I found your correlation to servant leadership and Starbucks to be an interesting read. I had not thought about servant leadership being applied to organization as a whole vs. particular leaders, but it makes sense that an organization would be servant and instill that leadership in their team members. The connection of ensuring the higher priority needs of others are being met is evident at an organization where the customer is the priority and the employees focus on the needs of the customer by meeting their demand. My personal experience in being served at Starbucks is that the staff is friendly, greets you and says “what can I get started for you” when taking your order. On special order drinks, they will typically call out your name and the drink type, making the whole experience feel personal and individualized. It appears that the organization has a good training program that goes far to make sure that service is the same at each store.
I believe the mention of Starbucks being a servant leader as an organization in respect to their contributions in giving back to the community in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina is a good example of servant leadership behavior. As noted by Northouse (2013), servant leaders create value for the community by giving back to their communities and encourage their followers to also volunteer for community service. By Starbucks initiating the community effort, they demonstrated to their employees the value of servant leadership and linked purposes and the goals of the organization to the broader community that they serve.
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