McDonald's Problem Solving and Decision Making: A Comprehensive Report

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Problem Solving and Decision Making
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Table of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................................3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 5
DISCUSSION................................................................................................................................... 6
DEFINING PROBLEM WITH ITS SCOPE AND IMPACT..................................................................6
MODEL OF PROBLEM SOLVING:.................................................................................................6
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................13
DEVELOPING A PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTING THE SOLUTION.....................................................13
DECISION-MAKING TECHNIQUE FOR EVALUATING A RANGE OF SOLUTIONS TO IDENTIFY THE
MOST APPROPRIATE OPTION.................................................................................................. 19
ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM..............................................................................22
DEVELOPMENT OF A PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SOLUTION..................................24
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS....................................................................................25
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................26
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Problem-solving model....................................................................................................6
Figure 2Organizational structure of McDonald............................................................................10
Figure 3 McDonald’s organizational culture................................................................................11
Figure 4 SWOT analysis of McDonald..........................................................................................15
Figure 6 Decision-making process................................................................................................19
Figure 5 Fishbone Diagram.......................................................................................................... 22
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report has been carrying out for finding the issues facing by the McDonald and the
activities laid down for solving the problems. This report carries the basic details and
information of the company which also shows the issues facing by the company. This laid down
the critical issues and recommendations to solve the problem focus by the manager of the
company and implemented successfully. The problems related to the poor management and
strong competition in the market which had a great impact on the McDonald shown in the
report. The problems also impacted on the decision-making process of the company which laid
emphasis by the managers and the positive attitude of them towards solving the problem of the
company.
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INTRODUCTION
This report carries the problems facing by the McDonald. McDonald’s is an American fast food
which was founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald on 15th May 1940 and its headquarters
are in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The company is famous for fast food all over the world
and mainly serves the hamburgers and French fries to the customers, other breakfast items
which include soft drinks, wraps, milkshakes, cheeseburgers etc. McDonald has the world
largest chain of restaurants over the world more than in 100 countries. The company serves
more than 68 million customers per day (McDonald, 2015).
This report laid out the issues facing by McDonald which affects the decision making of the
company. This will tell about the issues and the problems in the company with its scope and
impact and analyze the information to solve the problem of the company. This report will focus
on the range of alternative solutions to the problem which will help in decision making and
implementation on the development of a plan that will also communicate to the stakeholders
of McDonald. The report will also carry the appropriate maintaining and reviewing the
techniques for implementing successfully the solution to the plan.
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DISCUSSION
DEFINING PROBLEM WITH ITS SCOPE AND IMPACT
A business acquires benefits with a tough organizational structure by a well-defined hierarchy,
improved communication and the capability to create a combined business message (Reder,
2016). An organizational structure can be effective, but it can create problems which lead to the
conflicts and the loss of productivity. The issues facing McDonald are poor management and
strong competition (Reder, 2016). McDonald has the strongest chain of restaurants all over the
world and the stock prices sluggish rising by 7% after the joining of McDonald CEO don
Thompson over 2012.
According to Reder (2016), for maintaining a healthy business framework, the manager must
have to identify the issues within the organizational structure and have the capability to fight
with them. For diversification, at the workplace, the organization must identify the problems
and the opportunities for solving the problems help in reducing the conflicts between the
management and the workers (McDonald, 2015).
MODEL OF PROBLEM SOLVING:
The problem of poor management and strong competition get managed by following the simple
steps of the problem-solving model.
Figure 1 Problem-solving model
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(Source Brodbeck and Guillaume, 2015)
 Problem identification: the first step is to determine the problem that the McDonald is
facing. The McDonald is facing the problem of poor management and strong
competition prevailing in the market. It can be identified by collecting the data from the
market research and the reasons behind the problem that McDonald has facing
(Brodbeck and Guillaume, 2015).
 Problem analysis: this measures the level of the problems of poor management and
competition. The managers and the team need to decide the solution for the problem in
context to solve it effectively and efficiently (Brodbeck and Guillaume, 2015).
 Plan development: this includes the vision and the direction which helps the team and
the managers to make a choice for taking the best option to solve the problem
(Brodbeck and Guillaume, 2015). This can be getting evaluated by the managers in
development towards the goal.
 Plan implementation: the process of selecting the best way to solve the problem and
implementation of the plan, which developed by the managers and the team. This
includes how and when to implement the right plan at the right place (Brodbeck and
Guillaume, 2015).
 Plan evaluation: this step evaluates the changes implemented on the problem have
affected positively or not. This includes the evaluation of the performance and
monitoring control over the plan that gets implemented for solving the problem
(Brodbeck and Guillaume, 2015). The evaluation of problems resulting from taking
feedback from the customers about the services offered to them.
PERCEIVED PROBLEMS AND POTENTIAL CAUSES:
According to, the identification of issues and determining the causes reflect the perceived
problems. The problems are facing by McDonald are related to poor management, lack of
motivation in staffs and competition in the market (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015). The selection
and identification of the problem should be get solved by understanding its causes. The
possible causes can arise by the process of clarifying the causes of the problems.
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ACTION PLAN:
The action plan quantifies and defines the actions for the improvement of the problem by
processing and by change management. McDonald needed an action plan to solve the problem
of poor management and strong competition (McDonald, 2015). The issues got solved by using
these methods of the action plan which includes brainstorming and smart goal.
 BRAINSTORMING
According to Rawlinson (2017), this approach combines an informal approach to solve the
problem with different thinking. This encourages managers and teams to come up with
thoughts and ideas that can be crafted in creating a solution to the problem (Rawlinson, 2017).
Brainstorming provides an open and free environment that encourages people to participate in
the problem-solving process by sharing ideas and solutions.
 SMART
Specific: this includes a target that set for an area for the implementation of the plan.
Measurable: this quantifies the suggestions provided for implementation on the plan.
Attainable: this includes who will perform the task of solving the problem (Rawlinson, 2017).
Realistic: this includes the realistic achievement of the results within the provided resources.
Time-bound: this includes the specific time provided to achieve the results (Rawlinson, 2017).
PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE:
 Quality: businesses must quantify by meeting specifications and standardization leads
to a higher level of conformance. Quality must be compared before it has any real
meaning and helps in reducing the cost such as less wasted materials, fewer problems
to fix, less wasted time (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015). It also helps in increasing the
revenue for higher sales volume, less price competition and brand image
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 Speed: this is the time between the customer and the requested product, these include
internal speed and external speed where internal speed reduces in-process inventory,
reduces risk and speed the demands on the nature of the business. It considered the
layout and flow of the process (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015).
 Dependency: it means different things in different parts of the organization. it includes
internal dependency of reliable machinery and consistent processes and external
dependency of receiving orders of customers on time which saves time and money
which provides flexibility in the organization (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015).
 Flexibility: it includes the flexibility of introducing new products and services with high
variation and high customization. This provides a wide range of products includes similar
products having low skilled staff and greater flexibility allows variations. This also
includes the volume flexibility in delivering and flexibility of queuing, flexible contracts,
good supplier relations and backward integration (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015).
 Cost: increasing quality can increase cost and keeping cost low gives business a
competitive advantage. It keeps costs low and provides 2 pricing strategies which
involve setting the price at low to increase sales and keep prices the same and receive a
higher profit margin. It is important to maintain the balance in the performance and the
objective (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015).
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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF MCDONALD:
Figure 2Organizational structure of McDonald
(Source McDonald, 2015)
McDonald is the most popular and has the largest chain of restaurants all over the world and
serves almost 58 million people a day. This is supported and manages by the effective staff
members, supporting staff and senior administration (McDonald, 2015). The company follows
the top to bottom hierarchy structure which includes the top-level executives, CEO, chairman,
directors, senior-level managers including the departments of finance, marketing, sales and
restaurant level executives (Warrick, 2017).
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE OF MCDONALD:
The organizational culture of McDonald follows the facts, symbols, norms, traditions and rituals
for the benefit of the organization as well as the development of the employees (Warrick,
2017).
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Figure 3 McDonald’s organizational culture
(Source Warrick, 2017)
 People-centricity
The organizational culture of McDonald gives priority to the employees’ needs and focus on
their development. The business gives emphasis on the values and the standards of business in
consideration of that McDonald is the business of service providing (Warrick, 2017).
 Individual learning
The company highlights the lifelong learning importance and the belief is for individual learning
which promotes quality, productivity and effectiveness to business. For this, the company offers
training and development programs for the employees (Warrick, 2017).
 Organizational learning
The organizational culture supports the learning in the organization and McDonald aims to use
the learning of individual to the benefit and development of the organization (Warrick, 2017).
McDonald’s applies this on its organizational culture by programs, policies and gatherings which
inspire worker feedback and awareness of sharing.
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