Why was the starbucks not receptive to the innovations and creative initiatives of its employees

The paper ” Why Was the Starbucks Not Receptive to the Innovations and Creative Initiatives of Its Employees?” is a smart example of a case study on business. Any organization that seeks to retain a competitive edge must work to promote employee innovation in its processes. Such innovations from employees may, however, fail to work as they are likely to encounter various barriers. This is especially the case in Starbucks where employee innovation faces the problems of poor communication and reluctance to change.
Firstly, Starbucks has had inadequate communication channels which have discouraged employee innovation. With poor communication strategies, an innovative idea is likely to fail since the employees will not identify the channels that they can use to propose innovation to the organization. This has made Starbucks produce products that do not resonate so well with the customers’ tastes (Whitten, 2018). Poor communication channels and strategies are, therefore, one of the key barriers to promoting employee innovation.
Secondly, the top management’s reluctance to change is a barrier to employee innovation. Changes proposed by employees will come at a cost and it will be almost impossible to adopt all change suggestions by employees. Different research studies have shown that various market and demand shifts have led to declined sales at Starbucks. Lately, customers have been favoring ready-to-drink products and this is a fact that Starbucks does not want to acknowledge (Cheng, 2018) since it would call for a change in its fundamental processes. This means that its employees do not have an environment which supports innovations that would call for an entire change of processes.
Starbucks, however, needs to address the communication challenges and introduce changes that will make it adapt to market dynamics. It can address the communication problems by establishing clear lines of communication through which employees can propose their innovations. The company can also handle new market changes by remaining flexible to adopt new traditions that will prepare them for a successful future (Hall, 2013). Such strategies will be important in encouraging innovations from employees and in making an organization assess the potential benefits of a change process in its practices.
In conclusion, it is only through innovations that organizations can thrive in a highly competitive environment. As employees seek to engage in innovation to benefit the organization, they are likely to face the challenges of inadequate communication channels and opposition from top management which may not be ready to adopt change. It would, however, be important to engage and assess the employees’ suggestions for overall organizational success.