OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Structural Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the structural frame
2. Apply the structural frame to your personal case situation

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

The recent situation Starbucks has encountered “Since 2021, Starbucks workers

throughout the U.S. have been pushing to form unions” (Peek, 2023). This situation

stems from inconsistent schedules, poor management, poor compensation, and enduring

the poor treatment of customers. My role during this situation was a shift supervisor who

led and coached my baristas. I was responsible for ensuring the safety of the baristas and

the customers, along with money management, scheduling breaks and lunches, and

supporting my peers.

2) Describe how the structure of the organization influenced the situation.

Starbucks Coffee Company follows a machine bureaucracy similar to McDonald’s where

there is constant tension between local managers and headquarters (Bolman, 2021). With

this tension and following a simple hierarchy structure this led to Starbucks employees

pushing to unionize. This simple hierarchy structure led to poor communication and a

disconnect from top executives that were making the decisions for the company.

Starbucks employees did not feel heard from the top executives and their concerns

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 regarding pay, hours, and management. There was a constant disconnect and limited

communication from corporate to middle management. This correlates to vertical

coordination, where high levels of authority are controlling subordinates, enforcing new

rules and policies rather than listening to the employees' concerns (Bolman, 2021). The

lack of communication between corporate, management, and the baristas. The baristas are

the front line of the Starbucks, they are “at the heart of the Starbucks experience”

(Starbucks Coffee Company, 2024). The employees are putting in the most effort to

ensure they are following the goals and objectives of the organization, but their concerns

are not being heard and ignored but higher authority. With Starbucks being the largest

coffeehouse chain in the world, with over 400,000 employees, the high authority was not

listening to its front line workers. I believe Starbucks had structural dilemmas throughout

each store, which consisted of Gap versus overlap where responsibilities were not clearly

defined or responsibilities were over-defined which led to lack of creativity (Bolman,

2021). There was also a lack of lateral strategies in place because the roles were so

complex and the size of Starbucks continued to grow. Overall, the reason behind

Starbucks employees pushing to unionize comes from the simple hierarchy and the

machine bureaucracy structure.

3) Recommend how you would use structure for an alternative course of action
regarding your case.

Structure is the blueprint of each organization and without it the organization fails.

Starbucks Coffee company was still successful and still making money through Starbucks

workers fighting to unionize, the problem with the structure is that the employees were

not being heard and there was a gap between authority and subordinates. I would suggest

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 a self-managing structure similar to Trader Joe’s where employees can manage

themselves and they take action to remedy issues or concerns (Bolman, 2021). Similar to

Trader Joe’s which is a widely popular grocery store across the United States, Starbucks

could slowly implement this self-managing structure. I also recommend that Starbucks

implement more lateral strategies such as meetings with higher authorities, district, and

regional managers. If Starbucks had implemented more lateral strategies to open

communication with the employees, their structure may be more successful since there is

a bridge between the top executives and baristas, which is currently non-existent. I would

also recommend hiring outside help to help restructure and reorganize, similar to what

was done with Ford General Motors (Bolman, 2021). If Starbucks would hire an outside

perspective to engage with the employees, especially the baristas I think they would learn

a lot about the structure and how that is impacting the organization. This of course would

take time and resources, but if the employees were finally heard and Starbucks made

more effort to listen to their concerns this would be a first step towards building a

stronger structural frame. Out of Mintzberg’s five structural configurations Starbucks

would benefit from restructuring their structure from a machine bureaucracy to

adhocracy. This would be beneficial because it would peel away the layers of

management and allow communication to flow freely with direct lines to employees.

4).Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned about
this frame.

Based on what I have learned about this frame I would have pushed my manager and my

regional managers to seek the benefits of what restructuring could do for our

organization. Since a lot of the employees voting to unionize wanted their concerns to be

heard and have more consistent hours, I would have advocated more for myself and the

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 baristas. During this situation I just stayed quiet and didn’t participate in strikes or any

protests. I think now understanding how much structure impacts the organization I would

have advocated more for the baristas and myself. I think if I participated more with peers

to push for restructuring the organization we would have a better chance for change.

Other than participating, speaking up, talking to our regional and district managers to

push for a stronger structure I don’t believe I would do anything differently because I am

such a small factor of a huge organization. I was lucky to have my store since we had a

great manager that listened to us and worked to create the environment we wanted. I

know there are a lot of stores that were not that lucky and their managers never listened

to them or even manipulated them. This is why I believe restructuring this organization to

a self-managing configuration would be more beneficial for Starbucks.

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 References

About us: Starbucks Coffee Company. About Us: Starbucks Coffee Company. (n.d.).
https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (7th ed.).San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (ASU Bookstore Automatic Purchase-Perusall Version Only)

Peek, S. (2023, November 6). Lessons from the Starbucks Union Movement. business.com.
https://www.business.com/articles/starbucks-union-movement/