Leadership Values at the McDonalds - Assignment Example

Leadership (Name) (Course) (University) Date of presentation: Lecturer: Part 1: Leadership Values at the McDonalds McDonalds is the largest food retailer in the world. It has operations in more than 100 countries and employs hundreds of thousands of employees. In order to remain competitive and an iconic corporate institution, McDonalds has developed leadership programs and strategies that motivate employees to be more productive and future focused. Although McDonalds is a very large organization, the chief executive officer is often recognized as the leader and hence a symbolic driver of the organization’s corporate ideals and initiatives. Generally, McDonalds has embraced the transformational approach as the main leadership style. Through this approach, the organization has managed to reinvent the global fast food industry with a new vision and direction (Northouse, 2007). Basically, transformational leadership is a type of leadership style which results in positive changes in those who follow the leader. Generally, transformational leaders are energetic, passionate and enthusiastic. They are also concerned and involved in the daily business processes in addition to being focused on helping every member of the group succeed. At the McDonalds, the transformational leadership is characterized by such important aspects as intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, idealized influence and inspirational motivation. Over the years, McDonald’s leadership has not only challenged status quo but has also encouraged creativity among subordinates. The company’s leadership gives support and encouragement to subordinates and followers at individual level. In an attempt to nurture supportive interpersonal relationships, the company’s leadership maintains open lines of communication. This way, followers can feel free to share ideas and hence leaders can offer direct recognition for the follower’s unique contributions (McDonald's Corporation, 2008). At the organizational level, McDonald’s transformational leadership is aimed at becoming an exemplary organization in both leadership and management. In the recent past, the company has been repositioning its products as being of high quality and image as being aligned with customer interests. As a result, the company has created a unique corporate image combining transformational leadership and strategic management. It is worthy to note that one of the most important aspects of McDonalds’ transformational leadership is that it involves constant reinforcement of a vision for the future as well as increasing value for employees and customers. By encouraging creativity and leadership even at the lowest level of organizational hierarchy, the company believes that future leaders may emerge. Moreover, in order to increase employee productivity and commitment, the company promotes education program for all employees. Although the transformational leadership at McDonalds is not easily discernable at the surface, it is easily seen at the company’s restaurants through customer service experience. The care regarding customer satisfaction that is characteristic of McDonalds is largely a result of transformational leadership. The company’s employees are always polite and dutiful, which is in fact the secret behind the company’s global dominance of the industry. Employees have a high level of morale even if they are involved in menial or custodial positions, which are hard to find in a fast food company (Northouse, 2007). By embracing transformational leadership, McDonalds has managed to create a pleasant working atmosphere for its employees. The company’s leadership is always focused on maximizing production and delivering ideal services to customers. A modern McDonald’s leader applies coaching strategies to motivate employees and encourage supportive and directive behaviours. This notwithstanding, the company’s leadership has retained control of every step of the production process. At some instances when things go wrong, the transformational leadership comes in handy, coaching and directing employees on what they ought to do to achieve specific objectives. Although not everybody can be a super achiever, McDonalds owes its leadership success to team functionality as opposed to the efforts of any one individual. Trough transformational leadership, McDonalds has an integrated teamwork and is resultantly efficient in delivering the right products and services in a timely manner. Part 2 The development of the right leadership styles is very important because they not only help to achieve organizational objectives but also personal and professional success. However, most organizations face difficulties with the developing the right leadership styles, skills and abilities. In this regard, it is crucial to focus on the development of leadership styles that contribute to an organization’s bottom line and which can inspire others in their professional and personal development. The situation at McDonalds shows that the development of right leadership skills should be an integral part of an organization’s long term objectives. This is because it makes people to be flexible and helps in succession planning. Essentially, well nurtured employees can be effective leaders. This is probably why McDonalds is inclined to use transformational leadership style, which is undoubtedly effective in the retail industry where it is operating (Northouse, 2001). In the modern world of business, the role of leaders is fundamental for the successful performance of organizations and individuals. At the same time, effective application of leadership qualities is heavily dependent on the kind of approaches used by leaders to their subordinates and associates. Of the large plethora of leadership approaches existing in the contemporary organizational environment, transformational leadership is the most popular and widely used approach. This approach has been considered by many researchers and specialists as being effective and highly prospective. As can be shown from McDonalds’s example, transformational leadership can help organizations achieve strategic business and marketing objectives and gain competitive advantages (Brown, 2003). The underlying philosophy of transformational leadership is that it makes organizations more successful by valuing the efforts of the leader’s associates. This means that a transformational leader is able to develop positive interpersonal relationships with their associates and hence improve communications and organizational culture at large. The significance of positive interpersonal relationships between a leader and his associates or subordinates cannot be underestimated in the contemporary world of business because the role of human resource has changed considerably. Because of the changing nature of the role and importance of human resources, people have become the most important assets in any organization. At the same time, it is only through the development of positive, future-focused interpersonal relationships that a leader can implement the full potential of his leadership capabilities (Daft, 2008). In the modern business environment, associated and subordinates should be highly valued by the leader in order to develop more confident in the leader. This way, the subordinates and associates can be more responsible for their own performance. At the McDonalds, employees are treated as business partners and not workers. As a result, McDonalds has develop one of the most committed and talented workforces in the world. The company’s employees have long learned to take responsibilities at their own initiatives instead of waiting for the supervisor to delegate work. The effect of this is evidenced by excellent customer service, increased employee productivity and reduced turnover. More precisely, employees at the McDonalds do their best to maintain the positive performance because of the desirable leadership qualities of their seniors. This way, they avoid changing the attitudes of the leaders and hence feel more valued by the leader (Dessler, 2004). Moreover, along with the growing responsibility of subordinates, their effectiveness and productivity at work grows, which in turn produces a positive impact on the performance and development of an organization. Because of transformational approach, the leadership at McDonalds has achieved immense progress in instilling a sense of loyalty and belonging among employees. It is however important to note that transformational leadership not only benefits but can also have risks which may threaten the normal performance and development in an organization where the approach is used (Peters, 2007). For instance, a transformational leader can face problems about how he is treated by his subordinates. This is the case because more often than not, transformational leaders are perceived by their subordinates as personalities above all. Moreover, the leader’s position is treated secondary as compared to the leader’s personality trait. In view of this consideration, transformational leaders can easily undermine their authority as leaders while their personality traits become more important in their relationships with subordinates (Hume, 2007). In addition, the application of transformational leadership can easily lead to the abuse of power. Researchers have identified that a transformational leader can easily use his leadership position to manipulate his associates compelling them to do services as a personal service to the leader. Worse still, the subordinates can use their god relations with the leader to achieve personal goals. As an example, junior employees can capitalize on good interpersonal relationships with the leader to solicit promotions. Such effect of negative use of transformational leadership may result in undesired impact on the performance of the organization (Brown, 2003). Despite the aforementioned difficulties which organizations may encounter while applying transformational approach, it is still possible to overcome these difficulties by using a wide range of strategies. Essentially, transformational leadership can be improved by emphasizing on an idealized influence of the leader on his subordinates. It is imperative for the leader to work as an exemplary model for the subordinates. In addition, it is up to the leader to be the model that subordinates can be encouraged to learn. This implies that if the transformational leader shows a positive example and does not abuse power, the subordinates are likely to imitate the leader in the professional work (Dessler, 2004). At the McDonalds, leaders have maintained a formal distance between themselves and the subordinates, which has in turn developed a formal relationship. In fact, interpersonal relationships at the McDonalds have been intertwined with professional relationships than substituting them and hence the leaders are not perceived as being superior to their personality traits. The McDonalds experience illustrates that the application of transformational leadership can be highly prospective for improvement of an organization’s performance as well as culture. Through this approach, not only do employees become loyal, hardworking and motivated but they also aspire to have similar personal and professional qualities as the leader. Therefore, the transformational approach to leadership is effective in a wide range of settings and should be embraced (Brown, 2003). Part 3: Recommendation To avoid the risk of being redundant, there are a number of strategies that McDonalds can pursue to improve the effectiveness of its leadership. The most important strategy is to encourage employees to develop the culture of adhering to policies and following procedures. Essentially, effective leaders are good followers and understand that they are accountable to not only the authority but also to the subordinates. The company should therefore encourage its leadership to keep work priorities aligned with the organizational goals and mission. The company should also encourage its leaders to submit to the authority of others. Sometimes, it is necessary for the leaders to step outside the box by being innovative. It is only by doing so that leaders can inspire others. There is an imperative for McDonalds to develop proactive leaders. Proactive leaders are good at judging situations and events long before they happen. This way, they can avoid eminent challenges and barriers to organizational development. Moreover, the organization should develop leadership that has a correct mindset. The mindset should be founded upon individuals’ willingness to lead and serve others. It is the case that an effective leader desires the opportunity to step up and be involved in not only controlling their own actions but also the actions of others. It is also important that the company encourages teamwork as an essential aspect of leadership. Teamwork not only makes it easier to achieve objectives in a timely manner but los encourages good interpersonal relationships between employees (Peters, 2007). References Brown, D. C. (2003). Leading complex change. New York: Touchstone. Daft, R. L. (2008). The Leadership Experience. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western. Dessler, G.  (2004). Management: principles and practices for tomorrows’ leaders (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Upper Saddle River. Hume, S. (2007). McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner - R&I's 2007 Executive of the Year. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from Restaurants & Institutions: http://www.rimag.com/article/CA6553963.html McDonald's Corporation. (2008). Corporate. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from McDonalds.com: http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp.html Northouse, P. (2007). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousdand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Northouse, P. G. (2001). Leadership theory and practice, second edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Peters, T. J. (2007). Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution. New York: Knopf/Random House. Read More