Human Resource Management - McDonalds - Essay Example

Human Resource Management: McDonald Case Study Table of Contents Human Resource Management: McDonald Case Study Performance management at McDonald 3 360 degrees feedback 4 McDonald culture 5 Deal and Kennedy culture at McDonald 5 Conclusion 7 References 9 Human resource management: McDonald case study Introduction McDonald is one of the leading food service companies in the world with over 28,000 restaurants in over 120 countries across the globe. The presence of the company in different parts of the country and the globe makes human resource management a unique process. Cultural differences and the diversity of employees at McDonald has remained a key feature that has contributed to its performance and success over the years. Employees at McDonald are classified into three groups, which include the general restaurant workers, the corporate staff and the franchise owners (Kramar, 2010). In this paper, McDonald HR practices will be described in light of the unique diversity and cultural variation at the workplace. The paper will discuss performance management and culture management at McDonald based various human resource theories. Performance management at McDonald This aspect of human resource management focuses on the management of various aspect of a business, which includes the employee, the product or service offered to the customers (Aguinis, 2007). At McDonald, performance management is a key function of the corporate managers and is aimed at improving the abilities of the employees to increase output and achieve the goals of the organization. The management keenly identifies measure and develops the performance of various employees based on the strategic decisions of the organization. McDonald developed a performance development system to help align individual performance goals with the objectives of the organization (Aguinis, 2007). Rewards to every employee at the company are influenced by the PDS performance and this determines the reward advanced to the employees. The management of performance at McDonald begins with the development of individual performance plan. Human resource managers engage all employees to develop individual performance plans and use the same plan to enhance their performance based on the goals of the organization. 360-degree feedback is a mechanism developed in human resource to get immediate response from members of an employee’s immediate inner circle. 360 degrees feedback With this approach, the feedback on the performance of an employee is acquired from members of his team, the subordinate stuff, colleagues of similar ranks and even supervisors. This approach enables an organization plan for proper human resource development for its employees based on the positive and negative feedback received. As part of its performance management program, McDonald has introduced a 360-degree kind of feedback (Reissig, 2011). This feedback approach seeks to identify the performance of various employees through the feedback from the store customers. Through this approach, McDonald restaurants acquire the feedback of the consumers on the performance of the employees. Through these suggestions from the customers, McDonald has introduced significant changes to its products and customer service approaches (Fleenor, Taylor & Chappelow, 2008). Using the 360 feedback, McDonald has also enhanced the growth of its employees through training and development opportunities. Individual employee growth is critical for the success of the organization at any given time. By developing an enabling culture, employees are allowed to freely express their ideas, attitude and opinions towards various issues that affect the performance of the organization and their contribution. This is a fact that McDonald has continued to appreciate by engaging in employee development programs. The use of appraisal program by McDonald has also been attributed to the positive attitude of the employees (Hammerly, Harmon & Schwaitzberg, 2014). Through this program, the individual sense of worth of all employees has been improved and this has enhanced the cooperation between the employees and the members of administration. Employee appraisal and development can only be achieved through proper information and engagement of the employees. McDonald has used the 360-feedback approach to ensure that its people are engaged at all levels of management decision making (London & Beatty, 2003). McDonald culture Organizational culture is a key determinant of success in modern business world due to the role it plays in bringing all employees together and enhancing cooperation with the management. Culture includes expectations, experiences, philosophies and the values developed by the management to guide employees and the top leadership hierarchy. A description of culture include the definition of the conduct of business, the manner in which it defines the responsibility of the employees and how it relates with its people and the entire stakeholders including the community. Culture is an important integral part of human resource management as it defines approaches adopted during the process of decision-making, idea development and expression of ideas and values. By developing an enabling culture, employees are allowed to freely express their ideas, attitude and opinions towards various issues that affect the performance of the organization and their contribution. Information flow from the top level of organizational management to the lowest level employee is influenced by the culture of the company. Deal and Kennedy culture at McDonald Terrence Deal and Allen Kennedy are attributed to the development of organizational cultural terminologies that are currently used by a number of organizations such as McDonald. In the two publications, Deal and Kennedy argue that a number of terms can be used to define the work culture in organizations. According to Deal and Kennedy, the development of string organizational culture is the key to the success of a number of institutions such as McDonald. Deal and Kennedy developed four key pillars of organizational culture that have been developed at McDonald. Kennedy and Deal argue that the development of proper values will enhance the performance of an organization. Values are considered as beliefs or visions that employees have for its organization and work towards achieving such goals. For example, McDonald has in the past developed a strong value of innovation and stability. Its products are developed together with the employees as a way of ensuring continuity and continued support (Gul, Khan, Razzaq, Saif, Ahmad & Amad, 2012). The second value as developed by Deal and Kennedy espouses the benefit of heroes in the development of a proper culture, which embraces the contribution of every employee. Employees in an organization can gain a hero status if their contribution is deemed essential to the growth of the organization. By creating a proper environment for every employee to contribute towards the development of the company, McDonald has enhanced the growth of its people. The work environment has therefore created a number of employees who can be attributed to McDonald, the pioneer of the company (Hammerly, Harmon & Schwaitzberg, 2014). The development of an integrated marketing approach defines the success of a company in the face of the current market competition and emergence of new organisations. The traditional marketing approaches were hinged on the desire to increase the sales of an organization and to make the company more profitable. This resulted into a situation where companies adopted ways of persuading consumers to purchase their products not based on the benefits they will accrue but the benefits the organization will achieve (Fleenor, Taylor & Chappelow, 2008). As a result, marketing was company oriented and resulted into a situation where organisations made significant sales and profits based on how ruthless their marketing approach was. However, the need to attract and retain customers led to a major revolution in the marketing sector and this led to the development of customer centrality and market orientation theories (Singh, 2004). Such theories highlighted the needs for organisations to develop marketing approaches, which highlighted the benefits that consumers achieve by buying from them. The success of market orientation and consumer centrality approaches of marketing has been witnessed in a number of organisations especially in the service industry (Iriana, Buttle & Ang, 2013. Third, Deal and Kennedy describe the rites and rituals and their position in enhancing the performance of organizations. Come together sessions can be used to enhance the inclusivity of the workforce and increase coordination. This has remained the integral part of McDonald and its various franchises. The management of the organization has organized various sessions to ensure that the employees work together towards the achievement of a common goal. As an organization that values innovation, McDonald has developed a unique way of ensuring that members who contribute positively towards the development of unique products are rewarded (Levensaler, 2007). Finally, Deal and Kennedy developed the cultural network program for improving the workplace environment. Such a network consists of the formal and informal networks developed inside an organization to enhance the work environment. At McDonald, various formal and informal networks have been developed under the leadership of various team members. Such informal cultural networks enhance the work environment and ensure that satisfaction of employees is achieved. Through the development of engaging networks, employees and the employee interact fruitfully. This eliminates challenges associated with resistance to change and lack of employee engagement and involvement in different projects. Conclusion Human resource management is a key function of every organization and significantly influences the success of its various functions. McDonald has emerged as a major institution due to its strong human resource practices. Kennedy and Del introduce a new approach to organizational culture, which enhances employee-employer relations. The company has developed strong employee performance management programs and developed a strong organizational culture based on Kennedy and Deal as described in this paper. References Aguinis, K., 2007. Performance Management. Performance Management and Reward Systems in context. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Fleenor, J, Taylor, S, & Chappelow, C., 2008, Leveraging the impact of 360-degree feedback, San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Gul, S, Khan, M, Razzaq, N, Saif, N, Ahmad, U, & Amad, M., 2012. Revisiting the Corporate Culture of Pakistan: The rites and rituals of corporate life and employee performance, Industrial Engineering Letters, 2(8), p. 1. Hammerly, M, Harmon, L, & Schwaitzberg, S., 2014. Good to great: using 360-degree feedback to improve physician emotional intelligence, Journal Of Healthcare Management, 59(5), pp. 354-365 Iriana, R, Buttle, F, & Ang, L., 2013. Does organisational culture influence CRMs financial outcomes?, Journal of Marketing Management, 29(3/4), pp. 467-493. Kramar, B., 2010. Performance Management. Human Resource Management in Australia, Ed 4, New York City: McGraw Hill. Levensaler, L., 2007. Driving a high-performance culture. mcdonald’s leverages its global performance management practices. Oakland, California: Bersin and Associates. London, M, & Beatty, R., 2003. 360-Degree feedback as a competitive advantage, human resource management, 32(2/3), pp. 353-372. Reissig, S., 2011. 360-degree feedback, Manager: British Journal Of Administrative Management, 75, pp. 30-31. Read More