Organizational Culture and Ethics Values of Starbucks

Introduction

Organizational culture and ethics value are important aspects in an organization. Organizational culture is the framework created within an institution that governs the working environment of a company. Organizational culture involves the philosophy, experiences and expectations that have been cultivated within the organization. On the other hand, ethics value is the significance of a given code of conduct within an organization. Ethics value dictate what action should be taken on a given aspect within an institution. This illustrates that both organizational culture and ethics value are internal factors within a company that determine the success of an institution (Mad Mad, 2012). Therefore organizational culture and ethics should be well maintained and assessed to ensure that they lead to molding of a stable and flourishing organization. In Starbucks Company, organizational culture and ethics value have an impact on the mode of running of the company. At some instance, poor organizational culture and unethical values of the company have resulted to unfavorable conditions of the company. On the other hand, the company has adjusted its organizational culture and established an ethical value that has solved the challenges it solved. Therefore, organizational culture and ethics values within Starbucks Company are important aspects that can either lead to the company’s failure or success.

Overview of Starbucks Corporation

Starbucks Corporation is an international American based coffee company that trades in coffee and its products. The company has grown enormously whereby it has been termed as the largest company that deals with coffeehouse business in the world. The country has a total of approximately twenty two thousand seven hundred and sixty six stores around the globe and has diversified its coffeehouse business in over sixty five countries. The company’s headquarters are based in Seattle, Washington which is a growing business centre. Its location in Washington has favored it to develop firm business foundation within United States of America (Management of Starbucks, 2014). The company is said to have over twelve thousand eight hundred and two stores in USA. This illustrates that a large market share of the company is based within the US. However, the company has established other market shares in the world which include one thousand nine hundred and thirty coffeehouse stores in China, more than one thousand stores in Canada and Japan and eight hundred and twenty five stores in United Kingdom. This shows that the company’s international coffee market share is favorable. The company, therefore, is an internationally recognized and established organization that dominates the international coffee market.

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Starbucks Corporation is a large company with over a million laborers. The large human resource department in the company is as a result of its diversified coffee products that it sells. In addition, the vast human resource department can be explained using the numerous outlets that the company has established all over the world. The company majors in second wave coffee and it has diversified its products through aspects of varying coffee products quality and tastes to suit its wide market share (Mad Mad, 2012). The company has also diversified its products according to customer experience. This has led the company to major in dark roasted coffee which is marketable around the globe. The company has placed serve hot and cold drinks locations, whole-bean coffee selling points, and espresso coffee selling machines. Laborers in these outlets are required at the hot and cold coffee and whole-bean coffee selling points. The espresso machine only requires labor at maintenance and enhances the efficiency of the company’s services. The company’s basic organizational culture is, therefore, formed by its human resource department that creates the basic philosophies and experiences.

The company’s expansion into new markets has captured the attention of marketers. The company expanded through opening stores in several countries and also through buying of existing coffee companies. The company purchased AFC Enterprises coffee outlets in Seattle. In addition, the company also purchased Torrefazione Italia which was a leading coffee industry. As a result, the company has expanded its operations thus gaining the status of an international business. Therefore, the company’s vast operation creates a large organizational culture and ethics value settings.

Organizational culture of Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation has an established a large organizational culture. The large size of its organizational culture is brought about by the large organizational structure. Starbucks Corporation has employed many laborers who contribute to the working structure of the company. This ensures that a working culture has been developed for smooth running of the company (Management of Starbucks, 2014). The company’s organizational culture is experienced in cooperation, communication, division of labor and the status granted to leaders in the company. Therefore, the company has a rich organizational culture that contributes to the company’s success in the coffee industry.

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 Leadership culture

The company’s organizational culture is monitored by the company’s leaders. This forms an important culture within Starbucks known as leadership culture. Leadership culture is illustrated by the company’s expectations of leaders. Starbucks leaders are expected to perform their roles effectively. Leaders in the company are expected to carry out sound decisions that will lead to the growth of the business (Snyder, 2006). They are also expected to control activities that happen in the internal and external business environment of the company. This illustrates that the leadership culture in Starbucks Corporation is centered on a management aspect. Leaders in company also accept their expectations whereby they perform their duties effectively. Therefore, leadership culture in Starbucks Corporation is an important philosophy that ensures that the company is running smoothly thus the company’s optimum performance in coffee business.

Communication Culture

Communication within Starbucks Corporation is an important organizational culture. Communication in the company helps in boosting consistency whereby activities are carried out harmoniously. Communication within Starbucks Corporation is enhanced through aspects of partnership of workers. Workers in the company view one another as equal people thus ensuring that socialization within the company is optimum (Freeburg, 2012). Communication in the company is initiated by the company’s manager. The company’s manager maintains a link between himself and his juniors by communicating to them frequently. The communication between the manager and the company’s workers helps in organization f the company’s stores operation. In addition, communication between the company’s regional managers helps in coordination of the company’s operations. The company’s communication culture has grown to symbolic terms. The company has granted its workers thanks card. The thanks card is a communication card that illustrates the workers gratitude once they receive support from fellow workers. Therefore, communication culture in Starbucks Corporation is an essential tool of building social unity in the company.

Cooperation Culture

The corporation is built on the cooperation of workers. This culture has been deeply cultivated within the company to ensure that workers work together towards attaining the company’s goals and targets. Cooperation in the company is cultivated through the company leaders’ encouragement and the aspect of reward cooperation. This helps in developing a stable and solid foundation of cooperation that helps in attaining maximum cooperation benefits. The company also trains its employees on emulating and applying cooperation behavior throughout their working periods (Berkelycentre, 2015).

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The appreciation of cooperation as a working behavior in the company cements cooperation as an important organization culture concept. Practically, workers cooperation is seen through the coordination that exists between workers in different company’s regions. Workers in the twenty two thousand stores cooperate with one another to ensure that there is harmony in the company’s working standards. Despite different ethic cultures that the workers have, they are united by cooperation as their common culture. Cooperation in the company is also created between the company’s workers and the managers (Sites.google.com, 2015). This enhances a productive environment within the company. In addition, cooperation of workers reduces unnecessary trouble that may erupt in the company. Therefore, cooperation of workers in Starbucks creates a lively working atmosphere thus enhancing a productive atmosphere in the company.

Division of Labor

Division of labor in Starbucks has been the mode of operation that enhances the company’s productivity. Division of labor is the delegating of duties to specific workers whereby one worker only serves one task in the productivity line. In Starbucks Corporation, every employee has a clear division of labor where employees are divided into various field of labor. Some workers are delegated duties of taking orders and receiving, others are make coffee while others are employed in counting the inventory (Ritson, 2007).

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Division of labor as an organizational culture has helped the company to achieve its market targets through optimizing the company’s productivity. Division of labor in Starbucks helps the workers to have the required energy to perform their duties because it motivates workers to offer their best. Therefore, division of labor as an organization culture in Starbucks helps in creating an effective working environment.

Ethics Value in Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation is based on an ethical framework that enables it to inspire and nature the appropriate code of conduct. Starbucks has outlined strict policies that regulate the working environment through enhancing better business practices. Ethical values within Starbucks also help in developing ethical responsibility whereby every individual in the company has an environmental mission pledge (Snyder, 2006). Starbuck Corporation’s efforts to maintain ethics values have made it uphold ethical standards thus its rank as one of hundred best corporate citizens in 2013. In addition, Starbucks has won an award as the world’s most ethical companies of 2013 in the Ethisphere. Therefore, Starbucks Corporation has been at its best in maintaining ethical measures throughout its working environment.

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Starbucks maintains the ethical value of social responsibility. The company has impacted the society positively whereby it has availed quality products in the market. Starbucks only deals in quality coffee products. This fact boosts the company’s social evaluation thus attracting a great deal of market. Selling quality products by the company illustrates the prioritization of dignity by the company (Berkelycentre, 2015). In addition, the company has maintained a suitable social relation with its partners. According to the company’s mission statement, the company is dedicated towards ensuring a social stable environment with its partners. The company treats every partner with respect and dignity. Therefore, the company maintains a favorable relationship with its partners as an ethical measure.

 The company also withholds its social responsibility when dealing with customers. The company has always been dedicated towards uplifting lives of their customers. This explains why the company offers quality products. The favorable relation between the company and customers helps in developing a human connection thus upholding social responsibility. The company also maintains a healthy relationship with its neighbors and shareholders.  The company invites its neighbors to take part in the company’s business thus cementing its social relationship with the neighbors. On the other hand, the company treasures its shareholders whereby it rewards the shareholders on every success the company enjoys (Taylor, 2008). This helps in encouraging the shareholders to keep on supporting the company towards realizing its targets. These acts of social responsibility by the company upgrade the company’s ethical values. Therefore, the company has been on the forefront to ensure that it maintains an effective code of conduct.

Starbucks has ensured ethical values are maintained through establishing an annual Global Responsibility and Progress Report. The report helps in gauging the company’s efforts towards ensuring there is ethics in every aspect of its operation. The report insists of the corporation’s duty to avoid depriving people in its environment of their rights. This helps in attracting more stakeholders who help in uplifting the company’s competitive advantage (Ritson, 2007). In addition, the report insists on the company’s duty to protect any of its stakeholders from deprivation. The company in return insists on the need to aid those deprived of their rights. This creates a favorable social environment whereby the company has a duty to protect the rights of its stakeholders. As a result, this boosts the company’s ethical standards.

Starbucks Corporation also prioritizes its role to satisfy its laborers. This is a main ethical value of the company. The company offers its employees privileges that motivate them to perform their duties diligently. For instance, the company offers its workers both, part time and full time, health benefits (Tillotson, 2008). This guarantees the workers upkeep as they are insured on any health complications that may occur while they are at work. The company also offers its employees freedom to join any charitable organizations. This helps in ensuring that workers manage their volunteer hours, products and cash contributions effectively. In return, employees are motivated as they feel appreciated. Therefore, the company upholds its ethical role to its employees.

Starbucks Worker Conditions

Starbucks Corporation organizational culture and ethics values have helped in ensuring the company’s role in offering coffee products in the market are realized. The company’s organizational culture has created a standard platform for performing tasks in the company. This leads to a reliable and smooth internal and external environment for the company. However, the company has faced some drawbacks in its course of ensuring ethics values and organization culture is upheld. The company’s organization structure has created a working platform that needs flexibility of its workers. Although the company has favorable working conditions due to its privileges, the company’s employees have been complaining due to inconsistent working schedules (O’Reilly-Green, 2015). This inconveniences the workers in their personal plans. In addition, workers strain while working because at times they are overworked. This may even lower the quality of the company’s services. The company has faced criticism over the issues whereby it has been said to manipulate its workers with favorable working privileges yet on the other hand they are misusing the workers. In fact the company does so to suit its operation targets and goals. Therefore, the company has to change on its working schedules to ensure that it maintains its ethical values.

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The company is also engulfed with an unethical value of limited communication of employees. Employees are overworked and face the inconsistent working schedules yet they are reluctant to resent their grievances. This is a negative organization culture that has led to the degradation of workers working standards. This illustrates that the company is insensitive in encouraging the workers to join trade unions. Trade unions would in return help the workers to realize the challenges they are facing.  This in return would help in developing a voice for the workers. According to the worker who complained about the inconsistent schedules, the company is ethical in acting on complains yet the workers do not express their disfavor as they face it (O’Reilly-Green, 2015). The workers, therefore, are carried away by the fact that the company already has set up the working schedules that come along with other working benefits. Solving this challenge calls for the company’s management to adjust its working system and do away with the inconsistent working schedules. This will create a favorable working environment in the company thus improving the company’s organization culture and its ethic values.

Conclusion

 In conclusion, Starbucks Corporation is an organization that has a reputation of upholding organization culture and ethic values.  The company has advantageous organization culture that helps it to be competitive among its competitors. In addition, the company’s ethical values help in promoting the company’s productivity. However, the company has some shortcomings towards realizing full benefits of organization culture and ethical values. Therefore, the company ought to adjust its shortcomings to ensure that it enjoys optimum benefits of organization culture and ethical values.

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