The Market Basket Case Revisited: Community Empowerment through Leaderful Organizational Culture

Abstract

Market Basket started as a local grocery store in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1917, and rapidly expanded into a large supermarket chain by following a business model driven by community empowerment. However, success did not come easy. A sudden change in leadership and the resulting top-down organizational culture pushed the store chain into unprecedented chaos with boycotts and supply chain disruptions. The collective force generated by employees, customers, and business partners left the shareholders with no choice but to reinstate the ousted CEO with full authority. But how did the leadership cultivate trust, loyalty, and commitment in all stakeholders, which resulted in undefeatable resilience against the intended top-down approach? The current paper answers this question by analyzing the collective organizational culture built through collaborative leadership and the ensuing leaderful response of all stakeholders to adversity.