Leadership and Change Management at McDonald

This document discusses the leadership and change management practices at McDonald. It covers the background information of the company, reviews literature on best leadership practices, and identifies key theories suitable for the organization. It also evaluates the leadership approaches at McDonald and assesses the change management strategies implemented by the company. Finally, it identifies the gap between existing leadership and change management and suggests ways to improve.

RUNNING HEAD: Management 0
Mcdonald
Leadership and change management

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Contents
Logbook a..............................................................................................................................................2
Background information....................................................................................................................2
Review literature on best leadership and change management practices...........................................2
Key theories and best practices in leadership and change management suitable for the organization4
Logbook b.............................................................................................................................................6
Brief of the leader and outline of the leadership and change issues...................................................6
Evaluation of the leadership approaches............................................................................................6
Assessment of the change management of McDonald.......................................................................7
Identification of the gap between existing leadership and change management and best practices. . .8
Logbook c..............................................................................................................................................9
New leadership and change management plan..................................................................................9
Elaboration of the plan in improving existing leadership and change management...........................9
References...........................................................................................................................................11

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Logbook a
Background information
McDonald was established in 1940. It is an American fast food chain and is one of the major
food chains in the domain. The franchises are offered by the restaurants. Since inception, the
restaurant is actively engaged in innovating and constructing strong relations. The chain of
McDonald is continued to expand domestically and internationally. The restaurant is
operating in more than 35,000 outlets in more than 100 countries.
The vision of the company is to become the globe’s best and rapid service restaurant. The
restaurant has gained popularity for delivering quality, service, cleanliness, and value so that
customers can be retained. The mission statement of the company comprises the best people
in every community around the world. The company has gained expertise in excellent
delivery to the consumers and lasting lucrative growth by intensifying the brand. The strength
of the restaurant is leveraged through innovation and technology. The success of McDonald
was attained through the criticism due to a global upsurge in obesity. The company retorted
by adding healthy items to the menu. The restaurant also focused on affordable food, fun, and
flavors.
Review literature on best leadership and change management practices
According to Neves & Schyns, 2018, leadership is the procedure of motivating others to
achieve tasks. The best leadership practices are really challenging. Some identified leadership
practices are listening more and observing more, empowering teams rather than managing,
communicating regularly through different channels, develop trust and delegate. The
contingency theory, trait theory, and situational theory are the best key theories of leadership.
A good leadership focuses on listening more as it is a valuable leadership skill. Listening
carefully helps in acquiring information, identifying, clarifying issues, making decisions and
resolving conflicts. It is not only about the listening but observing the behavior and body
language of others. The leadership practices transcend the interest for the betterment of the
organization (Ololube & Ololube, 2017). These have even role in empowering team by
offering tools, prospects, and guidance than overpowering them by instructions or orders. The
best leadership practices motivate employees by appealing them at the individual level by

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highlighting their strengths. Add on, the leadership practices have a role in building
relationships. The leaders in the organization evaluate the progress and identify the risks and
challenges (Jiang, et al. 2017). All the sources of communication are used to make sure that
all the employees are on the same wavelength and have attained the message. The baseless
assumptions are avoided in the leadership practices and the conclusion is abstracted by
clarifying, asking queries and encouraging individuals to speak their opinion and
communicate. Delegation is also an important part of the leadership practices. It inspires trust
in the team members to get the job done. Listening, observing, understanding and critical
thinking are some of the skills to be used for making expectations clear and establish progress
reports.
According to Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015, the change management process is the
arrangement of steps to be followed by the change management team to apply the change for
driving individual evolutions. It ensures that the organization meets its expected outcomes.
The change management process is designed with the intention of transforming business.
There are numerous ranges of the change management process models for exploring and
considering strategic approaches based on the expertise and experience of the organization.
Kurt Lewin’s force field analysis is a powerful tool used to understand what is desired for
change in the organization along with the environment. This model ensures that the
organization retorts to the environment in which it runs. The change management strategies
to deal with the human elements identified are:
Proposed incentives: The first change is tried to being in the organization by the proposed
incentives. The employees work as per their own self-interests but incentives encourage them
to consent and involve in the new direction of the organization. The employee recognition
programs and rewards are tailored to provide specific actions and values (Van der Voet,
Kuipers & Groeneveld, 2016).
Redefined cultural values: In the change management process, the organizational culture is
redefined to drive employee buy-in. A culture is formed for unceasing enhancement in order
to change the mind-set of the employees.
Exercised authority: The strategy of exercising authority is applied to decrease employee
opposition and get workforce faithful to processes, new standards, and cultural norms. This
strategy depends on the seriousness of the required change (Nohria, 2017).

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Key theories and best practices in leadership and change management suitable for the
organization
Key theories suitable for the organization are contingency theory and situational theory. The
contingency theory focuses on the several variables on a certain setting and determines the
leadership style suitable as per the applicable situation. It is the kind of leadership which
finds the perfect balance between needs, behaviors and contexts. This theory is even capable
of evaluating the needs of the followers and the situation at hand (Kouzes & Posner, 2018).
This theory is a combination of various key variables. On the other hand situational theory
chooses the best action based upon the situational variables. This theory focuses on choosing
the leadership style as per relevancy like the authoritarian style and democratic style. The
authoritarian style is considered appropriate at the instances where the leader is
knowledgeable and experience. The democratic style of leadership opts when the group
members are capable and efficient.
Lewin’s force field model is the suitable change management model for the organization.
There are two sets of forces in the Lewin’s model, forces driving change and forces
restraining it. If there is evenness between two sets of forces then there will be no change. In
order to be change, driving forces are required to exceed the preventive force. This model is
used to recognize the keys stakeholders on the issue, challengers, and associates along with
the investigation of the balance of power comprised in the issue.
According to Bucciarelli, 2015, forces for the changes within the business are like need to
increase efficiency and competitiveness, desire to enhance profitability along with the

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performance measures, the conflict between the departments, and the requirement for better
tractability in the organizational structure. The concerns like ineffective communication or
poor relationships and decline in the business demands for the change in the internal forces.
On the other side, external forces for change are regarded as uncertain economic conditions,
enhanced competition, augmented demands for the higher quality and efficient customer
service (Hossan, 2015). There are also some other forces which demand change are
legislation, taxes, political interests, technological change, ethics, and social values, lack of
the natural resources along with the changing nature and configuration of the workforce. The
restraining forces in Kurt Lewin’s force field analysis make changes harder. The changes are
always resisted even if the potential positive outcome is attained. It is stressful and disruptive.
The reasons resisted to changes are parochial self-interest, habit, misinterpretation of the
requirement for purpose of change, low lenience of change, varies valuation of the situation,
economic inferences and unknown fear (Burnes & Bargal, 2017).

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Logbook b
Brief of the leader and outline of the leadership and change issues
Steve Easterbrook is CEO of McDonald and handles the important aspects of the
organization. Under the leadership of Steve, the company is serving more customers and
enhances their experience through contemporary innovations. The leadership issue faced in
the franchisee of the McDonald is high employee turnover. The restaurants are too stressful
and people are not interested in working there. The unemployment is at a very low level as
young people do not want to work in McDonald. The company is even investing in all the
necessary training for the successful implementation of changes in the organization. The
drive-thru times is also slowing in the restaurants (Cameron & Green, 2015).
McDonald has a trustworthy brand image and outstanding history of the preceding
attainments but the management of the company started sensing that the rising population has
advanced diverse nutrition attitude and behaviors. As this population is quite different from
the population of the previous decades. The company felt an austere need to redefine the
appearance of the company and reposition the brand in the mind-set of the consumers as
people now days are concerned with the health and figures than before. The perception of the
people concerning McDonald’s food has transformed significantly as they feel that greasy
food is high in fats and exclusive than the competitors. Add on, the competitors have already
undertaken measures to lessen fats in the products and also have gained expertise in cheap
price meals. McDonald's also faced substantial loss a few years back as the customers
switched to the opponent companies like Subway, KFC and Burger King as they offer fresh
food at high quality at the lower prices (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). McDonald has to
respond to the changing behavior of the customers in order to attain market share and holding
customers.
Evaluation of the leadership approaches
McDonald believes in creating outlets which are fun places to work. It has even fostered
accountability and comprehends the social responsibility culture and integrates such activities
in the business. The restaurant has all the characteristics like behavior, influence, traits,
interaction patterns, and role relationships. Adair’s model has been adopted in McDonald
which is also identified as action-centered leadership. It is a constructive model and as per
this model, leaders motivate others by their own enthusiasm, assurance, and capability to

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communicate enthusiasm to people. There are three different approaches as per Adair model
which are also called functions like achieving the task, preserving team and confronting the
individual requirements of the team members (Al-Ali, et al. 2017).
McDonald restaurants practice autocratic style of leadership hence, crew members are not
comprised in the decision making the process. The autocratic leadership does not accomplish
the self-esteem requirements revealed in Maslow’s hierarchy. The crew members working at
McDonald are young and work during the summer vacations only (Hornstein, 2015). In such
a situation those cannot be offered ideas to be a leader. But the crew members are paid wages
on time and are provided with additional benefits like lunch and transportation. Persuasion is
the obligation of the leaders which is used to individuals towards a situation.
Assessment of the change management of McDonald
The changing behavior of the customers is responded by the company along with retaining
customers and attaining market share. The obesity issue is also identified by McDonald
which is a serious and complex matter. In order to understand the changing behavior of the
customers and health cognizant factor, the management has defined to execute a new
integrated marketing communication plan as a part of marketing strategy. It will be involving
innovations in the advertising and marketing campaigns emphasizing on varying insights of
the customers for the food quality (Cragg & Spurgeon, 2016).
The reasons analysed for the change management of McDonald are the execution of the
integrated marketing communication plan as a part of the marketing strategy, offering a
balanced diet and a vigorous lifestyle. McDonald has adapted practices to the local markets
share best practices globally between restaurants along with holding a common brand
identity. The innovations are used by the restaurant in the advertising and promotional
campaigns as a part of change management (Holten & Brenner, 2015). It has also made
changes in order to be the customer’s favourite place to eat. There are some other concerns
also which are undertaken by the change management like tackling obesity in an effective
manner, adopting health-conscious image, introducing latest trends of health, introducing
balanced diet menu and changing the public image of the brand. It also helped the company
in maintaining traditional efficiency of the fast food along with providing a comfortable
environment to the customers (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015).

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Identification of the gap between existing leadership and change management and best
practices
The gap was realized due to the responses of the McDonald’s staff and consumers. Some
employees are in the favor of this innovative change and some are in contradiction of this
change mean using the IMC (International Marketing Communication). The leaders and some
employees are only against this change due to the distress, they can probably think that this
change instead of determining the problem can enhance the glitches of the company (Kremer,
Villamor & Aguinis, 2019).
Not only employees are showing an undesirable reaction towards the change but customers
are also not presenting optimistic reaction towards the campaign of the company. It can even
lead to another encounter in the framework of no positive attitude of the customers towards
innovative change. This way McDonald cannot attain benefit from this change as an entire.
Another gap identified between existing leadership and change management is the lack of
qualified personnel in McDonald who allocated maintaining crew and execution of the new
marketing change. The personnel is not much professional which is the conflict in the change
management. Another conflict is also identified as the difference in the culture between
different employees. The difference in the culture created conditions in which employees are
unable to work in a pleasant environment (Appelbaum, et al. 2015).

Management 9
Logbook c
New leadership and change management plan
The leaders play a significant role in implementing any change in the organization. They
even pay courtesy at the time of the initiation of change towards plummeting probable
resistances and attain better organization performance. The employees who initiated and start
the change have to agree and adopt it. The effective communication, awareness of the
actions, employee’s attitude and pleasant working situation should be used to overcome resist
to change and play a significant role in accomplishing better organizational performance
(Doppelt, 2017).
The effective communication is considered a significant component in the restaurant industry.
It plays an important role in the achievement of the organizational operations. Effective
communication is very significant among the leaders and employees and among the
employees to employees. The skills like good listening are critical for the leaders of any
organization mainly in the fast-growing fast food industry (Kunkel, et al. 2016). The change
process managers are carefully required to listen to to opinion of the employees and execute
the changes as per the views of the employees.
The leaders should always alert concerning employees reaction towards change before the
execution of the successful change. If the managers realize that if employees are against the
change and will not be cooperating and this way customer service delivery will get inferior.
The struggle can arise among colleagues and managers when employees resist change. This
way performance of the employees will be affected and will affect the status of the restaurant.
It can also become the reason for the resignation of the employees. The managers should
cautiously listen to the argument of the employees before the execution of the new change
management. They should even change the situation as per the time required (Gunkel, et al.
2015). The formation of the bad environment should be avoided in which employees
demonstrated a deprived environment for work and all can go for the resignation. They
should also inspire the employees for the better service and enhancement of the performance
of the company.

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Elaboration of the plan in improving existing leadership and change management
It is very significant for the company to tackle the struggles and confrontation cautiously as it
leads to achievement or failure of change for being properly controlled. The management of
McDonald comprehends the significance of handling resistance appropriately in order to
happen changes successfully. There should be a context for possible enhancement in the
efficient working system for better customer service in the working environment (Hayes,
2018). The plan designates and encourages to both leaders and employees should go for the
better techniques of the things getting done. It should be noticed that improvement always
goes along with the change. If no improvement then there will be no change in the way
restaurants become sluggish in precise. The unforeseen circumstances taking place in the
restaurants makes the company keep pace with the competitors. The leaders are even required
to provide a satisfying environment to the employees for keeping happy to the employees. It
will contribute to the higher level of motivation along with the higher performance. The
employees who are highly inspired will be surely able to form and maintain a pleasant
working environment with the workforce (Betancourt, et al. 2017). The leaders should even
maintain and preserve a satisfying environment for the employees to keep empowered as
traumatic environment always impact negatively to the restaurant.
The achievement of the new change is still under the progress and challenging to transform
the preferences of the children towards vigorous fast food meals. On the other hand, there are
robust chances of success due to the strong campaign and the promotion activities for
prompting are features of the new change. Besides, McDonald should also assure that the
message has been reached to the children in the countries where it is serving from the best
strategy. There could be even a new theme for the innovative advertisement like ‘I love it
more’ and this theme will be inspiring parents and inspiring children towards the healthy food
(Halkias, et al. 2017). The plan made by the company should be long-lasting and concerned
about the healthy food of this new change and the company would easily attain mission along
with the objectives. The most significant concern for the company is to provide an image of
the health consciousness with the on-going health measures.

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