Jeff Cary

Symbolic

The situation I am analyzing is an incident with Starbucks Coffee company in 2018 in a

Philadelphia store. There were two African American males that were removed from the store by

the police for loitering. The two gentlemen were there waiting peacefully for another business

associate to arrive but had not made a purchase. Due to a local policy in place to deal with the

homeless population causing disruptions to the store, they kicked out anyone not making

purchases. The store manager used the no purchase policy to kick the two out due to the color of

their skin and nothing else.

Thinking through the impact the symbols of the Starbucks played in this situation I first

came to think of the twin tailed siren that is the logo of the company. According to our text

“Symbols carry powerful intellectual and emotional messages; they speak to the heart and the

soul,” (2017) which could not be any more accurate than with Starbucks. The siren logo for

Starbucks has changed 4 times over the course of their history. The most recent change of the

Starbucks siren they removed the name from the logo as they felt the siren conveyed the vision

of the company on its own. Being a symbol of the third-place environment that Starbucks strives

for and being a welcoming, relaxing, and friendly place for all to come and enjoy community

togetherness.

Being a symbol of community and inclusion could have been the reason this incident

happened, and two men were wrongfully arrested from the store. The two men were in the store

and had the feeling that they should have been accepted and welcome to meet business partners

there safely. When entering the store and sitting down to wait for someone they would have
never thought that this visit to Starbucks would end in such a manner that they would be leaving

in handcuffs. I personally know when I think of Starbucks, I think of that welcoming

environment based on the symbolic meaning of the name and company.

When considering how you could use the company symbolism for an alternative course

of action, I would say that Starbucks needs to focus on their missions and values behind the

symbols. Focusing on being the place you come to get a quality beverage and stay for the

environment as all of the Starbucks training materials states is a huge weight to take on and

carry. There needs to constantly be a focus on how they deliver this experience and not just one

that is focused on it publicly when things go wrong. There needed to be training on

discrimination or bias prior to the incident happening based on the world we are living in

currently.

What I would have done differently and was doing with the store managers and teams I

was leading at the time is linking the work back to the meanings behind the symbol. When

everyone on the team is aware of what the company stands for and the vision, they are able to

execute at much higher levels. On the inside of the aprons the company mission of “to inspire

and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at time” and often this

is overlooked. The Siren is the symbol of that goal and the teams need to be reminded of this and

trained on how to ensure the stores are focused on this environment.

Thinking through this situation and how I could apply the learnings from this module to

impact and make a change I would have created an open space for the teams to address concerns.

If the homeless population was loitering and causing disturbances to the point where locally they

had to create a policy to purchase or leave then the team need better tools to deal with this. I

would have had my teams link to the symbolic meaning and find ways in which they can be
welcoming while maintaining a positive experience for everyone. Could they offer a free water

and smile to the homeless and ask them to leave rather than calling the cops? It’s hard to say

what would have come out of it but I would have had these tough conversations to better prepare

my teams.
 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing Organizations. In Reframing organizations

artistry, choice, and leadership 6th ED (p. 236). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.