Workplace Culture, Ethics, and Environment at Costa Coffee

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Costa Coffee's business operations, focusing on its workplace culture, ethical considerations, and the broader environment in which it operates. The report begins with an introduction to the business environment and the role of culture in organizational success. The main body of the report critically assesses Costa's workplace culture, highlighting its strengths in diversity and inclusion, servant leadership, relationship-driven approaches, collaboration, and openness. It also examines the organization's ethical behaviors and evaluates the enterprise and its environment, including a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report concludes with a summary of findings and references to support the analysis, offering insights into Costa Coffee's strategic management challenges and its commitment to building a strong and successful brand.

COSTA

Table of Contents.
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................................3
Critically assess the workplace culture of the organisation........................................................3
Critical evaluation of an enterprise and broader environment in which it operates. ..................6
Critically evaluate the cultural and ethical behaviour of the organisation and also undertake
evaluation on cultural and ethical behaviours within enterprise. .............................................10
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Business environment termed out as collection of all kind of entities, other components and
entities that may or may not under the control of the organisation (Khan and Mir, 2019). It highly
impacts the performance , profitability, survival and growth. In addition to it, this is internal and
external components that highly affect that how firm function that is inclusive of employees,
customers, supply and demand, management that bring sustainability within the business function.
The preset report is based on business activities of Costa, It is coffee-house chain that is
subsidiary of American company of Coca-cola. It was founded in London 1971 by two brothers
Bruno and Sergio costa as whole operation that supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist
Italian coffee shops.
Furthermore, report has covered the activities as to critically assess the workplace culture of
the organisation, Critical evaluation of the enterprise and broader environment in which business
functions operates. In addition to it, report will critically evaluate the cultural and ethical behaviour
that presents in organisation. Thus, analysis as SWOT and Pestle will be conducted to determine the
impact of culture and its potential impact on performance of organisation.
MAIN BODY
Critically assess the workplace culture of the organisation.
Costa organisational culture is one of the most distinct characteristics of the firm. Therefore,
the entity organisational and corporate culture widely influence the employees and business through
values, traditions, customs and related behaviour expectation that impacts the working of the
enterprise. As per the view of Azevedo and Ferreira, (2019) stated that Organisation culture is
among the building blocks of the performance of enterprise. Without a strong culture, it is very
typical to create an environment that drives the performance, creativity and innovation. Culture is
defined as one of anchor that keeps the foundation of brand strong. In costa coffee case, the
organisation permeates the all aspects of business that is inclusive of operation and franchise. This
is the enterprise that strive to create the culture that value and respect the diversity and inclusion. In
addition to it, the object of the diversity and inclusion team helps to build the diverse workforce,
enhance the cultural competencies and this shapes the culture of inclusion and this develops the
diverse networks of suppliers. The one of the effective set of culture within the Costa is that the
entity has share values and this core of entity culture. This is the entity that mainly focus on creating
the culture of warmth. This aids to create the focus within an environment that bring out the
inclusion and non discrimination.
As per the view of Tran, (2019) stated that Organizational culture put their major impact on
the working of the enterprise. There are some entities that have been able to set the cultural

foundation right. Culture’s relationship with performance of the enterprise has the huge impact on
the brand image of the enterprise. Thus, it can be stated that high performance culture helps to
streamline the business functions. There are number of cultural change within the twenty first
century and this has helped companies to improve their team’s performance. In addition to it, Costa
put their major focus on a building a strong culture that created space for creativity and this also
bring competitive advancement within enterprise. Organizations with strong cultural values treat
people equally even if they are employees, customers or any other stakeholder (Mao, 2019).
Therefore, Costa employees are treated like partners and apart from it there are presence of
few complaints related to work pressure and also has fast paced environment and this is crucial to
keep employees feel satisfied. Organizations that has value of inclusion and diversity are able to
make the strong connections with their employees. This kind of the organizations face less issues in
relation to the workforce management. Henceforth, this can be stated Organisation culture is linked
with the high employee morale and better retention rates and this helps to undertake the better
facilities within the organisation. As per the term of organizational culture, Costa can be termed out
as Winner. This is the enterprise that has excellent culture and this brand also takes the initiatives to
build trust and strong relationships with its employees as well customers (Kuenzi, Mayer and
Greenbaum, 2019). In addition to this, it can be stated that High employee morale at Costa has
helped in terms to driving employee performance. In the entity as Costa, the culture has undergone
continuous refinement and transformation. Additionally, the culture can be trusted as organization’s
most valuable asset. Thus, entity faced difficulties while trying to retain the integrity of enterprise as
they need to bring continuous development within the enterprise. Therefore, it can be termed out as
the premium brand within the market of United Kingdom. Therefore, the costa is the enterprise that
is committed to offer the accommodation facilities for job applicants who are suffering from
disabilities.
The quoted enterprise has an organisation culture that is relate with company strategies for
successful brand development and this also allows to successful brand development and this also
tends to have global growth of franchise and network of licensing. Henceforth, the costa coffee's
culture is defined as one of the key success components in which business considers as firm do not
only sells coffee and other food and beverage commodities. Henceforth, the costa coffee's
organisation culture types and features-
The combination of the firm key cultural features is very unique and specific to the nature of
its coffee-house chain business. In addition to it, the internal current situation is reflected through
the firm human resource development programmes. Thus, main features of Costa are defined in are
as-

Servant leadership- Costa entity has servant leadership approach that is characteristics with the
behaviour manifestation of the firm cultures among the leaders, team leaders and this is also
inclusive of corporate leaders. In this approach, leaders, managers and supervisors mainly put their
consideration for subordinates to ensure that each employee grows within the company. In addition
to it, the firm highlights the significance of caring for employees and this also support to optimise
the employee morale and satisfactions of customer.
Relationship driven approach- Costa also has organisation culture that highly supports the warm
and friendly relationship. As per the view of Arnold, Beauchamp and Bowie, (2019) stated that
corporate culture extends to customers who are treated with warmth. In addition to it, organisation
culture of the quoted entity is mainly emphasise on relationships with customer in terms yo develop
the global coffee culture that drives the demand of customer firm coffee products.
Collaboration and communication- The corporate culture of Costa highly encourage collaborative
efforts with help of effective communication. It is the enterprise that is mainly put focus over to
build the team that collaborates team to make the whole process efficient. The culture of the
organisation highly supports the efficiencies in business process that contributes to quality of
service, develop positive customer experience and also aids to develop cost effectiveness.
Openness- The one of the effective feature of the organisation is that this has openness
characteristics that helps to run organisation culture effectively and efficiently. Through this culture
feature the quoted entity has to empower the employees and facilities that brings innovation in
commodities that aids to develop and bring effective service provision.
Inclusion and diversity- The quoted enterprise has anti discrimination policy that aids to shape the
organisation culture. According to the view of Alexander, Al-Khatib and Salamah, (2019) stated
that policy that highly prohibits any form of discrimination that is mainly based don the gender,
race, ethicality, sexual orientation, culture backgrounds and life experience. In addition to this,
culture facilitation supports the employee motivation and this also assist to minimize turnover. This
aspect of firm organisation culture helps to make customer feel effective and efficient.
The costa has gone through significant change within the organisation culture. These
changes are mainly based on the issues and problems leaders. In the today competitive environment,
organisation culture is defined as one of distinct characteristics that builds the competitive
advancement and develops the customer's population of loyal costa fan and this also helps the
business to derive the stable financial performance. Therefore, it can be stated that the main
cooperate strategic management challenge mainly lies with the effective implementation of this
culture within the human resource franchisee and licensees.

Critical evaluation of an enterprise and broader environment in which it operates.
SWOT analysis of Costa
This is strategic framework that has four elements that can be used to assist an individual
and organisation that identify the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats that related to
business competition and project planning. Therefore, these are defined in following manner as are-
Strength
 This is the largest coffee chain in the UK and this also has majority of the market share since
2007. It is one of the largest coffee chain within the United Kingdom. In addition to this,
Costa coffee has to take various initiatives to accomplish the premium image across the
world.
 The strength associated with the company Costa is the company is having reliable suppliers.
Such that, if there arises any issue of bottleneck then due to the reliable supply base the
company is capable to overcome such issues. Moreover, having a workforce which is highly
skilled due to the company's huge investment on the trainings and developments of the
workforce in order to motivate employees to help in achievement of success (Tran, 2019).
 Additionally, having an image of one of the most reliable and recognizable brand with the
high level of customer satisfactions, helped the company in gaining success in this industry
(Estrada and et.al, 2015).
 This is the entity has the wider range of commodities as compared to main competitors of
Starbucks.
Weakness
 One of the biggest weakness of the company is its financial planning which is inefficient in
working properly. One of the another weakness of the company is its level of research and
development. As the company has haven't shown much of its focus towards bringing new
innovations by research and development.
 This entity has inefficient marketing strategy and this more expensive as compare to
Starbucks. It is the enterprise that has pursuing more aggressive international market
expansion strategy and this also aids to have formation of strategic alliances with other
business in catering industry.
 Moreover., the organization haven't proved to be getting much success beyond its core
business. Additionally, it has been observed that the company is in need of huge investments
in order to bring new technologies in its business module.
 Costa coffee do not spend a huge amount on marketing and advertising for the brand that
has huge and negative brand image within the market. In addition to it, costa coffee sold at
the higher price that compared to mindset especially within developing economies. Costa

coffee clearly has very high concentration in its home ground.
Opportunities
 The opportunities which could be possessed by the company Costa is the company could be
having the possibility of doing the business through online channel. Moreover, with the
current changes in the customer's behaviours, it could be a chance for the company to
diverse its products into new categories to increase their business.
 There are number of the restaurant chain across the US and UK in which costa coffee can
set up the strategic alliance and deliver its coffee to restaurant customers. In addition to it,
corporate tie up aids to enhance the brand image of the enterprise.
 Additionally, introduction of new technologies in the company business has encouraged the
company in maintain loyal consumer base with the best possible service which can be given
to its customers.
 Costa is highly known for being smart in the pull strategies and this also aids to utilise
various means to attract the customer's. In addition to it, costa needs to execute the pull
strategies and this also use innovative means to attract the coffee shop of the enterprise.
 Furthermore, due to decrease in the cost of shipping has facilitated the company in getting
shipment at the lower cost of transportations (Bryan, Kaylee and Lexi, 2019).
Threat
 In the several markets the company Costa is facing the issue of lawsuits, as fluctuations in
the lays in the in regard to the product standard is one of the biggest threat to the company.
Moreover, the product which is supposed to be high in profit margin is usually demanded by
the customer in specific season only.
 Raise in the prices of the raw materials is the another threat to the company which affects
the company's profitability. Therefore, coffee being perceived as the unhealthy beverage.
 Additionally, buying behaviours of the customer is changing with every day which requires
regular modifications in the infrastructure in the model of supply chain (Gupta and et.al,
2016).
 There are many regional players and factors in the sale of coffee. One of the crucial
components is the consumption of tea against coffee. In addition to it, indirect competition
also impacts the sales and revenue of brand. Therefore, the consistent competition and lack
of marketing and advertising and the brand value has become the huge threat to brand.
PESTEL analysis of Costa
This can be defined as the marketing principle that defined as tool that used by firm to track
the environmental conditions. It is defined as one of the effective tool that aids to track the situation
of environment. Henceforth, the political, economic, social and technological method that define the

framework of micro environmental components that mainly used in environmental scanning and
this is the huge components of strategic management. Therefore, these are defined in following
manner as are-
Political
As the company is operating in several countries with products such as tobacco, beverages and
food. Therefore, in order to attain success the company has to diversify the systematic risks of
political environment to do business effectively. The political factors which the company used to
analyse are standards of labelling of the products, safety regulations of the industry, laws related to
the wages of the employees, mandatory benefits which must be given to the employees, taxations in
the country, rules regarding pricing of the commodities, tariffs and regulations regarding trade as
well as security to intellectual property (Lamas Leite and et.al, 2017). If the political conditions of
the enterprise are unstable and this affects the industry in the huge aspects. Costa needs to imply to
tax and trade policies that affects the firm operation in significant manner.
Economical
Economic cycle of the country, foreign exchange rates, interest rates, saving rates as well as the
inflations rates are the various economic factors of the macro environment.
The various economic factors which the company Costa has to analyse while conducting PESTEL
analysis are discriminatory income of the public, economic growth rate, level of education of the
public of the country, skill level of the workers, quality of infrastructures in the industry of the
tobacco, beverage and food, financial market efficiencies, stability of the currency of the host
country along with the rate of exchanges. Moreover, sometimes government interventions as well as
type of economic system of the country in which the company is operating. Therefore, the global
economic conditions has the huge impact on the operations and sales of the industries. If the
enterprise is facing the inflation then customer's will have lesser buying power and the sales of
Costa will decrease.
Social
This is very crucial in terms of the ingredients that Costa uses. The culture of the society as
well as its environment majorly affects the organization culture. In order to design the marketing
message of the company as well as for understanding the consumer base the marketers of the
company needs to understand the local populations attitudes and shared beliefs. The leads of the
company costa analyse the social factors of the country regain the peoples leisure interests, attitudes
towards environmental consciousness and health, culture followed in the society i.e. regarding
gender roles, level of educations of the people and skill level of the public of the country. Thus,
awareness for the obesity is the increasing a lot within the countries. It will definitely results in
decrease of the sales for Costa commodities.

Technological
Technical diffusion rate, impacts on structure of value chain as well on the cost structure,
impact of technology on product offerings as well as the developments in the recent technologies in
the competitors of the company are the various technological factors which are analysed by the
leads of the company while conducting PESTEL analysis of the company Costa. It is the fact that if
the company is not capable to speed up with the technology, then it will not be possible for the
company to cope up in the industry (Lamas Leite and et.al, 2017). Use of the technological
advancement that helps to improve the process of manufacturing for quoted enterprise. With the use
of modern advancement the products can be manufactured more efficiently and this will reduce the
cost of production for Costa and use of the technological advancement will also decrease the cost of
labour. In order to attract the customer's this entity needs to take the initiatives to use advanced
technological advancement that aids to produce better and advanced commodities.
Environmental
Profitability of the company in some particular marketplace is sometime determined by the
norms and environmental standards of the country. As in different countries or one can say in
different market place the rules regarding the standards of the environment are different. So it
encourages the leads of the company to conduct the environmental analyses of the country before
expanding into new marketplace. This analysis is on the basis of country's attitude towards
renewable energy as well as towards green and ecological products. Moreover, management of the
waste, recycling, rules regarding pollutions of water, air, and environment along with the changes in
climate as well as in weather are the several factors analysed by the company officials. The entity as
Costa needs to be more aware of issues in their environment and they start to choose the products
that are more environmental friendly (Alexander, Al-Khatib and Salamah, 2019). There are
different markets or environmental standards that can hugely impacts the profitability of the
organisation. Even the country and states can have different norms and standards which can impact
the profitability of an organisation in those markets. Thus, it can be stated that before taking entry
into the new business within the existing market the firm must be carefully evaluate the
environmental standards that are required to operate in those marketplace. In addition to this, the
environmental components that entity needs to considered are as weather, climate, laws regulating
environmental pollution etc.
Legal
It is essential for the company to analyse the legal framework of the county in order to give
protections to the intellectual property rights to the company. Moreover, before entering the new
market it is essential for the leaders of the company to find out the secret of the overall competitive
edge. The analysis of legal factors is done in regard to data protections, health and safety laws,

employment laws, consumer protections and e-commerce as well as the laws regarding
discrimination (Pan, Chen and Zhan, 2018). There are number of the legal framework and
institution that are not robust enough to protect the rights of intellectual property rights of the
enterprise. Thus, entity must be carefully evaluate the whole things before taking entry into such
markets and this can lead to have threat on the firm condition and this also helps to gain competitive
advancement within the enterprise.
Critically evaluate the cultural and ethical behaviour of the organisation and also undertake
evaluation on cultural and ethical behaviours within enterprise.
Business ethics and compliance is termed out as programme that to protect the culture and
reputation of the enterprise. There are number of the programmes that are develop and distributes
the awareness of the materials, facilitate the legal complaints and ethics training that aids to
undertake the business functions systematically and efficiently. As per the view of Arnold,
Beauchamp and Bowie, (2019) stated that Costa actively creates the environment that is inclusive
of the people and unique abilities, strength and differences that promotes the diversity in strategic
and competitive manner.
This is the enterprise that believe that business must be performed within ethically and this
strive to do the right things that is mainly vital for the success of firm. Business ethics are sum of
the honesty, integrity and fairness. As per the view of Kuenzi, Mayer and Greenbaum, (2019) stated
that Costa has the lengthy code of ethics that lays out the policies and procedure that aids to
undergoing better performance within the enterprise. This is the firm that mainly look over the
transparency, integrity, business ethics, compliance and this all acts as drivers that influence the
positive change within the business communities and societies in the world.
Over the last two decades, the Corporate social responsibility has become one of the
increasingly crucial factor in the business world. CSR is mainly concerned with treating the
stakeholder of the enterprise or the institution ethically in the responsible manner. Ethically and
responsible means treating the key stakeholder in manner that is deemed acceptable as per the
international norms. The approach of the CSR is highly concerned with treating the stakeholder of
the company and institution in manner that is deemed acceptable as per the norms set by the legal
authorities. It can be measured out with help of contribution of the enterprise towards improving the
luxury of people lives. Henceforth, the one of the key issue of the Starbucks is to address the
treatments of the firm towards its employees and treatment towards the coffee growers.
The businesses and organisation highly reflects the ethical, legal; and social consequences
on their management decision. As per the view of Azevedo and Ferreira, (2019) stated that business
shows the ethical behaviour if the entity has an equal opportunities to team all the employees

equally. Therefore, all the qualified applicants receive the consideration for employments without
regard to race, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation and marital status etc. It is the
enterprise that treats the all individual in the equitable manner. In addition to this, The triple bottom
line, "TBL" is defined as an accounting framework that incorporates three main areas: financial,
social, and environmental. This is the theory that can be helpful in terms to identify the implication
of CSR policies and ethical condition of the entities. Workplace ethics defined as group of moral,
principles, standard of behaviour and this has set of values this all helps to conduct better activities
proper manner. Additionally, workplace ethics termed out as undertake better decision making and
this is most important responsibilities that place organisations the highest standards of ethical
behaviour. In addition to this, ethics at the workplace termed out as to choose the option that is
determined to be morale or right choice.
Thus, quoted entity mainly put their consideration on to conducting the business
performance ethically and this also strives to do the things in the right manner and this become vital
to their success. Henceforth, Costa put their major emphasise on three sectors. Firstly, quoted
enterprise interlinked with global human rights an their commitment to basic human rights as one of
the core components that helps to conduct the business activities effectively and efficiently.
Therefore, the second one is the to provide equal employment and non discrimination policies that
assist to large number if their employees and this allows to have steady working situation.
Henceforth, the third is to support the healthcare reforms that allows to continue to offer affordable
coverage to partners.
Therefore, two of the ethical theories I have selected to analyse the business conditions of
Costa is Corporate social responsibility are the Utilitarianism theory and ethics of rights and justice.
Henceforth, the theory is a normative ethical that defines the morally right course of action that
must be taken effectively and efficiently to run out smooth functioning. On the other hand,
Utilitarianism approach put their major focus on the fact of course of action that brings maximum
benefit to everyone. It influenced the people globally with help of its policy of fair trade. In addition
to it, selling fair trade coffee can be considered as to be ethical as the coffee beans procure by the
star bucks and that purchased by the paying farmers at the fair price. Costa commitment to ethical
practices in the workplace environment that must be reflected in setting up of standard of conducts
for its partners. In addition to it, the main ethical issues mainly address the code of conduct that
broadly categories as commitment to partners and this helps to provide quality service to customers,
conducive and formulate workplace environment for the partners and this aids to put consideration
on the integrity and fairness of all the dealing of business enterprise. Lastly, consistent with global
human right standard and quoted enterprise promote equal opportunity in hiring and promotion

practices that makes the decision solely. Thus, ethical practices helps to promote positive working
environment.
CONCLUSION
Hereby, it can be concluded that business environment is defined as internal and external
components that influence the working conditions of the enterprise. Organisation culture also
influence the working condition that can help to have competitive advancement within the
enterprise. Therefore, factors are as clients and suppliers, improvement in technological
advancement, laws and government activities, social and economic trends.
The present report is based on business activities of Costa and this is coffee-house chain that
is subsidiary of American company of Coca-cola and was founded in London 1971 by two brothers
Bruno and Sergio costa.
Furthermore, report has covered as to critically assess the workplace culture of the
organisation. Henceforth, study has laid emphasise on Critical evaluation of the enterprise and
broader environment in which business functions operates. Thus, assignment has also covered the
analysis as SWOT and Pestle will be conducted to determine the impact of culture and its potential
impact on performance of organisation.

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