BUS599 MOD 03 SLP Congruence Model of Organizational Behavior

Congruence Model of Organizational Behavior
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Congruence Model of Organizational Behavior
Background of Whole Food Market Industry
Whole Food Market has grown to one of the best performing grocery industries in the world after its 1980 establishment in Texas. It was the first American store to get certified as an organic grocer and therefore, the store wholly consists of foods devoid of artificial preservatives, hydrogenated fats, colors, flavors and sweeteners in accordance to the National Organic Program standards. Today, the organization boasts of over 290 grocery stores located across the United State, United Kingdom and Canada (Hamstra, 2008). In terms of performance, the company has managed to claim a place in the Fortune Magazine’s as one of the best companies to work for having been ranked in the 22nd position in the 2009 list of Top 100 Best Companies to Work For. All these progresses have been associated to the organization’s best practices in its human resource department that enhances the organization’s missions, goals, structure, reward systems, strategies and benefits. However, as much as the organization’s performance has been improved thanks to its adherence to Nadler-Tushman Congruence Module, few issues in Whole Food Market strategy are yet to meet the requirements of the module as shall be discussed below.
Analysis of Whole Food Market Strategy
Increment in sales and provision of high quality services and production to consumers is the foremost target of Whole Foods Market even though there are some obstacles that have derailed the organizations’ development towards hitting this target. One of the obstacles is the commom view that the organizations’ pruducts have a higher cost compared to the competitors. Also, the presence of competitor organizations such as Safeway that provide stern competition in the market are hindering the achievement of the targets (Whole Foods Market, 2009). Subsequently,
the main strategy of making sure that the attainment of its purpose of gaining a sales increase has been based on the following measures that the organization has put in place.
The first measure is differentiation in products which has seen the company deal in exceptional and unique kind of natural, high quality products thus recording an increase the market share. This differentiation has made the organization to produce different products as compared to what the rival companies in the market are producing. Another measure is the establishment of new and more store branches across diverse locations thereby recording an expansion in the market share
In 2007, Whole Food Market acquired 110 new extra stores adding to the 21 it had built in America. These 110 store we acquired from and that would mean it would also take some of the customer, most of them to be precise (Gregory et al, 2007). This move therefore played an important role in increasing the market share. Also, WF has gone ahead and reduced its stock prices in trying deal with the customer perception that its pricing is high.
The above-mentioned aspects of Whole Food Market strategy are in one way or the other adhering to Porter’s generic strategies. Porter’s generic strategies model implies that in order to gain a competitive advantage, it has to consider the following basic strategic options. First is the cost leadership, the second being differentiation and finally the Focus. Every competitive businesses or organization try to gain a competitive advantage over there competitor in order to get the edge in sales or service delivery. And one of the key strategies that will give a company the advantage is cost leadership. This can be achieved by reduction of profits through reduction of profits while charging company-average prices or lowering prices thus increase market share while still maintaining reasonable profits on sales since there are reduced costs. The main purpose of cost leadership is minimization of the cost of delivering services and products by the organization. Finding ways to continuously reduce every cost is important to this strategy because cost reduction is something competitors can copy and this may affect sales.
The other strategy which is differentiation entails production of different and more attractive products and services as compared to the competitors. This varies depending with the type of industry, business or organization involved but will always involve brand image, functionality and durability as valued by the customer base. For this strategy to be implemented successfully, thorough research, high-quality service and product delivery and effective market understanding is needed. The other strategy which is focus involves an organization concentrating on specific niche markets by understanding the diversity of the market and the exceptional needs of the customer in the market. The organization, after understanding the unique customer needs will develop specific and unique products that will suit them hence creating a massive brand loyalty with them.
Therefore, Whole Food Market whose prices are perceived to be higher has incorporated the cost leadership strategy by reducing their stock prices. This is supposed to lure the customers who prefer competitors such the Wal-Mart to try out their products and services. From this, Whole Food Market is ensuring that they maximize on their profits from these potential customers. Also, Porter’s strategy of differentiation has been adopted by Whole Food Market through the company’s selling of products that adhere to their self-shaped excellent principles for being natural. Whole Food Market refuse to sell U.S Food And Drug Administration accepted products from cloned animals as well as their offspring. They also prepare natural restaurant food as a way of expanding its market in order to command different consumer markets. These examples therefore affirm that Whole Food Market strategy best fits differentiation and Cost focus strategies of porter’s generic model.
Figure 1: The Basic Systems Model
Input Transform https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT8YUxdxY_2kAFYxXNyoA;_
Review Whole Food Market Input
Environment Category Input
The environment, in which all organizations exist, consist of competitors, customers, social-economic forces and even legal constrains and they affect the day to day operations of the organization. The environment through customer preferences and demands decide the quality, pricing and quantity of the products and services the organization can effectively provide. Other than imposing demands, the environment also imposes number of constraints such as capital restrictions, legal suits or inadequate technology. Opportunities are also provided by the environment through new market availability as a result of innovations and elimination of trade barriers.
For Whole Food Company the major critical issue that affects them through the environment is the competition from other supermarkets like the Safeway and Wal-Mart among other companies. These competitor companies produce similar products and offer similar services at a very competitive price. The only strategy that the company has put in place is product differentiation (Whole Foods Market Benefits, 2009).
Resource Category Input
An example of a major critical input that several experts have praised about Whole Food Market in its resource category is the employee influence thanks to its motivation and appraisal culture, which are cultivated among its employees. Whole food has indicated that it values employees input by offering training to new employees and their fellow employees determine their performance (Whole Foods Market, 2009). Training new recruits is a proved way of improving or maintaining high productivity level as well as minimizing work place related accidents. With the training process in place, either on-job training or before-job training, new recruits will get motivated since they are likely to make no or very few mistakes when they are signed their respective responsibilities.
Also these trainings make it easier for workers to learn more tusks or jobs than what they had applied for and this can help the company when a worker fails to turn up and the others cover for him maintaining the levels of productivity. This is believed to have been one of the factors that have offered an extra competitive advantage for Whole Food Market. Training of new employees is a critical input since it ensures that continuity is restored in the production system of a specific company thus ensuring production of best quality is consistent regardless of shifting and shuffling of employees.
History category input
A critical input in the company’s history category is its diversity. Historically, the company has been driven by non-discriminatory policies in its workplace, a factor that has enabled it to acquire a “green Zone” status among the few companies that have uphold the non-discriminatory culture in workplaces hence offering a competitive advantage. Besides diversity, the company has also cultivated the culture of producing quality and healthy products together with exceptional customer care services. Criticality in diversity culture input comes out in that without diversity, a company can hardly establish new invention, which is an important factor in achieving product differentiation (Whole Foods Market, 2009). Whole Food Market thrives in the market partly because of its history since it is widely believed that an organizations functionality is to a greater extent influenced by its historical practices and events. Customers can be able to rationally foresee an organization’s capability to take action at the moment or in the future by knowing and understanding the vital development...