Discussion Paper about the CEO of Starbucks and the Practice of Ethical

Leadership

The discussion about the Practice of Ethical Leadership by the CEO of

Starbucks was an interesting issue because it became controversial due to the
action made by the store manager of Starbucks located in Philadelphia. As
what Johnson said, the store seeks to create a culture of warmth and
belonging where everyone is welcome. But in the action done by the store
manager, it was not followed and went viral as the policemen getting involved
which made it more an enormous concern. Also, one of the customers has a
video clip on what really happened that day and posted it on the social media.
The consequence of this was they have closed 8,000 stores to conduct
unconscious bias training. They admitted that their employees needed more
training, including about when to call authorities, and that the company
needed to conduct a thorough analysis of the practices that lead to the said
incident. After the said issue of the Starbucks, it released a new policy called
“Use of Third Place Policy”, which states, “We want our stores to be the third
place, a warm and welcoming environment where customers can gather and
connect. Any customer is welcome to use Starbucks spaces, including our
restrooms, cafes and patios, regardless of whether they make a purchase.” Also
included in this policy are the things managers should do if a customer
becomes troublesome. The third place is a sociology-inspired concept, denoting
to an additional place outside the home and work that people can meet and
build a sense of community. Recently, Starbucks clarified the bathroom policy
in their stores, which they have said that they would allow anyone, regardless
of purchasing anything, access to the bathroom.

As what I have understood, proper ethics is the most important value every
person needs to have especially persons serving others. In a business like
Starbucks, who interact a lot of different people daily, they should know how to
handle diverse people in a good way because it really affect their public
reputation once who had created bad attitude towards customers. There is a
saying that “Customers are always right” which even if they act rude to an
employee, they should stay calm and have a long patience because as I have
said before, they were serving people and they should please them to have a
good customer- employee relationship. According to what I have research,
ethics is about the concern of an individual's moral judgements about right
and wrong. Judgments taken within an organization may be made by
individuals or groups, but whoever makes them will be influenced by the
culture of the company. Also, the decision to behave ethically is a moral one,
employees must decide what they think is the right course of action. And this
may involve rejecting the route that would lead to the biggest short-term profit.
Addition to this, good ethical behavior can bring noteworthy benefits to a
business. Some of these are to attract customers to the firm's products which
boosting their sales and profits, attract investors and keep the company's share
price high thus protecting the business from takeover, etc. Treating
stakeholders fairly is seen as an essential part of the company's success, as
described here: 'A creative and well managed corporate and social responsibility
programme is in the best interests of all our stakeholders - not just our
consumers - but also our shareowners, employees, customers, suppliers and
other business partners who work together with us.' Therefore, I conclude that
ethics must be learned and is a must to have business that is different from
others.

As what ethics is, if we relate this to the situation in which the store manager
in Philadelphia acted to the customers, it was really unethical. Starbucks had
admitted the mistake they had done and due to this, they had released their
new policy known as “Use of the Third Place Policy”. This issue have made the
businesses/employers as well as the customers be aware of the things that
create a huge impact in both parties. In the said situation, the employees were
the one who showed incompetent and they have to be responsible on what they
have done because they have acted against the proper ethics against the
customers. Most businesses lack in terms of ethical behavior of their
employees when they are interacting with the customers because they hired
even without proper training in terms of communicating in customers. The
business didn’t thought that it may damage their reputation if some of their
employees do not act properly in their customers because they only focus on
how they will lower or cut their cost in terms of their labor. It is one of the
misconceptions of the employers that will lead their business to incur net loss,
few or no investors at all, etc. The situation of Starbucks should awaken the
minds of the employers to prioritize more on the ethical behavior of their
employees towards to their customers because once the customer had a bad
experience on your services. And it will spread like a virus that it may lead to
few customers or worse bankruptcy of your business. Thus, I suggest that the
employers should not forget invest in the ethical behavior by having their
employees go in trainings and seminars on how to handle different customers.

Wrapping up, employers should give importance to the ethical behavior of their
employees towards to the customers because having a good relationship will
create brand loyalty that will lead to become more popular than other
competitors and will also be competent enough to become a profitable
business. Also, never forget to provide the needs of your customers like
complete facilities of your store to achieve their expectations or higher than if
possible. Addition to this, provide the needs of your employees for them to give
be competent enough in providing their service in the workplace. Thus, do not
put aside the proper ethics of each employee in a business because this is one
of the things that may put the company which it can be a profitable or
unprofitable business.