Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility Case Study

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is not limited to how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on the society; it is a commitment by business towards ethical behavior. Carroll described all the four kinds of responsibilities economic, legal, ethical and discretionary.

Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO and Chairman, said that “We can be extremely profitable and competitive, with a highly regarded brand, and also be respected for treating our people well.” In the end, it is not only possible to do both, but you cannot really do one without the other.”

Economic Responsibilities:

This responsibility is about producing goods and services that satisfy consumers ' needs and wants

Also, Partners must follow all applicable laws, rules and regulations when conducting Starbucks business. (Starbucks coffee company, 2011).

1.Workplace Requirements: Saudi Arabia has strict and detailed rules about how and where to open a restaurant/café to ensure the safety, health, and the good look design. These regulations include:

1. The location must be on a commercial street or within licensed premises to practice the activity.

2. Providing parking area, one car parking for each 10m^2.

3.Comply with safety and health regulation that The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. (Urbplandep, n.d)

Starbucks in their website says that they and their partners are following all safety rules and practices, collaborate with officials who enforce these rules and practices, take essential steps to protect themselves and other partners, join in required safety training, and report directly all accidents, harms and unsafe practices or conditions. Also, they say that their work safety standards far exceed what law requires, and their employees must adhere to the company safety policies, unlike their competitors who only follow local

Building Greener Stores: Starbucks builds its stores in a way that is environmental friendly. To achieve this, they use: paints with less amount of chemicals, recycled flooring tiles, more efficient lights “LEED”, equipment help conserve energy and water, etc.

Discretionary Responsibilities:

These responsibilities are philanthropic responsibilities. If firms do not want to participate in these activities, we cannot consider them unethical. Starbucks is well known for its contributions in these activities. Some of these contributions are:

Each year in the month of April, Starbucks’s partners “employees” and their customers from all around the world specify time to engage in activities that benefit and improve the society. This period is called “Global volunteer month of Starbucks”. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, 45 of their employees in Riyadh spent 104 hours of volunteer works in floriculture and repairing the fence and paint the walls in one of Riyadh public gardens with help of with The Municipality of the city. Also, 55 employees spent 550 hours of volunteer works in Tahlia Government School in Jeddah to help in washing stadiums, repairing the signs, painting the walls and installation of kitchen equipment. (Starbucks,