Whole Foods - Here is an excellent article on Whole Foods Market and it's founder John MacKey and his unique management style:

Every store was divided into about eight functional teams: You were hired to the seafood team, or the prepared-foods team, or the cashier/front-end team. But you didn't just get hired. You got hired provisionally. After four weeks of work, the team you had joined voted whether to keep you; you needed a two-thirds yes vote to join the staff permanently.

Additional pay (beyond base wages) was linked to the teams, so people were careful about who got their votes. Thirteen times a year, Whole Foods calculated the performance of the people on each team in every store. How productive had the team been against goals? Teams that did well shared in the profits -- up to $1.50 or $2.00 extra an hour was paid right back to team members, every other paycheck. So people didn't want buddies on their teams; they wanted workers -- people who were going to make them some money.

posted by Bruce Wright at 10:24 PM #