Problem-Solving ApplicationSprouts Farmers Market: The Best Culture, or the Worst?

Sprouts Farmers Market, one of the fastest growing U.S. grocery chains, enjoys a positive reputation on some points (including social responsibility and product quality) but a worse reputation as a place to work. This activity is important because it demonstrates how poor workplace culture and management can drag down a company even if it appears to be doing many other things right.

The goal of this activity is to think about the effect of poor culture on a company like Sprouts and consider what might need to be changed.

Read about Sprouts Farmers Market's recent history. Then, using the three-step problem-solving approach, answer the questions that follow.

Founded in 2015, Arizona-based Sprouts Farmers Market is a fast-growing organic grocery chain that prides itself on its community ties, nutrition-education efforts, philanthropic commitments, and concern for people with learning disabilities, food scarcity, and other needs. Its website advertises "Good Food. Good People," and the company offers an enormous variety of nearly 19,000 fresh and healthy fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, and fish items that are local, seasonal, natural or organic, gluten-free, non-GMO, and grass-fed or fresh caught. Deli and bakery goods, vitamins, and beer and wine are available too. Nearly 3 million customers visit its 300-plus stores around the country each week, and Instacart orders placed online are filled within an hour.¹

The company promises customers a friendly, well-trained staff eager to answer questions and offer samples, and new employees are assured of training, plenty of opportunities, and generous benefits.²In 2018, Sprouts was the only Arizona-based company to earn a place on Fortune's list of the world's most admired companies, ranking high on social responsibility, people management, quality of products/services, and quality of management.³

That same year, however, Sprouts came in sixth on a much less prestigious listthe nation's worst companies to work for, based on aUSA Todayanalysis of current and former employees' reviews on the job-listing site Glassdoor.com. Only 36 percent of the employees who posted about Sprouts on Glassdoor would recommend working there, and the company's overall rating was only 2.6 stars of a possible 5 (the average rating is 3.4). The negative factor in many of Sprouts' reviews was company management, including whatUSA Todaycalled "dozens" of complaints about "immaturity" and high manager turnover that left workers unsure about what to expect on the job. The report cited a Glassdoor expert who said "company culture" was first among the top three reasons for employee satisfaction (the other two were "career opportunities and trust in senior leadership").⁴

Which of the following factors, some of which may contribute positively or negatively to a company's culture, was cited most often in Sprouts' negative reviews on Glassdoor?

• quality of product
• salary
• social responsibility
• career opportunities

Which of the following actions by management might address Sprouts' problems by improving its social capital?

• spend more money on employee training
• increase benefits
• promote mentoring relationships between managers and employees
• improve the company's public image
• hire more skilled employees

Which of the following items promised by Sprouts to customers is contradicted by its Glassdoor reviews?

• well-trained and prepared staff
• quality of product
• friendly staff
• career opportunities
• generous benefits

Which of the 12 mechanisms for changing organizational culture would directly address the main problem faced by Sprouts as described in the case?

• rites and rituals
• stories, legends, or myths about key people and events
• work flow and organizational structure
• leader reactions to critical incidents and organizational crises
• slogans, language, acronyms and sayings