Leadership and Management Report: McDonald's Case Study Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management principles, using McDonald's as a case study. It begins by defining and comparing the roles and characteristics of managers and leaders, followed by an assessment of how these roles are applied in various situations within the company. The report then explores the application of different leadership and management theories, including Management by Objective, System Leadership, Situational Leadership, and Contingency Theory, examining their strengths and weaknesses. Key approaches to operational management, such as Lean Production, are discussed in the context of McDonald's, highlighting the role of managers in this area. The report also identifies the value and importance of operational management and assesses the impact of business environmental factors on operational management and decision-making processes. The analysis offers insights into how McDonald's can improve its operations and adapt to market challenges through effective leadership and management strategies.

LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT CONCEPT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1. Defining and Comparing various roles and characteristics of manager and a leader......1
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................2
P2. Assessing part of a leader and the role of a manager applied in various situations.........2
P3. Applying different theories, concept and models of approach.........................................4
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................6
P4. Key approaches to OM and the role of manager in the context.......................................6
P5. Identifying value and importance of operational management........................................8
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9
P6. Assessing business environmental factors that affects OM and decision-making process of
leader and manager.................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management and operation are the key element of the strength of an industry. Along with
it, management and leadership is also an critical element in the industry as it assist in utilising the
resources of the company in order to attaining the goal. The selected organisation for the present
study is McDonalds. The study will provide an understanding about the duty and characteristic
of a leader and manager of the industry and will analyse how their roles apply in the various
situational context in McDonalds. Furthermore, it will analyse different concepts and models of
of leadership and management that provide an understanding of their styles.
Along with it, operation management is an essential part of the industry that will be
analyse through various tactics to operation management and the value and importance of OM
will identify. Lastly the study will evaluate various factors that have impact upon operation
management & decision-making by leaders and managers.
LO 1
P1. Defining and Comparing various roles and characteristics of manager and a leader
Manager
Manager is a respective person who is accountable to plan and accomplish the tasks as
well as team in the industry in order to achieve desired objectives of McDonald. In other words,
manager are one who perform basic managerial function and they are a link between stakeholder
and organisation (Blomme, Kodden and Beasley-Suffolk, 2015).
Role/ Characteristics of Manger
Primary role and responsibility of a manager is to ensure effective and smooth
functioning of the overall operation in McDonald and to planning, directing and monitoring the
work as the characteristic of manager is task-oriented. There are three types of role of a manager;
Decisional role, interpersonal role and informational role. A perfect manager have various
managerial skills so that he able to lead the employees with honesty and transparency.
Leader
A person can be refer to the term leader, who inspire, influence, encourage or motivate
workforce to work effectively and willingly to attain industry's objective (Bosse and et. al.,
2017). In simple words, leader is an individual who influence a set of persons to the achievement
of the targeted vision.
1

Role/ Characteristics of Leader
Leaders have different roles and responsibilities that is depending on the area of activity.
The leader of any organisation is require to have good communication skill, empathy, a good
director, etc. A good leader should clear about their vision and able to direct the followers
towards the vision. The main role of leader is to influence and inspire team so that they can give
a high level of performance.
Difference between management and leadership
Management Leadership
Management refers to a discipline of managing
things in the best possible manner.
Management is an art of organising and
coordinating systematically in efficient way
(Luo and et. al., 2016).
Leadership is the ability to comprehend and
believe in the settled vision of the industry and
ensure that goals are attained willingly and
enthusiastically.
Management adopts impersonal and passive
attitude.
Leadership adopts personal and active attitude.
It is a method of controlling or dealing with
people or things.
It encourages others for sharing their views or
vision.
It focuses on maintaining stability. It focuses on bringing change.
It focuses on formulation of policies &
procedures.
It formulates guidelines and principles
LO 2
P2. Assessing part of a leader and the role of a manager applied in various situations
The work culture of McDonald's appears highly dependent upon the specific line
manager in charge. McDonald's has experienced a significant drop in competitiveness against
quicker moving. They facing issue of bad food image in the UK market. Along with it, the
industry has lack of flexibility in their operation, adapting change, etc. that appears as a major
issue for McDonald's. In the specific situation, leader and manager of McDonald's playing
2

essential role and function to improvise the operation of the company and can reach the desired
outcome.
Management Theory
Management by objective
This theory is a kind of model of management that define evidently the goal for outline
the management activity. The theory emphasizes on involvement and participation of employees
within the organisational structure or any specific outlet. This theory work best in the current
situation faced by McDonald's that is lack of flexibility in organisation as well as in employees
to work with change. This approach will enhance the performance of the organisation as well as
ensure the success of the outcome that initiate with the activities (Morden, 2016). An objective
will communicate by the manager to employees in the industry regarding the operational and
other functional change to beat the competition. This will also enable manager to improve the
brand image in the marketplace. Along with it, under this theory management is also responsible
to supervise and measure the performance of employees so that the area of improvement can be
identified.
Leadership Theory
System leadership
The system theory of leadership involve the process of McDonald's that dominate to
different situations and actions to be followed. The theory enable leader to control and manage
the followers as well as to communicate various situations that has been facing by the
organisation. Along with it, leader is responsible to guide staff to work according to the need of
the industry and consumer. It will help leader to handle the situation regarding bad image of the
company in the marketplace. As per this theory McDonald's require to make further changes in
their marketing activity to defend the image of its food (Morden, 2017). For example;
McDonald's launched a social media campaign. In the critical situation leader is responsible to
promote creativity and innovation in the organisation to encourage followers to think differently.
Both the theory of leadership and management are effective under which leader and
manager are able to perform their roles and responsibilities and their functions to improve the
brand image and raise the flexibility. The motivation and long term vision will enable follower's
performance and dedication to fulfil consumer's need that improve the image of the company as
3

well as proper guidance and promoting innovation and creativity will enable the flexible service
provide by the industry to its potential consumers.
P3. Applying different theories, concept and models of approach
Situational Leadership
This theory of leadership mentioned that the leader should not depend on a single
leadership style in every and different situation. The component of model contains the concept
that various situation in McDonald's require a special leadership and management style as per the
situation arises in the industry. The theory stated that various kind of leadership style should be
adopted by the management of McDonald's, in accordance to the situation face by the industry
(Situational Leadership Theory, 2018). For example; McDonald's currently facing bad image of
the brand in the market in compare to its competition and lack of flexibility. This model consist 4
type of leadership;
4
Illustration 1: Model of situational leadership
(Source: Situational Leadership Theory, 2018)

 Directing: This style of leadership is low supportive and high directive and leader of
McDonald's is responsible for defining the task and role to the employees and guide them
closely.
 Coaching: This style is high supportive and high directive and the staff of McDonald's
get intense amount of direction and support from both leader and manager.
 Supporting: In this style leader and manager of McDonald's implement supportive
behaviour through two way communication but provide less direction. Accordingly it
refers to high supportive and low directive.
 Delegating: This style is low directive and low supportive as the employees of
McDonald's understand their roles and responsibilities effectively.
Contingency theory
Contingency theory was introduced by Fred Fiedler in 1958. Contingency theory
concentrated with the change in the strategies on the basis of changes in various situations. This
theory is dependent on the optimal position for the contingent position of McDonald's. Under
this approach, leadership and management effectiveness is contingent upon with their leadership
style that require to be flexible and should fit the situation of the industry (Nakamura and et. al.,
2015). According to this approach:
 There is no best leadership style.
 It is essential to change the style as per the situation arises.
System leadership theory
This approach can be defined as the leadership across the geo political and organisational
borders that contains range of culture of organisation and stakeholders. Leader can applt this
leadership theory in McDonald's that will enable leader of the industry to not only think
regarding perspective of his own or of the organisation but it make them able to look into a
broader term with their long term vision. This approach will help in promoting innovation and
creativity that motivate employees to think out of the box.
Strength and weakness of various theories and approaches
Strengths Weaknesses
Situation Theory This theory enable to leader and
manager to monitor and evaluate
employees very closely that help in
It is based on various situations and
change with the situation in the
McDonald's as well as it is
5

identifying area of improvement. concentrated with current scenario,
thus, it tends to emphasise short-term
plan of action.
Contingency
Theory
This theory provides a way to
evaluate leader style that is
beneficial for McDonald's in
particular situation.
Constant change to the environment
or structure of McDonald's is
challenging for the management.
System leadership
theory
It clarifies the state of mind on the
dynamism and complexity of the
environment and provide a
framework that help in developing
new and innovative ideas.
The weakness of this approach is that
it is quite lengthy and complicated.
LO 3
P4. Key approaches to OM and the role of manager in the context
An introduction to the organisation management structure
McDonald's firm is one of the largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurant across the
world. The industry serve more than 58 million consumers on day-to-day basis (McDonald's,
2019). The restaurant mainly utilise 3 form of route to enter into new market; Franchisee,
affiliation and the corporation itself. The management structure of McDonald's is based on
various organisational operation carried out by the industry across the world. The management of
McDonald's mainly based on divisional structure that is based on performance level. Under this,
each division of the company handles a particular operational area. One of the aim of this
management structure is to support autonomy and flexibility that focus on satisfying business
requirement.
Operation management is majorly obsessed with the production activity of the enterprise
in the most efficient manner possible. Operation management consists several responsibilities
such as to ensure the business operates efficiency both in terms of using the least amount of
resources necessary. However such approaches are there to make the operation process more
productive in McDonald.
6

Lean Production : It is a significant approach for operation administration that helps to
build the systematic procedure to minimization of waste activity. Lean Production techniques
also effective and efficient to add more value in the process. This operational approach is
simple, practical which is realistic, flexible and people oriented.
However, this technique enable to eliminate waste or ensure the quality measures from
the McDonald production. This method can be applied to all aspects of a business as well.
Likewise Lean production is the cost effective approach for the organization which is beneficial.
Less waste means the lower cost which is essential part of any business to be more
competitive for McDonald.
Six Sigma : Six-Sigma is one more approach or technique in operations management that
improve the work efficiency of the production process of McDonald. It uses the methodology to
eliminate defects either in product, services or in the production. It is a applied mathematical
approach tools and techniques that focuses on reducing defect process variability. However, Six-
Sigma consists some elements are measurement, improvement, validation of activities etc. the
main targets of Six sigma approach are given below :
 Reducing in the cycle time of process
 Decrease in scrap that rendered by a process
 Enhancing satisfaction of customer
 Decrease in the amount of factory fault
 Eliminating cost reworks
TQM : TQM stands for Total Quality Management. This is an organized management
approach of the industry mainly focuses on continuous improvement of quality of trade goods
and services by enabling continuous reviews and feedback. This approach includes the statistical
terms also includes some other areas such as process control, quality development of function,
JIT, etc. Just time technique of TQM reduce the unnecessary cost of unprocessed material.
However, such approaches can help McDonald to control quality measures and get higher
customer satisfaction results.
360 Evaluation : 360 analysis approach enable the workforce to provide their reviews
and feedback in regarding fellow employee's performance. The feedback reported by the
manager. 360 degree analysis of forever changing the ways companies evaluate employees and
also conduct the overall procedure to manage the work accordingly in efficient manner.
7

In other words, from the basis of above given approaches that can help McDonald to
bring quality outcomes.
P5. Identifying value and importance of operational management
Operation management of McDonald's involve the decisions in the context of effective
and efficient operations. Operation management oversees, design, control the manufacturing
process and redesign the operation. It mainly perform regarding improvement of the operation
system. There are a wide range of functions of operation management;
Production
In this function, McDonald's operation management is focusing on transforming raw
material into final product that are going to be served to the consumers. In this function, leader
analyse the demand of consumers regarding products (Ross, 2017). Operation management
oversees that the resources are available with the aim to produce the final product in efficient
manner. The quality production of food and services fulfil the objective of McDonald's that is to
produce quality products or their potential consumers.
Process Design
It is the vital function that specify procedure in the production, where the manufacturing
carried out with the aim of meeting consumer's need and demand. This function help in fulfilling
organisational objective by designing the products and services as per the need of consumers in
the specific country. Operation management bring efficiency in the procedure design that help
the organisation to increase productivity by implementing effective and right process for
production and by using at least resources as possible.
Control and distribution
The controlling & distribution system is very essential function in operation management
and it is accountable to control the procedure of production as well as ensure the effective
distribution of the products effectively (Thompson and Glasø, 2015). Operation management
improve the effectiveness of control & distribution system that can be improve by accepting a
strong control system and by improvise the structure of the corporation.
Capacity management
It is a significant role of McDonald's operation management as it stipulates the capacity
of the manufacturing procedure so that company can control over excess production of the
products. It enables industry to fulfil the objective of producing products and sustainable
8

development of the industry. This function help McDonald's to produce right capacity of
products to the customers as per the demand arises in the market.
Operation management add value in the day to day function and operation of the industry
as it add value in the products & services offered to the customers. Along with it, through
capacity management, proper and efficient production process as well as proper control and
distribution enable the organisation to meet the demand and need of consumers. Furthermore,
operation management enable company to produce quality products that build an image of the
industry in the market and in consumer's mind (Verdier and Zenou, 2018). The effective
operation management of McDonald's enable company to gain commitment and loyalty of
potential consumers that is beneficial for the industry.
LO 4
P6. Assessing business environmental factors that affects OM and decision-making process of
leader and manager
Business environment of McDonald's is diverse and it include various external and
internal factor that impact on the decision-making by leaders and manager as well on the
operational management. Therefore, it is essential to identify the impact of the external factor on
the business environment of McDonald's so that leaders and managers can adopt various
appropriate strategies and policies to minimise the impact of the factor. Leader and manager
make different decisions regarding products and services as well as in the context of operations
of McDonald's.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders have an integrated role on the industry and the power of influence is so high
that can affect the decisions of leaders and managers. Stakeholders of McDonald's are;
consumer, suppliers, the government of the country and local community, etc. They have
potential power to make impact on the decision-making of leaders and managers of the industry.
Leadership and management of McDonald's have to efficiently fulfil the expectations of their
potential stakeholders. The decision should involve that the products and services of the industry
fulfil the need and demand of consumers with providing quality products. Furthermore,
government get all the taxes and should ensure that industry is following all the legislation of the
9

country (Blomme, Kodden and Beasley-Suffolk, 2015). CSR policy of McDonald's also aim to
meeting expectation of stakeholder by fulfilling all the requirements.
Corporate Social Responsibilites
Corporate social responsibilities is defined as an approach of business that contribute to
the sustainable development by delivering environmental, social and economic benefit to
McDonald's stakeholders. In the context of CSR, leaders and manager have a great role to play.
It include various factors such as; values, ethics, culture in which leaders and managers are
bound to consider the factors while making any decision.
After adopting CSR policy, business environment get largely affected as it helps the
industry to improve their brand image (Bosse and et. al., 2017). As the organisation is global
food chain and they are require to follow the environmental laws as well as ethical and
sustainable elements. For example; leader and manager are require to consider CSR policy
before adapting any style, leading and managing people, developing plan, etc. to ensure that the
activity of the industry do not harm the environment, values and beliefs of the population as well
as maintain the cultural value in the marketplace.
CONCLUSION
From the present study it has been evaluated that the function of manager and role of
leader is necessary in McDonald's that improvise the operation activities. The manager and
leader follow different approaches and style to enhance the efficiency of operation management.
The study stated that the industry is require to undertake Total quality management in order to
improvise the brand image. There are two most effective business environment that influence the
decision making of managers and leaders; CSR and Stakeholders.
10

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Blomme, R. J., Kodden, B. and Beasley-Suffolk, A., 2015. Leadership theories and the concept
of work engagement: Creating a conceptual framework for management implications and
research. Journal of Management & Organization. 21(2). pp.125-144.
Bosse, T. and et. al., 2017. Computational model-based design of leadership support based on
situational leadership theory. Simulation. 93(7). pp.605-617.
Luo, Z. and et. al., 2016. How is leadership related to employee self-concept?. International
Journal of Hospitality Management. 52. pp.24-32.
Morden, T., 2016. Principles of strategic management. Routledge.
Morden, T., 2017. Principles of management. Routledge.
Nakamura, T. and et. al., 2015. Operation management apparatus, operation management
method, and operation management program.
Ross, J. E., 2017. Total quality management: Text, cases, and readings. Routledge.
Thompson, G. and Glasø, L., 2015. Situational leadership theory: a test from three
perspectives. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 36(5). pp.527-544.
Verdier, T. and Zenou, Y., 2018. Cultural leader and the dynamics of assimilation. Journal of
Economic Theory. 175. pp.374-414.
Online
McDonald's. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:<https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb.html>.
Situational Leadership Theory. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://www.selfawareness.org.uk/news/situational-leadership-and-developing-great-
teams>.
11