Functions of Management - MacDonald Company - Case Study Example

Table of contents Executive summary………………………………………………………..........1 Introduction………………………………………………………….………..…2 Aim………………………………………………………………….…2.1 Background…………………………….………………………………2.2 Scope………………………………………………………….………..2.3 Methodology…………………………………………………….……...2.4 Assumption……………………………………………………..…........2.5 Limitations………………………………………………….…….……..2.6 Plan……………………………………………………………...….……2.7 Discussion………………………………………………………….……………..3 Planning…………………………………………………………………..3.1 Organizing………………………………………………...…………...…3.2 Importance of organizing function…………………………….....….…...3.3 Organizational designs……………………………………..…...………..3.4 Constraints………………………………………………...………..……3.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………..………..…………4 Recommendation……………………………………………..….………….……..5 Reference…………………………………………………………………….……..6 1. Executive summary The primary function of this report is to highlight effective ways in which managers can use planning and organizing to ensure healthy and /or safe work practices occur within MacDonald Company. For many years there have been rumors that the company offers low quality food and underpays its workers. In addition, the company has been accused of not observing the required health standards while offering foods to its customers. This has created a negative image to the company leading to huge losses due to loss of customers and market share going down (Keck and Scutchfield, 2003). . The facts on this report have been collected from various sources such as journals, magazines, interviewing employees and research carried on various departments which are responsible with the health matters. This report emphasizes the possible effects on MacDonald Company incase they failed to rectify and improve the health standards and the work practices in their company (Allan et. al, 2006). The major results of these are that the MacDonald’s licenses can be revoked by the health department. Second, they will loose both the customers and employees to their competitors which will drive them away from business (Allan et. al, 2006). Besides, this report shows how managers need to plan their business and the major steps to be taken and how to organize the employees effectively within the company. It also shows how planning and organizing can improve the image of the company, how to used it as a tool of creating and retaining loyal customers. The benefit of training employees and organizing them when there are performing their duties in the company. Furthermore, it shows how managers can use training as a motivating factor to its employees in the place of work and lastly, a conclusion which clearly highlight the best means ways of resolving the problem. This report has considered the problems which might be encountered when carrying out the management function with the aim of maintaining the health standards in the company. This report has highlighted various recommendations concerning the healthy and /or safe work practices in MacDonald Company. First, the company should develop a strategic plan which will facilitate the achievement of the main goal of the MacDonald Company. Second, the implementation of operational plan to ensure healthy and /or safe work practices in the company. Thirdly is the importance of training employees of MacDonald Company. Fourth, the means of ensuring healthy and /or safe work practices in the company and lastly, the importance of developing a mechanistic structure (Deng, 2009). 2. Introduction 2.1 Aim The main objective of this report is to highlight measures that managers of MacDonald Company should adopt and how to apply planning and organizing in order to achieve organizational goals. Managers should know that employees are resourceful when they are assured of job security. Moreover, the managers should now acknowledge the fact that employees are the key determinant to the success of the company (Allan et. al, 2006). Motivated employees are effective and more resourceful. Henri Fayol, a scientist stated that employees will improve their performance if they are assured that their working environment is the right one and fit for their healthy and is a safe place to work on. 2.2 Background McDonald’s has over the years grown to be the leading fast food organization in Australia. It has been recorded that this organization operates about 300 food outlets in Australia and about 30% of this outlet are privately owned. So as to achieve these standards, this report has highlighted that McDonald’s uses a strategy of setting high marks for itself which have to be met at the end of the day, month or year. This goal however is often partially met because of the differences in the perception of outsiders about this organization. Through their successful branding campaigns, McDonald’s Ltd has a target which is aimed at minimizing the cost of their products yet meeting their goals and objectives. 2.3 Scope MacDonald Company is ready to implement the recommendation made for them to maintain their position as a market leader in the market. The management is ready to implement this report as soon as possible. The recommendations will revolve around the goals and objective of the company especially in the maintenances of the healthy standards and /or safe work practices occurring within MacDonald Company 2.4 Methodology This report has been prepared so that it can be used to deal with the problems of healthy in the company and the degree of safety work place. The solution to this problem has been included in this report. It has also reflected the short and long term goals and objective which the company should adopt. The important sources of information were obtained through interviewing employees, encouraging customers to give their suggestions and academics journals. These means were also utilized by getting the possible solution the problems which were facing the company. 2.5 Assumptions The sources of information of this report has been assumed to be true and the company will implement them so that they can solve the issue that has almost caused the business to loose customers and more worse to be close down by the health officials. 2.6 Limitations This report concentrates only in two functions of management i.e. planning and organizing. It has being limited to these functions so that the company’s management could handle the problem at hand. It does not mean that the other functions of management are not important but the report concentrates on these two so that they can come up with effective solutions for the problem. Besides, planning is the major function of management which acts as a basis for the other functions while organizing is the most important function which is used when managing employees in areas such as promotion and organizing. 2.7 Plan This will deal with the problem affecting MacDonald Company, the possible effects incase the company fails to respond and deal with the problem. In addition, the report will define the two functions of management, how the management will apply these functions when dealing with the problem and lastly, the recommendations on how the company will deal with the problem (Busch, 2008). 3. Discussion The MacDonald Company is running a sensitive business in which they serve many people across the country. It is therefore very crucial for the company to observe healthy and /or safe work practices in their premises. The managers should ensure that all the standards are maintained within the company while carrying out business. Incase the company fails to operate under the expected work practices which might cause the public to suffer in one way or another then the health officials would have no other choice other than to close down the restaurant. Such a move will lead to various problems such as unemployment. Furthermore, it might affect the economy because of reduction of taxes though the effect is insignificant (Busch, 2008). 3.1 Planning Planning refers to the continuing process of designing the mission of a business and developing a vision statement which will assist the company to attain its objectives. Besides, planning is the key pillar of success in any organization. It is also the major fundamental function of management which supports other functions such as organizing, leading, staffing and controlling The managers of McDonalds can apply strategic planning to ensure healthy and /or safe work practices in their organization. This will be useful because it will define the reason why the company is in business, their main goals and how they will meet these goals. In addition, strategic planning will establish the root causes of poor health and the lack of safety in the company. Managers will ensure that healthy and /or safe work practices are practiced in their organization if they adopt strategic plans which will answer various questions such as where are we now?, where do we want to be?, and how do we get there? (Pearce, 2009). These questions will be answered effectively by carrying out a SWOT analysis which will explain in details the Strengths, Threats, Opportunities and Weaknesses of the company. The managers need not only to be discipline but also honest so that they come up with appropriate results on the position of the company in the market (DuBrin, 2009). The next step after carrying out SWOT analysis and developing strategic plans is the implementation. Managers should translate these strategic plans into more detailed policies so that all the levels in the company will get to know what is expected of them. Moreover, managers should identify the required resources which will facilitates these implementations of the set plans and ensure that they work as a team irregardless of the position or department. The implementation process needs to be monitored to ensure that the objectives of these plans are met. Another way of ensuring the effectiveness of strategic plans is to measure the results and compare with the planned results. In case the plans fail to meet the planned expectations, then the managers should be quick enough to drop those plans and retain only the effective ones. Finally, the managers can find out the effectiveness of the implemented plans by interviewing employees or the customers so that they can obtain their views on the issue. This is very important because it will determine both the image and the future of the company (Kapoor, Robert, & Pride, 2009). 3.2 Organizing Organizing can be defined as a process of establishing the internal structure of a company. It is a very important function of a management whereby managers delegates duties to employees since it is a function which focuses on coordination and control of work in the company 3.3 Importance of organizing function Organizing is a very important function of managers because they use this basis for dividing work into units and departments. They use specialization strategies when dividing employees into various departments. This will help in ensuring safety in a place of work because the employees work for the job he or she is best talented. Moreover, managers are in a position of selecting the best employees basing on the organizational structures. This necessitates the employees to know the job description before they start working on it and thus various problems such as health problems are eliminated (Kurtz and Boone, 2008). The human resources managers select the employees who deserve to be promoted or trained so that they can be equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge. Effective employees are those who are well educated and trained because they are in a position to handle the delegated work. The management of MacDonald Company needs to maintain the health level of food they provide by training employees on the same. Managers who have served for a longer period needs to be taken for refresher courses, those head the health department are the ones who require thorough training so that they can effectively direct employees and supervise them effectively (Allan et. al, 2006). 3.4 Organizational designs Mechanistic organizations are those organizations with one central point of management. They can be complicated because there are no delegations of duties. Such kinds of organizations are characterized by the bureaucratic nature of an organization. On the hand, organic organizational designs are those organizations which are very flexible and can be changed to suit the needs. In addition, there is a lot of delegation in this kind of structure because it is not being run in the central point. Managers believe that the employees are capable of handle issues without being controlled. From these two kinds of structures, mechanistic structures are very appropriate in applying these two functions of management. This is because the managers implement the planned programs and employees are ordered to adopt. There is no debate between the employees and the management because of the nature of the structure. This is very important as compared to the organic structure whereby the employees are given time to review the proposed decision and being encouraged to give their view on the same. Furthermore, all employees do not have leadership qualities and giving them time to review is just a waste of time. Educational background is also another issue which the managers need to consider. For example, in MacDonald Company, there is a serious problem which might cause the company to close down. In conclusion, the managers should go through the report and implement the recommendation as soon as possible to save the image of the company. 3.5 Constraints There might be some problems in analyzing the company because additional costs will be required especially if external specialist is employed. Employees who work for this company will also require training so that they can be competitive in handling the customers. Nevertheless, the managers of MacDonald should strategize so that they can overcome this constrains and implement a recommendation for public interest. 4. Conclusion MacDonald Company has responded positively to the public demand for health issues to be improved in the company. The company has designed for the company an effective strategy which will be used by managers to ensure healthy and /or safe work practices occur in their organization. They have set aside some funds which will be used to train employees and some of the front line managers in the company. This is the major goal of the company which has been heavily debated in the current strategic plans of the company. Furthermore, the company has hired some people who will carry out research on the organizational performance and the perception of people towards the company. The MacDonald’s goal of ensuring healthy and /or safe work practices occur in their organization will be achieved by carefully planning and organizing and this should be done by the management. 5. Recommendations There are various recommendations which the company should implement. The company should set a strategic plan which covers the main goal of the company of ensuring healthy and /or safe work practices to take place in their organization. In addition, the company should implement an operational plan which will maintain the health standards while providing specialized services. This will be effectively achieved by training employees so that they could acquire the necessary skills of carrying out work in the company (Deng, 2009). The issue of maintaining health standards will be achieved and maintained within the company if the management and employees corporate. The company should develop a mechanistic structure which will emphasize safe working practices are maintained in the company. Furthermore, the company needs to create a mechanism whereby healthy and /or safe work practices can be reviewed and if possible incorporate the findings of the research team in the company. 6. References Allan, C, Bamber, G. J & Timo, N. (2006), "Fast-food work: are McJobs satisfying?", Employee Relations, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 402 - 420, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Busch, P. (2008).Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning. Idea Group Inc (IGI). Deng, T (2009), McDonald’s New Communication Strategy on Changing Attitudes and Lifestyle, international Journal of Marketing Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, p 2. Dewey,M., Bowker, R. R., Weston, B.E and Wessells, E. H. “Planning and controlling” American Library publication, Library journal, vol 122, 23rd oct, 1997 DuBrin, A. (2009).Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Cengage Learning Kapoor, J. H., Robert, J. & Pride, M. W. (2009). Business. Cengage Learning Keck, W. C. & Scutchfield, D. C. (2003). Principles of public health practice. Cengage Learning Kintrya, D. ‘Functions of management’ The National Association of Corporation Training and American Management Association, American Management Association, Volume 7, Feb 23rd, Sept, 1999 Kurtz, D. L. & Boone, L. E. (2008). Contemporary Business 2009 Update. Cengage Learning Pearce,. (2009) Strategic Management 10E. McGraw-Hill Education (India) Pvt Ltd “Planning function of management” Retrieved on 10th Feb, 2010 from Read More