Introduction

In 2020, racial tensions have grown and minorities, particularly Black Americans, have

been incredibly vocal in calling out companies whose business practices, logos, and other

trademarks have perpetuated racist ideology. Companies have reacted by changing logos and

making public declarations of their commitment to racial equality. Whole Foods, a national

grocery chain, is one such company.

However, Whole Foods has also been criticized for using heat-mapping to identify stores

that are more likely to unionize, including stores that have lower racial diversity among its

employees (Leon, 2020). By actively working to identify stores that are more likely to unionize

in an effort to prevent them from doing so, Whole Foods is failing to support racial equality in

practice, since union membership tends to reduce racist attitudes among employees (Day, 2020).

Additionally, Whole Foods has been accused of punishing employees for wearing Black Lives

Matter masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this paper, we examine Whole Foods’ actions through three different theoretical

frameworks and will suggest a practical strategy for implementing changes that will strengthen

Whole Foods’ reputation among its minority employees.

Summary of Articles

In separate articles, Leon (2020) and Peters (2020) both state that Whole Foods is using

interactive “heat mapping” to monitor its 500 nationwide locations for each store’s risk of

unionization. According to Peters, the heat map uses over two dozen metrics to monitor which

stores may unionize. Leon states that stores with less racial diversity are more likely to unionize,

which has been openly discouraged by Whole Foods’ parent company, Amazon. Leon goes on to

discuss the benefits of unionizing, including protection for employees, and cites an incident in
which an Amazon employee was fired after staging a walkout over unsafe working conditions

during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why does it matter if Whole Foods is anti-unionization? According to Day (2020), it's

because unions are essential when it comes to combating racism in the workplace. Day

summarizes the history of Black unions and provides examples of how unions have functioned as

“an effective vehicle for racial solidarity and equality” because racially diverse union members

unite for a shared cause, which strengthens race relations among employees. Day ultimately

states that while racism will always be divisive by its nature, through unionization people are

more likely to recognize their own commonalities that exist across racial lines.

Whole Foods’ aversion to unions is an example of what Dowell and Jackson (2020) refer

to as “woke washing,” or when a company talks the talk of racial equality but fails to walk the

walk. In other words, Whole Foods is one of many companies who has publicly taken a stance

against racism through corporate statements, marketing, and other external actions, but internal

business practices fail to support that stance. After explaining the concept of “woke-washing,”

Dowell and Jackson go on to discuss what company leaders can do to combat racism in practice,

including creating an action plan, getting support from the company’s senior leadership (and

hiring Black employees to be part of that leadership), and empowering employees to advance

social justice from within their roles.

Reluctance to unionize isn’t the only way Whole Foods has failed to support racial

equality through action. In an article in the New York Times, Hauser (2020) discusses a class-

action lawsuit filed by Whole Foods employees in four states against the company alleging that

they were punished for wearing Black Lives Matter face masks and other apparel during the

COVID-19 pandemic. According to the article, Whole Foods failed to enforce the company dress
code when employees wore things that supported other causes, but fired employees for wearing

masks and clothing that support the Black Lives Matter movement. The article states that Whole

Foods denies firing employees over the apparel, with the company citing other reasons for the

terminations.

Connections to Conceptual Frameworks of Organizational Change Theory

It is clear that Whole Foods has serious problems when it comes to their reputation as a

company that values social justice and racial diversity, particularly among it’s employees. These

problems have potential to impact employee satisfaction and performance, which could impact

customer service, which could lead to decreased customer satisfaction and a reduction in sales,

which could ultimately adversely impact the company’s bottom line. In this section, we will

discuss three diagnostic frameworks that could be used to address these issues: The PESTLE

model, the star model, and the force field analysis model (Palmer, Dunford, and Buchanan,

2017).

The PESTLE Model is applicable to Whole Foods’ reputational problem because as an

environmental scanning tool, it “provides a structured method for organizing and understanding

complex trends and developments across the political, economic, social, technological, legal and

ecological factors” (Palmer, et. al, 2017, p. 109). In particular, the political, economic, social and

legal factors are significant in the Whole Foods situation.

The current social climate around issues of race and ethnicity are a driving factor in

Whole Foods’ reputational problem. Employees and consumers are more aware now than ever of

how corporations treat minorities, particularly in an age where social media makes it incredibly

easy for people to share their experiences with a company with hundreds, if not thousands of

people instantaneously. Although Whole Foods claims that they “strive to build positive and
healthy relationships” and “earn trust through...inclusive people practices” (Whole Foods, n.d.,

para 6), their use of heat maps to predict and discourage unionization efforts and the recent

lawsuits filed against them by employees suggest otherwise. Whole Foods would benefit by

examining how their actions in these areas align with their social values as a company.

Politically, the recent national election indicates that Americans are ready for a change,

including the creation of a more accepting and united country where racial tension can start to

heal. It can be argued that companies who fail to actively support these ideals could face

economic challenges as people choose to patronize other businesses. Whole Foods stands to

suffer economically if they continue their practice of “woke-washing” (Dowell and Jackson,

2020, para. 3) and fail to put into action the beliefs they espouse.

Finally, Whole Foods is already facing legal challenges, as employees have filed suit

against them, citing wrongful terminations over employees wearing Black Lives Matter clothing

and accessories at work. This not only exacerbates the social aspect of Whole Foods problems, it

also has economic ramifications as well. Not only is Whole Foods having to spend money to

fight this lawsuit, but they are also potentially losing customers over it. They may also be

damaging relationships with suppliers, distributors, and other stakeholders as well. Whole Foods

could certainly benefit from examining their social justice stance through the PESTLE model.

STAR Model

The STAR Model can be used to help understand “organizational design,” (Palmer, et.

al., p. 106) and how strategy, people practices, reward systems, processes, and structure affect

overall success and/or failures. The model also examines how if one area changes how it affects

the other areas within the organization. The STAR Model can assist in analyzing the internal

practices that could be hindering Whole Foods ability to make positive change.
 The strategy of Whole Foods is to maintain a competitive advantage over other food

supply organizations by supplying goods and services that outperform the competition. Whole

foods goal is to stand out from the competition with their high quality products and unique

consumer experience. The structure of the organization is not made clear, but from the articles it

seems the structure leans on senior management leadership with little input from store level

employees and a disconnect between the two groups.

Processes and rewards systems are also not clear due to lack of resources on the subject,

but from the articles we gain an understanding of where the organization wants to be. Looking at

the issue at hand with social injustices and a fight against labor unions, we can see a shift in

people practices and how it has affected the strategy of the organization. The strategy of the

organization is to remain unique to the competition, but now they are falling behind on this due a

lack of social awareness and in how they treat their people. By fighting against labor unions and

not taking action to support their employees, they have shown their people practices while also

negatively impacting strategy. By adding labor unions or making employees an active member in

their own organization there will be a positive reaction with structure and processes by creating

programs and systems that could help the organization become more inclusive and competitive

again. Understanding all five parts of the STAR Model will help in identifying further

information to investigate and where the organization can improve.

Force-Field Analysis

The last model used is the Force-Field Analysis model. This model aides in

understanding “whether or not an organization is ready for a particular change initiative,”

(Palmer, et. al., p. 121). The model is great for organizations that may be facing multiple
problems and need to prioritize issues to handle first. It could also be used to identify if Whole

Foods is ready to change based on current actions and resources.

Based on the readings, Whole Foods current driving force for change is public image.

The way Whole Foods has responded to social justice issues and put them in a position with

other organizations accused of ignoring the issues. They have put out an image of justice and

equality, but their internal practices exposed by employees have proven they are not the same

organization they show the rest of the world. This image can prove detrimental to the long term

success of the organization and change must occur in order to fix the problem.

The restraining forces pushing against this change are the organizational culture and the

general fight against change. The culture of the organization fights against change which would

make any driving force difficult to achieve. The organization is essentially fighting itself by

needing change in order to stay competitive, but commits to actions that hinder change. In order

to remedy the situation the organization will probably have to find ways of helping the driving

force and take on a long term plan to embrace changes that will help the organization. At the

moment the organization’s restraining force is winning by keeping the organization silent on the

issues and finding a way to wash over it with public statements and further “woke-washing.”

Course Readings Applied to Whole Foods Situation

Much of the readings from this course can be applied to the Whole Foods situation. First,

chapter three of Managing Organizational Change (Palmer, Dunford, and Buchanan, 2017)

discusses why organizations may be led to change. Among the reasons given are environmental

pressures to change, crises, and internal organizational factors. All three of these reasons seem to

be facing Whole Foods in its current situation.

 First, as discussed in the previous section, several environmental factors are pressuring

Whole Foods to make changes in its practices related to social justice, particularly racial equity.

First, the current social and political climate, represented in the chapter by “fashion” (Palmer, et.

al., p. 64) and “geopolitical developments” (Palmer, et. al., p. 72), are forces that are calling for

Whole Foods to change. Like many companies, Whole Foods strives to be progressive and hip,

and claims to support racial equity - after all, one of their core values claims that “‘Us versus

Them’ thinking has no place in [their] company” (Whole Foods, n.d., para 6), but their practice

of using heat mapping to identify and discourage unionization seems to indicate otherwise.

Whole Foods is also facing internal organizational factors that should be encouraging

them to change, as evidenced by the lawsuits filed against them by employees. And while this

hasn’t seemed to rise to the level of a crisis for the company, if it does, Whole Foods may benefit

from using that crisis as a springboard for change.

Additionally, Whole Foods seems to lack the urgency for changing as discussed in step

one of The Heart of Change by John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen (2012). This first step to

change is described as “on-your-toes behavior that looks for opportunities and problems, that

energizes colleagues, that beams a sense of ‘let’s go’” (p. 15). Whole Foods is definitely facing

problems, but so far they are failing to capitalize on the opportunities presented by those

problems to jump start changes within the organization.

Missing Information

In analyzing an organization's functions and goals, it’s important to have a full

understanding of their capabilities and practices in order to give a best recommendation on how

to solve problems. This analysis of Whole Foods does lack complete understanding due to the

fact that all the information needed can not be found online. Interviews or questionnaires done by
current and former employees would help in gathering first hand information about the structures

and processes of the organization. It’s also difficult to gauge true company culture without

speaking with employees who are an active member of the culture in question. The

organizational culture plays a large role in change and the articles don’t provide a good resource

on what Whole Foods internal culture stands for or serves.

The Black Lives Matter movement is a fairly new movement and understanding how

businesses should respond to social injustices is still a new and uncomfortable issue for many

businesses to discuss. Many organizations still don’t understand their place in social justice

movements and lack experience on how to go about navigating through it. There should be more

research conducted in the future into understanding what businesses stand to gain and lose by

responding to social injustices and what they can do to navigate controversial moments.

Readiness for Change

Change is never easy for an organization and the actions taken by Whole Foods to avoid

unions serves as evidence that the organization has taken steps to avoid change if possible. The

organization has put effort into remaining neutral in these uncomfortable conversations. This can

prove challenging when working with change. The organization has not found a sense of

dissatisfaction that is needed to push change forward. With senior management working to fight

change, there hasn’t been enough dissatisfaction on their part to start putting the same amount of

effort into actively changing.

Society however is changing quickly and new norms are being established as to how an

organization is expected to behave. In recent years organizations have seen boycotts and

movements dedicated to fighting businesses that go against societal movements for change.
Whole Food may have to take a large hit in competitive advantage and/or profits in order to

spark senior management to want to change.

Even though Whole Food lacks the urgency to change, they do have the means to. Their

saving grace is their success and even more successful parent company, Amazon, have the

resources to start changing. The organization will likely need to make at least small changes in

support of societal change in order to remain in line of new cultural norms.

Conclusion

After reading about the goals of Whole Foods and analyzing their structure and practices

via articles and news sources, the solution that would best fit Whole Foods culture is to support

senior leadership in taking actions to support minorities who work for their organization.

Through heat-mapping, Whole Foods has made clear they want to avoid unionization like many

other organizations. This calls for a change in culture and organizational initiatives to support

employees of minority groups. The organization does not want to undergo significant changes,

but some must take place in order to remedy damage it has already accrued.

The Black Lives Matter movement has brought on a new wave of social justice responses

and organizations have taken action to combat oppressive behaviors in organizations. The best

way to avoid “woke-washing” and support minority groups without unizing would be to create

programs that make minoirites feel more included in the organization. The call for unizionatoin

comes from employees feeling unheard and underrepresented, so Whole Foods must take it upon

themselves to support their underrepresented populations that way a union doesn’t have to. The

fight against unions and the lack of support paints an unflattering picture for Whole Foods'

public image which must be repaired with more socially conscious actions that show a

commitment to long term change versus appealing to a trend.

 References

Day, M. (2020, July 7). Unions are essential for eliminating racism. Jacobin.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/multiracial-solidarity-unions

Dowell, E. and Jackson, M. (2020, July 27). “Woke-Washing” your company won’t cut it.

Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/07/woke-washing-your-company-wont-

cut-it

Hauser, C. (2020, July 21). Whole Foods punished workers for Black Lives Matter masks, suit

says. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/business/whole-foods-

black-lives-matter.html

Kotter, J. and Cohen, D. (2012). The Heart of Change: Real-Life stories of how people change

their organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Leon, H. (2020, April 24). Whole Foods secretly upgrades tech to target and squash unionizing

efforts. Observer. https://observer.com/2020/04/amazon-whole-foods-anti-union-

technology-heat-map/

Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Buchanan, D. (2017). Managing organizational change. A multiple

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Peters, J. (2020, April 20). Whole Foods is reportedly using a heat map to track stores at risk of

unionization. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21228324/amazon-whole-

foods-unionization-heat-map-union

Whole Foods. (n.d.). Our Core Values. Whole Foods Market.

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/core-values