Drinking the Punch The Meaning of Work in a MissionDriven Business

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Drinking the Punch?The Meaning of Work in a
Mission-Driven Business

• Marya Besharov
• Meaning Meeting
• March 30, 2007

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Mission and Meaning

• Mission-driven business
• For-profit firm, espouses set of values that
  guide action
• Claims to maximize profits only in ways
  consistent with values
• A type of hybrid-identity organization? (Foreman
  Whetten 2002 Albert Whetten 1985)
• Mission-driven organizations common in nonprofit
  sector
• Mission a source of meaning for organizational
  members
• What is the role of mission for employees of
  mission-driven businesses?
• Today Field study of a multi-site mission-driven
  business, Whole Foods Market

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• Drawing a paycheck is nice, but its not the
  whole meaning of life. We believe we offer each
  of our Team Members an opportunity to fulfill a
  higher purpose helping to make the world a
  better place.
• -- Whole Foods Market employee handbook
• Were not filling bellies, were filling
  souls.
• -- Starbucks executive
• Dont be evil. We believe strongly that in the
  long term, we will be better servedas
  shareholders and in all other waysby a company
  that does good things for the world even if we
  forgo some short term gains. This is an important
  aspect of our culture and is broadly shared
  within the company. We aspire to make Google an
  institution that makes the world a better place.
• -- Google co-founders

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Research Questions

• How do employees in a mission-driven business
  experience the mission?
• Is the mission a source of meaning and
  motivation?
• What explains differences in meaning from
  mission?
• Across people, work roles, work sites
• What are the organizational consequences of
  having employees who derive meaning from mission?
• Work effort, commitment, intent to stay

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Issues for Discussion

• Literature and framing
• Does the framing make sense?
• Other literature I could draw on?
• Analytic approach
• Coding of interview transcripts
• Role of interview vs. survey data
• Emerging findings
• Focus on mission vs. meaning from work more
  generally?
• What else would be interesting?

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Prior Research Meaning of Work

• Focus on role of individuals and interpersonal
  relationships in constructing meaning
• Wrzesniewski 2003 Wrzesniewski Dutton 2001
  Wrzesniewski, Dutton, Debebe 2003
  Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin, Schwartz 1997
• Less attention to role of organizations in
  shaping meaning
• Pratt 2000 Pratt Ashforth 2003
• My focus Organizations as enabling and
  constraining meaning, through mission

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Prior Research Mission

• Most research on mission conducted in nonprofit
  and public sector organizations
• Worker cooperatives (Rothschild Whitt 1986)
• Public bureaucracies (Rainey Steinbauer 1999)
• Social movements (Benford Snow 2000)
• Recently, attention to role of mission in
  business organizations
• Ideology-infused psych. contracts (Thompson
  Bunderson 2003)
• Org. identity orientation (Brickson 2005, 2007)
• Moral lens perspective (Blair-Loy, Wharton,
  Goodstein 2003)
• Economic models of mission as source of
  motivation (Ackerlof Kranton 2005 Van den
  Steen 2004)

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Method

• Field study of multi-site mission-driven
  business Whole Foods Market
• Interviews, observation, surveys at 8 stores
• Variation in meaning of mission across people,
  job levels and roles, work sites (and,
  unfortunately, time)

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Whole Foods Market

• Organic and natural foods retailer
• 39,000 employees, 180 locations
• Mission Whole foods, whole people, whole planet
• Whole Foods Market remains uniquely mission
  driven We're highly selective about what we
  sell, dedicated to stringent Quality Standards,
  and committed to sustainable agricultureWe
  believe in a virtuous circle entwining the food
  chain, human beings and Mother Earth each is
  reliant upon the others through a beautiful and
  delicate symbiosis. -- WFM website
• Strong financial performance through 2006

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Data

• Interviews
• 91 interviews conducted 44 employees, 47
  managers
• 30-80 minutes each
• At least 10 per site
• Range of departments, tenures, roles
• Topics prior work experience, reasons for
  joining, most and least rewarding aspects of job,
  company mission, non-work time, future plans
• Observation
• Department manager meetings
• Storewide meetings
• Survey
• Measures include work orientation, mission
  orientation, extra-role behavior, commitment,
  work effort, intent to stay
• Anticipate 1,000 completed surveys across 8
  stores

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Preliminary FindingsMeaning of Mission

• Meaning from work
• Mission
• Relationships (social)
• Career (professional relationships?)
• Job pay and benefits
• Orientation toward mission
• Primary source of meaning
• Nice-to-have
• Irrelevant

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Mission Primary Source of Meaning

• It means a lot, were it not for that mission I
  am not sure if I would still be here, I mean its
  not just a job, it definitely is more than a
  job... Its one of the ways that I can make a
  difference in the world and not just helping the
  few there by being a profitable store and helping
  the company to make good decisions about what we
  spend money on, but also in day-to-day life where
  I am interacting with people and trying to help
  people grow and develop in ways that are
  meaningful to them. So, you know, I think it kind
  of helps me to bring a lot of my own philosophy
  together in a way that helps to, you know, that I
  can make a living and I can also do something
  where I feel like I am making difference. --Sto
  re manager
• It means a lot to me. You know, I have four
  children in the world and yeah, trying to help to
  make the world a better place, this is very
  important and what people eat and how it affects
  their health is a huge subject, well certainly
  there are health reasons to eating natural
  foods, good quality foods, there are the
  social-political implications, environmental,
  there are so many dimensions helping to change
  around those wrongs in the food industry is
  important to me.
• --Manager, customer service dept.

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Mission Nice-to-have

• To me the mission means that, I mean another
  reason why it is great to work here is that, you
  know, the company is, it is here to make money,
  but along with making money we can accomplish
  more than that. I mean thats what the whole
  mission means to me. We can make a difference in
  the world and still make our bottom line but do
  it the right way. -- Grocery manager
• What tantalizes me the most is what am I getting
  paid, what is going to be on the table for meThe
  reason why I work for this company is not because
  they care for the earth. Thats nice. Im happy
  Im part of that. But that is not the reason why
  I work here. I work here because I need the
  work. --Employee, admin. dept.

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Mission Irrelevant

• There is a sign up somewhere, I have never
  really paid too much attention to that stuff,
  something like organic food and happy people and
  making the world a better place, I dont really
  know.
• --Employee, produce dept.
• I used to know all the missions, I forgot them,
  but, I mean, I think they are trying to grow and
  expand and then make it possible for natural and
  organic foods become more affordable.So I think
  they are well intentioned, I dont think that the
  CEO is a money hungry guy, which is a good
  thing.I mean, other than that, I dont know
  really what else they are trying to do. I paid a
  lot of attention back in those days, you know,
  like what was going on and everything, but I have
  gotten to the point where I just kind of come in,
  do my job and go home. --Employee, customer
  service dept.

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Preliminary Findings Consequences

• Employees who are deeply committed to mission may
  also be highly attuned to values violations,
  resistant to organizational change
• Other employees are less attuned to violations,
  more open to changes in how mission is carried
  out
• Even employees who are not true believers are
  involved in carrying out the mission
  (routinization of mission in work practice)
• Variation in meaning of mission creates
  challenges
• For individuals to sustain the meaning theyve
  constructed
• For managing work teams

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Attention to Values Violations

• Im not wasting my precious 40-hours or more a
  week on a company that I would have to eventually
  feel disappointment in. I want to be proud of
  where I work. Thats why I worked at Ben and
  Jerrys, you know, because I knew they were doing
  good things. I dont want to be part of a
  wasteful consumerismeven though thats what we
  promote sometimes.I am definitely conflicted. I
  am conflicted because, you know, there are things
  where like well, we dont recycle.We dont
  always recycle all of our paper, only when
  theres a box in the back.Theyre offering
  20-hours a month for the Green Team person.
  Thats nothing, you know. Its...not enough time
  for what that job entails.
• --Employee, bakery dept.

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Perceptions of Growth and Change

• Right now, I think the mission is their public
  image, I dont know, I think everything is about
  the bottom line, thats what it feels like when I
  am there, its all about the money, you know, and
  all the good things they do promote their image.
  People want to buy into that, but I think that
  the company does it because of the money.
• When I first started here, it was more of like
  the health conscious, socially conscious people
  that shopped at Bread Circus, because they
  felt safe, like they felt like the company did
  the research of where the products were coming
  from and what was in the food, and that I
  definitely noticed has changed. The products that
  we carry do not meet same standards that they
  used to, definitely.Bread Circus started out
  as a place where they didnt really have products
  with sugar in them, you know what I mean, and now
  they sell like, they sell chips from Frito Lay,
  and for a while we had Huggies diapers.You know,
  we have Heinz ketchup, which doesnt sound like a
  big deal, but before we didnt have anything like
  thatSo on that level its really changed, and I
  dont think they are concerned about, you know,
  in America peoples health, its a big issue
  there is that big obesity problem, and before it
  felt like Whole Foods was part of fighting that
  problem, and now I feel like they contribute to
  it
• --Employee, customer service dept.

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Alternative Views

• There are issues that come up like the whole
  lobster thing. Certain people believe in it,
  certain people dont. I support the company
  whatever they want to do. I could care less
  whether we have lobsters or dont, to be honest
  with you, because I dont eat lobster first of
  all, and they never made us a ton of money.
• --Assistant Store Manager
• I think they are doing a great job, I mean, to
  see us kind of force companies like, you know,
  Kraft and all these other companies to make a
  natural product, a lot of people get scared, they
  are like, Oh, these guys are making a natural
  product now. I think it is a great thing that we
  are forcing these conventional type people to
  make natural products, I think it is
  unbelievable.
• Even when we had, you know, undisciplined team
  members, this mission was still carried out, we
  always still recycle, we always still give
  unbelievable customer service, and we hardly ever
  compromise on our products. Weve always had
  all natural products and we still do.
• --Manager, grocery dept.

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Routinization of mission

• If you dont know what you are doing and you are
  portraying, you know, someone who supposedly
  knows what they are doing and you get caught
  out there, then you are going to have a little
  bit of trouble.Say if I work in produce, you
  know, they have an organic side and a non-organic
  and if you mix that stuff up together you are in
  hot water, so you really have to know what you
  are talking about and know what you are doing.
• --Employee, prepared foods dept.

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Variation in Meaning

• I dont have as much in common with my team.
  Ive found common dominators and I certainly do
  connect. But I dont think theyre thinking
  about some of the same things that I am. Like I
  would say that I have more in common with the
  core values of the company than a lot of my team
  members do. But any old way, I think I was
  hoping maybe to enjoy a little bit more of
  sharing some of that, having a little more of an
  authentic connection that has to do with my value
  system and the Whole Foods value system. I was
  anticipating sharing that a little bit more with
  my team. So, I find that the job within the team
  is more of job versus a mutually held mission.
• --Employee, bakery dept.

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Implications

• Mission as one way in which organizations enable
  and constrain meaning
• Meaning from mission has consequences for
  behavior
• Putting in extra effort vs. giving up on the job
• Meaning from mission not necessarily positive for
  the individual or the organization
• Risk of disenchantment, commitment to mission
  over organization
• Employees who dont care deeply about mission
  still carry it out

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Issues for Discussion

• Literature and framing
• Does the framing make sense?
• Other literature I could draw on?
• Analytic approach
• Coding of interview transcripts
• Role of interview vs. survey data
• Emerging findings
• Focus on mission vs. meaning from work more
  generally?
• What else would be interesting?