What Makes Starbucks the Best Place to Work and Why

The Starbucks Company was established in 1971 both as a roster as well as a retailer of coffee. The company has since grown to establish itself as a leading company in the coffee industry across the globe. The company currently operates about 24,000 coffee outlets in 70 different countries (Flamholtz & Randle, 2015). The company serves millions of customers through these outlets daily. Moreover, the company has created its outlets for convenience of gathering and meeting. Therefore many family and friends across the globe meet at Starbucks outlets as they take coffee. The company has endeavored to create a favorable environment for its employees making it the employer of choice not only in America but also across the 70 countries within which it operates.

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There are several fundamental forces that shape the organization’s environment particularly with respect to its relationship with its employees. To begin with, the high level of competition within the industry continuously demands creativity both in product development as well as marketing. Companies such as Tim Hortons and Dunkin’ Donuts among other independent coffee shops offer stiff competition to Starbucks with the American as well as the global coffee market. Consequently, it is inevitable for this giant coffee company to continuously reinvent its products as well as its marketing strategies in order to cope with the increasing competition. Therefore, the company has endeavored to create a highly motivated workforce that would be highly creative and innovative. Moreover, it continuously empowers is employees to be creative and innovative through a series of trainings.

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Secondly, the workforce within this company is highly diverse. The organization has employed people from different ethnicities, religious backgrounds, sexual orientations, race and gender (Simon, 2016). The company recognizes that each of these individuals contributes a unique experience that individually and collectively serves to grow the business. The diversity, of this workplace was equally shaped the nature and environment of employment within this company by creating an atmosphere of inclusion within this company. The culture of inclusion makes everyone feel comfortable working for the organization irrespective of their race, gender, ethnicity or religious back grounds.

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The Company also strives to run its operations in a manner that is ethical. The drive for morality and ethics is incompliance to the organization’s mission and values. As such the company has endeavored to provide managers with resources that help them in making ethical decisions within their duties (Flamholtz & Randle, 2015). Therefore the drive for ethics and morality within this company has equally shaped how the organization relates with its employees from recruitment, terms of employment and circumstances of employment termination. This makes the company the employer of choice among many people in the 70 countries within which it operates.

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Starbucks is also a leading company in technological innovations in the global coffee industry. For instance, the digital order and pay has greatly revolutionized the operations of the company and created convenience for the customer’s. Consequently, many customers are able to order and pay for their order over digital platforms. Moreover, the company is able to identify and reward loyal customers over such digital platforms. This among other innovations demonstrates the value that the organization has placed on technological innovations. The value for technological innovation largely drives the relationship between the employees and the organization. The management of this company has endeavored to motivate the employees in order to encourage their creativity that would yield such supportive inventions to the business.

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The Starbucks Company has put in place several policies and practices that guide their operations and are responsive to the interest of the business, the employees and the communities within which the business operates. For instance, the organization has put in place a policy on the business conduct. This policy defines the ethical boundaries within which the business operates.  Secondly, the company has put in place a policy that defines how the organization will engage and petition policy makers on issues that affect the business, their employees as well as the community in general. The company maintains a global anti-bribery standard (Mukharji, 2016). This standard prohibits the employees of the organization as well as business partners from receiving or giving bribes in the course of executing their duties. Moreover, the company has policies that guide their relationship with suppliers (Mukharji, 2016). Such policies covered under the supplier code of conduct require suppliers not only to operate ethically but also to be mindful of issues of importance to the communities within which the company operates.

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Furthermore, the Starbucks Company has put in place proper practices in the business. For instance, the company is cognizant of the global human rights and is committed to ensuring that it complies with such rights. Consequently, the company has aligned its processes and procedures in the human resource management practices in a way that does not violate such fundamental human rights of their employees. Moreover, the company is committed to offering equal employment opportunities for all people. The company recruits and offers employment based on merit and does not discriminate against anyone on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation or sexual orientation. As such, the company is nondiscriminatory in offering employment (Simon, 2016).

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The Starbucks practices and policies have a great influence both on individual as well as the organization’s outcome. To begin with such practices give the organization a good reputation within the community. The policies that guide ethics and the anti-bribery policy depict the organization as having a high level of business ethics (Mukharji, 2016). This fosters the organization and enhances the support that the organization receives in the communities within which it operates.  Moreover, such reputation serves to market the organization and hence increase the customer base and the overall bottom-line of the business.  Secondly, the practices and policies outlined above help the organization to comply with legal requirements of the business in the jurisdictions within which it operates. Most countries have set out legal provisions that guide the operations of the businesses in these countries. In the U.S for instance, the Equal Employment Act prohibits any organization to discriminate against any individual while offering opportunities for employment. Many other legal jurisdictions have a law against bribery. Therefore the policies and practices outlined above have largely facilitated the survival and compliance to the legal requirements of the various legal jurisdictions of the countries within which the organization operates.

Furthermore, the policies and practices at Starbucks have enhanced employee experience within this organization. The realization that the opportunity for promotion is not discriminatory has greatly helped in motivating employees.  This equality has greatly contributed in the self-actualization of employees within this organization. Moreover, policies and practices that uphold human rights have enabled the employees to work in an environment of dignity. This has equally motivated employees and enhanced their productivity in their individual roles.

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There are several practices that relate to work attitude within the U.S organization that are largely affected by diversity.  To begin with the practice of teamwork is greatly affected by diversity within the work place (Flamholtz & Randle, 2015). In a diverse workforce, people often have different experiences that have shaped their behavior. Moreover, people from different backgrounds have different values and sets of behavior. As such, this greatly creates conflicts at the workplace and largely hinders the development of teams. Team work requires great cooperation and understanding among the members. Therefore, strives and conflict at workplace that results from diversity largely hinder the ability of people to coexist and work in teams.

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There are several solutions that can be applied in such cases. First, the management of the organization must set up an organizational culture of tolerance. This could be done through company values and a series of laws that govern employee interactions at the workplace. Moreover, employees must be made aware of the Unique contribution that each member of the team brings based on their unique experiences and backgrounds. This will create tolerance among the employees and help them to coexist with each other. Moreover, the rules will guide the interaction of employees and ensure and ensure that each employee treats the other with respect. Lastly, the management must emphasize the importance of working together in team. Activities such as team building that bring people together can equally serve to create cohesion among employees and hence and hence foster teamwork. These actions both collectively and individually can help in creating cohesion in a diverse workforce and encouraging teamwork.

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