To begin my research on the how the social mission of Ben & Jerry’s has survived and lives in their workforce, I have had trouble finding scholarly articles that delineate this aspect of the business. There are a lot of scholarly articles that speak about some of the challenges Ben & Jerry’s have had, but no conclusive scholarly articles, currently, about their successes, despite their earlier difficulties.
For the sake of finally getting something posted I went with this article, which has good introductory information but I am aware the source is not strong enough. Alas…
Matthew Lam, a writer and intern at Cornell SC Johnson College of business, who writes for the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise News, presents Ben & Jerry’s as a company that is committed to it’s cause: valuing social justice and remaining unabashedly progressive in their politics. Ben & Jerry’s has a three-part mission, which aims to create linked prosperity for everyone that’s connected to their business and as Lam discovers, their three prongs of their mission are lined up next to one another in the company graphic; with the belief that displaying them in another way would lead employees to subconsciously rank them in importance. Through speaking with Rob Michalak, Global Director of Social Mission @benandjerrys, Lam learns that Ben & Jerry’s makes deliberate and tangible choices, incentivizing suppliers to make more environmentally sustainable and animal-friendly choices, and was one of the first companies to pay a living wage, now boasting one of the lowest wage compression ratios its workforce in the country. Even though Ben & Jerry’s was acquired by a multinational consumer goods giant in 2000, this atypical acquisition provided for an independent board of directors composed of Ben & Jerry’s original leadership, and experts in the fields of environmental sustainability, human rights, and other social issues. Ben & Jerry’s employees remain just as enthusiastic about their ice cream as they are about progressive political and social causes, and as a so-called “activist company,” Ben & Jerry’s leadership and culture, the holistic choices it has made, and the socially responsible reputation it has built, is not just PR it’s Philanthropy.