ethics and ice cream quotes, from Ben & Jerry's Founder

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder talks ethics, ice cream

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“We grew up in the ’60s, and to us, business had all these negative connotations that we didn’t want to be a part of,” Greenfield said. “We felt that our company was becoming just another cog in the economic machine, and decided to get out.”
Instead, a friend persuaded them to use Ben & Jerry’s as a business model that was supportive of society. They raised capital by holding an in-state public stock offering, selling shares to one out of every 100 families in Vermont. “As the business prospered, the community — as owners — also prospered,” Greenfield said.

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“If we wanted to benefit the community as much as possible, we felt that we should give away as much money as possible,” Greenfield said.

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“There is a spiritual aspect to business, just as there is to the lives of individuals,” Greenfield said. “As you give, you receive. As you help others, you are helped in return. Just because the idea that the good you do is written in the Bible and not in a business textbook doesn’t make it any less valid.”

reference: Purdue U.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

portrait

Biographical note

Philosopher, was born at Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a minister there, who had become a Unitarian, and who died in 1811, leaving a widow with six children, of whom Ralph, then aged 8, was the second. Mrs. Emerson was, however, a woman of energy, and by means of taking boarders managed to give all her sons a good education. Emerson entered Harvard in 1817 and, after passing through the usual course there, studied for the ministry, to which he was ordained in 1827, and settled over a congregation in his native city. There he remained until 1832, when he resigned, ostensibly on a difference of opinion with his brethren on the permanent nature of the Lord’s Supper as a rite, but really on a radical change of view in regard to religion in general, expressed in the maxim that “the day of formal religion is past.”

About the same time he lost his young wife, and his health, which had never been robust, showed signs of failing. In search of recovery he visited Europe, where he met many eminent men and formed a life-long friendship with Carlyle. On his return in 1834 he settled at Concord, and took up lecturing. In 1836 he published Nature, a somewhat transcendental little book which, though containing much fine thought, did not appeal to a wide circle. The American Scholar followed in 1837. Two years previously he had entered into a second marriage. His influence as a thinker rapidly extended, he was regarded as the leader of the transcendentalists, and was one of the chief contributors to their organ, The Dial.

The remainder of his life, though happy, busy, and influential, was singularly uneventful. In 1847 he paid a second visit to England, when he spent a week with Carlyle, and delivered a course of lectures in England and Scotland on “Representative Men,” which he subsequently published. English Traits appeared in 1856. In 1857 The Atlantic Monthly was started, and to it he became a frequent contributor. In 1874 he was nominated for the Lord Rectorship of the University of Glasgow, but was defeated by Disraeli. He, however, regarded his nomination as the greatest honour of his life. After 1867 he wrote little. He died on April 27, 1882. His works were collected in 11 vols., and in addition to those above mentioned include Essays (two series), Conduct of Life, Society and Solitude, Natural History of Intellect, and Poems.

The intellect of Emerson was subtle rather than robust, and suggestive rather than systematic. He wrote down the intuitions and suggestions of the moment, and was entirely careless as to whether these harmonised with previous statements. He was an original and stimulating thinker and writer, and wielded a style of much beauty and fascination. His religious views approached more nearly to Pantheism than to any other known system of belief. He was a man of singular elevation and purity of character.

Wal-Mart and Human Resources - an academic paper on the topic

This is a termpaper essay written about Wal-Mart and its HR management.


Wal-Mart’s human resource management practices

Wal – Mart is one of the world’s biggest and most successful retail organisations. Its reach spans the whole of the US, the United Kingdom, and parts of Asia. It has over 1.2 million employees in America alone, and worldwide that figure can be said to be approximately 1.7 million. With profits rising to $10.3 billion dollars in 2005, an increase of 13% from the previous year, there is no doubt that it has been successful in the retail sector. However, its success has come at a price that does not tally with established service marketing theories as we will see.

In order to have a good understanding of Wal-Mart’s human resource practices in light of its success in relation to relevant services marketing theories, one will first need to identify and evaluate these relevant theories.

In recent times many developed countries have seen a dramatic increase in the importance of services to national economies and to the individual consumer. In the major European countries, the US and Japan, more people are employed in services than in all other sectors of the economy put together. Both public and private sector services in these countries account for between 60 and 75 percent of gross domestic product (Torrington et al. 2005). Now, a service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another which is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.

Its production may or may not be tied to a physical product. The retail sector offers both tangible and intangible continuum for goods and services, i.e. a physical product is what customers want and the employees of a particular retail organisation provides a service that makes that experience easy so that customers come back (Lovelock 1996).

Successful service marketing theories recognise that the specific nature of services requires tailored marketing approaches and that traditional product-based marketing is unlikely to be effective if principles are transferred without adaptation. Just like manufacturing firms smart service businesses use marketing to create powerful brands which are positioned strongly in chosen target markets. However, because service firms differ from tangible products, they require additional marketing approaches (Levitt 1981). In a product business, products are fairly standardised and can sit on the shelves waiting for customers. But service business, the customer and front-line service employee interact to create the service. Thus service providers must work to interact effectively with customers to create superior value during service encounters. Effective interaction, in turn, depends on the skills of front-line service staff, and on the service production and support processes backing these employees. Established service marketing theories states that successful service companies focus their attention on both their employees and customers. They understand the service-profit chain, which links service firms’ profits with employee and customer satisfaction (Heskett et al. 1994). This chain consists of five links:

• Internal service quality: superior employee selection and training, a quality work environment and strong support for those dealing with customers.
• Satisfied and productive service employees: more satisfied, loyal and hardworking employees.
• Greater service value: more effective and efficient customer value creation and service delivery
• Satisfied and loyal customers: satisfied customers who remain loyal, repeat purchase and refer other customers
• Healthy service-profits and growth: superior service firm performance.

Therefore, reaching service profits and growth goals begins with taking care of those who take care of customers. All this suggests that, in order to achieve favourable service outcomes, service marketing requires more than just traditional external marketing, it also requires both internal marketing and interactive marketing (Brooks 1998). Internal marketing means that the service firm must invest heavily in employee quality and performance. It must effectively train and motivate its customer-contact employees and all the supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction.

For the firm to deliver consistently high service quality, everyone must practise a customer orientation. It is not enough to have a marketing department doing traditional marketing while the rest of the company goes its own way. Marketers must also encourage everyone else in the organisation to be customer-centred. Infact, internal marketing must precede external marketing. It makes little sense to advertise excellent service before the company’s staff is ready, willing and able to provide it (Bateson 1989). Thus, the service organisation must orient its employees carefully, instil in them a sense of pride and motivate them by recognising and rewarding outstanding service deeds. Interactive marketing means that perceived service quality depends heavily on the quality of the buyer-seller interaction. In product marketing, product quality often depends little on how the product is obtained. But in services marketing, especially in high-contact and professional services, service quality depends on both the service deliverer and the quality of the delivery (Gronroos 1984). Effective service deliverer customer interaction is important for achieving a satisfactory service transaction. Service marketers cannot assume that they will satisfy the customer simply by providing good technical service. This is because the customer judges service quality not just on technical quality, but also on its functional quality. Also, each interaction is a moment of truth for the provider, where not just the service encounter, but also the organisation, will be decisively judged by the customer. Thus, professionals cannot assume that they will satisfy the client simply by providing good technical service. They have to master interactive marketing skills or functions as well (Bitner 1996). Effective buyer-seller interaction may help to secure a satisfied customer. As competition and costs increase, and as productivity and quality decrease, more marketing sophistication is needed. Service companies therefore face three major marketing tasks: they want to increase their competitive differentiation, service quality, and productivity.

With this in mind we can now evaluate Wal – Marts human resource practices with regard to the service marketing theory stated above.


caption: Wal-Mart corporate brand image logo, slogan and website address.

Wal – Mart is a retail success compared to a wide range of other retail organisations in the US and around the world that have tried and failed in the retail sector. Its success has come about from the wide range and far reaching goods and services it provides in the retail sector.

However, there is a dilemma with regard to this. In established service marketing theories as stated above, it argues that for an organisation to be successful it will have to hire, train, maintain, and reward, the best employees, so that they provide the best services to customers, which lead to customer satisfaction and retention, which also leads to increased profits for the organisation. This established theory differs from the practice of Wal – Mart which has faced increased criticism with regard to employees being pressured into working unpaid overtime, alleged sexual discrimination towards female employees, which constitute two thirds of its workforce (Adams 2005), low pay, poor worker safety, disability discrimination, etc (Miller 2004), and the company still enjoys outstanding profitability and growth whilst its employees are not treated fairly . Possible reasons for the success of Wal – Mart in light of such human resource practice and the theories mentioned can be said to come from the fact that it is a large organisation with outlets in and outside the US as well, i.e. when an organisation becomes too big, bureaucracy and red tape tends to filter through, therefore, employees have been slow to call for these damaging claims about the organisation possibly of fear of loosing their only job.

Also, because it has a strong hold on the retail sector, i.e. there are not a large number of retail outlets that provide the goods and services that Wal-Mart provides in bulk, it deems every employee as tangible, i.e. they can always hire someone else with no hassle whatsoever, thereby they do not pay as much attention to taking good care of their staff. Also, because most of their employees are women (two thirds), management within Wal – Mart can be said to be negligent of gender advancement. I.e. it is deemed that most women will one day return to the home to take care their family and children. Therefore, there is no incentive on the part of management to increase staff pay, provide rewards to the best performing staff, and improve worker safety, as mentioned previously because of the size of Wal-Mart bureaucracy and red tape prevails, thereby making it difficult for the most simple and important aspect of human resource management to be bypassed.

In addition critics dismiss Wal –Mart’s seemingly progressive HR Policies as cosmetic attempts to maintain its public image rather than a real effort to address the underlying problems it has, which shows that there is a lot of bureaucracy which only tends to be prevalent in large organisations. Under established theories on service marketing, for an organisation to be successful with regard to profitability and customer retention, management within the organisation would have to invest in hiring the best people, rewarding outstanding employees, all mentioned previously, does differ from the success of Wal – Mart with regard to the theoretical aspect of identifying employee treatment as the key to running a successful organisation rather than the problems which Wal – Mart faces. In addition, the fact that Wal – Mart is a privately owned company means that although it is subjected to the laws and regulations pertaining employee relations, it can do as it pleases. I.e. each and every employee that is hired by Wal – Mart takes the job under certain terms of agreement which the organisation should not be called upon if an employee is not happy with the way they have or are being treated by the company, because they have taken the job according to the terms of their employment. Also, because it is a privately owned organisation there is no worker representation which makes it very easy for Wal – Mart to do as it so pleases. Although, certain laws governing employee relations does state that employees should be treated fairly with regard to pay, health benefits etc, most organisations are in a business to make money, i.e. to be profitable and if what they do enables them to achieve this then they will continue doing what they have always been doing. Wal – Mart however seems to be trying to do something about this problems that have risen, i.e. the company’s CEO arguing that the company prides itself on its open door policy, and its fair treatment of what it terms ‘associates’. However, due to the size of the company (bureaucracy) any policy changes in favour of employee relations will be slow to trickle down to those most sort after, and will cost money to the company, in which theoretically company’s are always trying to cut costs to make a profit. Imagine a policy change that affects 2.2 million employees, that is a lot of money to spend which will surely affect its profit intake.

The implications of this finding is that although the issue of employee relations within Wal – Mart differs from established theories of service marketing, it can be said that this is a special case. Reasons being that if Wal – Mart does not get its act together in time it will be subject to court proceedings which will result in a large payout to employees, which will in turn dent its image and profitability. Theories in service marketing have boundaries. These boundaries are to do with the law on employee relations. If an organisation like Wal – Mart does not treat its employees fairly as stated within service marketing theory then it is subject to legal proceedings. Service marketing theories are established according to the law in a particular country and anything outside that can be said to be an unlawful practice. This can be said to be the major block as to why established theories on service marketing differs from the human resource practice of Wal – Mart. In addition to this, the fact that established theories in service marketing differs from the practice of Wal – Mart’s human resource means that academics would need to have a rethink about the boundaries of the validity of such theories, i.e. they would need to incorporate other aspects that are unforeseen such as the law governing employee relations within the private sector, the psychological aspect of being in a job because that is all an employee is reliant on to earn a living, etc. These are issues which academicians within the service marketing field will need to look into and address.

CONCLUSION

One can conclude here that although the norm from which established theories of service marketing states that the key to a successful organisation is making sure that the right employees are hired and taking care off, which waters down to customer satisfaction and retention, which then leads to profitability, differs from the HR practice of Wal – Mart, service marketing theory is still a new phenomenon and like any other established theory it is prone to refinement and amendment as we humans are constantly evolving, so do trends in marketing, the sciences, economics, and other theories, etc are also evolving. Therefore, the theory is still valid it will need to incorporate other aspects of service marketing which are unforeseen as mentioned in the latter.

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, R (2005) “Nickle & Dimed (and passed over): Dukes V. Wal-Mart Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference of the European Institute of Retailing and Service Studies.

Bateson, J.E., (1989), Managing Services Marketing: Text and readings, Hinsdale, IL: Dryden Press.

Brooks, R.F., and Lings, I.N., (1998), Implementing and measuring effectiveness of internal marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, 14, pp. 325 – 351.

Cole, C., and Palmer, A., (1995), Services Marketing: Principles and practice, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 56 – 60.

Bitner, M.J., and Zeithaml, V., (1996), Services marketing, New York: McGraw Hill, pp. 8 – 9.

Gronroos, C., (1984), A service quality model and its marketing implications, European Journal of Marketing, 18, 4, pp. 36 – 44.

Heskett, J.L., Jones, T.O., Loveman, G.W., Sasser Jnr, and Schlesinger, L.A., (1994), Putting the service – profit chain to work, Harvard Business Review, March.

Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J., and Armstrong, G., (2005), Principles of Marketing, 4th European Edition, Prentice Hall.

Levitt, T., (1981), Marketing intangible products and product intangibles, Harvard Business Review, May – June, pp. 94 – 102.

Lovelock, C.H., (1996), Services marketing, 3rd edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Miller, G (2004) “Every day low wages: The hidden price we all pay for Wal-Mart” A report by the Democratic of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, US House of Representatives.