Operations Management and Workplace Learning

This assignment delves into various aspects of operations management, including developing a multi-layered system of distributed expertise, creating enterprise excellence through visual thinking, and synthesizing literature on pro-environmental behavior. It also touches upon workplace learning, quality management, and lean thinking in process industries. The document provides a collection of academic articles, research papers, and industry reports that showcase best practices in operations management and professional development.

Developing Workplace
Thinking

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Explanation of beliefs, attitudes and values and differences between them based on theoretical
model......................................................................................................................................1
Explanation of My role in the workplace, Management theories relevant to my role...........4
Critical assessment of my belief,attitude and values on particular management theory in
context to operational management .......................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
Critically assess the impact of beliefs, attitudes and values on own workplace behaviour. . 7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Human resources are an asset of company due to which it is responsibility of an
organisation to establish healthy work environment which encourages employees to create new
ideas and thoughts for complete allotted task in an effective and efficient manner (Achtenhagen,
and Winther, 2014).There is a specific need to make sure that effective as well as efficient
policies are being framed by the managers that will enable them to efficiently manage the whole
firm. An organisation consist of a diverse culture because it employs individuals from various
different regions who follows a different language, culture etc. Thus it is essential to manage the
diversity in culture effectively by making a proper framework of management for the same.
Starbucks is an American coffee house chain which was established in 1971, and is having
around 28,000 stores worldwide. The company employs around 2,38,000 employees with a net
income of around £2.3 billion. The current report will have a detailed discussion of the diverse
culture that operates in Starbucks including their values, beliefs etc. The impact of those beliefs
on individual behaviour will also be discussed in detail under the report.
TASK 1
Explanation of beliefs, attitudes and values and differences between them based on theoretical
model.
The beliefs, attitudes as well as values that an individual posses will going to play a huge
role in shaping his career along with making contributions in organisational development as well
as growth. These are internal characteristics that helps individual to grow and achieve success.
The branch of social science covers the aspects of beliefs, values as well as attitudes, it specifies
the border that an individual should follow while performing his duties (Bjögvinsson, Ehn and
Hillgren, 2012). It is basically the moral responsibilities that are being laid on an individual to
effectively perform his duties. In order to understand the real distinction between values, beliefs
as well as attitude, it is important to understand the same in an effective way.
Difference between Values, beliefs and attitudes
Beliefs are spiritual, social or moral in nature, it specifies that behaviour that an
individual shall possess in order to operate within a business environment. Values and attitudes
that are being possessed by an individual are also equally important to effectively manage the
workplace and to ensure operational efficiency in the longer run (Carayon and et., al., 2015).
1

There is also a specific need to ensure that individuals contribute in the growth and development
of organisation like Starbucks, and for this specific purpose, the company is trying to implement
various strategies to enhance the values and attitudes that are being already possessed by an
individual and so that this can help in effective growth of the organisation going forward. A
detailed explanation of the difference between values, beliefs as well as attitudes are discussed as
follows:
Basis Values Attitudes Beliefs
Definition  It basically
helps in
guiding our
behaviour over
period of time.
 Attitudes are
the response
that basically is
a result of the
values that are
being
possessed by
an individual.
 Beliefs are the
understanding
or the wisdom
that already
prevails within
the society,
may be because
of the religions
that prevails, or
the concepts
that rte being
told to us by
our ancestors
etc.
Importance  Values helps in
deciding, what
we think as
what is good,
bad, right or
wrong etc.
 Attitudes on
the other hand
are likes as
well as dislikes
towards certain
things people
as well as
objects.
 It helps in
determining
our attitudes as
well as
opinions about
different
aspects of the
external
environment.
2

Flexibility  Values are
Permanent in
nature and they
are framed in a
long span of
time.
 Attitudes can
be changed
based on the
experiences, if
the experiences
are favourable
the attitude
may also be
favourable.
 Beliefs are
much broader
term than
Values and
attitudes.
Beliefs can be
related to
development of
ethical
behaviour to
operate and
work in a
society. It
develops ethics
and morales in
an individual.
Concept  They are being
derived from
social as well
as cultural
influences on
an individual.
 These are
based
completely on
personal
experiences.
Information
integration
theory also
support an
individual in
acquiring
specific
knowledge and
information
from different
 Beliefs are
much broader
concept than
values as well
as attitudes.
3

fields which
increases their
overall attitude
among others.
Thus it can be understood that, values, attitudes and beliefs differs in their characteristics.
While beliefs relates to the opinions that are developed in an individual from childhood by way
of following a specific religion, caste or language, on the other hand values and attitudes are
developed by an individual on his own once he gets aware of various aspects of the world
(Childs, Edwards and McNicholl, 2014). Thus, values and attitudes can be altered but it is
somewhat difficult to alter Belief's of an individual in an effective manner.
Explanation of My role in the workplace, Management theories relevant to my role
I have been appointed as a manager in operations department of Starbucks Plc. and my
responsibilities includes managing resources and monitoring performance of employees engaged
in performing operational activities. It helps in minimizing wastage and achieve maximum level
of output.. After working with them for two years, I observed that they use various management
theories to enhance their management and controlling practices. These management theories are
the set of general rules which provides guidelines for how an organisation can manage their
business operations (Clements and Cord, 2013). These theories addresses that how managers and
supervisors can use their skills to attain the overall organisational goals. The main aim of these
theories is to assist managers like me about the measures that how employees can get motivated
to do better and set few high standards. In my job duration, I experienced that Starbucks Plc. is
tend to use modern management theories such as scientific and bureaucratic theories as they are
more capable to link with the management problems of current time. Few management theories
are listed below along with their description and justification:
Theory of Scientific management – According to Fredrick Winslow Taylor,
management is an art as well as a profession which needs to be conducted with suitable skills
and efficiency which needs proper guidelines and framework (Dochy and et., al., 2012). In order
to provide a specific guidelines, theory of scientific management was developed so that
management practices can follow few principles as their base. Starbucks Plc. is a large scale
organisation which requires efficient strategies, plans and policies. This theory is used in this
organisation to ensure economic efficiency and labour productivity. As a manager of operations
4

department, principles which were followed of scientific theory are Scalar chain and authority
responsibility relationship (Eddy and Mitchell, 2012). It is known as one of the effective
summary of hypothesis or group of that is supported with repeated tests and analysis. The best
part of this theory is that, the more evidences supports a hypothesis chances of getting better
outcomes can be enhanced. It is coherent assembly of various observations and explanations that
works in a wide range of condition. The variation in theory and facts is very minimal. It has been
found that any theory must be more flexible and operationally defined so that it can be
effectively helpful in near future time.
Other principles of scientific theory includes that separate planning should be conducted
for various activities and every group of workers should have a supervisor or foreman to ensure
their regular encouragement and efficiency (Galsworth, 2017). This theory was used to Starbucks
in order to study and various techniques such as time, motion and fatigue so that every employee
in operations department must have equal amount of work. The reason of considering this
theorist and following scientific theory is that the principles which are introduced by FW Taylor
can be easily moulded by the organisation according to their surroundings and create a
productive work culture in business.
Bureaucratic theory of management – According to Max Weber, bureaucracies are all
around an organisation which comprises non elected officials who implement rules. Large scale
organisations such as Starbucks use this theory so that they can lead to a better understanding of
how authorities and regulatory agencies affect operations of an organisation. For example, these
bureaucracies includes social security administration, environmental protection agency and
public universities (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). Max Weber is a modern sociologist and political
economist which identified that external authorities has a wide control over business
organisations which was selected by Starbucks as it has been considered that external regulatory
bodies has a striking impact on their business operations.
According to this theory, organisation is classified in a hierarchy in order to develop an
arrangement which has clear defined structure (Hagemann and Stroope, 2013). This theory is
used by us in operations department of Starbucks Plc. as according to this theory information
flows from top level to lower level management which brings clarity in authority responsibility
relationship and direction. Few features of this theory includes division of work, clear rules and
regulations, hierarchy of authority, technical competence, record keeping and impersonal
5

relations. Benefits of this theory are specialization in business operations, effective structure,
rationality, predictability and democracy. There are few disadvantages of this theory also which
are rigid principles and goal displacements. Max Weber is a theorist which has been selected as
he has given modern principles which are more relative to current scenario's of organisation
problems along with this bureaucracies can also helps in effective flow of information.
Critical assessment of my belief,attitude and values on particular management theory in context
to operational management
Management theories provides a way to classify significant and pertinent management
knowledge. Also, it will focus on providing criteria about what is relevant. As a operational
manager one of the most appropriate theory in context to my field is contingency theory. It is
one of the contemporary theory that tends to report about and assists in interpreting frequent
changes in today's dynamic working environment (Lyons and et., al., 2013). This theory in
general emphasis that there is no perfect way for a managing an enterprise and decisions that are
to be taken by managers should be based on proper analysis of prevailing circumstances and not
just merely follow the methods that are already been incorporated or applied from pasts. This
applies that been a operational manager it is requisite for me to continuously scan internal and
external environment of Starbucks (McDonald, 2014). This will help me to be noticeable and
knowledgable about what are latest technical upgrades that we can adopt in terms of increasing
our company's process, what our competitor's planning and applying, what our the latest tastes
and preferences of our customers and way other essential information. All this data will help me
to make necessary modification in current working style to become more competitive and more
customer oriented company.
The reason for selecting theorist Fred Fielder is that he was a renowned prolific
researcher, thinker and writer whose work has contributed a lot to economies,business
management and science. His famous work includes Theory of Leadership Effectiveness,
Contingency theory , LPC scale for assessing leadership and many more. this particular theory
is that in my opinion this theory will help me to get an insight of the root cause of an individual
problem rather then just to see problem itself. For instance, at first glance deterioration in
production might be taken as a result of sudden shift in customers taste or due to competition
(Nurqamarani, 2017). However, deeper analysis might reveal that the authentic taste for which
6

Starbucks is famous is not been provided to them may be due to in proficient staff. Also it will
help amalgamate various factors such as Starbucks culture, firm's commitment towards
employees safety, profit objectives, brand position, customers service attitude and so on while
taking a particular decision or implementing any modification in operations. It will
simultaneously increase my efficiency to respond to sudden issues or contingencies by working
effectively and speedy on its redressal. Thus, with applying this approach I will be able to be
more proficient in my job as a manager as I will be more foresighted, flexible and adaptable to
adjust to new circumstances. Also as I deeply value innovation and is firm believer that it is a
key to success for any firm in this present era of immense competition I am assured that
application of this theory will reap many benefits for the company.
TASK 2
Critically assess the impact of beliefs, attitudes and values on own workplace behaviour.
In every firm, employees and managements works under pre set behaviour that ensures
its effectiveness and efficiency. As a person I believe that been a manager it is responsibility of
an individual to maintain a positive working attitude at workplace so as to maintain behaviour of
workforce at most effective and productive level. Also, it helps in developing a positive work
culture that directly impacts productivity, growth and development of both organization and its
people.
As a person I deeply value integrity, enthusiasm, commitment to growth and hard work.
I illustrate it in my working style by providing opportunities to my staff to be participative in
decision making process. This positively leads to enhancement in employees morale as they feel
associated with company where in they are giving freedom to share thoughts, their opinions,
space to adopt there working style etc. I believe that as a manager it is my responsibility to
control my employees by setting my virtues as a idol for them to follow. Also, I strongly think
that it is requisite for me to be effective as a leader by ensuring that I clearly communicate and
encourage them towards my vision and to provide them right guidance to take best course of
actions to attain it. Adhering by it I make sure that I delegation authorities and responsibilities to
right people in terms of skills and motivation levels. It further give benefit of enhancement in
work efficiency, timely completion of work within deadlines besides revealing innovative and
creative ideas, methods and opinions from staff ends that can majorly contributes to company's
7

success. (Parmenter, 2015). My values and beliefs have helped to to perfectly align with
Starbucks' core philosophy that strives towards creating and maintaining a culture of warmth,
where every is encourage to act with courage to take up new challenges and is given full respect,
dignity and transparency in their work.
Thus where other managers now a days give emphasis on adopting supportive or
collegial model I firmly believes in applying system model for organizational behaviour.
According to me in today's corporate era in order to add on quality in work that are been
performed it is most appropriate model that could positively impacts my employees
performance. It is because, as today individuals not only be motivated just on salary or job
security parameters instead they are equally keen to derive value for hours that they are putting
towards organization. Also, in contradiction to previous scenario today every employee prefer to
work which is ethical, respectful, give opportunities for personal growth and development and is
integrated with trust. Applying this model, I will try to develop a working environment where in
my team members will feel optimistic and enthusiastic to work and are self determined to attain
their personal and professional objectives. Moreover, they will also feel encouraged, inspired and
will ultimately enhance theory productivity and work efficiency.
Roles and responsibilities
When it comes to Starbucks Coffee Company's business growth and success is linked
with its proficient operational management system (Winwood, Colon and McEwen, 2013).
Following its organizational culture which is to provide quality of service firm applies its coffee
and farmer Equity program in its supply chain management. As a operational manager there are
various functions that I am accountable to perform. Mentioned below are some of mine most
prominent roles and duties as a manager:
Quality Management: In Starbucks quality management forms the premium
characteristics. Thus in here my role is to check that pre determined quality standards are been
followed in terns of raw materials i.e. to see coffee beans that are been purchased comply with
Starbucks quality standards. Also I have to monitor that there is proper application of servant
leadership and warm friendly culture to ensure premium quality services. For ensuring the
quality standards I apply total quality management theory that is a methodology that involves
different sets of customer based practises that are intended to enhance quality and promote
process improvement.
8

To prepare layout design and strategy: another major role of mine being operational
manager at Starbucks is to maximize workflow effectiveness and to make sure that stores
ambiance is warm and friendly that matches our company's culture. As we prioritize guest
experiences my role is to prepare a layout design that instead of space utilization focuses on
premium customer experience thereby providing proper more leg spaces for guests in cafe.
Inventory Management: As company strives towards minimizing its stock out and
regular supply of coffee beans to its cafes in Starbucks' automation plays comprehensive role.
Thus, it implies my duty to ensure that there is proper and adequate supply of and automation of
all the inventory so that there is no hindrance in firms objective to provide 'customers delight' to
is guests.
Scheduling: It involves making flexible schedules for management personnels,
inventory and reordering plans etc. such as their daily shifts schedules, training and development
plans for new and existing employees and so on.
Supply chain Management: Under supply management my role is to work with our
external partner for obtaining best coffee beans, to create inventory, to evaluate suppliers and to
negotiate contracts with different vendors. Also, it involves adopting or introducing latest and
most suitable information technology that will help Starbucks to cut down its costs and to
enhance is profits maximization by timely and efficiently providing products within specific
time frame without any delays. For effectively handling this system I make use of supply chain
framework . Supply chain management framework is a operational process that involves
consumer, internal business and supplier integration.
Interdepartmental coordination: As a operational manager I am also responsible for
maintaining proper coordination with various other departments of Starbucks such as HR
department for staff requirement and training , IT Department for proper system automation,
production unit for obtaining raw materials and other components and others so that work
efficiency and quality of decisions taken could be maintained and enhanced (Starbucks Coffee’s
Operations Management: 10 Decisions, Productivity, 2017).
Production planning and control: It includes deciding what course of action is to
undertake for actual production after receiving the orders. This helps in providing products in
conformity with plans and guests choice (What Does a Restaurant Operations Manager Do?
2018).
9

Communication and Conflict resolution: As a operation manager another important
role that I am responsible to undertake is to be master communicator, to be quick in assessing
upcoming changing in market dynamics, formulating effective strategies to cope with those
changes, to spot out conflicts at early stages and to ensures that they are redress on time to the
satisfaction of all parties that are involved.
Duties related to Human resources: Starbucks' human resource management combines
organizational culture in all its functional areas. Thus being a operational manager my role is to
ensure that company's cultures is woven into every job. Thus my duty is to ensure that all
stores/cafes have a proficient team of employees that are well qualified and skilled to properly
communicate with customers from different backgrounds and origins and to provide them with
premium services to attain guest satisfaction. To keep my staff encouraged to work harder I
apply Hawthorne effect theory of motivation. Under this I ensure that I provide them regular
feedbacks, asking out their concerns or any issues and taking suggestions about their working
environment. This induce then to work harder as they know that they are been observed and
cared about.
Maintenance: As starbucks is peculiar about its quality services in all its areas of
operations my role is to ensure hat all its physical assets are well maintained through well
qualified and dedicated team of workforce that are well trained for handling and maintaining
facilities and equipments. Also I have to maintain contacts with other third parties such as local
businesses that provides maintenance services and other equipments that are tune ups for
Starbucks cafes. Also, I have to ensure that key competencies and KSA of all new and existing
employees are improved and enhanced through appropriate training and development programs.
Range of activities undertaken
 To execute business plan on a daily basis
 To induce and drive sale volume and profits across multiple stores.
 Ensuring that all employee related issues are redress as required including all grievances,
disciplinary in context to company's policies and procedures.
 Handling teams of store managers by ensuring their professional growth and
development and by assisting in succession planning processes
10

 Another major responsibility of mine is to act as a liaison with all stakeholders of
company to make sure that all stores are having abundant inventory levels, resources,
training and to provide assistance for remedial action where this is not the case.
 To prepare reports, plans and strategies and provide it to senior operations manager as
per their requirements.
 Handling guest complaints, working with staff members notifying them their areas of
strength and improvements so that customers can have enjoyable and delightful
experience.
 Review store environment and business indicators to analyse issues, concerns and
opportunities for betterment so as to provide right coaching and direction to shift team
to attain their operational objectives.
 Also, I keep taking feedbacks from guests and ask up for their suggestions that helps in
getting knowledge bout present trends in their tastes and preferences and also to find out
areas of scope and improvements (Operation Manager - Starbucks – Lebanon. 2018).
CONCLUSION
The project undertaken concludes that beliefs, values and attitudes are all connected to
and majorly contributes in forming behaviour of a person. Along with this the major role of my
at my work place has been critically describes along with a relevant theories that coincides with
my job role. Further, assessment of how my values, beliefs and attitude impacts my behaviour at
my workplace has been discussed with reference to appropriate theory which I applied to
influence behaviour ODF others at my job place. Moreover, a detailed analysis of roles and
responsibilities that are undertake as an operational manager has also been evaluated.
11

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Achtenhagen, F. and Winther, E., 2014. Workplace-based competence measurement: developing
innovative assessment systems for tomorrow’s VET programmes. Journal of Vocational
Education & Training. 66(3). pp.281-295.
Bjögvinsson, E., Ehn, P. and Hillgren, P.A., 2012. Design things and design thinking:
Contemporary participatory design challenges. Design Issues. 28(3). pp.101-116.
Carayon, P., and et., al., 2015. Advancing a sociotechnical systems approach to workplace
safety–developing the conceptual framework. Ergonomics. 58(4). pp.548-564.
Childs, A., Edwards, A. and McNicholl, J., 2014. Developing a Multi-layered System of
Distributed Expertise: What does cultural historical theory bring to understandings of
workplace learning in school-university partnerships?. In Workplace learning in teacher
education (pp. 29-45). Springer, Dordrecht.
Clements, M. D. and Cord, B. A., 2013. Assessment guiding learning: developing graduate
qualities in an experiential learning programme. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education. 38(1). pp.114-124.
Dochy, F., and et., al., 2012. Theories of learning for the workplace: Building blocks for training
and professional development programs. Routledge.
Eddy, P.L. and Mitchell, R.L.G., 2012. Faculty as learners: Developing thinking communities.
Innovative Higher Education. 37(4). pp.283-296.
Galsworth, G. D., 2017. Visual Workplace Visual Thinking: Creating Enterprise Excellence
Through the Technologies of the Visual Workplace. Productivity Press.
Goetsch, D. L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Hagemann, B. and Stroope, S., 2013. Developing the next generation of leaders. Industrial and
Commercial Training. 45(2), pp.123-126.
Lyons, A. C., and et., al., 2013. Developing an understanding of lean thinking in process
industries. Production Planning & Control. 24(6). pp.475-494.
McDonald, F. V., 2014. Developing an integrated conceptual framework of pro-environmental
behavior in the workplace through synthesis of the current literature. Administrative
Sciences. 4(3). pp.276-303.
Nurqamarani, A. S., 2017. The Importance in Developing Professional Skills at the Workplace.
Research Journal of Accounting and Business Management. 1(1). pp.29-39.
Parmenter, D., 2015. Key performance indicators: developing, implementing, and using winning
KPIs. John Wiley & Sons.
Peper, N. A., 2017. Systems thinking applied to automation and workplace safety (Doctoral
dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
Winwood, P. C., Colon, R. and McEwen, K., 2013. A practical measure of workplace resilience:
developing the resilience at work scale. Journal of occupational and environmental
medicine. 55(10). pp.1205-1212.
Online
What Does a Restaurant Operations Manager Do? 2018. [Online] Available through
<https://www.besthospitalitydegrees.com/faq/what-does-a-restaurant-operations-manager-do/>
12

Starbucks Coffee’s Operations Management: 10 Decisions, Productivity, 2017. [Online]
Available through
<http://panmore.com/starbucks-coffee-operations-management-10-decisions-areas-productivity>
Operation Manager - Starbucks – Lebanon. 2018. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.bayt.com/en/lebanon/jobs/operation-manager-starbucks-lebanon-1794216/>
13