Leadership Theories in Starbucks

This assignment examines the application of leadership theories within Starbucks. It analyzes how different theories, such as Situational Leadership, are utilized by leaders to address business problems and drive solutions. The focus is on practical examples and the impact of these theories on Starbucks' operations and overall performance.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Defining as well as comparing roles and characteristics of leader and manager in
Starbucks business..................................................................................................................1
1.2 Difference among leader's role and manager's functions within Starbucks applying some
theories...................................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Evaluating method by which leader's roles and manager's functions apply in various
business situations of Starbucks.............................................................................................3
1.2 Applying various models and theories with reference to Starbucks................................4
1.3 Analysing strengths and weaknesses of various situations approaches...........................6
1.4 Critically analysis and evaluation of various theories of leadership................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Operation function regarded as one of significant aspect in every organisation because it
helps to produce finished goods and services using raw materials. In this particular condition,
various roles played by manager and leader in the workplace which are presented in the current
study. In order to accomplish present assignment, example of Starbucks Corporation is taken
which is a public firm and operates in the industry of coffee shop. Functions which are
considered by the manager are shown in the study. In the second part, different theories as well
as models are explained which include situational, contingency and systems leadership theory.
Along with this, its strengths and weaknesses are also discussed with reference to Starbucks in
the present project.
TASK 1
1.1 Defining as well as comparing roles and characteristics of leader and manager in Starbucks
business
Roles and characteristics of a leader
Leaders of the company have many roles and characteristics. Further, leader of Starbucks
should lead its workers, maintain good level of effort in company, set the goals and objectives,
have knowledge about the market conditions, motivate employees to work effectively, provide
support to employees.
Apart from this, leader of Starbucks has some characteristics or qualities. They should be
visionary, intelligent, desire to grow, creative, democratic, encouraging or motivating, polite, fair
to all workers, inspiring, responsible, fearless and efficient to solve problems (Adam Jr and
Swamidass, 2015).
Roles and characteristics of a manager
Managers of an organisation have wide range of many roles and characteristics at the
workplace. In Starbucks the manager should manage the workings of the company, use the
authority to get the work done from employees, make a proper corporate culture, disclose the
aims and objectives of company to its employees,
Further, characteristics of a manager are that they should be highly confident, know how
to delegate the responsibilities, flexible, creative, responsible and optimistic.
Comparison of roles and characteristics of leader and manager
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Basis Leader Manager
Meaning A leader is a person who lead
motivates the employees to achieve
the goals of the organisation.
A manager is the person who manages
and give task to the employees and tell
them to complete it.
Nature Leader is democratic in nature and
listen to suggestions of the workers.
Managers are controlling in nature
because of their higher authority.
Work The main work of a leader is to lead
and motivate the workers to do their
work efficiently.
Work of manager is just to manage and
communicate the worker or employees
about their assigned work or task
(Goodhue, Wixom and Watson, 2014).
Roles A leader can be manager of the
organisation according to his
position in Starbucks coffee shop.
It is not essential that every manager is
the leader.
Skills Leadership skills are in built or can
be acquired through the continuous
work.
Manager must have decision making and
analytical skills for solving various
problems of Starbucks.
1.2 Difference among leader's role and manager's functions within Starbucks applying some
theories
In each and every firm various kinds of the roles along with functions played through
leader and manager respectively. On the basis of this Starbucks enterprise easily able to assess
overall efficiency and productivity of the firm. Under this, some theories involved which are
evaluated as below:
 Scientific theory: The approach in which workflow completed or going on in Starbucks
is analysed by the manager and leader. Further, manager plays role as per this theory is to
identify procedure of working and make effective business environment which make
efficient to the workers. Moreover, leader guide to the people for enhancing their
efficiencies and meet the goals within given deadline (Angell and Klassen, 2014).
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 Chaos theory: According to this theory, some changes in business are constant which are
mandatory to incorporate within particular time. Further, managers and leader under this
think that, change is inevitable and it has not nature of controlling. For example: if
innovative and new technology comes then it is compulsory to replace with old
techniques in Starbucks which will help to enhance product quality and satisfaction of
consumers. Further, very important and attractive structure are necessary to make by
maintaining new challenges and complexities.
 Theory X and Y: It is another management theory where two kinds of the people
included which denoted through X as well as Y in the firm. Members of team who not
ready to complete any challenges and resist for new workers are involved under X. On
the other side, those employees and individuals who are ready to take responsibilities and
any kind of challenges for completing the tasks come under type of Y (Mentzer and et.al.,
2013). Under this manager and leader both plays different roles and functions for the X
who resist for works.
TASK 2
1.1 Evaluating method by which leader's roles and manager's functions apply in various business
situations of Starbucks
At the working environment, different kinds of the situations and conditions arisen which
are sometimes in favour of the firm and many times affect negatively to business process. These
situations can be regarded as management, directing, planning, implementing, decision making
etc. Under these all the situations of Starbucks when the managers and leaders involve then
easily able to make proper solution. Some important roles and functions of leaders and managers
respectively are analysed below:
Role: Leader is a person who give proper and effective guidance to the team members for
accomplishing the tasks which are given to them. Basic role of this employee is to make the team
members highly effective and utilise all the available resources in an optimum direction. In the
business of Starbucks, employees sometimes not able to understand the task allotted to them and
method that how to complete it. In this specific condition, the leader guides to them and shows
those effective systems which help to complete the given works (Arndt, 2014). Apart from this,
if members of service team not able to give higher quality of services to the customers in
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Starbucks then leader train them properly. Therefore, situation of reducing service quality will be
resolved up to the higher level which is indication of satisfying consumers. Moreover, if any
conflicts arisen among individuals on the basis of tasks then also leader plays role to resolve this
issue.
Functions: As name refers that person who manages and handle various business
situations and take decisions in accordance to that is known as manager. In the Starbucks firm, if
the employees have any issue related to salary and wages, allowances, bonus, working hours,
health and safety then manager comes into consideration. The reason is that, this person has
authority for resolving situations related to these all mentioned problems. Another major
function of manager is to check and evaluate quality of the coffee and other products using
standards. Other than these, in case of occurring disputes among the employees then manager
solve using some methods like negotiation, collective bargaining etc (Piercy and Rich, 2014).
1.2 Applying various models and theories with reference to Starbucks
When a lead or manager play highly effective role at the workplace then use some
theories and models. The reason is that, various approaches help to resolve any issue incurred
and become effectual manager in an appropriate way.
Situational theory: An approach of leadership in which leader of Starbucks plays role in
accordance to situation occurs at the working place. In the firm if any specific condition comes
into consideration like understandability of goals, time management for meeting deadlines etc.
then the situational leader takes action. For example: if members of team are not able to
complete the assigned tasks on time in Starbucks then leader will provide training accordingly
and strategies which should use in this condition. Further, two bases are incurred in this theory
which are supportive as well as directive behaviour (Cutting-edge classic: Situational
Leadership, 2016). Under these major four styles are played by leader which include
participating, delegating, telling and selling.
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Illustration 1: Situational theory of leadership
(Source: Cutting-edge classic: Situational Leadership. 2016)
Contingency theory: According to this model of leadership, there is any kind of specific
parameter and best way is provided to lead the team members. However, it is only considered by
leader when suddenly any problem or inverse situations arisen in the Starbucks firm. Under this,
the leader cannot predict and totally unknown about the condition which can be incurred.
Further, those things which can arisen suddenly in Starbucks are like strike of labours, lack of
proper time management etc. Moreover, any optimal actions are not taken or predetermined this
theory due to having contingent or depended nature on either internal or external business
situations. Under this, nature and leadership style of leader in Starbucks varied as per the
unpredicted conditions occur.
Systems leadership theory: Another approach in which duties and responsibilities are
played by the leader in accordance to his or her understanding capacity. When kind of policy is
framed and required to aware the team members then according to this theory, leader will
provide information about new policies up to level of his understanding. Moreover, it is not
based on any situation, issues or conditions of the firm (Ward and et.al., 2013). For instance: In
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Starbucks if wastage products increase rapidly then using brainstorming the leader will find
solution and strategies for resolving it.
1.3 Analysing strengths and weaknesses of various situations approaches
The above stated theories of leadership have some benefits along with limitations which
are profitable and unfavourable respectively for Starbucks coffee shop. Moreover, its some pros
and cons are stated below:
 Situational theory: It helps to make solution of wide range of business issues and
problems which will be easily resolved with the help of situational theory. In each and
every business context this approach can be easily implemented which support to meet
targets which are predetermined by the management. However, this model used using
some assumptions, ambiguously formulation as well as not clear in properly. In addition
to this, leader is unable to compare another conditions which incur in Starbucks and not
supportive tool for dealing with demographic elements (Smith and Fingar, 2013).
 Contingency theory: Key strength of this model is that, it supports to leaders of
Starbucks for making solution of those conditions which are unpredicted. Further, proper
decisions and actions which are required to take can be made in highly appropriate way.
It is on the basis of empirical evidence which is supportive tool to predict and solve
contingency issues. On the other hand, for providing detail explanation in proper way
about the problems incurred this theory is not helpful. Due to this specific nature, very
few leaders prefer this in the businesses.
 Systems theory: This stated approach is simple, easy and straight forward by which any
of the leader can apply at the workplace of Starbucks shop. It helps to use brainstorming
and create highly effective opinions to take better decisions to make solution of issue
occurred. In contrary to this, any particular parameters are included in this theory which
sometimes hamper to the effectual decision making process (Zeng, Wen and Yen, 2013).
Therefore, very few firms and leaders apply the systems theory.
1.4 Critically analysis and evaluation of various theories of leadership
In the above section strengths and weaknesses of some leadership models are presented
and in present part these theories are analysed critically. The above stated approaches are highly
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supportive for Starbucks in order to resolve those issues which hamper to the efficiency and
productivity of it. Unconditional problems can be arisen at any time which are necessary to
resolve where contingency leadership is applied. Through these, the leader becomes capable for
identifying skills in the individuals of team member and issues associated with that. By
providing the training using such leadership theories he or she able to make them highly
efficient. Henceforth, it can be analysed that such models are supportive for boost up
productivity of Starbucks coffee shop properly (Shao, Feng and Hu, 2016).
It can be criticised that, the mentioned leadership models not focus on the external
aspects which affect adversely to the firm and team members. When talking about the only
system theory then it is not applicable under the service industry as Starbucks operates in this
sector. Under the contingency model, various assumptions as well as estimations are made at the
time of applying in the business environment of Starbucks. Along with this, it is not supported by
any literature as well as analysis or research which is another major loophole included with it.
Therefore, at time of preparing effectual decisions this is not properly supported way to the
leader of Starbucks coffee shop.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above analysis that, manager and leader both plays various
role at the working environment of Starbucks coffee shop. Leader supports to the firm for
guiding to the individuals and boost up their efficiency for achieving goals. Further, manager
help to Starbucks for managing business and taking fruitful decisions. It can be summarised from
second part that, situational, system and contingency leadership theories are used by leaders for
making solution in Starbucks enterprise.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adam Jr, E. E. and Swamidass, P. M., 2015. Assessing operations management from a strategic
perspective. Journal of management. 15(2). pp. 181-203.
Angell, L. C. and Klassen, R. D., 2014. Integrating environmental issues into the mainstream: an
agenda for research in operations management. Journal of Operations Management. 17(5).
pp. 575-598.
Arndt, H., 2014. Supply Chain Management. Gabler Verlag Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
GmbH, Wiesbaden.
Goodhue, D. L., Wixom, B. H. and Watson, H. J., 2014. Realizing business benefits through
CRM: hitting the right target in the right way. MIS Quarterly executive. 1(2). pp. 79-94.
Mentzer, J. T. and et.al., 2013. Defining supply chain management. Journal of Business logistics.
22(2). pp. 1-25.
Piercy, N. and Rich, N., 2014. Lean transformation in the pure service environment: the case of
the call service centre. International journal of operations & production management.
29(1). pp. 54-76.
Shao, Z., Feng, Y. and Hu, Q., 2016. Effectiveness of top management support in enterprise
systems success: a contingency perspective of fit between leadership style and system life-
cycle. European Journal of Information Systems. 25(2). pp. 131-153.
Smith, H. and Fingar, P., 2013. Business process management: the third wave. Tampa: Meghan-
Kiffer Press.
Ward, P. T. and et.al., 2013. Competitive priorities in operations management. Decision
Sciences. 29(4). pp. 1035-1046.
Zeng, Y. E., Wen, H. J. and Yen, D. C., 2013. Customer relationship management (CRM) in
business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. Information Management & Computer Security.
11(1). pp. 39-44.
Online
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Cutting-edge classic: Situational Leadership. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.zkg.de/en/artikel/zkg_Cutting-
edge_classic_Situational_Leadership_2648579.html> [Accessed on 30th October 2017].
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