Overview
Read and complete the following TWO cases and answer the corresponding questions below.
Chapter 13 Case #1 “Discharged for Off-Duty Behavior” (Chapter 13 – Case Study 1)
Read the Case Study #1, “ Discharged for Off-Duty Behavior ” in Chapter 13. Then, answer all of the questions at the end of the case.
Chapter 16- Case #2 "Whole Foods Market faces Whole New Challenge" (Chapter 16- Case Study 2)
Read the Case Study #2, "Whole Foods Market faces Whole New Challenge" in Chapter 16. Then, answer all of the questions at the end of the case.
Chapter 13 Case #1
At the end of a game with the Dallas Mavericks, Chad Shanks, the official social media manager for the Houston Rockets, sent out the following tweet:
Source: Twitter
After sending out the tweet, he got 7,600 retweets and 5,000 favorites. The Dallas Mavericks, whose mascot is a horse, responded by tweeting, “Not very classy, but we still wish you guys the best of luck in the next round.”
Though responses were quite positive from Rockets fans, the Rockets decided to fire Chad for the tweet. The Rockets also apologized for the tweet, saying it was in “very poor taste & not indicative of the respect we have for the @dallasmavs & their fans.” After he was fired, Chad followed up with a tweet from his personal account:
Source: Twitter
In an interview later, Chad commented that “leading up to our series with Dallas, there were some harsh quotes about our team from Mark Cuban and former Rocket Chandler Parsons was returning after saying some negative things about the city, so the rivalry between the two organizations was at an all-time high.” He figured this was his chance to take a jab at the Mavs. He meant it to be just a play on taking an old horse out to pasture that would get Rockets fans even more pumped up. He said he was quite confused that people would equate pretend violence on an emoji horse with actual violence on a real horse.
Chad’s job was to stir up interest from fans and have fun with social media. His boss told him on numerous accounts that his job was to “take the [twitter] account to subversive places” and do everything he could to give the fans engaging content. Up until this point, Chad was considered one of the best social media experts out there and he had always pulled through for the Rockets. It just didn’t seem fair to be fired over this one incident.
Questions
Given the facts of this case, should Chad have been discharged? Why or why not?
Should the social media manager of a company be held to a higher standard of personal conduct than others in the company? Explain.
Should management have considered Chad’s past work record before deciding on discharge? Explain.
Chapter 16- Case #2
Case Study 2. Whole Foods Market Faces Whole New Challenge
In this chapter we talked about how hierarchical, command-and-control types of organizational structures are giving way to high-performance work systems—systems characterized by egalitarianism, knowledge and information sharing, employee empowerment, and reward and performance linkages. That description pretty well sums up the approach taken by Whole Foods Market, the world’s leading natural and organic foods grocer. Whole Foods started out in 1980 with one small store in Austin, Texas. In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Today this company employs more than100,000 employees in more than 500 stores in North America, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Whole Foods’ HR practices have been a big part of its success, and some have wondered what Amazon might do to that legacy. Since its earliest days, Whole Foods hasn’t been “run” in a hierarchical way, with top-down directives being issued by executives and store managers. Instead, the company embraces empowerment by in-store teams. In fact, managers are referred to as “team leaders.” Each team takes responsibility for one area of the store, such as baked goods, meat, poultry, and so forth, and is authorized to make product, pricing, and staffing decisions. This high degree of decentralization allows the stores to better tailor their offerings and services to meet the needs of their local communities, which helps them be more competitive.
The decentralized approach begins with hiring. The company found that centralized, online recruiting left local stores awash with resumes but not much knowledge about applicants. Applicants can still submit resumes online, but now each location has its own in-store kiosks where applicants can apply. Many interviews at Whole Foods Markets are conducted by teams of employees. And even after an applicant is hired, the importance of teamwork continues to be emphasized. New employees are assigned to one of the store’s teams for a trial period, after which the team members vote to determine if the person deserves a full-time spot on the team. The same process is used at the corporate level for employees who want to join the firm’s marketing, human resources, finance, and IT departments.
The voting is crucial in part because it affects workers’ paychecks. The teams are treated as separate profit centers and rewarded with monthly bonuses if their labor costs are under budget. Stores sometimes offer prizes for competing teams. Consequently, nobody wants to vote in a slacker. Not surprisingly, the company does not do a lot of monitoring of its employees—the employees do it themselves. “We don’t have lots of rules handed down from headquarters in Austin,” John Mackey, the founder of the company and former CEO, has said. “Peer pressure enlists loyalty in ways that bureaucracy doesn’t.”
To encourage a more egalitarian environment, Mackey instituted a salary cap on executive pay. Originally, senior executives could make no more than 14 times the average annual salary of a full-time employee. Although that number has risen as the company has become larger, employees still have an equal footing. For example, employees vote on company-wide initiatives, and the company provides full-timers with full health care benefits as well as access to a company-funded wellness account.
To encourage learning and knowledge sharing that can help employees learn about products, the company instituted a mentoring program and developed an online portal called “Whole Foods Market University” to aid in training. Nearly 8 out of 10 employees say that the training Whole Foods offers has helped them advance professionally. Employees are encouraged to pursue continuing education through the company’s online training portal or certifications such as the American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional exam, green recycling classes, cooking seminars, and work-related field trips. Invariably, Whole Foods lands on Fortune‘s 100 Best Companies to Work For list each year. “I love working at Whole Foods, and I hope to grow with this company for years and years to come,” says one of its employees. “This company empowers me and makes me feel valued and valuable.”
The current challenge for Whole Foods is sustaining that environment—and the firm’s success. Recently the company has been facing greater competition from lower-priced grocers like Trader Joe’s and regional grocers that sell organic food, putting pressure on Whole Foods’ growth and profitability. The company responded by streamlining operations, creating efficiencies in purchasing and merchandising, and fine-tuning functions like technology and human resources. The goal was to improve customer and employee experiences by enabling regional operations to focus on running the stores and to better define team members’ roles, growth opportunities, and paths for advancement. Whole Foods has also undertaken initiatives geared toward lowering its prices, creating a customer loyalty program, and, thanks to its relationship with Amazon, collaborating with Amazon Prime to blend its in-store operations with online purchasing. Although the biggest growth has been in its online business, Whole Foods has reinvigorated growth in its in-store sales as well. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company created more than 10,000 new jobs.
However, some industry analysts think that, despite the positive news, the changes in Whole Foods’ business model may be harming the “secret sauce” that has made the company so distinctive. “What’s happened in the natural food sector is that the world has changed very fast around it,” says Joe Dobrow, a health food writer and book author. “Now there isn’t very much that is unique to Whole Foods anymore.”
Questions
Why don’t all companies treat their employees like Whole Foods does? Are there downsides of doing so?
Do you think Whole Foods will have to change its HR practices to better compete? Are the practices no longer vertically or horizontally aligned with the firm’s strategy? Or does the firm’s strategy need to change?