Evaluating Performance of Starbucks - Case Study Example

Evaluating Performance of Starbucks Starbucks Coffee is the leading coffee roaster and retailer company which operates on the American and European markets, and have started its penetration into the Asian market. In general, Starbucks has 5689 shops in around 28 countries. The principal activity of Starbucks is to purchase, roast and market whole bean coffees. Motivational strategies, ethic programs and effective conflict management tools help Starbucks to create positive organizational culture and climate, improve performance and create high performance teams. Motivational Principles Within organizational context, motivational strategies are based on the idea that motivational force underlies the need for personal and job security. These ideas are closely connected with concepts of growth, achievements and satisfaction which help Starbucks to increase productivity and ensure stable market position. Motivational principles are based on equity theory. The theory is based on idea that “people need to feel that there is a fair balance between inputs and outputs” (Equity Theory 2007). The core of the staff works full-time in the organization while next to them or with them are employees on temporary assignments, part-time workers, and people working in joint venture settings. The result may therefore be individuals working together whose allegiances and concerns may involve differences that are highly important to Starbucks. Relationships, views, and expectations among those who are all part of one group—or who view themselves as part of the same company or as “insiders”—are different from the types of relationships and communication patterns that develop among those who view themselves as belonging to different groups. The aim of HR is to motivate both part-time and full-time employees and level possible differences. Equity has a great impact on satisfaction and achievements of employees. Starbucks provides provide financial and other resources for developing and implementing career programs for full-time and part-time employees, particularly programs emphasizing personal growth. They provide recognition of the frequently temporary nature of contemporary work settings while at the same time encouraging positive relationships between individuals and organizations over the long run. To achieve growth, Starbucks develops skills in the employees not previously realized and thus eventually prove beneficial to the individual and the organization. Starbucks uses such strategies as financial rewards and recognition to motivate and inspire employees of all ranks and positions. These accounts are linked to individual work patterns and individual work behavior in a more immediate manner. These plans focus on health and welfare benefits as much as if not more than pay and pension concerns.). Equity theory can be seen as a strategy for achieving organizational growth and success rather than as a fixed cost of doing business. Also, these motivational strategies support high performance teams and influence cohesiveness and friendly atmosphere, cooperation with the workers, managers, and leaders, personal commitment and high productivity (Robbins, 2004). Code of Ethics Like other business institutions, Starbucks affects the culture, and as the culture adjusts this adjustment in turn affects the direction of the ongoing development of corporate activity. In order to meet changing economic and social conditions, Starbucks has developed a code of ethics based on diversity principles and equal opportunities. As these dynamics have worked themselves out over time, the changes taking place can perhaps be viewed in terms of successive conceptual shifts among three major moral frames in which market activity has been placed. Through this process the market system gradually gained its independent stature and dominating force. Starbucks president and CEO Orin Smith comments: “Social responsibility is not an add-on to our business. It’s an essential part of who we are” (Starbucks: A Model Global Corporate Citizen n.d.).Training programs designed to integrate individuals of diverse backgrounds and views into cohesive work teams are not new. They have been a standard part of Starbucks’ HRM programs as cultural and ethnic diversity has become a major challenge for this organization. Some of these training programs have proved fruitful and some have not. Even more difficult, however, will be dealing with people who are individual contractors or temporary workers who go to different organizations once a specific job is finished. It is not just that there will be changing memberships and changing interaction patterns in these organizational settings. According to its code of ethics, Starbucks takes an active role in meeting the demands of the new world of work. Key to this process is recognizing that the opportunities for meeting and satisfying the primary motivational patterns of self-enhancement and self-protection are no longer what they used to be, whatever level of the occupational spectrum we are focusing on. For the benefit of both the organization and individuals, developing new mechanisms for responding to these changes is a major challenge facing HRM today (Robbins, 2004; www.starbucks.com). Monitoring is important because it helps to ensure fair and equal treatment of all employees and service quality provided to customers. Performance monitoring is a delicate issue. Indeed, implementation of such systems should attend to employee privacy rights and fair treatment. Starbucks follows strict ethics principle and rules, and informs its employees about methods and purposes of monitoring in order to avoid violation of privacy rights and data security. The aim of enforcement is to protect stakeholders against deception, violence and disorder. The code of ethics stipulates rules and procedures, duties and responsibilities employees at all levels. The code of ethics stipulates cultural specificity and standards of conduct. These factors help Starbucks to develop cohesive and integrated teams able to overcome the external pressures, energize creativity, motivate employees, and impress customers, and successfully address all key dimensions simultaneously (www.starbucks.com). Conflict Management Approaches Starbucks uses negotiation, collective bargaining and interpersonal communication as the main approaches in conflict management. Cases of severe conflict may be extreme—because there are usually some reasons for these different groups and individuals to at least try to work together— the potential for conflict between groups and individuals exists in this new work setting and there will be a need to take account of such possibilities in developing future HRM programs. Direct approaches help to minimize conflicts and prevent misunderstandings. Indirect approaches are important because they allow Starbucks management to prevent and avoid conflict. For instance, if members of the team are not open and friendly, they fail to perform effectively and solve current problems. Another approach is to view communications as a pattern of interconnect­ing lines or networks. If the group or team lacks understanding, the decision-making will fail to fulfill its aim. Each member of the team contributes something different, but they must all contribute towards a common goal. A project team has to be cohesive in order to ensure positives atmosphere and effective problem-solving process (Robbins, 2004). If the team lacks communication, it will create chaos situations and affect mutual trust of team members. Participation (collective bargaining) also occurs on non-monetary questions, especially if essentiality of the service, public policy and public convenience are at stake. For instance, interest groups, educational policy groups, and citizens are particularly concerned with such issues of public policy as integration of faculties, topics that have been the subject of negotiations. Working in teams is beneficial for conflict resolution, because, it helps to focus on the interests rather than the positions that the parties have taken. The groups become high performance teams able to de-escalate conflict and avoid misunderstanding. Conflict management methods allow high performance teams to look for ways in which both parties can work together to achieve their common objectives. Analysis based on a partial understanding of the problem is likely to be flawed. Dealing with the personal issues and needs in any negotiation is both difficult and important. References 1. Equity Theory. 2007. Retrieved 31 July 2007, from http://www.businessballs.com/adamsequitytheory.htm 2. Robbins, S. (2004). Organizational Behavior. Prentice Hall. 11 Ed. 3. Starbucks: A Model Global Corporate Citizen. N.d. Retrieved 31 July 2007, from www.business-ethics.com/starbucks_coffee_company1.htm 4. www.starbucks.com Read More