Diversity Audit
/ HRM582
Starbucks Coffee Company Diversity Audit
Cindy Rizo and Robin Jones
Keller Graduate School of Management
In this paper, we will be discussing a diversity audit that took place with the Starbucks Coffee Company. The audit consists of the company’s background, what the team’s criteria for a diverse organization should be and the findings on what the organization diversity practices truly consist of based on research provided from interviews, company statements and news articles. The remaining of the paper will focus on the organization in terms of Thomas and Ely’s paradigms, building an inclusion breakthrough and a business case for diversity in the organization. Finally, recommendations for improvements will be discussed for the company.
“Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” This is the opening mission statement for Starbucks Coffee Company. Since Howard Schultz, CEO, took over the company in 1982, this has been the words that have helped make Starbucks the most successful gourmet coffee company in the world. The first Store opened in 1971 in the Pike Place Market in Seattle Washington. It was a small store only catering to whole bean sales. However, one trip to Italy by Howard Schultz would change everything.
In 1983, Schultz goes to Italy where he discovers the idea of a coffee house and believes it is a marketable concept that could take hold in the US. In 1984 the Pike Place Store serves its first latte, and in 1987 Starbucks starts to open stores in Vancouver and Chicago as well as other cities nationwide. As of Dec of 2009 Starbucks has 16,706 stores serving handcrafted beverages and creating an entire cultures with coffee being in the epicenter.
From the first barista ever hired, Starbucks has been committed to its partners and has prided itself on being a company based on diversity and acceptance of all cultures; not only from the partners but from the coffee
Starbucks Coffee Company Diversity Audit
Cindy Rizo and Robin Jones
Keller Graduate School of Management
In this paper, we will be discussing a diversity audit that took place with the Starbucks Coffee Company. The audit consists of the company’s background, what the team’s criteria for a diverse organization should be and the findings on what the organization diversity practices truly consist of based on research provided from interviews, company statements and news articles. The remaining of the paper will focus on the organization in terms of Thomas and Ely’s paradigms, building an inclusion breakthrough and a business case for diversity in the organization. Finally, recommendations for improvements will be discussed for the company.
“Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” This is the opening mission statement for Starbucks Coffee Company. Since Howard Schultz, CEO, took over the company in 1982, this has been the words that have helped make Starbucks the most successful gourmet coffee company in the world. The first Store opened in 1971 in the Pike Place Market in Seattle Washington. It was a small store only catering to whole bean sales. However, one trip to Italy by Howard Schultz would change everything.
In 1983, Schultz goes to Italy where he discovers the idea of a coffee house and believes it is a marketable concept that could take hold in the US. In 1984 the Pike Place Store serves its first latte, and in 1987 Starbucks starts to open stores in Vancouver and Chicago as well as other cities nationwide. As of Dec of 2009 Starbucks has 16,706 stores serving handcrafted beverages and creating an entire cultures with coffee being in the epicenter.
From the first barista ever hired, Starbucks has been committed to its partners and has prided itself on being a company based on diversity and acceptance of all cultures; not only from the partners but from the coffee
References: Retrieved April 4, 2010 from Business Week website: http://www.businessweek.com/adsections/diversity/diversework.htm Retrieved April 5, 2010 from EDIS website: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hr022 Retrieved April 5, 2010 from Ezine website: http://ezinearticles.com/?Diversity-in-the-Workplace:-Benefits,-Challenges-and-Solutions&id=11053 Retrieved April 6, 2010 from http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/pubs/hrguidearticle/chapter-12-managing-diversity-in-the-workplace/ Retrieved April 6, 2010 from Gladstone website: http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~asuomca/diversityinit/definition.html Retrieved April 1st, 2010 from Seattle times http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009479123_starbucks16.html Retrieved April 5th, 2010 from Howard Behar http://www.howardbehar.com/book.shtml Retrieved March 20th, 2010 from New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/marketing/jobmarket/diversity/supplier.html Retrieved March 25th, 2010 from New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/marketing/jobmarket/diversity/starbucks.html Retrieved March 16th, 2010