Whole Food builds social capital by pursuing a higher purpose to change and improve the world. Social capital is defined as the potential to build strong relationships, trust, good will and cooperative effort to leverage individual human capital for the greater good (Kanicki & Kreitz). Whole Foods builds strong relationships with employee through trust and honesty. The employees are then able to build relationships with customers that promote the business throughout the community. Trust, informational transparency, and ethical behavior are all factors that aid in building social capital within an organization (Javakhadze, Ferris, & French, 2016). Whole Food’s focus is center on providing healthy foods to everyone in the world. Along with this noble goal, they also perform several acts of goodwill through community giving that well exceeds 5% of total net profits each year (Caring for Communities, 2017).
References
Javakhadze, D., Ferris, S. P., & French, D. W. (2016). Managerial Social Capital and Financial Development: A Cross-Country Analysis. Financial Review, 51(1), 37-68. doi:10.1111/fire.12097
Kanicki & Kreitz (2010). Organizational Behavior, 10th edition. Irwin-McGraw Hill.
Wang, C. Y., Jaw, B., & Tsai, C. H. (2012). Building dynamic strategic capabilities: a human capital perspective. International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 23(6), 1129-1157. doi:10.1080/09585192.2011.561234