Leadership and Change Management Strategies at Starbucks Corporation

This report analyzes the leadership and change management practices of Starbucks, focusing on CEO Howard Schultz and the company's strategies. It examines various leadership styles, including transactional and transformational approaches, and the application of Lewin's three-step change ...Read More

Leadership and change
management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Research methodology................................................................................................................3
Current leadership and change management practices in organization.......................................5
Analysis on the leadership and change management...................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
In the present era there are many types of changes which organization have to adopt in
order to make their business more successful. There are many types of problems which are faced
by the company in order to make implementation of their changes. The present report is based on
the leadership and change management of Starbucks and their CEO Howard Shult. This report
make analysis on the Starbucks Corporation and their management. It also makes analysis on the
leadership approach of the Howard Shult (Nichols, 2016). In addition, this report make analysis
on conceptual model which helps to company for making changes in their business operations.
At last this report make analysis on the Current leadership and change management practice and
Analysis on the leadership and change management.
MAIN BODY
Research methodology
Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. The
organization serves different types of cold drinks and Hot drinks to their customers. The
company is running it business operations in more than 72 countries along with this the company
is also making other products such as Coffee makers that brew espresso and regular chocolate
(Vaid, 2015).
For the making research the data are collected from the secondary source of data. The
secondary source of data are those data which are collected through publish websites or books. In
order to make research on the Starbucks data are collected from the secondary source
(Cummings and Worley, 2014) To make research data are mainly collected by the company's
own websites. From this source gathered a lot of information regrading to entities current
operations, their profits and their statements. Starbucks is US based coffeehouse which make
different types of coffees for their customers. All these type of information are gather thorough
the firm's websites. Along with this different types of publish sources are also used to make
research more effective such as The Time and other related the sources (Smalley and et.al 2016)
.
Howard Shult who is CEO of company was recognized to his leadership and
entrepreneurship in the market of coffee he is example of the supporting leadership and
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motivation of their employee (Hayes, 2014) In it leadership approach the organization make
many types of achievement. In order to develop their employees skills he makes a development
plan with the Arizona State University through which they provide training to their workers and
helps to them for acquiring the skills which are important for the workers (Anderson and Sun,
2015). He joined the company is 1982 as the operation and management. There are many types
of challenges which are faced by the company during its leadership and organizational changes.
In order to make successful operation in Australia the company have to make many changes in
its leadership approach. Australians coffee lover prefer Australia local coffee shop Australians
coffee lover prefer Australia local coffee shop. The CEO of the company make wrong decision
as they need to serve the coffee as according to the Australian styles not in American styles. All
these situations may create more problems for the company and its leadership approach.
Change Model
For the handling the situation in the Australia the company and its leaders need to follow
the conceptual model (Binci, Cerruti and Braganza, 2016.) As according to this model, there are
three steps which need to apply by the company during the organizational changes. Following
are the seven elements model which can use be used by the organizations. This Model have
seven elements through which they developed changes in the company.
capacity/competence needs The need of the company is to make certain changes so they can
gain market share in Australia
program target The main target of this program are the workers of the
organization so they can make effective interaction with their
customers (Kok and McDonald, 2017)
area served The main area of their changes occurred in Australia.
program content The main program which is content is to make employees more
motivated to adopt the organizational changes (Cummings and
Worley, 2014)
training level The level of training is more based on the making effective
interaction with their customers.
learning approach The approaches of learning is more based on the on job training
so they can understand their customers requirements
Implementation methods The method of implementation is based on the providing the
practical knowledge to their workers and employees .
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Current leadership and change management practices in organization
Leadership traits, style and contingencies
As Starbucks is one of the biggest organization in the business vertical it is necessary for
them to use different trait, style and contingencies in their leadership (Hayes, 2014). Traditional
way of leadership is not going to help Starbucks in attaining the future goals effectively.
Starbucks leadership framework consist with various traits, style and contingencies such as:
Laissez-faire, a laissez faire concept of leadership indicates highly experienced and
trained employees requires a little amount of supervision. These leadership style focuses on the
production of employees needing supervision.
Autocratic, In an organization such as Starbucks leaders attaining the leadership style
which allows them to make decision alone without the input of others (Lozano, Ceulemans, and
Seatter, 2015)
Participative, is also called democratic leadership style as it values the input of the team
members but the responsibility of making the final decision in under the hand of participative
leader.
Transactional, it is widely used leadership style in the organization such as Starbucks in
these leader will give rewards and punishment as per according to the performance of the
employee.(Nichols, 2016)
There is a occurrence of step based change in the Starbucks. AS Starbucks needs the step
of change to run their business successfully in the countries like Australia. The employees are the
one who needs to understand the requirement of the change and the company needs to adopt a
very clear and honest communication to trained them. There is three step change model
suggested by Lewin's to the Starbucks which can be interconnect with the company's unfit
situation in Australia. In the unfreeze phase Starbucks needs to collect various information such
as market data and researches (Kok and McDonald, 2017). As per the transition phase Starbucks
needs to involve there employees and make them believe that there are benefits in the change
even they are facing the difficult moments. Freeze phase considered as locking all the things and
activities, here Starbucks needs to examine various way to make business in Australia. Starbucks
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is following the three step change model and it seems with the proper leadership this change will
bring success for them in Australia.(Vaid, 2015)
The leadership driven change brings lots of confusion among the employees. At first they
are feeling confused to figure out the factors which leads the change. The change bring a new
framework with it which creates uncertainty for the employees. If the regulations of changes not
developed properly them implementation can bring adverse effect for the organization by the
employees side (Lozano Ceulemans and Seatter, 2015.) The quality of the employees works will
also affect badly with the change and definitely they will feel demotivated. The other side which
change will bring is that it will be adopted by the employees and if employees feel that this
change will be profitable for them in the long term that definitely they will accept the leadership
driven change easily. This is why before implementing the change Starbucks need to create a
framework where they can clearly indicate the change in front of employees.(Smalley and et.al
2016)
Analysis on the leadership and change management
Schultz is a transactional and transformational leader. He inspires his team to work
towards achieving the goals based on company ethical. Apart from the above changes the
company and its leader are also facing many types of problems in their present situations.
Starbucks is opening their coffeehouse in the Australia (Sinagra Cunningham and Anglin, 2016)
Australia have different type of cultural problems which the company can not bear.
The organization need to apply the change model in their business operations so
they can maintain their current growth in the entity. Lewin's three step model is more suitable
model for the firm. With the help of this model the company can make their desire changes
easily. Following are the change model of the company which consists three steps which are as
follows.
'Unfreezing
At this stage the company need to keep their business as usual and they keep motivating
to their workers for adopting the changes in the company (Sinagra, Cunningham and Anglin,
2016) With the help of these stages the company keep motivating their workers so they can
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accept the change and keep focuses on the new solutions (Nichols, 2016). For the solving the
problems Australia , Starbuck has to motivated their workers so they can accept the changes.
Transition
At this stage the company need to adopt the certain changes, practices and beliefs which
helps to company for bringing more innovation changes in the present structure. In the company
have to make certain changes in their strategies so they can capture the Australian market.
Freezing
At this stage the company need to make certain changes and adopt the strategics which
helps to them for making adjustments.
There are many types of factors which are effecting the organization's and its business
activities (Vaid, 2015). In the Australia the company is facing many problems regarding to the
continuing their business operations. There are certain factors which may become hinders in this
organization for applying the changes. It is clear that, the current way that Starbucks make
business do not fit in Australia market (StarBucks 2017). The aim reason behind these changes
is cultural barriers. The people of the Australia like to drink the coffees from the local shops
where they get low price coffee. For implementation of these changes the biggest hinders
employees is not performing as according to their cultural as they are not able to make effective
interaction with their customers which directly impact on the organizational performance and
their current business operations (Smalley and et.al 2016) . So Starbucks need to give their more
preferences to make effective interaction with their customers.
Suggest model for making changes in the company is adopting the servant changes in
their organization. With the helps of this model theory they can make strong relations with their
employees so they can easily apply the changes in their business operation (Anderson and Sun,
2015). In the Starbucks the company is failed in the Australia because their workers are not able
to make effective interactions with their customers. As per this approach, the company should
ask to their employees before making nay kind of changes in the organization so they make
motivate tir employees to adopt the changes. Along with this the company have to maintained its
cultural in such a way that they can retain long term relations with its customers.
Starbucks was still a small start-up company focused on its products and services not on
the organization and staff. So the company have to make their focuses more on the leaderships
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approach so they can make their leadership more effective (Binci, Cerruti and Braganza, 2016).
In order to this the company have to give equal chances to their employees so they can maintain
long term growth.
CONCLUSION
Summing up the present report it is concluded that leadership and its change
management have huge impact on the organization and its business activities. Starbucks
Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. From the above report it is
concluded that with the help of the effective leader and their leadership the company make
easily adopted the requires changes and make effective implication of their changes. There are
many types of challenges which are faced by the company during its leadership and
organizational changes. So they use many types of changes so they can capture the market in
Australia. However, as the small scale the company need to make certain changes in its business
operations as to focus more on the staff and employees.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Nichols, A.L (2016). What do people desire in their leaders? The effect of leadership experience
on desired leadership traits. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 37(5).
pp.658-671.Smalley and et.al 2016
Vaid, J (2015). Successful Leadership: Traits Revisited. Global Journal of Enterprise
Information System. 7(2). pp.117-118.
Smalley & et.al (2016). Analysis of Leadership Perceptions, Skills and Traits as Perceived by
Agribusiness and Industry Professionals. NACTA Journal. 60(1a). p.43.
Anderson, M.H. and Sun, P.Y., 2015. Reviewing leadership styles: Overlaps and the need for a
new ‘full‐range’theory. International Journal of Management Reviews.
Binci, D., Cerruti, C. & Braganza, A (2016). Do vertical and shared leadership need each other
in change management?. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 37(5). pp.558-
578.
Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage
learning.
Hayes, J., (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kok, S.K. & McDonald, C. (2017). Underpinning excellence in higher education–an
investigation into the leadership, governance and management behaviours of high-
performing academic departments. Studies in Higher Education. 42(2). pp.210-231.
Lozano, R., Ceulemans, K. and Seatter, C. S. (2015). Teaching organisational change
management for sustainability: designing and delivering a course at the University of Leeds
to better prepare future sustainability change agents. Journal of Cleaner Production. 106.
pp.205-215.
Online
StarBucks (2017). [online] Available at: <https://www.starbucks.com/> [Accessed 3rd May
2017].
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