While there are many definitions of servant leadership, Robert K. Greenleaf, who coined the term, Servant Leadership, explains that it first begins with the natural feeling to serve; a conscious choice to aspire one to lead, making sure other people’s highest priority needs are being served so they grow as a person, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely themselves want to become servants.
According to Northouse, servant leadership is an approach focusing on leadership from the point of view of the leader and his or her behaviors. Servant leadership emphasizes that leaders be attentive to the concerns of their followers, empathize with them, and nurture them. Servant leaders put followers first, empower them, and help them develop their full personal capacities. Furthermore, servant leaders are ethical and lead in ways that serve the greater good of the organization, community, and society at large (Northouse, 2016).
Intrigued with the success of Starbucks, I discovered that they have built a servant leadership culture. Starbucks has gained respect for not just being the largest coffee chain in the world, but also for creating a culture of openness and putting employees first. Based on their strong beliefs about the importance of employee engagement in building a successful business and lasting organization, it was important to top executives at Starbucks to instill a culture of servant leadership. Ultimately, they knew that “how you treat your people is how they’ll treat your customers” (Greenleaf, 2015).
Northouse describes a list of characteristics to model servant leader behavior (conceptualizing, emotional healing, putting followers first, helping followers grow and succeed, behaving ethically, empowering, and creating value for the community). Although, Starbucks Coffee’s organizational culture has a number of key characteristics that is unique to the firm, they coincide with the characteristics listed in Northouse. The company describes its organizational culture as, “a culture of belonging, inclusion and diversity.” In this regard, the main features of Starbucks’ organizational culture are as follows:
- Servant Leadership “employees first” (Leaders, managers and supervisors emphasize support for subordinates to ensure that everyone grows in the company)
- Relationship-driven approach (Culture that supports warm and friendly relationships)
- Collaboration and communication (Encourages collaborative efforts through effective communication)
- Openness (Open forums to encourage employees to ask questions and communicate with superiors. Empowers employees and facilitates innovation)
- Inclusion and Diversity (An anti-discrimination policy that shapes its organizational culture. It facilitates sharing and rapport among employees, as well as innovation based on diverse ideas.)
As Greenleaf highlighted in his original work (1970), the central goal of servant leadership is to create healthy organizations that nurture individual growth, strengthen organizational performance, and, in the end, produce a positive impact on society (Northouse, 2016).
Today, Starbucks Coffee’s organizational culture is a key success factor in the business. The company prides its distinct characteristic to that which built a competitive advantage and developed a consumer population of loyal Starbucks fans.
REFERENCES:
Ferguson, E., (2017). Starbucks Coffee Company’s Organizational Culture. Panmore Institute. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/starbucks-coffee-company-organizational-culture
Greenleaf, R. (2015). How Starbucks Built a Servant Leadership Culture. Center for Servant Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.greenleaf.org/how-starbucks-built-a-servant-leadership-culture-qa-with-howard-behar/
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Penn State World Campus (n.d.). Leadership in Work Settings. [Commentary]. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1834747/modules/items/21827937
Hi,
I sincerely enjoyed reading your blog. Your analysis about Starbucks’ culture is very accurate. The culture of belonging, inclusion and diversity is a favorable antecedent condition for servant leadership. To maintain this type of culture, the organization should emphasize hiring leaders who display servant leader attributes. In addition, Starbucks should monitor follower receptivity and develop servant leaders’ behaviors. These conditions would optimize follower performance and growth, organizational performance, and societal impact.
First, the Starbucks likes to achieve the organization culture by adopting the five main features: putting employees first, using relationship-driven approach, collaboration and communication, openness, and inclusion and diversity. In a way, this is their organizational goal, which can be accomplished by hiring the leaders who have characteristics like listening, empathy, healing, and conceptualization. First, two servant leader characteristics that would help Starbucks leaders shaping the desired culture are listening and empathy. If Starbucks leaders wanted to put their employees first, and have open communications with the followers, then, they should communicate by listening first, acknowledge the followers’ point of views, understand what followers are thinking and feeling, and validate their views and feelings. Second, the relationship-driven approach requires leaders to build a friendly relationship and interact with each employee by caring and supporting each individual. These requirements resemble the healing characteristic. According to Northouse (2016), servant leaders care about followers’ well-being, and support them by helping individuals overcome their problems. In addition, healing is an interactive process, in which, when leaders are healing the followers, they are also being healed (Greenleaf, 1970; Cited in Northouse, 2016). The two-way process is relationship-driven approach. Another important attribute is conceptualization, which is a leader’s ability to articulate organizational goals and provide clear directions for the followers. For example, the leaders’ conceptualization should guide the Starbucks employees to collaborate and establish an inclusive culture. Overall, these servant leader attributes would help the organization to implement and maintain the desired culture.
The next stage is monitoring follower receptivity while developing the leaders’ servant leader behaviors. According to the Model of Servant Leadership (Northouse, 2016), follower receptivity is the third factor that influence servant leader behaviors. If the followers reacted favorably towards servant leadership, then the servant leader behaviors would impact the individual and organizational outcomes positively. On the other hand, if the followers thought the leaders’ behaviors were overwhelming or controlling, then they would resist the leadership and avoid following the leader’ directions. As a result, the organization should monitor followers’ responsiveness towards the development of servant leader behavior. For example, when servant leaders are developing servant leader behaviors, they should listen to followers’ feedback. If the feedback is positive towards one specific behavior, then the leaders should adopt such behavior when serving other employees, vice versa. By acknowledging the followers’ receptivity, the organization can modify leaders’ behaviors and ensure the desired outcomes.
Finally, Starbucks’ organizational context and culture promote servant leadership. If the organization could focus on the other conditions in the Model of Servant Leadership, then the servant leader behaviors would affect the followers’ and organizational outcomes positively. Therefore, this organization should emphasis hiring leaders who have servant leader attribute, monitor follower receptivity, and develop servant leader behaviors.
Sincerely,
Connie
References:
Ferguson, E., (2017). Starbucks Coffee Company’s organizational culture. Panmore Institute. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/starbucks-coffee-company-organizational-culture
Greenleaf, R. (2015). How Starbucks built a Servant Leadership culture. Center for Servant Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.greenleaf.org/how-starbucks-built-a-servant-leadership-culture-qa-with-howard-behar/
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
I really enjoyed reading your post. It seems as though Starbucks is using the servant leadership approach to its best benefit for its employees, customers and the business aspect itself. They know that in order for them to be successful they must focus on making their employees happy which in turn trickles down to their customers. Making customers more comfortable while spending time in the stores causes them to stay longer and, in doing so, indulge in more of what Starbucks has to offer. As customers linger, they are more likely to buy a second cup of coffee or a snack, to pay for wi-fi internet access, to burn a CD, etc. The three main reasons for why customers choose Starbucks are: the coffee itself, the Starbucks people who serve the coffee and the experience gained in the stores.
Starbucks shows that product quality and service reliability were a higher priority than cutting costs. Starbucks paid a premium price for high-quality gourmet coffee beans and they managed the supply chain from beginning to end so that quality and reliability would not be compromised. In the early days, Starbucks did not have to focus on improving market share, productivity, and profitability. When a new store opened customers came by word-of-mouth. Starbucks excelled at three things: the coffee, its people, and the “Starbucks Experience.” Starbucks used to be considered “recession proof” (Kirby, 2008). I find it pretty amazing how these simple things make Starbucks so successful. How something as simple as doing right by your employees allows for them to return the same treatment to their customers. If more business used this strategy there would mos likely be a lot more successful business built on the right principles.
References
Kirby, J., 2008. Grande Trouble at Starbucks, Macleans.
Penn State World Campus (n.d.). Leadership in Work Settings. [Commentary]. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1834747/modules/items/21827937