Final Project
Understanding and applying organizational behavior concepts and skills can make or break an organization. As a Starbucks employee for over two years I was able to identify many areas in which Starbucks applied various organizational behavior concepts in order to foster a positive work environment. Starbucks has successfully used three primary organizational behavior concepts in order to promote a positive work environment and strengthen the organization. These concepts include organizational culture, organizational motivation, and organizational structure. Implementing these concepts has not only created positivity and fostered a team environment between employees, but it has also created an environment where goals are reached, and customers are satisfied. One key component of Starbucks is the consistency both in product and service. Employees are friendly and customer oriented, and the standards for products held high. As an employee of Starbucks I was trained according to these standards, and new what would be expected of me as a customer service representative prior to being hired.
Starbucks has applied the concept of organizational culture in order to foster consistency across the organization, no matter how many new stores open, or where they are located. Organizational culture is defined as a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations (Robbins, Judge, 2013). The organizational culture within Starbucks is very strong, and is maintained well by management and employees. Starbucks is a customer-service based company and understands that customer satisfaction and loyalty are what will provide the company with profitability and growth. Starbucks takes a different approach to customer service than most companies by hiring employees that will fit their organizational culture and treating employees well. Starbucks hires for adaptability, dependability, and the ability to work in a team. Howard Shultz who is Starbucks president and CEO, has been quoted stating “if you treat your employees well, they will treat your customers well”. Starbucks invests much into each employee from the moment hired with extensive training and employee development programs.
Starbucks also has implemented exceptional organizational motivation. Organizational motivation is defined as the willingness to exercise high levels of effort towards organizational goals (Robbins, Judge, 2013). Employees are encouraged to work as a team; each employee within Starbucks is called a “partner”. Employees join together to develop individual and store goals in an environment that encourages creativity and individual ideas. With this manner of goal development each Starbucks employee feels part of the process and is motivated toward reaching the goals set forth. In addition to fostering organizational culture and motivation, Starbucks also excels at implementing excellent organizational structure. Organizational structure is defined as how job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated (Robbins, Judge, 2013). Starbucks has created an organizational structure which fosters a team environment, but also provides ample opportunity for individual growth and development. Starbucks manages diversity well, being a company who is openly supportive of all lifestyles. Starbucks also has a well-developed management plan, and storefront structure with each employee’s job being clearly defined and each employee highly trained for their tasks.
Overall Starbucks is a shining example of a company who has perfected the use of organizational behavior concepts. Starbucks organizational structure fosters an environment where employees are motivated to work as a team and reach organization goals. The organizational culture that Starbucks has developed begins with the hiring process and can be seen in all areas of the organization, providing a consistent work and customer service environment. I thoroughly enjoyed my work at Starbucks and feel that as an employee I was given much training as well as development tools for advancement. I found Starbucks to be an organization that provided the employees with a purpose and therefore was a highly motivational place of employment.
There are several theories of motivation which enhance employee performance. Among the various theories of motivation there are some that may work for one organization, however not for the next, depending upon the type of organizational structure. One of the most well-known theories of motivation is Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s theory of needs proposes that within each human there exists a hierarchy of five needs including, physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization (Robbins, Judge, 2013). So according to Maslow the means of motivating an individual is to understand what level of need the person is at and how to satisfy the person’s need. There are many other theories of motivation including the two-factor theory, which relates intrinsic factors to job satisfaction, and extrinsic factors to job dissatisfaction. The goal-setting theory proposes that individuals are motivated by specific and difficult goals, which lead to higher employee performance. Combining the goal setting theory with the self-efficacy theory has shown to have a positive effect on employee performance and increase job engagement (Robbins, Judge, 2013). The self-efficacy theory states that an individual’s performance is enhanced when the individual holds the belief that he or she is capable of performing the given task or goal. Employees who are given specific goals and believe in their abilities to meet these goals are seen to be highly productive and engaged employees. Overall a high level of organizational motivation is seen when an organization has a strong organizational culture which fosters employee growth and goal achievement.
An ethical dilemma that I was faced with as an employee at Starbucks was the situation of working religious holidays such as Christmas. When I was originally hired at Starbucks I signed an agreement stating that as an employee working on Christmas was not a requirement and would be completely optional; however, after one year of employment Starbucks transitioned to having all stores open on Christmas, and newly hired employees would not have an option to opt out of working. Because of my original contract I was told that working Christmas would be “optional” however if I chose to oppose working this holiday I would therefore be required to work New Years, as well as New Years day, and would not be able to request time off for the following month. I found this to be unfair due to the fact that I not only was hired under the assumption that I would never have to work Christmas, but also the fact that I would basically be reprimanded for choosing to stick to my original contract. This ethical dilemma is a type of moral dilemma, and I believe that as a socially responsible organization Starbucks should have remained open to the employees being allowed to choose whether or not they would work on Christmas. As this has changed I believe that management is socially responsible to maintain the contract for employees hired before the change, however without any conditional consequences if the employee so chooses to maintain the original contract.
Communication can occur in many different forms, verbal, nonverbal, written, electronic and more. Communication is defined as the transfer of both meaning and understanding, and therefore perfect communication does not exist as we are unable to clearly see the exact picture that another person may have in their mind when communicating a thought or idea (Robbins, Judge, 2013). When communication errors occur in the workplace it can lead to reduced performance, decreased job engagement, and a less positive work environment. An example of a communication error that occurred when I worked at Starbucks was when my manager grouped our store employees into three teams. We were each assigned a goal toward reaching our holiday product sales objectives. When my team was given the assigned goals we immediately began strategizing how to reach them, however we were accidentally given the same goals as another team, and therefore the other team thought we were trying to take their objective. Prior to the discovery there was unnecessary competition between the store employees and a level of animosity toward one another. In addition to creating a more hostile work environment the current goals set were not being properly met due to one of the three goals being completely ignored. This situation could have been avoided by holding an employee meeting in which the teams and goals were verbally assigned, rather than completing the team and goal assignments via written handouts. Additionally had the teams been communicating regarding meeting goals then the miscommunication error would have been discovered right away. I feel that by dividing the store into teams who were each competing to reach their goal first it created a separation between the employees who ultimately were striving toward a common goal. Through creating a more common goal for all to work toward and communicating regarding strategies in verbal meeting employees would be more highly motivated to work as a team in order to reach set objectives.
In conclusion the concepts and strategies involved with organizational behavior can greatly enhance an organization’s employee environment, productivity, social status, organizational strength, and profitability. An organization with a strong organizational culture and structure fosters an employee environment that increases employee job engagement, motivation, positivity, and creativity. Employees who have a strong job engagement are more likely to be more highly satisfied in their position as well as more highly productive. In my experience Starbucks has done an excellent job incorporating the various components of organizational behavior to create a strong organization with satisfied and productive employees.
Sources:
Robbins, S. and Judge, T. (2013). Organizational Behavior, Fifteenth Edition. Pearson
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What is Organizational Behavior? (n.d). Retrieved from: http://highered.mcgraw-
hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073530085/535230/Chapter1_What_is_Organizational_Behavior.pdf
