Management and Leadership Paper on Starbucks Case Study

Management and Leadership Paper on Starbucks - Case Study Example Organizational culture can be defined as "personality of the business organization" which can further be broken down into its values, assumptions, norms, and tangible sign of behavior of its members. At Starbucks two of the most prominent values are corporate social responsibility and its treatment of employees as strategic partner. The establishment of organizational culture as will be presented later is linked to the company's ability of utilize the four management functions in order to lead the organization. Management is often confused with leadership. There are four basic management functions namely planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Thus, it should be noted that management includes leadership since managers have to deal with persons who are lower in rank. In the case of Starbucks, its organizational culture is established through its managers who performed all these functions efficiently. In terms of planning, the company ensures that it undertakes strategic plans before starting its operation and modifying in response to the trends and developments in its external environment. The success of Starbucks can be largely attributed to its high regard to its employees which it treats as partner. Recognizing that it is its baristas who deal with the customers, it planned to align its human resources to its goal of profitability and provision of excellent service. Through the four functions of management, this plan has been put in place. The specialty coffee retailer is now recognized as one of the best places to work for because of its organizational structure, the relationship between its employees, its unique values, and its employment of modern human resource management techniques. It should be noted that the business organization efficiently uses its human resource in order to enhance its image and maximize its profitability. In its business operation, it is irrefutabl e that the company has strategically aligned its workforce in order to achieve its specific goals and objectives. This includes designing an organizational structure which highlights the revolution in human resource management. In terms of organizing, it can be seen the Starbucks has taken effort in order for its employees to know their role in the business organization. The specialty coffee retailer makes a barista knowledgeable about his or her day to day activities inside of the store premises. Starbucks organize its workforce by giving them instructions on what to do on specific situations. However, the company allows for the discretion of the staff which are in-charge of the company's operation. The function of leading can be seen through the company's organizational structure. Leading has always been a task which is not considered lightly at Starbucks. However, leading has not been a rigid function of the manager because most of the baristas are empowered. The company's rationale in empowering its people is to enable them to deliver the best service that they could for the customers. Thus, the primary governing body at Starbucks is comprised of the Office of the Chairman and the Board of Directors which "receives substantial input from other senior level executives including senior vice president of

Prepare a report to the Managing Director, including appropriate links Essay

Prepare a report to the Managing Director, including appropriate links to theory, detailing the strategy for the planning and control of the research and development department - Essay Example Budgeting is effective in dealing with unanticipated expenses and emergencies. Once a plan is in place it can be used for measuring the progress of goal achievement (Freedom Debt Management, n.d.; College of Business Administration, 2008). At the time of preparing the budgets it is important to categorize the expenses such as fixed expenses, variable expenses and discretionary expenses. The discretionary expenses are not absolutely necessary for business survival. Necessary adjustments are done in these form of expenses i.e. they are reduced to honour the other types of expenditures. In any business there are two types of costs discretionary costs and non-discretionary costs. It is easy to understand the discretionary costs like payment of rent or electric bill but the discretionary costs are less clear. The discretionary costs include the alteration, construction, research and development etc. Besides the discretionary and non-discretionary costs there are other types of costs such as controllable and uncontrollable costs. So a budget comprises of costs that are discretionary, non-discretionary, controllable and uncontrollable (Cotts & Rondeau, 2004, pp. 59). Budget conveys the authority of the manager to allocate a specified amount on the items that are enlisted in the budget. The appropriations in the budget act as the benchmark for a comparison with the costs that are actually incurred. Expenditures of a budgeted category are matched with the pre-set amounts in deciding any over or under spending of funds and if needed corrective action are initiated (KU School of Social Welfare, n.d.). For the control of discretionary costs the top management must translate the policies and objectives that it considers vital for the organizational success. The management then must make a plan of the spending relating to the discretionary activities that will help in achieving the defined business objectives. There can be