This is why the company emphasizes training to the extent it does, because training and enculturation is needed to support the staffing policy.
Employee Training and Development
Starbucks has an extensive training program in order to ensure that high customer service standards are met. Although Starbucks does not disclose specific figures, it spends more on training than it does on advertising, such is the value it puts on building a quality workforce (Weber, 2005). The training program includes both task elements of the job and enculturation, the latter being a critical component in the training program. Customer service standards are emphasized, and the training program includes situations on dealing with customers, as well as leadership and diversity (Weber, 2005). The latter two are critical to the company's strategy to promote from within to build the management ranks.
Motivating Employees
Although Starbucks has a competitive benefits package, the company relies on intrinsic motivation. Partners are hired and trained based on the idea that giving excellent customer service and achieving excellence is something that should come from within. Enculturation helps to support intrinsic motivation because employees believe in what they are doing and have passion for the job, they will perform at a superior level. As such, Starbucks tries to encourage its partners to view their jobs as a springboard to something important. There are minor extrinsic motivation forms, such as small gifts, that are available to managers, but the focus is on intrinsic forms of motivation at Starbucks.
Leadership and Management
Starbucks is lead by Howard Schultz, who was an early inspirational leader at the company. Under his leadership, the company has defined itself and worked to re-invigorate itself as well. At lower levels, Starbucks offers leadership training to its employees as a means of developing leadership talent internally. The company seeks to develop different levels of leadership, including store level and regional level.
Managing Conflict and Stress
There is no publicly available information about Starbuck's conflict management strategies. The firm in general takes a view towards minimizing public conflict, such as in the Maryland breastfeeding case where the company was targeted by professional activists (AW Page Society, no date). However, for obvious reasons, the company does not publish its strategy for dealing with conflict.
Managing Change
Starbucks has implemented a concerted effort at organizational change over the past few years. The "transformation" process, as the company describes it, consists of several key components. Perhaps the most important component was strong leadership. Change efforts typically do not succeed if they are not supported at the top of the organization. In this case, the CEO drove the change effort, spearheading efforts to launch innovative new products, to reconnect with customers, to control costs and to grow through international expansion. The change effort did not require a shift in corporate culture so much as a renewal of the existing culture, which had been undersold by management for a few years. The change effort began with a strong vision that was well communicated throughout the organization. The company followed through on its vision with a number of critical actions that were directly related to the change effort -- closing underperforming stores and introducing the VIA in particular. These efforts signaled to the rest of the organization that senior management's vision was unified and thus helped to instill a desire to change throughout the entire organization.
Controlling
Starbucks has a number of control mechanisms that it utilizes. Product quality at the supplier level is controlled by professional tasters, who ensure that the beans and the roasts are consistent with Starbucks quality standards. The company also has strong control mechanisms at the staff level. Although in general these are not well publicized there is evidence of a few of the mechanisms utilized. The first is direct communication between the executive level and the store level. Executives have a habit of phoning stores at random and speaking to the employees (Weber, 2005). This creates a direct feedback loop that allows executives to learn about store level operations and store staff to understand that there is direct senior management into their activities. Starbucks also has a secret shopper program, in which the secret shopper tests time, service levels, coffee quality and other aspects of the Starbucks experience (Starbucks Union, 2006).
Appraising and Rewarding
Starbucks employees are appraised on both direct managerial appraisal and on aggregate based on reports from the secret...
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