Starbucks Organization (Essay Sample)

Starbucks Organization
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Starbucks Organization
The structure of Starbucks Corporation is not so unique from most common organizational structures of other modern business organizations (Schreiner, 2012). The corporation executives run it from Seattle, Washington which is the headquarters of the Corporation. The corporation stores which are located in the other regions or the districts are managed by the district managers. According to Schreiner (2012), the district managers report directly to the Starbucks Corporation. The stores are operated by store managers who are the chief. The chiefs are assisted by supervisors who act when the store managers are not present. The employees or baristas are the people on ground under supervisor’s control to make sure that the duties are executed as directed by the management (Schreiner, 2012). That structure is hierarchical or line.
Starbucks Corporation adopts a Line structure with commands running from the top management to the bottom administrators. The commands come from the top management at the headquarters and it is coordinated to the employee’s level under supervisors. This is different from some structure like divisional structure which operates on three sub-structures, product structure; the employees in this case are divided and organized on the basis of different products. If the products are three the company will have three different division for the products (Schreiner, 2012). The Starbucks Company does not separate the products in different lines but operates on a single product line. Market structure; the employees are grouped according to the market the corporation operates. Starbucks Corporation incorporates the employees in a single market in different regions or districts.
The matrix structure, this type of structure combines function and product structure. This happens to be complex compared to the line structure of the Starbucks Corporation. According to Schreiner (2012), matrix structure combines the best of both structures to make efficient organizational structure.
The other type of organizational structure under comparison is the bureaucratic structure; this is common to all organizations including Starbucks. Processes, procedures, and other decisions are standardized from the higher authority in the organization. Bureaucratic structure is suitable for big organizations like Starbucks Corporation.
The goal of every corporation is to maximize profits. Different corporations have different strategies on how to make the best out of the market. Most corporations take their organizational structure as strength to enter the market. Starbuck in this case here started as a basic coffee shop but it has grown into being an international company (Schreiner, 2012). The management has embraced technology and now have online store with various items. Through the strategic organizational structure of Starbucks, the company has entered new markets.
When choosing a structure managers should focus on functions of the organization like product design, customers, size, and technology among others. The line structure adopted by Starbucks Corporation meets challenges in marketing functions like consumer behaviour, since commands come from the top authority, employees may not exploit the competitive advantage of the corporation (Schreiner, 2012). The employees should be fully involved in choosing trade channels like wholesalers, dealers and middlemen since they are in better contact with them compared to the top management.
The line structure adopted by Starbucks Corporation may not cope well with Human Resource functions. Since the corporation does not operate as a group but too hierarchical, the relationship between employees and management is not good, most successful corporations value employee’s decisions unlike in Starbucks Corporation where orders come from the headquarters.
Since Starbucks is becoming global, it requires investing heavily in its structure. The structure is influenced by financial factors like customer’s income, trade partners’ behaviour as well as other stakeholder’s willingness (Schreiner, 2012). Production functions, the organizational structure and the size should be based on the scope of the product and services. The fact that Starbucks is international calls for a diversified structure in order to meet the wider market demand and consumer segment. Each of the functions above influences Starbucks structure; they should therefore be reconsidered in the structure according to the change of the market.
Different organizational designs helps choose the best structure for an organization. Departmentalization for instance calls for a f...