OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource Frame Worksheet

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

My role was a retail store manager. My role was to bring the Starbucks experience to life
in my store for my team and for my customers. I did this by building great teams,
managing my operations and creating a community within my store. I developed future
leaders of Starbucks not only for the Starbuck retail manager role but also for what my
partners aspired to be. I grew sales on a week-to-week basis and maintained an
environment where the customer connection was the priority.

In 2020, George Floyd was killed by a police officer outside of a store. During this time
the Black Lives Matter activists were calling for justice and used the black lives matters
logan on t-shirts, pins, and even masks. Starbucks partners wanted to wear any piece of
clothing in support of justice for George and showing support for their black and brown
partners. Starbucks restricted all its partners from wearing anything that said specifically
“black lives matter.” This decision was made by corporate leadership on behalf of the
partners because they categorized Black Lives Matter support as a political stance and did
not want it to cause any disruptions within their Starbucks stores. This caused calls for
boycotts from Starbucks as well as partners leaving the company. Partners felt it
hypocritical for them to be able to wear LGBTQ pins and shirts and not be able to wear
Black Lives Matter pins and shirts. Starbucks felt customers may see the Black Lives
Matters slogan and would incite violence.

2) Describe how the human resources of the organization influenced the situation.

The company, with the help of the I&D team, created a policy that ultimately was used to
make the decision on how every store partner was to show support. A dress code policy
that stated, “Partners may only wear buttons or pins issued to the partner by Starbucks for
special recognition or for advertising a Starbucks-sponsored event or promotion….
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 except if it interferes with safety or threatens to harm customer relations or otherwise
unreasonably interferes with Starbucks public image. Partners are not permitted to wear
buttons or pins that advocate political, religious, or personal issue” (Sacks & Samaha,
2020). Because of this policy, Starbucks partners were restricted to wear any pin, button
or shirt that had the words “black lives matter” on it.

This policy kept partners from being able to show support to their fellow partners inside
and outside of the stores. This also showed a lack of support from the company.
Managers were instructed to ask partners to either change or leave the store if they
arrived with anything that said, “black lives matter.” Partners called the company
hypocritical because though they promote diversity for the LGBTQ community and can
wear clothing and gear in support for that community, they are told then cannot do the
same for the black and brown community. Their partner relations strategy was to hire the
right people from different backgrounds and cultures, promote and develop from within
the company, and allow partners to be themselves. It was hard for partners to support that
strategy because they did not feel supported by the company.

3) Recommend how you would use the human resources for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

When you have over half the partners of the company telling corporate you do not feel
supported by the policy that was used to restrict partners from showing support by
wearing clothes and gear that say, “black lives matter,” the “fit” is wrong. Bolman and
Deal state that “people and organizations need each other.” And if the fit is wrong on
either side both the people and the organization will suffer. Bolman and Deal also talk
about investing in your employees and one of the ways to do that is to promote
egalitarianism. This creates an environment with employees are part of the decision
making. Ultimately the decision is made from leadership, but your employees were part
of the process to get to that decision. This is the environment that should have been
created by leadership so that partners felt heard and understood.

Meetings should have been held with partners. Manager could have met with their
baristas. District managers meet with managers. So on and so forth. The I&D team and
partner relations department could have talked to partners to understand their stance
before they ultimately made their decision so that they would know whether their
decision would make their partners feel supported or not. They would know whether this
would promote the diversity strategy they had in place.

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 4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.

At first, I didn’t think there was anything I could do as a manager as I was supposed to be
implementing the policy that was being enforced during this time. Although I hated doing
it, I had to tell my partners they could not show support for me the way they wanted to. I
as the one that was telling people to go home because they showed up with a mask that
said, “black lives matter.” I did this while I began looking for another job. I did this while
I was infuriated with this company that told me they supported me but told my partners
they couldn’t show their support for me.

Knowing what I know now and understanding the importance of the human resource
frame, I would have allowed my partners to who support for me and their fellow partners.
When I would enforce the rule, I could see the disappointment in their eyes. I now realize
that enforcing that rule did nothing to promote diversity and make my team feel
supported or heard. I would have allowed their voice and mine to be heard by corporate
instead of just looking for another job because this could affect the partners that stayed
there and the future partners.

References

Sacks, B., & Samaha, A. (2020, June 12). Starbucks won't let employees wear gear that supports
Black Lives Matter because it is political or could incite violence. BuzzFeed News.
Retrieved February 25, 2022, from
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/starbucks-is-now-very-pro-black-
lives-matter-but-it-wont

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(6th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass