Comparative Analysis of Human Resource Management Practices of Starbucks in United Kingdom and China

Running head: STARBUCKS: AN ANALYSIS
STARBUCKS: AN ANALYSIS
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1STARBUCKS: AN ANALYSIS
Comparative human resource management practices can be broadly defined as a
systematic method of inspection and investigation which is done to broadly classify and explain
the patterns and variations that are faced and experienced in cross-national and transnational
Human Resource Management system. The respective paper is a comparative analysis of the
human resource management practices of the America based coffee shop chain named Starbucks
in United Kingdom and China. The paper seeks to provide clear and most significant differences
of human resource management process and practices of Starbucks in two different countries and
in two different societies; in United Kingdom and China. Starbucks is a coffee company based in
America and a chain of coffeehouses which currently operates at around 30,000 locations
worldwide. Starbucks was founded in Washington, in the district of Seattle, in 1971 (Koehn et al.
2014). Starbucks has been famous for its latest innovation, “second wave coffee” which focuses
on enhancing the taste, quality and customer preferences by popularizing darkly roasted coffee
among the coffee connoisseurs all over the world. The introduction to “second wave coffee” by
Starbucks has proved to be its main competitive advantage among his peers such as CCD (Café
Coffee Day).
Comparative human resource management has been in a significant position while
analyzing and formulating international human resource management. Every country is different
and unique according to their culture, tradition, beliefs and national identity. A transnational
company or a multinational enterprise is bound to work with different employees from diverse
nationality and ethnic groups. A multinational enterprise functions and operates in various
countries under various national and social dynamics and contexts. Therefore, comparative
human resource management is an important determinant of human resource development for
such organizations (Noe et al. 2017). A comparative human resource management practice is

2STARBUCKS: AN ANALYSIS
considered to be much “broader” than any other human resource practice due to the fact that the
respective practice is “societally embedded” organizational practices which give a clear insight
of the cultural, traditional, ethnic and other social dynamic similarities and differences of the
respective organizations. Comparative human resource management is indeed important and
significant in the global world because it is the field of study that focuses on the ethnic, national
ad nationally influenced institutional differences and distinguishing factors in human resource
management strategies, policies and practices. The respective field of study had earlier emerged
as an independent discipline in the field of international human resource management. However,
in the recent global trends in industrialization, it has come up as an independent field of
management studies (Noe et al. 2017). Though comparative human resource management has
been termed to be a universal and holistic study by the scholars of the United States, however,
the respective field of study intends to preach that human resource management strategies and
practices are well comprehended in the societal context that gives shape to the institutional,
socio-cultural and socio-political aspects of an organization. As far as methodological
preferences are concerned, comparative human resource management stands apart from the
conventional and traditional human resource management. It is because the main motive of
comparative human resource management is to introspect and comprehend national and ethnic
contexts of each individual while formulating the human resource strategies; therefore, it can be
called as a more precise pragmatic view of human resource development. One of the most
significant theories of comparative human resource management can be traced by the concept of
neo-institutional theory. Neo-institutional theory is a school of thought that is formulated to
understand behavior of a particular organization which is and will be manipulated or influenced
by other organizations and much broader and wider forces of social dynamics such as national

3STARBUCKS: AN ANALYSIS
identities and prejudices, cultural and socio-political influences. Neo-institutional theories can be
applied and formulated in micro and macro environment of an organization to understand the
national and cultural waves that influences that particular organization. Neo-institutional
theories are mainly concerned with sociological, anthropological, socio-psychological and
cognitive aspects of a particular organization in the context of a distinguishing nationality and
ethnicity. National business system approach and cross-cultural aspects and perspectives in
management studies are the two secondary theories of comparative human resource
management practices. According to the National Business Systems, the multinational and
transnational companies consider the national institutional concepts to determine what, how and
why the human resource management schemes and strategies should be taken up by the
subsidiaries of them in different countries. The strategies and schemes which the subsidiaries
take while working under transnational or multinational companies are highly influenced by the
national, cultural and sub-cultural jurisdictions of the respective nation where it is functioning or
operating. There has been critical evaluation of National Business Systems in the context of
globalization which had already significantly contributed towards its functions and operations.
Globalization has enabled the companies to operate in different countries with employees and
customers belonging to different paradigms and ethnic diversities. The National Business
Systems has been fueled by globalization and amalgamation of continents together with
technological advancement and it has become one of the latest and most significant factors that
determine how a subsidiary of a multinational company would operate its human resource
development teams to reach the organizational goals and objectives (Noe et al. 2017). It has to be
taken into account that though the coffee company and chain of coffeehouses named Starbucks is
an America based company whose headquarters are in Seattle, Washington, it should not be