Human Resource Management For Starbucks: A Case Study On Discrimination Issue (essay).

News Story

Discuss about the Human Resource Management for Starbucks.

In this assignment, a news story related with human resource management issue has been discussed. The news paper article is about an employee of Starbucks, who has to face discrimination at the workplace due to dyslexia.   She was accused by the owners of Starbucks for falsifying documents. In this report, at first the news story has been discussed in brief. After that the HR issues related with the news story have been analyzed in accordance to relevant models and theories. After that, appropriate recommendations have been provided so that these types of HR issues can be resolved in future.  

The news story was published on 9^th February 2016 in BBC news. It had been found that, a woman with dyslexia had won a case of disability discrimination against the owners of the company Starbucks. The owner of the organization had wrongly accused the woman to falsify documents (BBC, 2016). A tribunal board had found that the female employee named as Meseret Kumulchew was discriminated by the company due to her difficulties of writing, reading and telling the time (BBC, 2016). She was provided lesser duties at her branch. She was also asked for retraining. It was very much embarrassing for her. She was so much depressed that she was willing to commit suicide. However, the management was telling that it was in discuss to provide more workplace support to the employee.

It had been found that judgment against the company was given against the company Starbucks in the middle of December 2016 (BBC, 2016). It was also mentioned in this judgment that there would be no separate hearing to determine the compensation.

It was mentioned by the management that, as supervisor of Starbucks Ms Kumulchew was responsible for taking temperature from fridges and waters at specific times and entering the results is a dusty roster.  She was mistakenly entered wrong information about entering. For this reason, she was accused by the management of Starbucks for falsifying documents.

The employee had taken employers of the Starbucks to a tribunal alleging them for disability discrimination. The employee had told during the case that, during her joining she had acknowledged her employers about her problems related with dyslexia (BBC, 2016). That means she had problems with numbers and words. In addition, she also needed to be shown how to do the task visually. It had been analyzed that this case did not have any legal precedent. However, according to the Association of British Dyslexia it was an alarm call for the employers. It had been estimated that one of the 10 people has Dyslexia at some degree. However, most of them are not formally diagnosed. In an exclusive interview with BBC news, Ms. Kumulchew had stated that she was not a fraud. On the contrary, the tribunal board had found that the management of Starbucks was not able to make reasonable adjustment with the employee and discriminated her due to the effect of Dyslexia. The board has also accused the owners that they did not have any knowledge about workplace equality. 

HR Issues

In this news story, major HR issues arise in the company related with discrimination. Alfes et al. (2013) stated that discrimination with employees can occur with employees depending on their race, sex, gender, religion, physical and mental disability. Aswathappa (2013) stated that, discrimination can occur due to desperate treatment of a group within an organization, which can develop disparate impact on employees. In the neoclassical theory, discrimination in the labor market can be defined as the difference of treatment with two equally qualified people depending in race, sex, gender and disability. Budhwar and Debrah (2013) stated that, in an organization, there are various types of discrimination can occur with employees. They are such as direct discrimination, harassment, indirect discrimination and victimization.  In this case scenario, the employee of the organization Starbucks was victimized due to her dyslexia.  She had to face problem at workplace due to her difficulties of writing, reading and telling the time. She was accused for falsifying information. For this reason, the management of Starbucks had decided to send her for retraining. It was quite embarrassing for her.     

It has been found that, an organization needs to follow the model of flexibility at the workplace.  Budhwar and Debrah (2013) stated that, in accordance to the model of flexibility, a company has to develop mission and goals to utilize the market opportunities and reduce the market threats with the help of flexible workforce. According to this model, the company Starbucks should have allocated their workforce to utilize the existing talent and skills of employees. It can lead to excellent performance for the company. However, the company Starbucks was failed to do that. The company had allocated as Meseret Kumulchew as the supervisor for a branch of Starbuck, which was not suited for the employee due to her disability.

The tribunal board accused the owners of Starbucks that they have no idea about equality at the workplace. Buller and McEvoy (2012) stated that with the increase of demand, the roles and responsibilities of line managers related with human resource management is increasing rapidly. They have to take appropriate strategies to make employees work efficiently within the organization.  They should use appropriate strategy for performance management, work load management and development of morale. It had been found that the employee had acknowledged the management about her disability during the time of joining. Hence, it was their responsibility to develop appropriate monitoring, coaching and training program so that the employee became able to overcome her disabilities. Bratton and Gold (2012) stated that providing appropriate training and monitoring program can make employees more efficient. It can help employees to achieve their target with the help of their existing knowledge, skill, talent and hard work.    

Recommendations

There are various laws and regulations that can help to prohibit any kind of discrimination related with race, sex, gender and disability. They are such as Equality Act 2006, Disability discrimination act 2005, Human rights act 1998 and Protection from harassment act 1997. These acts help provide equal opportunities for employment. That means:

• A company has to provide equal opportunity to disable individuals at the workplace (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013).
• An organization needs to spend significant amount of budget to promote equality at workplace 

The employee had stated that she never wanted to affect the business of Starbucks. She loved her job and always tried to improve her performance. Hence, it is the responsibility of the management of Starbucks to develop a workplace that supports all the needs of employees. There are some sorts of adjustments that management of the organization can make to prohibit discrimination with employees who have certain degree of Dyslexia. They are mentioned below:

“Show and tell”

The victimized employee was a visual learner just like other dyslexic people. They can adjust better with verbal instructions rather than written one. Hence the management should use verbal instructions for dyslexic people. In addition, management also needs to demonstrate the task that they have to perform at workplace. The management can record messages so that dyslexic individual can return to them when required.

It has been found that the way in which information is presented, has huge impact on the performance of dyslexic people. Hence, if the company has to present an information in written form than, it is required to follow certain instructions. They are such as:

• Never use italics
• Never use underlined text
• Never write the full document in capital
• Write the text in bigger front (12 or more)
• Use short sentences
• Use bold to highlight certain important texts
• Select fronts as Calibri, Arial or Helvetica

Dyslexic people work efficiently, where distraction is low.  Dyslexic people can be benefitted if the workspace becomes as calm as possible. For example, they have to place away from the door and where phone rings constantly. It will help them to concentrate on their work in efficient manner.

There are various tools that can be used by the management to improve communication with dyslexic person. For example, the management of Starbucks can use dictation software. It has been found that most of the smart phones, tablets at present day have synthetic voice command in build. It can spare dyslexic people from reading documents provided in various web pages. 

The company can arrange behavioral training program so that every employee behaves appropriately with dyslexic people within their workplace.  

Conclusion

In this assignment, a news story related with a human resource related issue has been discussed. The new story is about employee of Starbucks, who has to face discrimination at the workplace of Starbucks due to dyslexia.  It was published 9^th    February 2016. The owners of the company have accused her for falsifying information.  She sued a case against Starbucks and won it. The tribunal board had mentioned that Starbucks management did not have any idea about equality at the workplace. The HRM issues that can occur in this case scenario have been discussed and some recommendations have been provided for future improvement.   

Reference List

Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. & Soane, E.C., (2013). The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.

Aswathappa, K., (2013). Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

BBC,. (2016). Starbucks employee wins dyslexia discrimination case - BBC News. BBC News. Retrieved 28 September 2016, from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35521061

Boella, M. & Goss-Turner, S., (2013). Human resource management in the hospitality industry: A guide to best practice. Routledge.

Bratton, J. & Gold, J., (2012). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Budhwar, P.S. & Debrah, Y.A. eds., (2013). Human resource management in developing countries. Routledge.

Buller, P.F. & McEvoy, G.M., (2012). Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review, 22(1), pp.43-56.

Giannakis, D. & Harker, M.J., (2014). Strategic alignment between relationship marketing and human resource management in financial services organizations. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 22(5), pp.396-419.

Hoque, K., (2013). Human resource management in the hotel industry: Strategy, innovation and performance. Routledge.