Organizational Behavior Case Study: McDonald's Leadership Issues

This case study examines the organizational behavior within McDonald's, focusing on a significant leadership change and its repercussions. The arrival of a new floor manager, Barty, who implemented a transformational leadership style, led to substantial internal issues. The case details the reactions of employees and management to these changes, including team reshuffling, increased employee attrition, and conflicts arising from differing opinions and communication breakdowns. The study highlights the failure of Barty's leadership to motivate employees, leading to intergroup conflicts and a decline in work environment. The case concludes with management's intervention, implementing strategies to improve the situation and address employee concerns, ultimately leading to a resolution where previous team structures and reporting lines were reinstated. The case study provides a dialogue section that reflects the underlying thoughts and feelings of the employees and the management in the form of a conversation that highlights key issues such as high attrition rates, the impact of leadership styles, major conflicts between team leaders and the new manager, and the effects of structural changes on employee morale and productivity.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational Behavior
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Case study:
In the report, I will be explaining about the significant change and the issues that had
taken place in McDonalds corporation while I was working in the organization. I will talk
about how the employees and the management reacted to this change and my reaction and
feelings about the entire situation. I will also talk about the major factors that has created this
situation and to what extent, the situation was managed and handled by the higher authorities
in order to achieve the objectives of the organization. McDonalds is fast food chain first
opened in America by Richard and Maurice McDonalds. Initially they became popular
because of their hamburgers, which were later improvised by adding a variety of items in
their menu. The menu includes, chicken sandwiches, French fries, shakes, salads, desserts
and ice creams. The goal and objectives of the organization was to serve the customers by
providing them with the best quality food and serving them on time.
McDonalds has successfully created a reputable image of its brand and a history of
their previous achievements. In spite of that, McDonalds faces internal problems because of
the increase in population in the organization of people with different attitude and behavior.
While I was working in the organization, a new floor manager, Barty was appointed to take
care of the operations of the floor (Pinder, 2014). Barty was successful as a leader in the
previous firms where he had worked. After joining the organization, he immediately called a
meeting for all the employees in order to understand and analyze the current situation of the
organization’s operational activities. I was part of the team 3 and me along with other team
members directly reported to our team leader in case of any issue or confusion. We were
handling a project, which required a team of 25 people. Our new floor manager announced
the changes in the organizational structure that was going to take place and reshuffled the
teams based on our capabilities in particular areas of tasks. Soon after that the team members
had realized that he did not call the meeting for interacting with the employees and

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understand their issues and dilemmas but to entirely change the operations of the organization
in the very first week of his joining. We were not ready to change our teams as we have been
working with each other for a quite long time and had a good bonding with each other, which
in turn had always helped us in understanding the problems of each other, and resolve the
work related problems that arose amongst the team members (Antonakis & Robert, 2013). I
was not comfortable in working with the other departments as I had very less knowledge
about their tasks and team operations. Soon after this, me along with the team members
directly approached the higher authority in the hope of not changing our teams and the
operational activities. The higher authority was unable to deal with the situation at the earlier
stage. Employees from all the teams started to leave the organization and the rate of attrition
had highly increased during that period. McDonalds thus found it to be a huge challenge to
implement certain changes in the organization. The team members even approached the new
manager Barty thinking that he would understand and consider the concerns of the
employees. He did not understand the condition of the employees and in turn implemented
the changes in the structure of the team, the very next day. We also emailed our branch
manager and other higher authorities but there was no positive response from their end as
well. We were asked to stop our task, which we were working on and were asked to start a
very new task, which had very less deadlines (DuBrin, 2013). We had no other option but to
start the task with the help of the floor manager. As a result of which, problems started to
arise because of the differences in the opinions of the team members. I was personally not
able to understand the task, as I was not used to working on such projects. After a week’s
time when the rate of attrition had increased terribly, the higher authorities had called a
meeting and tried knowing the issues and the challenges faced by the employees. Each one of
us got the chance to explain the entire scenario and suggested some of the solutions, which
could help in mitigating our problems. Soon after that Barty was asked to call a meeting and

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know the issues of the employees which was immediately denied by Barty. The higher
authorities also understood the sole reason of the entire situation. Barty’s transformational
style of leadership had terribly failed to motivate the employees to work towards the goal of
the organization and instead increased the rate of attrition and in turn conflicts within the
organization (Antonakis & Robert, 2013). Barty took an initiative to explain the reason for
the his previous activities and tried convincing the employees to work according to his
instructions. He even went to the extent of changing the way of their reporting and instructed
all the employees to directly report to him and not to the respective team leaders. That
instantly created a intergroup conflict among the team leaders and the new manager. The
team leaders refused to work in such a circumstance and decided to complain against the
manager as he had taken away all the authorities of the team leaders. We started to fear about
losing our job as disagreements with the manager started to increase. Two of the team leaders
resigned from their respective posts and created a situation that rose a sense of tension
amongst the higher authorities. I was taken aback by the leadership style of the new manager
as instead of being a charismatic leader and motivating the employees, he followed the
transformational style of leadership, which in turn had agitated the employees and made us
feel less important in the organization. Barty also removed the culture of rewarding the best
performer of the month and created a major gap between the employees and him. The
employees refused to work anymore and reported against him. He was given warning by the
management to either change his attitude, behavior and the style of leadership or leave the
organization as that is only helping in incurring loss to the organization (DuBrin, 2013).
Barty soon after that, decided to call a meeting and announce that the previous teams would
resume and team members like before will report to their respective team leaders. This
resulted in calming the situation a little in the organization. The team leaders resumed to
work and informed the team members to start with their work. As soon as we started to work

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on our previous unfinished project, Barty again announced that from that time onwards the
team leaders would directly report to Barty in case of any confusion or issues. The leadership
related issues could have been handled and mitigated but the strict and inflexible attitude of
the new manager degraded the work ambience in the organization. Finally, the management
decide to implement certain strategies and plans for the benefit of the employees and in turn
improve the present situation of the organization (DuBrin, 2013).
Dialogue:
Underlying thoughts, feelings What was said
High rate of attrition
Transformational style of leadership
Major conflicts and disagreements between the
team leader and the new manager Barty.
Me: I do not think we can serve the organization
for a very long time.
Other: The best performers have already left the
organization and few are planning to resign in a
week or two.
Me: I am not at all satisfied with the
transformational style of leadership of the new
manager and it is de-motivating every employee,
which is resulting in tremendous conflicts in the
organization.
Other: Yes, this will lead to huge loss on the part
of the company and the manager should be
strictly instructed to change his style of
leadership for mitigating the conflicts.
Me: Instead of leaving the organization, the team
leaders should stand together and complain
against the manager.
Other: The higher authorities should take the

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Interpersonal relations
Structural change
matter seriously and consider the issues of all the
employees and the team members to improve the
atmosphere of the organization.
Me: The activities of the new manager have
disturbed the interpersonal relationship among
the employees and also between the employee
and the manager.
Other: There is a huge gap in the process of
communication, which needs to immediately
solved in order to reduce the attrition rate.
Me: Barty in the very first week has changed the
structure of the organization and formed an
uncomfortable place for the employees to work
in.
Other: We were extremely satisfied and content
with our previous structure which had given rise
to so much of productivity. The sudden change in
the structure of the organization is creating so
much tension in the organization, which is
becoming difficult to handle.

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References:
Antonakis, J., & Robert, J. (2013). House (2013).'The Full-Range Leadership Theory: The
Way Forward', Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th
Anniversary Edition (Monographs in Leadership and Management, Volume 5) (pp. 3-
33). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
DuBrin, A. J. (2013). Fundamentals of organizational behavior: An applied perspective.
Elsevier.
Pinder, C. C. (2014). Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.