organization communication – case study for Starbucks

Instructions

Begin this assessment by choosing an organization you are familiar with (through membership or through having worked or volunteered there). An organization could be, for example, a working group, a restaurant, a non-profit, or a branch of a large multinational company. If you aren’t sure if your organization is appropriate for this assignment or if you are having difficulty deciding on an organization, check in with your instructor.

A Case Study is a study or inquiry surrounding a single case; for this assignment, your organization of choice is the case to be studied. Your task for this assignment is to produce several case study discussions. You will first introduce your organization and then respond to several guiding questions about your organization. See below for the various sections that should be included in your Case Study (and their corresponding guiding questions).

Organizational Summary (10 marks)

Give a brief summary of your organization of choice. What is its purpose? How long has it been in operation? How many people are involved? Is your organization embedded in a larger organization? For example, the restaurant where you work is likely a franchise and forms only part of a larger organizational system. Does your organization include different departments or teams? Or have you chosen a single department or a single team as your case? Is your organization a ‘tall’ or ‘flat’ organization? To what degree does your organization form part of, or enact, a network?

Organizational Paradigm (10 marks)

From which organizational paradigm does your organization primarily operate? According to Laloux (2014), most organizations today operate primarily out of the Achievement-Orange paradigm (machine metaphor). Visible today also (and to varying degrees) are the Conformist-Amber, Pluralistic-Green, and Evolutionary-Teal paradigms. From your knowledge of these paradigms, speculate on the dominant paradigm that guides your organization of choice. Does your organization display elements of more than one paradigm? Justify your response.

Communication Content (10 marks)

What is communication content? What can an organization’s varying emphasis on the different types of communication content reveal about that organization?

Provide clear examples (or instances) of each type of communication content being utilized within your organization.

What type of communication content does your organization emphasize the most? Justify your response.

What type of communication content is missing or is emphasized the least within your organization? Justify your response.

To what degree does your organization make use of classical management, employee relations, and human resources approaches?

Is culture something that is discussed or actively managed within your organization of choice?

Brief Research Proposal (25 marks)

In this section, you will outline a concrete direction for field research surrounding your organization of choice. You don’t have to carry out this research; you are asked to simply propose this research.

Develop a research question that would bring you (as a field researcher) in contact with your organization of choice. Develop a question that both 1) intersects with at least one of the research challenges outlined by Jones et al. (2004) and 2) intersects with one of the areas above (e.g., communication, decision-making, etc.).

What research methodology would you (as the prospective field researcher) utilize in order to answer your research question? A research methodology includes both the methods used and the logic behind these methods.

Methods: which methods?

And logic: why these methods? Utilize an additional peer-reviewed source to help explain your research method (i.e., show where similar methods have been at least partially utilized already by other researchers). Utilize an additional peer-reviewed source to help justify your research method (logic).