Operations Management and Leadership Roles in McDonald's

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Management and Operations

Contents
PO2. Examine examples of how the role of the leader and the function of the manager apply in different
situational contexts......................................................................................................................................3
PO3. Apply different theories and models of approach including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency leadership........................................................................................................4
PO4. Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play. 5
PO5. Explain the importance and value operations management in achieving business objectives.............7
PO6. Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision making by leaders and managers...................................................................................................8
References:..................................................................................................................................................9

PO2. Examine examples of how the role of the leader and the function of the manager
apply in different situational contexts.
Role of managers and leaders plays an important in effectively dealing with the different
situation prevailing for business of the organization, McDonald’s as the higher officials of the
company has the ability to lead the organization to accomplish the objectives through efficiently
dealing the organization situations. The functions of leader and manager in different situation of
McDonald’s are stated below:
Business Falling Behind: The situation when the business of McDonald’s falls behind and lacks
the efficiency of the company’s ability to effectively serve the customers. Under this situation
the leader of McDonalds plays the role of motivating the employees for increasing their
productivity and enforcing team work in the organization. While under this situation the manager
of McDonalds has the function to plan the organization working activity and management of the
business operation to overcome the situation in the organization business (Xu, et. al., 2016).
Change in Leading Competition: Under the situation sudden change in competition prevailing
in market which draws down business of McDonald’s and shares in the competitive market. the
leader under this situation has the role to encourage the employees and other members of the
organization to engage in the decision making process of the organization, while the manager of
McDonald’s has the function to efficiently manage the change in competition and analyzing the
strengths and weaknesses of other competitors to overcome the situation change in leading
competitions and seek an appropriate position in competition present in the market (Shin, et. al.,
2015).

PO3. Apply different theories and models of approach including situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency leadership.
The different theories and models that are suitable and appropriate for the business organization,
McDonald’s are stated below:
Situational Leadership Model: This leadership model is appropriate for McDonald’s as under
this leadership model the skills and capabilities of the employee’s and leader. Moreover this
leadership model undertakes the consideration of different situations prevailing in the
organization. This model is related with the theory related to situation practiced and founded by
Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard and theory states that under the situational leadership the leader
of the organization adopt different leadership skills on accordance with situations prevails in the
organization (Ghasabeh, et. al., 2015).
Systems Leadership Model: The systems leadership model considers the overall working of the
organization, McDonald’s and under this model the leaders tends to enhance the productivity of
the employees. Under the system leadership model, the leader consist long term vision for the
business organization along with some appropriate strategies and procedures for the other
member to follow. This leadership model is related with system leadership theory which is stated
as an interdisciplinary study of systems and this theory is originated from Bertalanffy’s general
systems theory.
Contingency Leadership Model: The contingency leadership model is also suitable for
McDonald’s as this leadership emphasis potential of the leader which is based on matching
leadership styles appropriate for organization situation. This leadership model is developed on
different leadership style according to the situation of the company. The contingency leadership
model is related with contingency theory was developed by Fred Fielder and this theory state that
the leadership effectiveness in an organization is contingent upon different leadership styles
suitable for the organization situation.

PO4. Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and
managers play.
Approaches of operations management in McDonald’s along with the description of the role that
the leaders and managers of the organization follows are stated below:
 Lean Production: The lean production process generally refers to the systematic
production process which aims to reduce the wastage of resources while seeking
desirable output for the organization. This approach is an appropriate approach for
operation management as to identify that impact the operation of the business
organization and the factors that the organization, McDonald’s is required to considered
as resources wastage and excessive use of resources. Under this approach the leader of
McDonalds has the role to aware the members of the organization to reduce wastage and
efficiently use the resources, while the manager has the role of manage the resources
accordingly to their potential and skill to effectively utilize the resources (Behrendt, et.
al., 2018).
 Six Sigma: The six sigma approach refers to the tools and techniques for improving the
operation process of McDonald’s and this approach provides the organization with the
assurance of defect free output and avoiding misleading decision. This approach is
significant as it enables quality management, effective business processes and
minimizing the risk failure factor. Under this approach the leader of McDonald’s has the
role of increasing the employees engagement, productivity and potential while the
manager has the role of taking more reliable decision and to implement statistical method
for operation management of the organization.
 Just In Time: The approach of just in time refers to inventory strategy which focuses on
production process of the organization, McDonald’s. This approach is suitable for
operation management of McDonald’s as this approach aims to reduce additional cost of
the organization in production process through avoiding inventory expenses. Moreover
this approach seeks to compete the task of the organization on time along with full
potential of the employees in the operation (Xu, et. al., 2016). Under this approach the
leader has the role of properly guiding the employees about organization set target and
analyze the desire of the employees. The manager of the organization has the role to

monitor the activities in the organization in order to complete task and target of the
organization.

PO5. Explain the importance and value operations management in achieving business
objectives.
For business practices this practice is very important for organization as it ensure that the
organization consist strong operation process and to achieve the target areas in business. Value
of the management related to operations of business for obtaining objectives are given below:
 Product Quality: This management process is essential in order to ensure the
organization product quality offered to the customers and for increasing the quality of
the organization products. This management helps McDonald’s to monitor the quality of
the products and services in the competitive market according to the market demand and
preference (Moutousi, et. al., 2018). The value of operation management is it enables the
organization to achieve the objective of sustaining maximum benefit for the firm through
enhancing the standard of its products as the quality of the products helps the
organization to attain productivity and profit through desirable results in the quality of
the organization products.
 Customer Satisfaction: The importance of operation management process is achieve
the major objectives of business organization and the objective is customer satisfaction
as it is considered the key for the increasing the sales of the organization. The operation
management contributes to customer satisfaction through managing the quality that the
customer prefers and meet the demands of the customer. The value of operation
management in customer satisfaction is that it provides suitable procedures and methods
in order to create customer desirable products (Jensen, et. al., 2018).
 Increase Revenue: The operation management is also important as it supports increase
in financial stability of the company. The operation management increase the revenue of
the organization through helping the organization to determine its profit ratio which
further helps the organization to expand its business in different areas and market.
Moreover the operation management helps the McDonalds to target new market and
targets. The value of operation management as it plays crucial role for increasing the
sales of the company.

PO6. Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational
management and decision making by leaders and managers.
Business environment has the ability to impact the organization business operation through
impacting management of the operations and decisions of leaders and this factor further affect
the organization in achieving its business objectives. Impact on management operations and
decisions taken by leaders are given below
 Financial Status: The financial status is part of macro-environment factor of the
business environment which refers to the budget of the organization and financial ability
of the organization. The financial status also have impact on the given selected factors
and managers as the leaders and manager has to make new strategies on accordance of
the current financial status of the organization and to determine the cost of the
organizations products and services (Choi, et. al., 2016).
 Technological Changes: The technological is a part of the technological factor of
business environment impacting the management of operations and decisions taken by
leaders making of the leaders and managers as the leaders and managers of the
organization is required to efficiently adopt the technological changes in the organization
operation system and to motivate the employees to effectively to use changes in
technology
 Trend of Market: The market trend prevailing in the competitive market also includes
the capability to impact the operation of the organization and decisions taken by the
leaders or mangers as they both are required to analyze the current trend in the market for
meeting the requirement of the customers (Hammer, 2015).

References:
 Behrendt, P., Matz, S. and Göritz, A.S., 2017. An integrative model of leadership
behavior. The leadership quarterly, 28(1), pp.229-244.
 Choi, T.M., Chan, H.K. and Yue, X., 2016. Recent development in big data analytics for
business operations and risk management. IEEE transactions on cybernetics, 47(1),
pp.81-92.
 Ghasabeh, M.S., Soosay, C. and Reaiche, C., 2015. The emerging role of
transformational leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), pp.459-467.
 Hammer, M., 2015. What is business process management?. In Handbook on business
process management 1 (pp. 3-16). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
 Jensen, J.R., Beaulieu, R.J. and Neck, C.P., 2018. The Self-Ac-tion Leadership Model: A
Qualitative, Nomological Expansion of Self-Leadership Theory Rooted in Action
Research. Journal of Lead-ership and Management, 2(11), pp.10-30.
 Moutousi, O. and May, D., 2018. How change-related unethical leadership triggers
follower resistance to change: A theoretical account and conceptual model. Journal of
Change Management, 18(2), pp.142-161.
 Shin, Y., Sung, S.Y., Choi, J.N. and Kim, M.S., 2015. Top management ethical
leadership and firm performance: Mediating role of ethical and procedural justice
climate. Journal of Business Ethics, 129(1), pp.43-57.
 Xu, A.J., Loi, R. and Ngo, H.Y., 2016. Ethical leadership behavior and employee justice
perceptions: The mediating role of trust in organization. Journal of Business Ethics,
134(3), pp.493-504.