (2010) emphasizes that "Its mission pervades its policies and processes. This means, for example, that apprenticeship involves teaching individuals how to work rather than how to bake, focusing on 'punctuality, attendance, and productivity'" (p. 41). Not only has the company achieved and sustained profitability through these measures and expanded its corporate social responsibility efforts, it has also been able to implement a profit-sharing plan in addition to other perquisites and assistance programs offered to employees and community residents (Russo, 2010). These programs include the following:
As proof that even a small company can make a major difference in its community, the company cites an impressive number of people it assists each year: "We are proud to say that today, Greyston serves over 2,200 community members annually" (Mission & History, 2016, para. 4). Clearly, this level of success was not the result of haphazard management or luck, but rather the outcome of the motivation instilled in the company by its founder.
"Maslow and Herzberg applied to Greyston"
"Supply chain alignment with CSR philosophy"
Although fulfilling the company's mission might seem contrary to traditional business models that focus strictly on profitability, Greyston Bakery's successful track record confirms that it is possible to grow a profitable business through enlightened human resource policies while also helping individuals and the communities in which they live and work. The case study identified a number of challenges facing the incoming CEO, but the research showed that all of these issues were addressed in ways consistent with Bernie Glassman's vision for the company's mission and future. Given the founder's unlikely background — a combination of Zen Buddhism and aerospace engineering — his success in the bakery industry can be attributed to his enlightened views about the inherent worth of humans and their capacity for change when given the opportunity.
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