Starbucks Coffee Company
COM 530
April 27, 2015
Monique Georges
Starbucks Coffee Company Appropriate leadership style and power can lead to open and improved communication within any organization, such as Starbucks Coffee Company. By using the appropriate leadership style and power, and having strong communication can motivate employees into seeing and reach visions and goals established by the leaders of an organization. However, the wrong type of leadership and power can lead to failure of these visions and goals and failure of the organization.
Leadership Styles There are different methods of leadership styles that exist within the workforce today, and each of the different leadership styles has their advantages and disadvantages. The different methods of leadership style consist of authentic, charismatic, participative, transactional, transformational, autocratic, and laissez-faire (Johnson, n.d.). An authentic leadership style is a leader knows who they are, what they believe, and what their values are, and they work with their beliefs and values honestly (Robbins & Judge, 2011). The Kruse (2013) website, stated that authentic leaders are leaders that are aware of their personality and individuality. They are accomplished individuals that have knowledge of their abilities, limitations, strengths, and emotions as well as aware of their real selves that they show to employees/staff. Authentic leaders also connect and communicate with employees that they work with in a direct manner, because the leader feels this step is significant to the success of employee and management working relationship (Kruse, 2013). With the transactional leadership style, the leader establishes and clarifies employee's roles to ensure they go a specific direction to achieving goals, and the leaders accomplish this through communication (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Where transformational leadership style motivates employees/staff to go beyond and surpass their self-interests for the benefit and betterment of the company. This type of leadership style has a major positive effect on the employees/staff of the business. Managers that use the transformational leadership style are leaders that lead and perform beyond expectations. According to "Mind Tools" (n.d.), transformational leaders are, " models of integrity and fairness, sets clear goals, has high expectations, encourages others, provides support and recognition, stirs the emotions of people, get people to look beyond their self-interest, and inspires people to teach for the improbable" (What is Transformational Leadership?). Both transactional and transformational leadership styles complement each other as transformational leadership builds on transactional leadership that produces a level of employees/staff that performs to their very best (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Leadership styles can affect communication within the Starbucks Coffee Company in different ways because each leadership style communications in a different way. Each leadership styles also get employees to see and work towards a vision or goals in the way the leader has in mind. For example, authentic leadership style would continue to encourage open communication between management and employees. Where transformational leadership style has visions, and they communicate and convince employees to accept their vision. The transactional leadership style is where the leader/management communicates and guides employees towards their established goals and they accomplish this by clarifying to employees through communication the roles and tasks requirements (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Howard Schultz, the owner of the Starbucks Coffee Company, graduated from Northern Michigan University with a bachelor's degree in communication. He used the transformational leadership to lead his company and employees to success, and he accomplishes this through the creation and maintaining a family-like culture within the company,
