Starbucks Ethical Dilemma free essay sample

Starbucks, one of the most well-known coffee shops in the world has experienced dramatic growth since the first store opened in 1971. After rising to dominance in its market Starbucks currently operates in 61 different countries with just under 17,000 stores worldwide. Recently the management team have been under severe scrutiny as the organisation has been accused of avoiding tax. An investigation conducted by Reuters discovered the company had paid only ? 8. 6 million in corporation tax since launching in the UK 14 years ago, even though cumulative sales of ? billion have been achieved. Despite the contrary the Starbucks PR team have fought back stating that they paid the correct level of taxes in the UK. (Neville and Malik 2012) An Ethical Dilemma in a Business Context Crane and Matten (2010) state business ethics is the study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed. Considering this definition of business ethics it can be co ncluded that the Starbuck’s management team have found themselves in an ethical dilemma in a business context. We will write a custom essay sample on Starbucks Ethical Dilemma or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As reported by Neville and Malik (2012) Margaret Hodge chair of the Parliamentary Committee stated that she thought it was right for customers to boycott the companies that had been avoiding tax payments. Furthermore when addressing the Chief Financial Officer of Starbucks over the matter she said ‘We’re not accusing you of being illegal, we’re accusing you of being immoral. ‘ Morality is concerned with the norms, values and beliefs embedded in the social processes which define right and wrong for an individual or a community as defined by Crane and Matten (2010) Coupling the morality definition and the statement from Margaret Hodge accusing the Chief Financial Officer of being immoral it can be argued that for businesses operating in the UK it is wrong and unacceptable not to pay the necessary taxes. Thomas Jones (1991) pioneered the idea of moral intensity and proposed it as way of expanding ethical decision-making models in relation to the importance of the issue, and the method decision-makers utilise when faced with ethical dilemmas. Considering the six factors that influence the intensity of a moral issue it could be seen that the moral intensity is high in this dilemma. The direct action group UK Uncut are extremely dissatisfied with the tax avoidance as funding for refuges and rape crisis centres faced cuts unless companies paid their fair share of tax. Sarah Greene an activist stated they plan to boycott Starbucks in the near future. HMRC estimated around ? 32 billion was lost in tax avoidance last year alone. (Neville and Malik 2012) As reported by Ebrahimmi (2012) Margaret Hodge stated that tax avoidance is unfair on hard working honest UK tax payers resulting in overseas companies gaining an unfair competitive advantage over UK companies; this then has a negative impact on the UK’s economic growth. Starbucks’ Chief Financial Office admitted that he had a secret signed deal with the Netherlands government where the Starbucks European headquarters is located. Solutions The Starbucks’ CEO has to compile a solution to the dilemma that will minimise the effect on the brand, and ensure that customers that were once loyal to the brand don’t vote with their feet and transfer to a competitor. A principle that must be followed is that ultimately the customer is always right. Analysing the information available it could be argued that the decision makers within Starbucks have acted in an indefensible manner. This is therefore crucial when deciding on a solution. The Stakeholder view established by Freeman (1984) concludes that corporations should serve a variety of stakeholders. Whereas the Shareholder view established by Friedman (1970) concludes that managers should maximise profit. Considering these two views it can be concluded that the Starbucks’ management have been operating under the Shareholder philosophy. Furthermore to this point it could be stated that the theory Egoism is relevant as Starbucks’ decision-making team have committed to activities that better the business and haven’t considered the consequences. Crane and Matten (2010) state an action is morally right if the decision-maker freely decides to pursue either their desires or interests following the egoism theory. Businesses should act ethically and be seen from a customer perspective to be acting in an ethical manner. Components of business ethics management are elements such as mission statements and codes of ethics. Throughout current business activities Starbucks’ management team have not followed their mission statement with regards to their coffee as it states: ‘It has always been, and will always be, about quality. We’re passionate about ethically sourcing the finest coffee beans, roasting them with great care, and improving the lives of people who grow them. We care deeply about all of this; our work is never done. ’ (http://starbucks. co. uk/about-us/company-information/mission-statement) Considering of all the above characteristics of the dilemma I think it is essential for the Starbucks’ management team to choose a solution which will recover the brand name. Shrivastava and Simokos (1989) established four basic responses that companies can take in a crisis; a super effort, voluntary compliance, forced regulatory compliance and denial as demonstrated in the diagram below. (Vassilikopoulou, Siomkos, Chatzipanagiotou, and Pantouvakis 2009) Analysing each of the actions I believe that the most beneficial option for the brand is a ‘super effort’. Shrivastava and Simokos (1989) state that this action can lead to a speedy recovery of lost business. The Chief Financial Officer could therefore discuss and negotiate with the National Treasury and try and reach an agreement with regards to the potential amount of tax that has been avoided. The decision to pay back tax has been reached as the CEO has been forced and pressured into it. The CEO therefore needs to show the brands credentials and true business ethos, and prove that elements such as the mission statement aren’t just hollow empty words. This could be done by investing in improving working conditions and the infrastructure in the less developed countries that provide the corporation with coffee beans. The investment could be calculated on a ratio basis: for every five million that is paid back in tax one million is invested into developing areas less privileged. This campaign will recover the brand name. The Starbucks’ management team will then have to develop a communication plan that identifies the key stakeholders, their information needs and how these can be filled. (Shrivastava and Simokos 1989) Time is also a crucial factor before implementing the chosen solution as Standrop (2006) identified that the more time that elapses between the crisis occurring and the companies action the harder it is for company customer trust again.

How To Make Interns A Successful Part Of Your Marketing Team

How To Make Interns A Successful Part Of Your Marketing Team Flip on your TV and you will quickly learn that interns are good at three things: Making a killer cup of coffee. Running all your personal errands. Making notable mistakes, such as almost starting your company’s building on fire. While that makes for great TV, those examples are not true in the real world (except for the coffee part). Interns have now become an essential ingredient for success. They’re fresh, energetic, and willing to learn. These are just a few reasons why you might want to consider hiring an intern. Behind every successful team is a great intern who’s eager to gain knowledge and experience from what you have to offer. All you need to do is find the right candidate that fits well with your team. Easy, right? Maybe not, but don’t worry. We’ll teach you everything we’ve learned and show you how to hire an intern the right way.  First, well bring in Nathan Ellering, our Content Marketing Lead, to talk about the hiring process. Then, Ill let you know what ambitious intern candidates are looking for from companies (and what we need to do our best work). By the end, youll have a clear picture of how to run a successful internship program. How To Hire A Marketing Intern That Will SucceedWhy You Should Hire An Intern, According To Nathan Ellering Why you need an intern may seem obvious. However,  you and your intern will accomplish more if you clearly define one set of responsibilities and  projects that they’ll take ownership of: What daily tasks could an intern become an expert at? Think of something thatll eliminate it nearly entirely from your to-do list. (Scheduling social media messages, maybe?) Which kinds of projects could you teach an intern once, then repeat, and improve consistently? (Writing landing pages, maybe?) After you clearly define a valuable project you can teach an intern, it’s time to start the hiring process. But what should you look for? Which Qualities To  Look For In An Intern Skills can be taught. Grit, ambition, and determination can’t. Either your potential intern is a go-getter, or, as a mentor, you can tell her exactly what to do every step of the way. The trick is to find a balance between passion for the type of work you’re going to offer an intern and the tenacity that will help them succeed as an individual member of your team. Skills can be taught. Grit, ambition, and determination cant.At , that requires a multi-phased intern interview process: Sourcing and applying: This is when you actively search for candidates who may have had internships in your industry in the past, or are majoring in the kind of work you’d like help with. Share your posting on local college job pages, search for them on LinkedIn, and syndicate your listing to sites like Indeed. Review every application to determine if there’s a passion for what your intern will do before you even speak with them. Intro interview: This is an informal meeting, either in person or over the phone. The goal is to ask basic questions to gauge candidates’ interest, experience- even if it’s just through classwork- and long-term career goals. It’s a nice opportunity to ask questions like: â€Å"Why are you pursuing your degree?† â€Å"What do you want to do after college and even a few years after that?† â€Å"Why do you want to work with us?† Watch out for purely â€Å"learning† answers to that last question; ultimately, you need your intern to do meaningful work and not just learn. Hiring packet and example: If an intern candidate makes it past the intro interview, ask her to fill out a personality quiz to help you understand how she may work best. At this point, also give her an example project, and ask her to work through it to the best of her abilities without much direction. Final interview: When a candidate meets your expectations and would fit in well with your team’s culture, it’s time to get the team’s opinions. Peer review the example, look for red flags, and determine how to proceed. Offer: When you get all thumbs up, ask the candidate to join your team! This approach can help you strategically choose a candidate who will work well with minimal direction after initial new hire onboarding, collaborate effectively with your team, and push themselves- and subsequently, your entire team- to ship more projects. Choose an intern who will work well with minimal direction and will push themselves. #internHow To Get Your Intern  Started Clearly plan out your expectations. Let  your intern know exactly what they will do in their first month. A great way to do this is by creating an on-boarding checklist in a tool like Evernote that contains: Important documents to read or videos to watch to help your intern learn what their responsibilities are. A list of projects the intern will complete, along with commentary on your expectations on what the outcomes of those projects will look like. From here, help them learn how to work with your team to complete those projects. Help interns learn how to work with your team.After the first project is done, there will be lots of lessons learned from everyone involved. Ask your intern to review the process with the entire team to improve the project process: What went well? What went wrong? What should we improve? That’s it! Now I’m tossing this back to Halle, social media intern extraordinaire, to share how to incorporate an  intern into your team. And Now, Back To Halle: How To  Incorporate An Intern Into Your Team Nathan just gave you a great rundown of the hiring process. Now, Ill tell you what your intern needs to succeed, based on what weve learned at . In order to have a successful intern, you need make them feel like they are part of the team because well- they are. How do you do  this? Meetings:  Hold daily meetings to sync with your team and intern. Projects:  Give your intern more  opportunities  to learn,  by including them in team projects. Team activities: Allow your intern to be a part of team activities and exercises. Ready to become an expert? Let’s jump in! 1. Holding Daily Sync Meetings Here at , we hold a Scrum meeting every morning before starting our work day. Scrum is a daily meeting everyone attends. These are informal touch points, and they are effective with small teams who collaborate on projects together. What better way to make your intern feel at home than to have them be a part of your scrum meetings. The intern gets a first-hand look at what the team is working on and also how they can contribute. By including an intern in scrum meetings, they are able to understand the status of a project and can ask questions or express concerns. How can you incorporate your intern into meetings? Set a specific time for scrum meetings every day. This way your intern can develop a daily work routine. Discuss what projects you are currently working on with the team and what tasks the intern needs to have completed with set deadlines. Ask what each member of the team is working on, including your intern. This way they can bring up any roadblocks or questions they may have regarding the project. 2. Make Your Intern A Part Of Your Team Projects Remember why your intern is really there- to learn. The best way to learn is by doing. If your team has any current project in the works, make it your goal that the young individual is a part of the strategy or at least has some sort of task involved. Providing valuable projects he or she can take on, even if it’s just a small piece of a larger project, can be a great way to learn. Be sure to offer your intern opportunities that enrich your company and their career growth. Some marketing tasks your intern could tackle include: Social Media: Young professionals are creative geniuses at social media. You’d be surprised at what knowledge they hold regarding social media. Research: Interns are either in school or fresh out of school, so they are magical wizards at researching topics quickly and efficiently. Writing: You may already have a content writer, but consider giving your intern a piece of content they can write and perfect (such as this blog post I am writing). Recommended Reading: How To Structure Your Marketing Team To Create The Best Content 3.   Include Your Intern In Team Activities Do you have a team event going on? Include your intern! Is everyone on your team going out to eat? Include your intern! Team bonding is a phenomenal way to make your intern feel comfortable and gives them a chance to get to know everyone around the office. Every Wednesday at , we have Grillmaster Wednesday where a member of our team is in charge of grilling lunch for everyone. And 9 out of 10 times it’s one of our interns that steps up to the plate- literally. A Little Internship Program Advice For anyone who has never hired an intern before, it’s a wonderful experience. Plus, who couldn’t use an extra set of hands? Mistakes will be made on both sides, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s a learning experience for you and your intern. Use this experience to further develop your management skills. So here is a little advice that will go a long way 1. Don’t Be Afraid To Give More It’s better to have more than to not have enough when it comes to an internship program. You want your intern to gain a great deal of knowledge from all the experience they’ve learned. If they are doing one simple task over and over they will become very bored. Don’t be afraid to challenge your intern and have them do something out of their comfort zone.Don’t be afraid to challenge your intern and have them do something out of their comfort zone- like writing a blog post or a landing page- they might thank you for it. You should set aside some time each day to check in with your intern. Have a more formal touch point about once a week to keep them informed about upcoming projects and to ensure they have a clear direction of their current project. 2. Create A Friendly Environment As a mentor, you need to create an environment that makes an intern feel comfortable. Don’t just stick them in a room by themselves and hope they are learning. Unhappy interns will not want to be part of a team that doesn’t appreciate them. You and your intern will be spending a lot of time together, so it’s important that they are comfortable enough to ask questions or chime in when they have suggestions. It’s also important to build a relationship with an intern so that YOU’RE comfortable enough to ask questions. Ask them where they would derive the most value for their time spent with you, and seek to arrange a project in the areas that most interest and drive them. If your intern is doing a great job, let them know! Providing words of encouragement will make the individual more productive and continue to thrive. 3. Look At Mistakes As Lessons Learned I can guarantee that there will be mistakes made- from both ends. Use these mistakes as a learning opportunity for the future. If your intern is drowning in confusion, it’s up to you to jump in and save them. The intern you picked likely passed up on a summer full of road trips or a fall full of pumpkin spiced anything to work for your company. Always remember that they want to be here and shouldn’t be taken for granted. Aim to be a mentor your intern can learn from and look up to. Take the time to answer questions, and teach new concepts so that you can avoid future hiccups. You’ll even learn a thing or two yourself during the entire process, whether it be better ways to manage or smarter ways to complete certain tasks. Recommended Reading:  How To Create The Best Content Ever With Your Cross Functional Team Now You Know How To Hire A Successful Marketing Intern! Throughout the internship program, always make sure you are giving the individual opportunities to learn or projects that will look awesome on their resume. Many companies may offer their interns full-time jobs if their work was exceptional. If you don’t intend on hiring on your intern, then write them a great letter of recommendation. At the end of the internship program, an intern should walk away with an unforgettable experience that was engaging and worthwhile.

Cross Cultural Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Cross Cultural Management - Essay Example From management’s perspective, employees are considered the most important assets for the company and it is the quality of the employees that makes the business successful. In order to be successful, employees are offered with training and their skills are developed through different programs to achieve certain objectives. Training and development provide prime opportunities for the management to motivate their employees and at the same time enhance the knowledge and skills of the employees. This not only motivates the employees but also encourages them to increase their productivity for accomplishment of organizational objectives (Henry, 1995). Training and development are crucial for every business as skilled and motivated workforce can support the business to achieve its goals in a more productive manner. It is essential that the employees possess knowledge and skills so that their performance should be at optimal level. As in an organization, there are people from differen t cultural backgrounds and, thus, cross cultural training is one of the key elements today to reduce the cultural differences among employees working together (Bratton, & Gold, 2009). Organizations recruit individuals from different backgrounds; it becomes important for them to conduct cross cultural training programs and it helps in understanding cultural differences of people working together (Price, 2007). Emirates can be seen as one of the best examples of successful business in the world and the main reason for their success is focusing on the efficiency of the workforce. Being the best, Emirates spends about 5 to 6 percent of their revenue on training and development of their employees which enables the employees to be regarded as one of the best. Emirates hires people from different backgrounds and they conduct different cross cultural programs so that these people from diverse cultural backgrounds can work together. Emirates Airline has its own training facility specially bu ilt to train and develop the employees by allowing them to share their opinions and ideas, hence, expanding the knowledge of each individual and changing their behavior according to the requirements of the organization (Redman, & Wilkinson, 2009). Another example for successful business is McDonalds which is operating in different parts of the world and people from different cultural background work at McDonalds; this has been one of the main reasons for success of the company. McDonalds offers training to their employees on a continuous basis. McDonalds focuses on training and development of its employees according to the culture of the region they are operating in and at the same time they offer cross cultural training. According to McDonalds, their success lies in the employees (The Times, 2012) With increasing diversity in the organizations, organizations have been investing in cross cultural training programs. This report will analyze two theories related to cultural difference s and their impact on the performance of employees in organizations: Geert Hofstede cultural management theory and Trompenaars and Hampden Model. Geert Hofstede cultural management theory Geert Hosfstede’s has presented five dimensions to analyze the cultural differences and these dimensions have been applied on how it can influence the training and development programs. Power distance Power distance can be defined as how people accept that