OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Structural Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the structural frame
2. Apply the structural frame to your personal case situation

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.

Currently, Starbucks has partners in stores across the US unionizing to gain better pay
and more hours. They also seek other benefits that the company has recently added like
paid time-off as soon as 90-days after starting, sick time accrual from day one, and a
higher pay rate. As an Assistant Store Manager with the company, I am given the same
training that a Store Manager gets and I can see that these demands could have been
easily met.

2) Describe how the structure of the organization influenced the situation.

From what I have read, one of the many issues that started the talks of unionization back
in 2021 was the lack of repair and maintenance of the Starbucks stores that the partners
were working in. These types of issues could have been easily solved by the Store
Manager or even a Supervisor. In each Starbucks store, we have a structure of leadership
and responsibility for the store itself. It starts with the Store Manager who maintains
things outside of the Supervisor’s control like hiring, recruiting, corrective actions, and
scheduling. As business owners, there are lots of financial aspects that the baristas are
responsible for. For example, they drive sales and production as well as the maintenance
and upkeep of our assets. When something isn’t working correctly, we empower the
Baristas and Supervisors to troubleshoot the issues with the support app we have on our
store iPad. When you scan the QR code on the side of say the coffee brewer, the iPad will
give you a few common issues to choose from. If you choose an option that has
troubleshooting steps, it will walk the partner through them just in case it is an easy fix.
All partners are expected to do all troubleshooting steps before moving on to submitting a
ticket which will go to the support center where they arrange for a repair person to be
sent out. This is where the structure of in-store responsibility comes into play because
these tickets can be submitted by anyone but often aren’t required because the partner

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 doesn’t do the troubleshooting that may fix the issue. If this happens enough, the store
manager will see on their P&L that they spent $XXXXX amount on repair tickets that
weren’t necessary which can directly affect their quarterly bonus. It starts to eat up your
quarterly contribution which decreases how close you are to your target. Too many
tickets can equal no bonus which I have seen happen by an amount as small as $200,
which is usually what they charge to send a repair technician out. This can even affect the
District Manager’s portfolio by lessening their contribution as a District.

Now that you see why a Store Manager would want to slow down the amount of repairs
that happen in their store, there are also other reasons why things may not have gotten
fixed. That could be as simple as the Store Manager not stepping up and letting their
District Manager know what is going on in their store. In the retail leadership structure, It
goes Regional Vice President, Regional Director, District Manager, Store Manager,
Assistant Manager, Supervisor then Barista. All of these people have the ability to submit
a ticket for a repair but only a few of them have the power to escalate that ticket to the
right channels to make it happen. This is usually sent to our Facilities Manager who has a
team that he works with in an All-Channel Network as mentioned in Chapter 5. That
team works together to get the right repair people sent to us and deal with all the planning
and scheduling.

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

If I were dealing with the first situation, as the Store Manager I would talk to my partners
and find out what we need to get fixed. I would have discovery conversations with them
so I can understand what it is that is causing their frustrations. I would then go through
the store and submit those tickets because I also have to work with all this equipment and
I wouldn’t want to have to struggle through my day. I would just have to call it a loss and
not worry if I have to pay all these repair costs. I need my partners to want to come to
work and have the right tools and equipment to get the job done and make our customers
happy. Even as a barista in this situation, I would use the leadership structure we have set
up and utilize the poster we have in the back room that shows us who to call. This “Make
the Right Call” poster has the numbers of the Store Manager, District Manager, and
Regional Director on it so that we can speak to our leader about any issues we are
experiencing in the store.

I am also still a little baffled about how far gone the issues in this store were because my
District Manager was always in my store when I was a Supervisor. She would do walk-
throughs with her flashlight to make sure everything was clean and in good working
order. She would point out things left and right that need to be called in for repair. We
even told by her that if it doesn’t get resolved ASAP to let her know and she will call and
talk to the Facilities Manager about it. This makes me think that the leadership structure

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 failed those partners, so much so that they thought their only option was to take matters
into their own hands and unionize. If I were there and it was my District Manager who
was not helping me get the tickets taken care of I would contact the next level leader
which would be the Regional Director who we actually see often in our store.

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

I have successfully been able to keep my partners happy and working in a store where
everything works and if it doesn’t, I make sure to get it resolved. We are a high-volume
store with lots of foot traffic for the bathroom alone so I have to make sure everything in
our store in is working order. I have escalated tickets myself by skipping my District
Manager altogether and just reaching out to the facilities manager since sometimes these
things cannot wait. Or there have been times when my District Manager didn’t feel that
the repair was as urgent and we did because she did not have to make drinks all day using
a steam wand that was practically hanging off. Not only did it pose a safety issue but it
was slowing down our business.

What I did learn from this frame was that we can use different types of structures in
different settings. I feel within my store we can create an All-Channel Network that will
allow the team to communicate easily in one space. I could see this being beneficial when
letting others know about troubleshooting we did that fixed a problem or even just being
able to let each other know to keep an eye on something that may not have been working.
For example, today we are down one oven. The opening supervisor let me know when I
came in that the closing supervisor left a note on our message board for the opener letting
them know what was going on with the oven and that a repair ticket had already been put
in. This allowed the Supervisor to then plan their customer interactions and let them
know ahead of time about the wait for food items. This kind of communication among all
channels really helps us keep the store in good working order.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and

leadership (7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

FAQ — Starbucks Workers United. (n.d.). Starbucks Workers United.

https://sbworkersunited.org/frequently-asked-questions

Molla, R. (2022, April 8). The Starbucks Union, Explained. Vox.

https://www.vox.com/recode/22993509/starbucks-successful-union-drive