Leadership in McDonald's: Traits, Culture, and Recommendations

This document discusses the leadership traits and style of McDonald's CEO, the current organizational culture, and recommendations for improvement. It explores the key leadership qualities and options for McDonald's, and provides an implementation plan and short-term and long-term goals for the company.

Leadership
0
Leadership
October 5
2019

Leadership
Contents
1. Company’s Overview...............................................................................................................3
2. Current Leader’s Traits/Style...................................................................................................3
3. Problem Statement...................................................................................................................4
4. Organization’s Current Culture................................................................................................5
5. Key Leadership Qualities.........................................................................................................6
6. Some of the Options.................................................................................................................8
7. Recommendations....................................................................................................................9
8. Implementation Plan...............................................................................................................10
9. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................11
10. References...........................................................................................................................13
1

Leadership
1. Company’s Overview
At the beginning of McDonald's, as early as 1954, there was a new fast-food trend in
California. Ray Kroc laid the foundation for one leading retailer of food. McDonald's has almost
32,000 restaurants in almost 100 countries and they serve almost 60 million people a day.
Meeting this large customer base as well as expanding the roots in different countries is not easy,
and strong value and efficient management are prerequisites for the company to maintain its
status quo today. McDonald's currently more and more actively committed to innovation as well
as building very strong customer relationships (Aboutmcdonalds.com, 2015). From several
restaurants in the chain to franchisees and restaurants, McDonald's is committed to providing
customers with a commitment to convenience. McDonald's emphasizes the key areas of success,
calling “experience” the main determinant. The major part of McDonald's business is QSC&V. It
stands for service, quality, cleanliness as well as value. The main factor in the success of
McDonald's is the emphasis on effectively implementing these factors through four management
functions.
2. Current Leader’s Traits/Style
The leadership of CEO McDonalds is seen as a focus of leadership. CEO of MacDonald’s
has been very happy with this title for the last 35 years. He is one of the outstanding leaders with
charismatic and transformative leader. McDonald’s said that he would revitalize organization
and introduce fast-food chain businesses with a new vision. When it comes to leadership style
and traits it has been seen that Macdonald’s leadership style is strong and according to
Leadership Theory, all leaders have to change their overall behavior based on the situational
2

Leadership
leadership factors in order to meet desires of followers. STL theory is the main part of the
contingency theory, which emphasizes the will of followers. It emphasizes two different
behaviors, one is relational behavior and the other is task behavior. Relationship behavior is the
communication used by leaders, such as multi-directional, one-way or two-way, as well as
support, facilitating behavior. According to this theory leaders have to decide diverse tasks to be
managed by determining individual willingness and after that choosing a specific leadership trait
to control. Manager's mission behavior emphasizes teamwork and collaboration methods to
provide the best service to customers (Ruddick, 2014). Encourage teamwork to help managers
revitalize team efficiency. Leaders at McDonald’s help struggling teams to achieve their goals
and motivate team members in order to move on. This shows how they relate to their employees.
In fact, team leader has all the features that Stagil (1950) used to define leadership. Features
include: behavior, influence, traits, interaction patterns, administrative duties, and role
relationships; clarifying visions, creating business environment for what can be done; entities
performing one or more leadership actions; The capability to influence the human behavior to
accomplish a task and influence a strong group of people to achieve goals or goals. The
McDonald's framework is a model of the Adair model and is called action-centric leadership.
This is the constructive model by which leaders can inspire others through their enthusiasm, high
commitment, and capability to easily communicate with others. The team is developed by the
team leader so they can complete the common task.
3. Problem Statement
The CEO is seen as the leadership of McDonald's. McDonald's change can be simply
attributed to his creativity as well as innovative ability. He launched the "Winning Plan"
3

Leadership
program, which emphasizes the importance of store operations. With a diverse background and
expertise, he has adopted a wide range of strategies to maintain the enthusiasm and dedication of
employees. Under his unique leadership, he attaches great importance to customer satisfaction.
Customers are ahead of their employees as well as restaurants. He advocates creativity, however
does not allow an employee to focus on the main motivations of the organization. He strongly
believes in properly finding talent, so CEO assigns diverse tasks to diverse employees, moreover
best talents are awarded and take on more responsibilities. Skinner values and ethics.
4. Organization’s Current Culture
Good working conditions are developed in such a way that employees must increase the
satisfaction of their workloads, such as recognition and motivation, in order to satisfy their
positions. Indeed, even within low-skilled positions, there is willingness for low employee
turnover. In addition, satisfied and satisfied employees will bring cheerful customers. Their work
culture seems to depend entirely on the specific line manager of the control at given point of
time. Because organizational training is not only for executives and supervisors, McDonald's has
capability to spread as well as to strengthen its overall values and culture in all directions and in
all directions. The backbone of McDonald's corporate values is organization’s “people”, which
was established by Hamburg the University, who cited the training philosophy or founder of
Organization McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc (Businessweek.com, 2019).
Places to be improved
Generally, managers have not tried to set any solid or strong vertical barriers among
themselves as well as their employees. Leaders and managers often seem to show the real
concern moreover interest in employees' emotions plus health, which is unpredictable in this
4

Leadership
business environment such as a manager, was simply observed and asking an employee to spend
her weekend and children on a clean floor (Mahdinezhad et al., 2013). To motivate employees,
for the direct workers level, it seems that reasonable efforts have been made. According to
Herzberg's theory explains, a good working environment only is achieved until now, and
employees need a higher level of achievement, for example recognition and motivation, to be
completely satisfied with good position. Even low-skilled positions require low turnover.
Additionally, happy employees will bring happiness to all customers (Jacobs, 2012). McDonald's
company management believes in training and leadership at different levels through the
University of Hamburg. On the website of the University of Hamburg, they quoted the idea of
training by McDonald's founder Ray Kroc: "If we want to go anywhere, employees must have
talent and company my put my own money. Invest in talent." This ideology suggests that
organization McDonald never believes that its restaurant staff is just a gear in an easy-to-replace
machine (McCleskey, 2014).
5. Key Leadership Qualities
The responsibilities of a team leader must increase trust with all team members and
include the following level of integrity and integrity with the following qualities and abilities;
Full commitment to team development; Be free and communicate, however good listening
capabilities and skills must be followed; Be prepared to share ideas, understandings, and
opinions with all the team members; as well as allow all the team members to work in a self-
organizing way and independently. The team leader must take the time to work and support the
team's work and reflect on its actions. They must maintain responsibility if they maintain good
working relationships with all team members. Always be prepared to monitor and evaluate how a
5

Leadership
team works (Kesmodel and Brat, 2015). They must clearly state the purpose of the work and
should not be confused or complicated. They should experiment and share their experiences
without sin. They should provide training and mentor support for the team. McDonald's
organizational structure is centralized, but retail stores have a different organizational structure.
At McDonald's sales shop, employees work in a team to make sure that customers meet customer
needs in very short time period. All the waiters, except the manager, are ordering and delivering
the goods as possible. There is a division of the labor among members of the organization and
coordination of its functions is the aims and objectives of McDonald’s.
Design is a pattern of strong relationships between members of the organization as well
as members of the organization. The design makes an application of the management process
possible as well as creates a command and command framework with which the work activities
of Macdonald can be properly planned, organized, controlled, as well as directed. Defines design
functions and responsibilities, that is, job roles along with relationships and communication
channels (O'REILLY, 2015). McDonald's restaurant leadership is dictatorial, so the crew is not
involved in business decision-making process. There is also the fact that the advice of employees
is not welcome, as many recommendations are new. Macdonald’s management members are still
very young and work in this restaurant during summer months, so they can't give ideas to the
leaders. The crew is still young, so they will be motivated if they get timely payments and have
the added benefits of lunch and transportation. Despite the dictatorship, it still forces employees
to continue working. The dictatorial leadership style does not meet the self-esteem requirements
contained in the Maslow hierarchy. On the other hand, they have earned each other's respect and
respect among McDonald's employees. McDonald's will never adopt another leadership force
because management and administration fear that goods will not be supplied in a heartfelt or
6

Leadership
democratic way, meaning that they will not be able to deliver quality food to their customers on
time (Kowitt, 2011).
6. Some of the Options
McDonald's may adopt a different leadership, but those who worry about more freedom
will be strongly opposed (Ojokuku, Odetayo, and Sajuyigbe, 2012). McDonald's has not been
able to authorize the crew or train to train them. McDonald's is a symbol of globalization, which
sequentially supports standardization. Team leaders at McDonald's outlets are completely trained
by senior management to express their opinions. Therefore, only dictatorial leadership can
flourish in this multinational food chain. It's good for McDonald's to integrate few leadership
frameworks and models to create a more understandable model for McDonald's staff or team
development. The proposed model is a model developed which integrates some literature to
develop a consensus model developed by the team. The model proposes few key points that
easily facilitate successful team implementation. These qualities include the major elements of a
team and the contributing factors, which are clear goals; the power to make decisions;
Responsibility and liability; Effective leadership, development, and training, organizational
support, resources, as well as team success awards (Buelens, 2006). McDonald's team leaders
should likewise identify leadership behaviors that can be used to execute and assist team leaders.
They can be motivated by six behaviors and these behaviors encourage self-monitoring and self-
assessment so that entire team can gather the information necessary to monitor and evaluate its
performance; encourage self-set goals so that team can set performance goals and aims;
encourage self-enhancement, identify the team and strengthen the team's good performance;
encourage the team to self-criticize itself and to prevent poor performance of the criticism;
encourage self-esteem so that team has high and strong expectations for the team performance;
7

Leadership
as well as encourage training so that overall team can think and study before actually
implementing an activity (MWAI, 2011).
7. Recommendations
Short-term goals
1. McDonald's leaders must seriously consider establishing the assets, capabilities, and
capabilities of the organization to promote consistent and appropriate competitive
change.
2. Foresight leadership and management leadership are critical to the success of the
Association's education initiatives. This combination is necessary because the association
needs to learn new things reliably, as well as organize new learning avenues.
Long-term goals
1. Strategic leaders believe that human capital is an important factor in developing
innovative and important skills and will spend a lot of energy on the welfare of such
assets. While management leaders focus on current asset development and capabilities,
key pioneers strengthen the Center by seeking new assets, capabilities and core skills
that will be misused to generate wealth when needed. This double focus on discovery
and exploitation, the paradox is an important factor in McDonald's long-term success.
2. Current responsibility activities and compliance systems should be somewhat
monitored and reviewed to undermine their healthy leadership and adventurous skills.
In addition, methods of shifting responsibilities should be identified as needed
(Fairholm and Fairholm, 2009).
8

Leadership
8. Implementation Plan
McDonald's leadership is effective because he has adopted several strategies to make the
company the best market leader. It has about 400,000 employees. McDonald's leadership
philosophy is: "To be successful, you need leadership and management roles at every level in the
organization. Therefore, each employee is expected to reflect the value of the company and
demonstrate leadership wherever it is. McDonald's emphasizes the leadership development
program in the following four areas:
1. Lead and manage organizations in this rapidly changing world of complexity
2. Establish organizational climate for innovation and continuous improvement
3. Holding McDonald's fortune
4. Work with others
In order to achieve the vision, McDonald's team created metrics as well as standards to help
sustain a highly competitive marketplace. The organization's talent management system has a
competitive advantage in the food chain industry. McDonald's culture is constantly evolving.
McDonald's has its own university, where employees are simply sent to easily develop their
careers and careers through leadership growth programs, rather than being sent to off-site
universities. These plans combine the suggestions of the organization's executive team with
external expert addresses. The objective is to establish a unique link between the business
strategy and leadership development of the organization, which is difficult to achieve if officers
leave the campus for guidance. McDonald's recruitment and selection process foster a culture of
cooperation by choosing the best candidates who want to benefit the Association on the back of
personal ambitions (Rubin, 2009. In addition, McDonald's continued the legacy process through
bad and bad. In fact, a lasting organizational culture can help individuals to escape
9

Leadership
uncomfortable situations. McDonald's executives emphasize only McDonald's expertise and
efficiency, with a total of 33,000 restaurants and a large and complex framework to support it
(Phillips and Gully, 2009). These are the characteristics of management; it certainly brings the
"Golden Age of Gold". The organization will be able to process a large number of orders or
suppliers in a row, employees are ready to create new products, and they know the way to make
products available to advertisers. McDonald's, a supplier and franchise executive chef, gathered
at headquarters to learn how to boost sales of crispy chicken strips. Food scientists, Suppliers,
chefs and menu management teams as well as advertising agency staff decide how to determine
the price as well as product characteristics, with snack packaging requiring 150 to 200 customers
to be brought into focus groups. Then four to six weeks of operational tests were conducted at
other McDonald's hotels to find out if there was a need for staff replacement or equipment
placement. This process also helps McDonald's understand the snack business unit's potential
and increase the likelihood of transportation during meal times (Cooper, 2012).
9. Conclusion
In short, McDonald's is a multinational corporation and it has been concluded from the
discussion above, some people think that McDonald's is a cheap, fast and decent restaurant,
while some think that it is a low-quality restaurant. McDonald's corporate image reflects
corporate values, quality products as well as hygiene-based organizations. The organization
utilizes different systems, for example, progression intending to run self-advancement focuses
and colleges to enable specialists to play out their work successfully and make the association a
superior creation association. McDonald's pursues an exceptionally powerful administration style
that enables individuals to prevail later on. It has been discovered that the work culture of the
association is in accordance with the estimations of the association. CEO Steve East Brook has
10

Leadership
shown extraordinary charisma, position leadership and transformative leadership style that helps
the organization lead the market. McDonald's is a global fast-food chain known for its quality
food and excellent customer experience. Through rigorous and clear strategy and Skinner's
charismatic leadership, McDonald's has created a good image in the minds of consumers. Given
the changing needs of our customers, he is able to maintain his brand recognition and growing
profits. The perfect integration of planning, organization, leadership, and control is a key driver
of McDonald's success.
11

Leadership
10. References
Aboutmcdonalds.com, (2019). Company Profile :: AboutMcDonalds.com. [online] Available at:
http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/investors/company_profile.html [Accessed 5 September
2019].
Buelens, M. (2006). Organisational behaviour. London: McGraw-Hill.
Businessweek.com, (2015). Twenty Best Companies for Leadership: McDonald's -
BusinessWeek. [online] Available at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/ss/10/02/0216_best_places_for_leadership/10.htm [Accessed 5
September 2019].
Cooper, M. (2012). Understanding the McDonald’s Leadership “Special Sauce― |
ChiefExecutive.net | Chief Executive magazine. [online] ChiefExecutive.net | Chief Executive
magazine. Available at: http://chiefexecutive.net/understanding-the-mcdonalds-leadership-
special-sauce [Accessed 5 September 2019].
Daft, R. (2008). The leadership experience. 2nd ed. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western.
ETRetail.com, (2015). Can McDonald's be both cheap and high-quality? New CEO Steve
Easterbrook thinks so | ET Retail. [online] Available at:
http://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/food-services/can-
mcdonalds-be-both-cheap-and-high-quality-new-ceo-steve-easterbrook-thinks-so/46503211
[Accessed 5 September 2019].
Goldman, E. (2009). Observation of Leadership & Organizational Behavior at
12

Leadership
McDonald’s. [online] Ericgoldman.name. Available at: http://www.ericgoldman.name/non-
technical/28-leadership/34-observation-of-leadership-a-organizational-behavior-at-mcdonalds
[Accessed 5 September 2019].
Hunt, O. (2013). Performance and Motiation in mcdonald. [online] streetdirectory.com.
Available at: http://www.streetdirectory.com/travelguide/184092/human_resources/
performances_and_mot ivation_in_mcdonalds.html [Accessed 5 September 2019].
Jacobs, D. (2012). McDonald's Recipe For Success Brought New CEO To The Table. [online]
Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2012/03/22/mcdonalds-recipe-
for-success-brought-new-ceo-to-the-table/ [Accessed 5 September 2019].
Kesmodel, D. and Brat, I. (2015). On McDonald’s Menu: CEO With a Fresh Perspective.
[online] WSJ. Available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/on-mcdonalds-menu-ceo-with-a-fresh-
perspective-1422578857 [Accessed 5 September 2019].
Kowitt, B. (2011). Why McDonald’s wins in any economy. [online] Fortune. Available at:
http://fortune.com/2011/08/23/why-mcdonalds-wins-in-any-economy/ [Accessed 5 September
2019].
Mahdinezhad, M., Bin Suandi, T., Bin Silong, A. and Binti Omar, Z. (2013). Transformational,
Transactional Leadership Styles and Job Performance of Academic Leaders. IES, 6(11).
McCleskey, J. (2014). Situational, Transformational, and Transactional Leadership and
Leadership Development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(2), pp.117-130.
Mcdonalds.com, (2015). Leadership :: McDonalds.com. [online] Available at:
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/leadership.html [Accessed 5 September 2019].
13

Leadership
Netra, S. (2011). Leadership Style at McDonald's. [online] Managementparadise.com. Available
at: http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/foundation-human-skills-f-h-s/221122-
leadership-style-mcdonald-s.html [Accessed 5 September 2019].
Ojokuku, R., Odetayo, T. and Sajuyigbe,, A. (2012). Impact of Leadership Style on
Organizational Performance: A Case Study of Nigerian Banks. American Journal of Business
and Management, 1(4).
O'REILLY, L. (2015). McDonald's New CEO Is British - Here's Everything We Know About
Him. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.in/McDonalds-New-
CEO-Is-British-Heres-Everything-We-Know-About-Him/articleshow/46053674.cms.[Accessed
5 September 2019].
14