Starbucks’ culture is all geared toward the environment and bringing the best
quality product to their customers. Starbucks’ mission statement is as follows: “ to inspire
and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time”.
Organizational communication is determined by the organizational culture because of
how “things are done” in the organization. Each organization is defined by how their
people act and communication will determine that because of the way information is
delivered and what is taken from that information. When educating employees and
stakeholders on the organization, each individual has his or her own interpretation of that
information. Whereas, an organization that started their culture with the right delivery of
information will have a culture that mimics their values, mission and vision.
Communication plays a key role in everything that not only an organization does,
but a population as well, it is by communication that we are able to meet new people, get
our information across, and receive information all in the same task. The role
communication plays in perception and organizational culture is that communication
serves as a tool for delivering the information needed to make the changes, if the
espoused values and enacted values are being aligned. The culture of any organization
can only be transferred from person to person via communication. If there is a lack in
communication, then the culture will not be implemented and acted upon. This includes
formal communication passed down from management, to the less informal
communication passed on through other employees. Any misalignment between the
espoused values and enacted values will affect perception within the organization
because communication is the only way to educate and inform the organization,
stakeholders and management in the future process or changes that the company is going
through. Organizational culture with Starbucks sets them apart from other coffee brewing
companies because they are focused on the environment and the public, as opposed to
just focusing on the bottom line. Organizations that have open communication, from top
to bottom will get better results than those that do no openly discuss the organizational
matters. Organizational culture is defined as "a system of shared meaning held by
members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations" (Robbins, S. P., &
Judge, T. A., 2011). When an organization is not acting out their espoused values, the
culture will suffer. Culture defines the company, and communication defines the culture.
If one is lacking, the other is sure to follow, and we are left with an organization that is
constantly trying to either, reinvent itself or trying to get everyone on the same page.
Regrettably, this is counterproductive in the sense that once a culture has been set, it is
very difficult to change it, even if the company goes under new management.
Conflict will arise in any group setting, simply because without conflict their
would be nothing to discuss and resolve. When a group is derived of people with the
same beliefs, standards, ethics and morals, which is very rare) there will be nothing to
challenge the individuals. Challenging each member of an organization will undoubtedly
produce greater results simply because of the amount of research that will go into proving
their points. If anything, the group will know more about the subject after the conflict
has happened and the research is conducted. Starbucks, like many other organizations,
can use conflict to improve communication within and among groups by delivering the
information needed to face conflict. According to S.A. Beebe & J.T. Masterson, (2009),
there are five conflict management styles, Avoidance, accommodation, competition,
compromise, and collaboration. Each style takes into account each person’s emotions and
views into consideration and can come to a conclusion by using one of them for each
conflict. When a group can clearly see their conflict, address it and possibly resolve it,
they will come closer together as a group and as an organization. Organization’s can
make it be know that there will always be conflict in their workplace, encouraging
resolution can help the organization improve their communication within and among
their groups. By resolving conflict successfully, we can increase understanding among
groups, member of the group will have a stronger mutual respect for each other and by
understanding and being able to control their emotions, each member can learn more
about themselves, as opposed to simply continuing the dispute.
Communication in an organization is lined directly to the culture. Everyone has
their own ideas and vision for how they want to perform in an organization, it is up to the
individual to give the perception of themselves that resembles their organization, so that
their can be no mistake on how the culture is. Every organization has their own culture,
integrating each employee in to that culture is no easy task and takes many hours of
orientation and communication with new employees as well as current employees. There
must be a maintained level of professional demeanor that is kept up by the organization
so that they can continue to claim their mission, vision and value statements. Although
there will always be conflict between groups, it is up to the organization to have conflict
resolution in place that will be used each time so that the group and organization can
grow from the inside, and not stay stagnant.