Starbucks company

What does the company consider to be effective, given its product, resources, and overall corporate culture? How does the business define effectiveness?

Starbucks measures efficiency by the standard of its goods and services. To please its clients, the company places a priority on the design of its goods and services. It makes sure that the items mirror the company's premium brand image. The business has placed its cafes in prime locations to draw in a lot of customers. In addition, the company places a strong emphasis on quality control (Koehn, Nancy, Marya Besharov and Katherine Miller 500). For instance, the company purchases its coffee from growers who uphold the firm's standards for quality. Additionally, the corporation opts to purchase coffee from growers who are licensed by the Starbucks Coffee and Farmer Equity. Moreover, Starbucks defines efficiency by how it treats its employees. The firm aims at providing the workers with the best working conditions for increasing their performance. The company adopts practices such as training employees, provision of bonuses and provision of innovation opportunities to make the employees comfortable at the organization.

What is the organization’s vision statement? Identify at least two business practices that support its vision.

The mission and vision statement of Starbuck reflects the leadership emphasis in the company. The mission statement shows what the firm intends to do as a central of its commercial activities. On the other hand, the vision statement stipulates what the corporation aims to accomplish. The mission of the organization is "To inspire and nurture the human spirit- one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time." Moreover, its vision statement is "To establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow." The company is focused on providing finest coffee which satisfies the customers. It has continued evolving its products to ensure that it serves the needs of the diverse customers (Han, Gang Kevin, and Ai Zhang 398). Moreover, the firm has been able to achieve its growth component of the vision statement by globally expanding its business through the establishment of new Starbucks cafes. It has established more than 22,500 cafes around the world and therefore efficiently addressing its vision statement.

Go to your selected organization and observe the employees. What personality characteristics would be particularly crucial for a lower-level employee in this company? Why? What personality characteristics would be less important for a lower-level employee in this company? Why?

Low-level employees should have the ability to keep their minds focused during hours of crisis mode and when many tasks are overdue. They should be able to work whenever needed to work within less than a week notice. Furthermore, they should be able to handle the different kinds of customers and cope with abuse from some clients. Low-level employees are also supposed to manage the many responsibilities that never stop increasing in the company. These personal characteristics are essential because they help a worker carry out their duties without conflicting with the management and the customers (Dominus, Susan 18). However, low-level employees do not necessarily require creativity, risk-taking, and decision-making skills. This is because they are not directly involved in making significant decisions regarding the company.

Do some research on the company’s management practices. Discuss at least two practices and relate them job satisfaction – specifically, how does the practice influence job satisfaction and why? Be sure to specify which type of satisfaction you are discussing.

Workers at Starbucks are essential for the success of the firm. Howard Schultz argues that it is important to employ the right people, train and inspire to boost them to stay with the corporation. Therefore, Starbucks aims at providing satisfying jobs, good work environment and appropriate work schedules to the employees. Moreover, the firm provides fair compensation and benefits to the workers (Tu, Yu-Te, Chin-Mei Wang and Hsiao-Chien Chang 28). These practices are part of Starbuck’s strategy to motivate and hire human resources with the aim of gaining competitive advantage. The company ensures that it provides additional training to its workers as they grow in their jobs. Additionally, the firm offers bonuses to employees who perform their duties diligently. These practices ensure that the employees develop the passion and strong feelings towards their specific jobs and the company. They can work under minimal or no supervision.

Based on your observation of employees in the company, describe at least two programmed and two non-programmed decisions employees make. What are two biases that may be particularly relevant to your observed workers’ decision-making?

Starbuck’s employees are involved in making organizational decisions. For example, if an employee wants to go for leave, they have to follow the leave rules for the leave to be granted. If one does not follow these rules, they are not granted the leave. Additionally, workers are involved in making decisions regarding customer service problems and handling complex technical issues that arise in the firm. Furthermore, employees are required to make un-programmed decisions (MacDonald, Kate 801). These decisions are made if the company is experiencing declining profits despite the adoption of technology, reasonable prices, quality control and brand image. Additionally, employees are allowed to decide on the type of marketing tool to use to attract customers who have never used Starbuck's products. However, not all employees have the capability of making certain programmed decisions. Some workers especially the new employees lack skills and experience to make such decisions. Moreover, employees may make decisions that favor them. For instance, they may change the number of working hours to favor themselves.

Does your organization support employee creativity? How or how not?

The firm has developed the culture of openness. Initially, workers had the culture fearing to speak up to their superiors. Former President of Starbucks introduced forums to encourage workers to share their opinions and ideas with the superiors. This forum empowers workers and facilitates innovation (MacDonald, Kate 803). Moreover, the firm has developed a policy that prohibits discrimination by ideas, thoughts, age, gender, experiences, race and religion. This feature allows all employees to share their ideas without fear of being discriminated. Additionally, this organizational culture also makes clients feel welcome at the Starbucks cafes.

Conduct a SWOT analysis on your chosen organization, listing at least two answers in each category (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat). Provide rationale for each answer.

Starbucks has various strengths which make it have a competitive edge over its competitors. The firm can diversify with different products. The business provides products such as coffee, tea, creamers and sweeteners, juices and a specialty drink, snacks and waters and sports drinks. Moreover, the company has highly visible locations which attract the customers. Cafes have unique logos which clients can identify easily. On the other hand, the firm is experiencing an increasing number of competitors in the growing market. For example, the company experiences competition from Costa coffee, Coca-Cola, Caribou coffee, Coke among others. This has made the firm to focus on external expansion thus neglecting the internal development (Han, Gang Kevin, and Ai Zhang 397). Furthermore, the products of the company are expensive, and therefore not many customers can afford. Thus, the firm needs to take advantage of the technological advancements to improve the quality of their products. Moreover, the company should be flexible to the emerging international markets which attract many customers. Furthermore, Starbucks experiences the threat of competition from coffee shops, restaurants, and supermarkets. Additionally, adverse publicity from farmers who are treated poorly in the supplying nations also affects the company negatively.

Do some research on the company’s corporate strategy. What type of corporate strategy is it pursuing? Cite at least four examples of this strategy.

The corporate strategy of Starbucks is based on four pillars, strategic positioning, vending coffee of the best quality, global market development and integration of new technology in the business processes. The firm ensures that it is conveniently positioned to attract more customers. The stores are designed to make sure clients stay longer, return for another visit and buy more by the provision of free Wi-Fi. Moreover, the corporate strategy of the firm can be categorized as product differentiation. This is because the coffee chains are focused on providing quality products which the clients pay for a premium price. Provision of excellent customer services also contributes to the competitive advantage of Starbucks by increasing the attractiveness of the coffee retailers. Furthermore, the company’s strategy is focused on the emerging economies. For example, the firm’s revenue from Asia and China increased from 7% in 2015 to 14% in 2016 ((Koehn, Nancy, Marya Besharov and Katherine Miller 100). Additionally, the company has adopted the new technology to enhance new product development, faster completion of sales and monitoring of client’s level of satisfaction. For instance, the firm has adopted the use of mobile order and pay feature to allow customers to buy products without being physically available.

Do some research on the company’s management practices. Discuss at least three practices and relate them to one or more theories of motivation. Specifically, what type of motivation does the practice support, or what types of motivation does the practice undermine? Be sure to use a specific type of motivational theory (e.g., expectancy theory or psychological empowerment).

Starbucks adopts the Maslow’s Hierarchy of motivation. The firm fulfills the psychological needs of the employees by providing them with breaks to satisfy their hunger needs. Moreover, the company offers a conducive environment to work by complying with the health and safety standards. It goes to the extent of providing employees with health-related benefits such as medical insurance, mental health dependency, and life insurance. Furthermore, the company shows affection to the employees by calling them partners rather than workers. This motivates workers because they feel like part of the firm (MacDonald, Kate 807). Additionally, the business considers the esteem needs of the workers by promoting workers who portray outstanding performance in their responsibilities. The company does not limit workers when it comes to promotion and capabilities. Finally, the firm ensures that workers realize self-actualization by training them. This provides that workers can make right choices of their career thus achieving their dreams.

At the store, consider the role of a leader. What type of leadership would be most effective considering the typical tasks completed by an employee? Be sure to discuss the typical tasks.

Transformational leadership would be the most appropriate in Starbucks Company. This type of leadership is based on higher levels of motivation and morality. The leader and the employees are bound together by the vision of the leader and the organization thus creating the aspect of respect and admiration for the workers. Employees are encouraged to develop innovative ideas by giving them with direct recognition and provision of a good working environment (MacDonald, Kate 810). Under this type of leadership, the leader is supposed to motivate and inspire their employees by seeking feedback and advice from them. Moreover, transformational leadership empowers employees to provide quality products and services. Furthermore, transformational leadership encompasses the creation of an ethical climate in an organization, emphasizing motivation, promotion of harmony among employees, highlighting important priorities, encouragement of innovation and provision of individual coaching to employees.

Go to the store you selected. What type of interdependence do the employees seem to follow? Do you think it is effective? Why or why not?

Starbuck’s employees follow a pooled interdependence. Every department in the organization is expected to perform separate functions. The different departments do not interact directly but contribute individual pieces to the overall output of the firm (Dominus, Susan 17). Examples of these departments include administrative support, marketing, public affairs, finance and accounting and global supply chain. This type of interdependence is effective because each employee knows what responsibility they are supposed to carry out. Moreover, in case of any fault, it is easy to detect which department makes a mistake.

In the store, do you see any areas of process gain or process loss? Please describe three instances total and why they quality as gain or loss.

Some of the marketing strategies used by Starbucks involve buying the competitor’s leases and saturating the market. These strategies are seen as anti-competitive because they aim at eliminating small and independent competitors who cannot afford to sell products at high prices. There have also been issues of overpricing in China ((Dominus, Susan 11). This attracts away many potential customers. Moreover, the company has experienced labor disputes because they do not give their employees leave during the Christmas period. These instances have negatively affected the firm because it has damaged its image.

Works Cited

Dominus, Susan. "The Starbucks Aesthetic." New York Times 22 (2006): 1-25.

Han, Gang Kevin, and Ai Zhang. "Starbucks is forbidden in the Forbidden City: Blog, circuit of culture and informal public relations campaign in China." Public Relations Review 35.4 (2009): 395-401.

Koehn, NANCY F., Marya Besharov, and Katherine Miller. "Starbucks coffee company in the 21st century." Harvard Business School, Case Study (2008): 9-808.

MacDonald, Kate. "Globalizing justice within coffee supply chains? Fair Trade, Starbucks and the transformation of supply chain governance." Third World Quarterly 28.4 (2007): 793-812.

Tu, Yu-Te, Chin-Mei Wang, and Hsiao-Chien Chang. "Corporate brand image and customer satisfaction on loyalty: An empirical study of Starbucks coffee in Taiwan." Journal of Social and Development Sciences 3.1 (2012): 24-32.