The Influence of Employees’ Motivation
Management on Teamwork: Taking Starbucks as an
Example
Liu Yiting
1
Department of Teaching Development Center
Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade,
Fuzhou, China
Zhang Jinling
2
Department of Teaching Development Center
Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade,
Fuzhou, China
Abstract
—This paper discusses the motivation and teamwork
of Starbucks which is one of the best know and fastest growing
companies in the world. The development of Starbucks is well-
known, so the organization management in this company must
have some strong advantages. The analysis includes two parts:
firstly, explain the relevant motivation theories applied in
Starbucks; secondly, describe the teamwork in Starbucks, the
factors that lead to the effectiveness of the teamwork and the
challenges encountered. The research finds that the way the
company practice the motivation theory and the leadership style
and the teamwork spirit has no problem. However, if the
company want to have a more perfect development, motivation
can be applied in reinforcement, management by objectives
(MOB), empowerment and work sharing.
Keywords—Motivation; Management practice; Teamwork;
Leadership style
I.
I
NTRODUCTION
Starbucks is one of the best known and fastest growing
companies in the word. Set up in 1971, in Seattle, the company
grew slowly initially, but expanded rapidly in the late 1980s
and the 1990s. By the early 2000s, there were nearly 9,000
Starbucks outlets across the world and the company’s eventual
retail target was to open 30,000 outlets. Starbucks realized
early on that motivated and committed human resources were
the key to the success of a retail business. Therefore the
company took great care in selecting the right kind of people
and made an effort to retain them. Consequently, the
company’s human resources policies reflected its commitment
to its employee. However, although the Starbucks is one of the
best know and fastest growing companies in the world, three
possible problems had to be considered-would the company be
able to support its staff with the same level of benefits in the
future, given the large increase in the number of employees;
would the company be able to retain employee if it made and
move to lower its human resource costs be cutting down on
benefits; and would Starbucks be able to maintain its small
company culture, an important element in its past growth. This
case study indicates the motivation and teamwork of Starbucks
as a business strategy and some further proposals would be
offered in the recommendation in the final of the study.
II.
M
OTIVATION
S
TRATEGIES
A
PPLIED IN
S
TARBUCKS
Employee behavior is the pattern of actions by the members
of an organization that directly or indirectly influences the
organization’s effectiveness. Some employee behaviors, called
performance behaviors, directly contribute to productivity and
performance. Motivation is the process by which the behavior
of an individual id influenced by others, through their power to
offer or withhold satisfaction of the individual’s needs and
goals. As can be seen, the development of the Starbucks is
grate, but the company also has some possible problems and
challenges. Hence, we ought to discuss, analyze and find out
the advantages of the management in Starbucks and problems
of in its development so that we can improve the management
level and learn something from the Starbucks.
A.
Needs hierarchy in Starbucks
Motivation is one part of the managerial function of
directing. Broadly defined, motivation is the set of forces that
cause people to behave in certain ways. One worker may be
motivated to work hard to produce as much as possible,
whereas another may be motivated to do just enough to survive.
Managers must understand these differences in behavior and
the reasons for them.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs
model proposed that people have several different needs that
they attempt to satisfy in their work [1]. Once a set of needs
has been satisfied, it ceases to motivate behavior. This is the
sense in which the hierarchical nature of lower and higher level
needs affects employee motivation and satisfaction. For
example, the Starbucks provides a good salary and make a
comfortable working environment to the workers with trust and
insurance, therefore, the workers in the Starbucks feel secure in
their job and then a new pension plane will probably be less
important to the staff than the chance to make new friends and
join an informal network among your coworkers.
Maslow’s theory recognizes that because different people
have different needs, they are motivated by different things.
The manager of Starbucks focus on what are the workers needs
and sets up varies policies to meet workers’ varies needs. The
Starbucks treats their employees as friends and tries hers best
International Conference on Management, Education Technology and Economics (ICMETE 2019)
Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 82
543
to manage them with the general needs. It seems that the
Starbucks helps her friends to work more effectively. From my
own understanding, this could be one of the reasons for the
Starbucks’ success.
In addition, people in today’s world are different from the
past. They have variety needs and wants in their daily life,
especially the requirements for emotional and satisfaction.
Managers should understand the different needs of different
employees in the company first, then the motivations can be
worked effectively and efficiently. Companies help people
satisfy their needs at work by providing a level of pay that
enables a person to buy food and clothing and have adequate
housing; by providing job security, adequate medical benefits
and safe working conditions; by promoting good interpersonal
relations and organizing social functions such as company
picnics and holiday parties; by granting promotions and
recognizing accomplishments and by giving people the
opportunity to use their skills and abilities to the fullest extent
possible.
B.
Hygiene factors and motivation factors in Starbucks
Although the manager of the Starbucks knows most of the
workers’ needs, there is still a question to us: whether these
workers satisfy their job. Here, the psychologist Frederick
Herzberg concluded that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction
depend on two factors: hygiene factor, such as working
condition, and motivation factor, such as recognition for a job
well done [2].
According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory, hygiene factors
affect motivation and satisfaction only if they are absent or fail
to meet expectations. For example, workers will be dissatisfied
if they believe they have poor working conditions. If working
conditions are improved, however, they will not necessarily
become satisfied and they will simply not be dissatisfied. If
workers receive no recognition for successful work, they may
be neither dissatisfied nor satisfied. If recognition is provided,
they will likely become more satisfied. For instance, the
workers of the Starbucks are satisfied, because they have a
good working condition, if working conditions are declined,
however, they will necessarily become dissatisfied and they
will not be satisfied. The Starbucks puts the employees in a
high level in her heart. Recognition is provided in the
Starbucks and workers receive recognition for success work, so
they will become more satisfied.
This theory suggests that managers should follow a two-
step approach to enhancing motivation. First, they must ensure
that hygiene factors, working conditions for example, or clearly
stated policies, are acceptable. This practice will result in an
absence of dissatisfaction. Then they must offer motivation
factors, recognition or added responsibility, as a way to
improve satisfaction and motivation.
C.
Expectancy theory in Starbucks
In addition, people are motivated to work towards that they
want and they believe they have a reasonable chance or
expectancy of obtaining. A reward that seems out of reach is
likely to be undesirable even if it is intrinsically positive.
Expectancy theory in terms of issue that likely to be considered
by an individual employee [3].
In the Starbucks, the employees were called the partners of
the company and the company issuing a kind of stock which
was called “The coffee beans stock”. This stock is only
provided to the employees in the company. In that way, all of
the employees have the stock and to be a partner with the
Starbucks, as a result, the performance of the company is
closely to all the employees. Finally, the workers have the
expectancy to work hard to earn much more money, in this
instance, they raises the rewards to personal goals issue. In this
case, their consideration of all the issues has led to expectancy
that they can reach a given goal. Therefore, according to the
expectancy equation, we know: F=V*E=1.
Expectancy theory suggests that people are motivated to
work toward rewards that they want and that they believe they
have a reasonable chance, or expectancy, of obtaining. A
reward that seems out of reach is likely to be undesirable even
if it is intrinsically positive.
III.
M
OTIVATION
T
HEORY AND THE
P
RACTICE OF
M
ANAGEMENT
Not all the incentives that an organization can offer its
employees are directly related to monetary rewards. The
satisfaction of any of the employees’ wants or needs may be
seen as a reward for past or incentive for future performance
[4]. Hence, motivation is important in the practice of
management, personally, because it can:
Motivate the employees pay attention to job
Increase the productivity
Help for the job classification
Achieve the organization goals
We have discussed the motivation theory in the Starbucks,
but whether it had a good practice in the management or not.
Here we would discuss the advantages and disadvantages.
Starbucks stood out for its employee-friendly policies and
supportive work culture. The company has its benefits program
to part-time workers something that not many other companies
offered. As a result, Starbucks workers were among the most
productive in the industry and the company had a relatively
low employee turnover. However, a Starbucks face a challenge
in the early 2000s was whether it would be able to continue to
attract and retain the right kind of employees in the right
numbers. Form then on, having selected the right kind of
people, Starbucks invested in training them in the skills they
would require performing their jobs efficiently.
The need hierarchy varies wildly, not only for the different
people, but also across different culture. This reflects in the
Starbucks, the principle of the Starbucks to select the
employees, they use the part-time workers and then train them
to know the working skills. Even though it seems the company
had a relatively low employee turnover, I think this would
increase the turnover and becomes a waste of money, because
the part-time workers cannot work for the company for a long
time. When they leave the company, the manager have to
Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 82
544
employ some green hands to take place them and also have to
train these workers again. Maybe use the part-time workers can
make the company more creative, but I think in order to reduce
the cost of the turnover, the company can also try to use these
workers who have the working experience and keep them in
the company for a long time working. Finally, we can see that
the need of the workers is not totally the need of the company,
so it would cause the problem.
From the two-factor theory, I suggest that the managers of
the Starbucks should follow a tow-step approach to enhancing
motivation. First, they must ensure that hygiene factors, the
working condition and the stated policies are acceptable. This
practice will result in an absence of dissatisfaction. Then they
must
offer
motivation
factors:
recognition
or
added
responsibility as a way to improve satisfaction and motivation.
In addition, one person’s hygiene factor may be another
person’s motivation factor. For example, if money represents
nothing more than pay for time worked, it may be a hygiene
factor for one person. For another person, however, money
may be a motivation factor, because it represents recognition
and achievement.
IV.
L
EADERSHIP AND
T
EAM
W
ORK IN
S
TARBUCKS
A.
The leadership of Starbucks
The leadership style in of Starbucks is Affiliative, which
simply means people come first. Generally, in this style, the
leader is interested in creating harmony and building emotional
bonds with employee. This style works best when motivating
employees, building team harmony, improving communication,
increasing morale or repairing broken trust and has a positive
impact on the overall organizational culture. Because this style
has virtually no downside, it is often described as the best
overall approach.
The leadership style of the Starbucks is not just Affiliative;
the company also practices the style Democratic, which simply
means what do you think [5]. This style builds trust, respect
and commitment and this style has a positive impact on the
overall organization culture. The Starbucks practice the
leadership like this, so it can develop the employee loyalty to
the company and increase the working enthusiasm.
From my own view, if you were the employee, everybody
wants a leader who treats his staff first and have patient to tell
me how to do the work. If the workers have some problem in
working or themselves, the leader can tell me and encourage
me to do the work better. That is the leader needed to do, if the
leader’s believe go against the employee, nothing good will
bring to your company because without workers, the company
can do nothing. The Starbucks deal well with the relationship
with the employees, the motivation theory applied in the
Starbucks is closely to the leadership style of the Starbucks.
And the trust and respect in the Starbucks is another strong
power to his competitors.
B.
The teamwork in the Starbucks
The teamwork in the Starbucks is simply to achieve
particular objectives. It shares a common sense of identity and
belongings.
A sense of identity. All the workers and manager in the
Starbucks are treating themselves as a member in this
family, so they have the common sense to work on the
same point to earn more for them.
Loyalty to the company. The company provides good
working condition for the workers and meets the
employees’ need and wants by giving them motivation
to work hard, so the staffs are loyal to the Starbucks.
Purpose and leadership. A humanized leadership is
implemented in the Starbucks, so the staffs’ attitude to
work is more active. So the Starbucks can go towards
the fulfillment of its goals.
In addition, the other aspect of the effective work in the
Starbucks is the skill training. Firstly, I talked about the four
stages in the group (team here) development.
Forming: team members are polite to each other but
little is achieve
Storming: members start to argue
Norming: members accept each others differences
Performing: members trust each other
When the Starbucks provides the skill training to the new
employees, the employees may have passed the first stage and
the second stage. After the training, the employees come to
work; they may have known each other and step into the third
stage. And the third and the fourth stage are the most
appropriate time for the workers working effectively. However,
skill training is also a challenge for the Starbucks because of
the high turnover. This problem result in the selecting
employee policy for the Starbucks chooses the part-time
workers. Because the part-time workers can not work for the
company for a long time, usually, they work for a short time.
Then the manager should hire other part-time workers and train
them. Time after time, this would be a big turnover for the
company. So I think the Starbucks can hire the workers who
can work in the company for a long time, then the training can
be an intangible assets of the company.
V.
S
UGGESTIONS
According to the motivation applied in the Starbucks, here,
I give some suggestions for enhancing job satisfaction and
morale. I hold the view of that the company has implemented a
range of programs designed to make jobs more interesting and
rewarding and to make the work environment more pleasant.
A.
Reinforcement
The manager should try to shape employee’s behavior by
linking reinforcement with desired behaviors and punishment
with undesired behaviors. Here, extensive rewards work best
when people are learning new behaviors, new skills or new
jobs [6]. As workers become more adept, rewards can be used
less frequently. Because such actions contribute to positive
employer-employee relationships, it is generally preferred
giving rewards and placing positive value on performance.
Conversely, it is disliking doing out punishment, partly because
Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 82
545
workers may respond with anger, resentment, hostility or even
retaliation.
B.
Management By Objectives (MBO)
The MBO can be served as a program for improving
satisfaction and motivation. And motivation is the biggest
advantage of MBO. When employee sit down with mangers to
set upcoming goals, they learn more about company wide
objectives, come to feel that they are an important part of a
team, and see how they can improve company wide
performance by reaching their own goals.
C.
Participative management and empowerment
Employee are given a voice in how they do their jobs and in
how the company is managed. They become empowered to
take greater responsibility for their own performance. Not
surprisingly, participation and empowerment make the
employee feel more committed to organizational goals they
have help to shape.
D.
Work sharing
Job sharing usually benefits both employees and employers.
Employees, for instance, tend to appreciate the organization’s
attention to their personal needs. At the same time, the
company can reduce turnover and save on the cost of benefits.
VI.
C
ONCLUSION
When all the factors are examined, we may safely come to
the conclusion that the one reason for the success of the
Starbucks is that the Starbucks practice good motivation
management and an effective teamwork in his performance to
the world-wide customers. Although the company faced a
human resource challenge, the way the company practice the
motivation theory and the leadership style and the teamwork
spirit has no problem. Personally, the challenge now the
Starbucks encountered is just a policy mistake on hiring the
employees. If the Starbucks wants to reduce his turnover on
employees and keep the good human resources in their
company, the company can stop use the part-time workers and
try to seek the stationary workers and then train them to work
in the company.
R
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