On Monday, reeling from an incident at a Starbucks in Philadelphia that prompted accusations of racial bias, Howard Schultz, the company’s executive chairman, called the head of a nonprofit public-policy organization to discuss ways to prevent similar episodes in the future.

His idea: provide anti-bias training for his work force.

“He called and expressed that he felt personally accountable, and that the company was responsible, and took ownership over all of the events that unfolded, and then we went on to discuss his idea for this training,” said Heather McGhee, the president of Demos, the public policy group.

The next day, Starbucks announced that it would close its more than 8,000 stores in the United States on May 29 to offer anti-bias training for 175,000 employees.