High-Impact Business Decision

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/05/20/starbucks-policy-changes-local-reactions/

The business decision made by Starbucks has been a huge topic of controversy in latest news. Do to the unfortunate incident of two black men being arrested and escorted out of a Starbucks simply because they were sitting waiting for their friend to arrive but hadn’t ordered yet. Also, its assumed by some that the two men being African American was the main reason the cops were called. It was wrongly assumed that these men were controversial and fired the worker who made the call to the police. 

Recently Starbucks has decided to open its restrooms to the public even if a purchase isn’t made, to try and rectify the situation that occurred. This isn’t going over so well with some of the customers as well as the staff, complaints are that there are homeless people just hanging out around Starbucks and a lot of nonpaying traffic within the coffee shop is occurring, as Starbucks is a place where people like to do their work. Space in Starbucks is being taken up by nonpaying customers, which could possibly lead to paying customers taking their business elsewhere. Also, with the recent issues and now the bathroom policy not going over so well, this could lead to coffee shops such as Tim Hortons to become the front runner replacing Starbucks as number one.

Cultural Identity

Cultural identity to me develops within the environment in which raises you. Religion can be a part of cultural identity as well, as people can be born into religion or religious ways. A person’s behavior most times will reflect their cultural identity. I think cultural identity can be shown in the work place, by what a person may eat, how a person may dress or even how a person may speak. In the workplace, a person who brings fried chicken, macaroni, corn bread and speaks with a country accent more than likely comes from a southern type of culture, such as myself.

In my line of work, I often see religious culture come out of people, whether they are Christian, catholic, Muslim or Jewish in the way that they pray before a game. Some people just bow their heads, some complete a trinity sign across their chest and four head and others may bring their hands to the sky palms facing upwards. All these types of prayer give me a better understanding to their religious beliefs and backgrounds.

I personally think that some cultural displays should be controlled in professional settings as compared to personal settings because when you sign up to work for an organization or cooperation you represent them as well as yourself. This means that some of your beliefs may not be acceptable at the workplace in which you work for. To me an organization must respect an individual’s cultural identity to certain levels, but the individuals must respect the organizations that they work for.  

Global Diversity

Over the years, traveling and living in different countries for months at a time has truly had an impact on my life. The global impact of how people live in one country compared to another is truly interesting as well as humbling. One thing I noticed during my time in Europe was how conservative the people lived. In the states, I was a custom to going to the grocery store maybe twice a week for food and house goods, but in Europe because of the fridge size, I had to go to the store once every week buying only what I needed for that week. Now I’ve seen bigger fridges in Europe, but most people lived this way. Everything was much closer in every country I was in as well, causing most people to ride bikes or walk everywhere. This made me live more conservatively once I got back to the states and appreciate space as things seemed tight at times while living in Europe.  

Global diversity comes into play when language is involved as everywhere I’ve been I’ve ran into language barriers. Not having the ability to communicate is a crippling and isolated feeling that makes you very uncomfortable, especially being in a foreign country. It’s always challenging when you first enter a country, but then you learn to adapt by picking up a few words, remembering where places are and for me building camaraderie playing basketball. Food can be a globally diverse thing as well, as I’ve ran into my fair share of unique eating habits. For example, in central America rice and beans is a food eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast…..

Dr. Cornel West

The person that I’m choosing is Dr. Cornel West who is a famous author, philosopher, political activist and a professor at Princeton University. He was most recently known for helping in the elections, supporting Bernie sanders as well as Jill Stein. The reason I picked Dr. Cornel West is because ever since I’ve known about him, he’s always been the same, which is an exceptionally intelligent individual who cares less about materialistic things and more about humanitarian efforts. His passion for wanting to help the less fortunate is well document by is activism and fundraising. I look at Dr. Cornel West as a pioneer who is showing that you can be a public figure and use it for helping others.

I don’t even know what religion Dr. West withholds to, if he even claims a religion at all, but I do know that his ethical and spiritual values are ones that everyone should have. This doesn’t mean that he is always right about the issues that he fights for or the ideas that he comes up with, but the simple fact that he is constantly on the front lines fighting against injustice acts done against the less fortunate speaks volumes for his character. Dr. Cornel West is a role model of mine and encourages me to seek the truth in all information and when I find the truth use it to help others who may not be as aware. Dr. West spoke once about truth being the means to freedom, that you must seek truth out, that it can’t be handed to you. Emulating Dr. west’s ethical values in a workplace will ensure that fairness is the number one trait, that workers won’t be taken advantage of and will be respected for the work in which they put forth.