BEHAVIOUR IN ORGANIZATIONS

BEHAVIOUR IN ORGANIZATIONS

Introduction

McDonald’s is a fast-food company U. S based company that was founded in 1940. Richard and Maurice McDonald operate it. It has over 37,000 locations world widely serving approximately 69 million people in more than 100 countries with over 32 billion worth of assets. In the United Kingdom, it employs over 100,00 staff, including the franchises. Its business objectives are to keep benefits aligned to the business strategy and create new restaurants and impact its people (Green,2015). The two started their business as a hamburger stand and later turned it into a franchise and introduced its Golden Arches logo in 1953 at Phoenix, Arizona. It deals with products such as Hamburgers,  Wraps, soft drinks, chicken milkshakes and deserts, only to mention a few. In 2018, its revenue stood at 21 billion U.S dollars with an operating income of 8.823 billion U.S dollars and a Net income of 5.924 billion U.S dollars(Toffel, 2015). Although the company is best known for its fast foods, the company is now producing salads, fish, smoothies and fruit in response to the backlash because of the unhealthiness of their diet. For this assignment, I will address leadership and motivation themes, as seen at McDonald’s company. This is because proper leadership and motivation of organization employees often lead to better outputs.

McDonald restaurant has over the years put the motivation and rewards of its employees at the heart of the business strategy. It has successfully implemented the schemes that aim at making the employees feel motivated and engaged, not only with the organization but also with the benefits and reward provision. This has boosted its performance. The company was recognized for its approach in 2012 when it won an employee Benefit award for the best alignment of benefits to the business strategy and in the years since it has ensured it has never lost its focus. The reward manager at McDonald’s, Neal Black shire, believes that there is no point of a company having a reward strategy that is at odds with the business (Peter,2015).

The business transformation was facilitated by focusing the staff towards five principles of employee engagement to which its recognition strategy is aligned. The company introduced the five fundamental values in 2014 to ensure that it embedded hospitality culture in its restaurants (Peter,2015). Motivation is a key focus within the organization. It also uses incentives and supports desired behaviours through two bonus schemes for its 400 company-owned restaurants (Green, 2015). Each year all the employees in the top 10% of restaurants, based on mystery shoppers scores receive a bonus of 50p for each hour they have worked in two weeks. The restaurant’s manager, on the other hand, is eligible for a quarterly bonus based on shoppers scores, profitability and sales growth (Toffel,2015). This strategy is in line with the business objectives and has been vital in helping the company tight 36 consecutive quarters of comparable sales growth with a 4% sales increase in 2014. In a recent report, Blackshire stated that the sales growth had been achieved by really working close to the customer, and the benefits they offer to the people.

Furthermore, the company allows its employees to choose the benefits that suit them and has a wide-range package to suit the needs of the different age ranges it supports. Its Voluntary Benefits Package that is provided by the Reward Gateway is one of its most successful schemes. With this scheme, employees in the company were able to save 2.15 million dollars since its launch in 2010 (Ghasabeh et al.,2015). The company offers benefits on the basis that they have a range that adds values to the employees. Although not all the employees value this scheme, Blackshire is convinced that at some point in their lives, they will appreciate it(Toffel, 2015). It does not flex in the traditional sense, but it allows the employees to pick and choose what they want. The reward structure of the company makes its communication important. The total reward statement and the “Our lounge” employee portal have helped improve employees understanding of the benefits offered in the company and take-up. This has resulted in employee satisfaction, with 74% of the staff being satisfied with this (Mickahail &Aquiono,2019).

Leaders can effectively develop and lead teams if they can create and communicate a vision of what the organization should be. They should have the ability to communicate with and gain the support of all team members. They should have the perseverance to head in the desired direction under adverse conditions and create a suitable culture to obtain the needed results(Ghasabeh et al.,2015). They need to focus on moving people and companies forward by increasing the competency of staff and the cooperation of teams to improve the company. It is also important in attempting to reduce employee dissatisfaction.

McDonald company has been known all over the years on its excellent leadership plan with well skilled and qualified leaders the company has seen its growth. An effective leader is one who does the right things. The company has restaurant mange which is responsible for setting targets, maintaining and controlling stock, panning budgets, recruiting and training team members, create and drive marketing campaigns among other things(Peter,2015). The leaders at this company do not lay down any rules on how quickly an individual or team should progress. Team members also have an opportunity to become managers if they perform well-meaning the crew member has to contribute to the success of the company.

The company has adopted the “team-building” management style that aims at creating outlets that are fun places to work in. Leaders at this company also value accountability and understanding, which they incorporate in the day to day running of the company. The team leaders here have all the characteristics that were used to define leadership, i.e. influence,  traits, behaviour, interaction patterns and, any more(Caudil,2015). The model used in this company is the action-centred leadership model, commonly referred to as Adair model (Peter,2015). This model allows the leaders to inspire others by their commitment and enthusiasm. Adair also identifies three leadership functions which are maintaining the team, accomplishing tasks and meeting the individual needs of the team members. He believes that leaders are born and not made.

The organizational structure at McDonald’s is centralized; however, that of all its outlets is different. In the outlets, the employees work as ate to ensure the needs of the customers are met in a short time (Green, 2015). There is a division of labour among the members, and their activities are directed towards the goals and the objectives of the organization. The span of control of the manager at McDonald’s is narrow. This is advantageous since it allows the manager to have tight control over the subordinates.

Moreover, he can supervise daily operations more efficiently, leading to a better outcome. A narrow span of control also reduces delegation, and therefore, managers can do more work(Mickahail&Aquiino,2019). At McDonald’s, the crew members are responsible for food preparation, customer service and cleanness and hygiene. Theses crew members are committed since the team leader meets their needs. The leadership has developed an ideal and committed team that can easily be motivated. A dedicated and motivated team is, most of the time, successful. However, at McDonald’s, the subordinates are unable to make decisions. They always have to obey and listen to what their supervisors are saying although their schedules are flexible. The employees in this company ate from different backgrounds with different interests by they all work together to achieve the goals of the company.

McDonalds practices an autocratic leadership style meaning the crew members (Green,2015) are not involved in any decision making. Also, suggestions from crew members ae most of the times not welcomed since most of them are young. This is major because these crew members are young and only work in these restaurants during the summer holidays. They are motivated by timely wages and extra benefits such as transport. This provides enough motivation to them despite the autocratic leadership. The motivation to perform at McDonald’s is because of the willingness and ability of the team members and not because of the leadership. Good to note is that the crew members are treated with the utmost respect, and they also respect each other (Toffel,2015). The company does not aim at adopting any different style of leadership since the management fears that techniques such as persuasive will not deliver goods.

To sum up, McDonald’s is a company that is producing good outputs and making immense profits. It achieves this through the good leaders and good leadership schemes that it has. The company is also a pacesetter when it comes to caring for the needs ad interests of its employees. The various motivates and incentives schemes in the company provides a good avenue for the expansion of the business.

References

Caudill, J. G. (2015). Employee Motivations for Workplace Learning and the Role of eLearning in the Workplace. Internet Learning Journal, 4(2).

Ghasabeh, M. S., Soosay, C., & Reaiche, C. (2015). The emerging role of transformational leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), 459-467.Green, S. (2015). McDonald’s. Bellwether Media.

Mikhail, B. K., & de Aquino, C. T. E. (Eds.). (2019). Effective and Creative Leadership in Diverse Workforces: Improving Organizational Performance and Culture in the Workplace. Springer.

Peters, R. S. (2015). The concept of motivation. Routledge.

Toffel, M. W. (2015). McDonald’s Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage-Free Eggs.