Running Head: Market Basket

Market Basket

Ashley Hernandez

ORGL 3311

Summer 2019

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Running Head: Market Basket

When reading this article, the reader can clearly see the different types of conflict that

Arthur T. had to deal with. When he is voted out, he is clearly being treated unfairly. Since

Market Basket is a family owned business, his family somehow makes things personal. When

Arthur T. bought the company from his family in 1954, everything seemed well. Then the reader

learns that, "in 1990, George's children claimed that Mike had begun buying George's share in

the company." This tells everyone that there in already conflict and tension. Since Market Basket

is a family owned business there is already some personal feelings that go into it. The first

conflict that we have is between two people, initially, but once Arthur T. is fired, the conflict

becomes a intergroup conflict. Once you have the intergroup, loci type, conflict you then have

trouble with multiple groups of people. This is clear when the employees later go on stirke. Once

the employees decide to stick up for Mr. Arthur T., it becomes a group effort. When the vendors

and customers decided to go to other shops that really hurt everyone, minus the other

competitors. While the key stakeholders just wanted to resolve a problem, they made the process

a lot harder for the new co-CEO. The new co-CEOs were in a bind because they had conflict on

how to get things done. This is when they had to have other pick up slack in other areas.

It seems that from the beginning of the article, the reader can tell that there is a lot of

cognitive conflict. Cognitive conflict will show people's true feelings, because it is emotion

based. You many notice that there is a lot of personal feelings that show up within this article.

The intentions of Arthur T.'s family seems to always be a negative. The perception that the

reader can gather is that perhaps they are jealous of him and his stellar performance. Arthur T.

managed to have his process in a certain order, and people could see its effectiveness.  His

methods were good enough to build many more stores over the years. He was even able to keep

him employees happy over the years. His methods also have a stellar outcome. He managed to

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grow Market Basket over the years and he managed to keep everyone else's need in mind. He did

not seem like a selfish person or a malicious person. His decisions were always consistent with

his views as a leader. Arthur T.'s values are notable examples of how other CEO's should be.

Arthur T. alone set up Market Basket for success. He sets himself apart from his other

competitors with his knowledge for business and people.

The reader can also gather that Arthur T. knows how to "shop his competitors," meaning

that he knows what others are selling their products for and still manages to price his items at a

lower price. Arthur T. is also aware that customer service is key to making the customers happy.

As the saying goes, "always keep your customers happy." This is one of the key goals that is a

part of his business model. As seen in Exhibit 7, we know that he loves his customers. He was

even smart enough to make up the "10- foot rule." He, again, manages to engage him employees

and customers.

Keeping all his key stakeholders happy is the reason his business model was extremely

successful. The fact that he would give out "several bonuses a year," to all his employees does

not happen to often, but then again; he wants to keep them happy. He understands that

motivation that comes from giving your employees bonuses and incentives every 6 months. The

fact that his employee turnover was extremely low, "5% a year of full-time store-based

employees and 10% for part-timers. The average tenure of store directors was 34 years."

Employee retention was high because his employees were happy with Arthur and their jobs. This

aritcle goes to show that his employees are glad to have him as their CEO. The employees, along

with the customers, and vendors were all emotionally attached to this man in some way or

another. Once the employees sent their message to the new co-CEOs, is when they began to

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show their true intentions. They first sent their warnings to the new co-CEOs. Their plans to go

out on strike were about to go into full effect if the new co-CEOs did not listen to them. The task

conflict here was the fact that the new CEOs (perhaps) had different goals in mind. As said in the

article, the new CEOs had "no plans to change anything," but the employees assumed that a lot

would be changing for them. Their behaviors and actions were at once noticed by the new CEOs

of Market Basket. Once they noticed that the employees had such an impact on their brand, they

started to re-evaluate their decision on firing Arthur T. The outcome of firing Arthur T. really

disappointed every one of Market Basket's key stakeholders. The vendors were used to being in

business with Market Basket and they too began to lose money because they were not selling

their fresh produce to the stores during the strike. As seen on Exhibit A, the reader can see that

there is no fresh produce, no customers, and no employees. Being that the employees were out

on strike for several weeks, the reader can see/assume that Market Basket suffered. Their

customer base was a large downfall and the value of the company went down. The social media

and the news coverage began to show the world what was going on from the employees and

customers perspective. There were even some people who stated a go-fund me just to raise

money for the employees in need. This is mainly to show the new CEOs their hate for them and

that they supported what the employees stood for. Not only did Market Basket become famous

for all the wrong reasons, other (non-local) people started to see what a mess the newest

CEOs has created. When Arthur T. was voted out and all the other people fired, we see the

dysfunctional outcomes that arise. There were many consequences that fell in line after his firing.

When Arthur T. had taken over Market Basket, many years before, he managed to not

take on any debts. The fact the was able to do this makes him and the business stand out from

many other brands and competitors. He, as you can see from Exhibit 8, he decides to make the

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stores larger but not too large compared to Exhibit 2. He knows that no matter how large the

store, people would still go and shop at his location rather than his competitors. He wanted to

make sure that he made everything visually appealing to his customers and vendors alike. Arthur

even stated a profit sharing for his employees, which was not liked by certain business

partners/family members. The reader can tell that Arthur T. did not effective communication

skills with his family/cousins. This was more than likely, not his fault. From the beginning of the

article, he and his family had a history of tension and conflict. The fact that he had taken care of

his family, in the past, goes to show that he is not a bad person. He took care of them even if he

did not have to. Once can gather that Arthur T. was a man who had high emotional intelligence.

In conclusion, Market Basket and its CEO's had no choice but to bring back Arthur T.

Their sales had gone down drastically and they knew the strike would last. The difference now

would be the fact that they now have a sufficient amount of debt. Arthur T. had not had to deal

with that in the past, but you can probably tell that is a smart business man. If he follows all his

regular business model rules, he can bring them out of their debts. Since the previous short-term

CEO's left a mess, he would have no choice but to clean it up.

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References

Kochan, Tomas A.; Reavis, Cate; Ton, Zeynep. We Are Market Basket. March 23, 2015.

Moore, Galen; Market Basket List:11 management tips from Artie T." Boston Business Journal,
October 9, 2013.

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