Starbucks Organizational Change: An Action Research Analysis
This paper applies action research and organizational development frameworks to analyze the managerial challenges currently facing Starbucks. Drawing on scholarship by Haneberg (2005), Lurey and Griffin (2013), and McLean (2006), the paper examines how Starbucks has drifted from its founding identity as a community-centered "third place" toward a high-volume, grab-and-go model. It evaluates the company's past use of action research — including large-scale employee retraining and international market research — while arguing that recent reforms have been reactive and piecemeal rather than systematic. The paper concludes that Starbucks must undertake broader, longer-range strategic change to restore its core value proposition and remain competitive against lower-priced specialty coffee rivals.
- Introduction: Starbucks and Its Identity Crisis: Starbucks' drift from community brand to commodity
- Mitigating Problems Through Organizational Development: OD consultants and action research as solutions
- Action Research in Practice at Starbucks: Past reforms and their systemic limitations
- The Most Challenging Steps in Action Research: Prioritization and long-range strategic evaluation
- Conclusion: The Path Forward for Starbucks: Broad change needed to restore competitive identity
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- It grounds a real-world business case — Starbucks' decline from progressive icon to criticized corporation — in recognized organizational development theory, lending academic credibility to a familiar subject.
- It moves logically from problem identification to prescribed solutions, mirroring the very action research cycle it describes, which gives the argument structural coherence.
- It balances concrete operational details (Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go, employee retraining, menu simplification) with broader strategic critique, demonstrating both applied and theoretical thinking.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied theory integration: it takes a multi-step academic framework (action research) and maps each phase onto actual decisions made by a named organization. Rather than describing the framework abstractly, the writer evaluates where Starbucks has succeeded and, more importantly, where it has fallen short of systematic, congruent change — a critical-application move that distinguishes analysis from mere description.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by establishing Starbucks' original identity and the nature of its current problems. It then introduces the action research and organizational development literature as analytical tools. The middle sections assess Starbucks' past and present use of these tools, identifying both strengths and gaps. The closing section focuses on the most demanding phase of action research — long-range strategic evaluation — and connects it to specific unresolved challenges including labor practices and international expansion. The references are formatted in APA style.
Introduction: Starbucks and Its Identity Crisis
Although I am currently employed in the Navy, I have also worked for private organizations, including, most notably, Starbucks. Starbucks is one of the most famous food and beverage companies in the world, and it initially generated a great deal of goodwill — as well as strong sales — because of its image as a progressively minded organization that cared about communities while offering distinctive coffee beverages that were a cut above the competition in the fast-food industry. However, many people today believe Starbucks has lost its way.
Starbucks initially promoted itself as a so-called third place — somewhere between home and work where people could enjoy coffee, company, or simply a relaxing moment with a meal (Rainey, 2022). Today, however, more than 80% of the company's beverages are sold to-go (Rainey, 2022). Additionally, although Starbucks was once praised for offering health insurance to part-time employees, Fair Trade coffee, and better working conditions, both its products and its treatment of employees have come under fire. Employees complain of unrealistic expectations regarding how many orders they must fulfill within a short span of time, beverages are criticized for being overly expensive, and the company is faulted for crowding out independent stores and bakeries (Rainey, 2022).
Management must find a way to rebrand the organization and foster more positive feelings among employees for the company to thrive in the future. The biggest challenge is ensuring Starbucks still offers a strong value proposition as a unique product — an increasingly difficult task as more people work from home and more companies offer similar specialty coffees at lower price points. The reason management may struggle with this issue is the sheer size of Starbucks today. The company began with an emphasis on a strong personal connection to its customers; it is now an international organization.
References
Haneberg, L. (2005). Chapter 3: The action research approach to change. Organization development basics. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training & Development. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection.]
Lurey, J., & Griffin, M. (2013). Section 2, Chapter 4: Action research: The anchor of OD practice. In J. Vogelsang (Ed.), Handbook for strategic HR: Best practices in organization development from the OD Network (pp. 46–52). Saranac Lake, NY: AMACOM Books.
McLean, G. N. (2006). Chapter 1: What is organization development? Organization development: Principles, processes, performance. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection.]
Rainey, C. (2022, March). What happened to Starbucks. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90732166/what-happened-to-starbucks-how-a-progressive-company-lost-its-way
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.