What Is John Mackey's Behavior
Whole Foods
Ronick Weatherly
Grantham University
BA420 Organizational Behavior Anthony Clark 08/15/2013
Whole Foods’ CEO Mr. Mackey’s online comments about Wild Oats clearly show (A, Affect)
that he has strong negative opinions about the Wild Oats Company and its management team. On
the other hand, Mackey spoke highly of Whole Foods, his own company. Mackey …show more content…
clearly gave
verbal statements about his feelings that indicated his opinion of Wild Oats and Whole Foods.
By posting his opinionated and negative comments in Yahoo Finance for nearly eight years,
Mackey showed and told of his behavioral intentions (B, Behavioral intentions) to “destroy”
Wild Oats. Mackey showed his attitude scale (C, Cognition) by implying that Wild Oats was a
poorly run company and that his company, Whole Foods was the company he frequented,
purchased stock in, and agreed with their mission and values.
In terms of instrumental values, Mackey’s blogging behavior relative to the Wild Oats
acquisition could be seen as courageous, ambitious, and independent. Mackey was probably
trying to drive down the stock of Wild Oats by making it seem as though the company was
worthless, while at the same time trying to acquire it. In terms of instrumental values, he did not
show honesty( Mackey commented under a fake screen name), self-control, rationality,
politeness or responsibility( Mackey never took responsibility for his actions on the blog).In
terms of terminal values Mackey’s blogging behavior relative to the Wild Oats acquisition
showed Freedom(Mackey did and said whatever he wanted), and Wisdom(he was able to acquire
Wild Oats and probably made their business seem less profitable to anyone else interested in
acquiring the company). The FTC and SEC probably saw a lack of instrumental and terminal
values with regards to Mackey’s blogging. He was dishonest, showed a lack of self-control,
lacked open-mindedness of the competition, showed no social respect for others, and showed a
lack of responsibility for his actions.
Mackey clearly tried to steer potential investors and
stockholders away from Wild Oats and towards his company. I agree with John Hollon of The
Business Management blog, when he states that Mackey is “ a delusional apologist of his own
bad behavior”.
From my personal perspective, I believe Mackey acted in an unethical manner with regards to his blogging at a time when he was trying to Acquire Wild Oats. He showed pure High
Machiavellianism in his manipulative behavior. By claiming he would destroy Wild Oats CEO,
he showed he rather be feared than loved. Mackey was deceitful and would go to any lengths to
get his desired outcome.
John Mackey is operating on level 2 of cognitive moral development. Mackey’s behavior was
based solely on what he could gain, at this time it was Wild Oats, or self- interest reasoning.
The use of the pseudonym Rahodeb showed that Mackey knew what he was doing was wrong
and he did not want to write those damning posts under his own name. He knew that it would be
seen as negative and deceitful and did not want to associate those comments with himself or
his
company. Mackey showed a lack of values and ethics and his behavior could be seen as
workplace deviance behavior.
As an ethical, responsible leader Mackey should be at level five of his cognitive moral
development. At the stage five level, a leader would make all decisions based on principles of
justice and rights. This type of leader would be less likely to cheat, and more likely to make
ethical business decisions, unlike the decisions that Mackey made.
If what Mr. Mackey is saying is true, then it could be a lack of person-organization fit, which
usually occurs when the employee’s values don’t match the organization’s values. I do not think
this is the case here since he was the CEO and could have contributed to enforcing and
reinforcing positive ethical behavior, instead he did the opposite. Mackey took the time to create
a fake account and name and comment for many years under this false identity. That would show
that these were his own beliefs and after being found out, he was ashamed of the behavior and
wanted to disassociate himself from the mess he had created.
.
References
Retrieved from: https://angel.grantham.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=AC8859FBD03640D8A3AE87162366911B
Retrieved from: Nelson, D. (2010). Orgb2. (2010-2011 ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage.
Ronick Weatherly
Grantham University
BA420 Organizational Behavior Anthony Clark 08/15/2013
Whole Foods’ CEO Mr. Mackey’s online comments about Wild Oats clearly show (A, Affect)
that he has strong negative opinions about the Wild Oats Company and its management team. On
the other hand, Mackey spoke highly of Whole Foods, his own company. Mackey …show more content…
clearly gave
verbal statements about his feelings that indicated his opinion of Wild Oats and Whole Foods.
By posting his opinionated and negative comments in Yahoo Finance for nearly eight years,
Mackey showed and told of his behavioral intentions (B, Behavioral intentions) to “destroy”
Wild Oats. Mackey showed his attitude scale (C, Cognition) by implying that Wild Oats was a
poorly run company and that his company, Whole Foods was the company he frequented,
purchased stock in, and agreed with their mission and values.
In terms of instrumental values, Mackey’s blogging behavior relative to the Wild Oats
acquisition could be seen as courageous, ambitious, and independent. Mackey was probably
trying to drive down the stock of Wild Oats by making it seem as though the company was
worthless, while at the same time trying to acquire it. In terms of instrumental values, he did not
show honesty( Mackey commented under a fake screen name), self-control, rationality,
politeness or responsibility( Mackey never took responsibility for his actions on the blog).In
terms of terminal values Mackey’s blogging behavior relative to the Wild Oats acquisition
showed Freedom(Mackey did and said whatever he wanted), and Wisdom(he was able to acquire
Wild Oats and probably made their business seem less profitable to anyone else interested in
acquiring the company). The FTC and SEC probably saw a lack of instrumental and terminal
values with regards to Mackey’s blogging. He was dishonest, showed a lack of self-control,
lacked open-mindedness of the competition, showed no social respect for others, and showed a
lack of responsibility for his actions.
Mackey clearly tried to steer potential investors and
stockholders away from Wild Oats and towards his company. I agree with John Hollon of The
Business Management blog, when he states that Mackey is “ a delusional apologist of his own
bad behavior”.
From my personal perspective, I believe Mackey acted in an unethical manner with regards to his blogging at a time when he was trying to Acquire Wild Oats. He showed pure High
Machiavellianism in his manipulative behavior. By claiming he would destroy Wild Oats CEO,
he showed he rather be feared than loved. Mackey was deceitful and would go to any lengths to
get his desired outcome.
John Mackey is operating on level 2 of cognitive moral development. Mackey’s behavior was
based solely on what he could gain, at this time it was Wild Oats, or self- interest reasoning.
The use of the pseudonym Rahodeb showed that Mackey knew what he was doing was wrong
and he did not want to write those damning posts under his own name. He knew that it would be
seen as negative and deceitful and did not want to associate those comments with himself or
his
company. Mackey showed a lack of values and ethics and his behavior could be seen as
workplace deviance behavior.
As an ethical, responsible leader Mackey should be at level five of his cognitive moral
development. At the stage five level, a leader would make all decisions based on principles of
justice and rights. This type of leader would be less likely to cheat, and more likely to make
ethical business decisions, unlike the decisions that Mackey made.
If what Mr. Mackey is saying is true, then it could be a lack of person-organization fit, which
usually occurs when the employee’s values don’t match the organization’s values. I do not think
this is the case here since he was the CEO and could have contributed to enforcing and
reinforcing positive ethical behavior, instead he did the opposite. Mackey took the time to create
a fake account and name and comment for many years under this false identity. That would show
that these were his own beliefs and after being found out, he was ashamed of the behavior and
wanted to disassociate himself from the mess he had created.
.
References
Retrieved from: https://angel.grantham.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=AC8859FBD03640D8A3AE87162366911B
Retrieved from: Nelson, D. (2010). Orgb2. (2010-2011 ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage.