Fast Food Related Restaurants: McDonalds - Term Paper Example

?McDonald’s Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Position 4 Sense 5 Uncover 8 Solve 16 Build 18 Achieve 19 Works Cited 21 Executive Summary McDonald’s is one of the biggest and renowned fast food related restaurants in the world. The company endeavors to delight the customers by the quality of food served by it. It focuses upon service aspects of the customers. It also values its employees and thus offers them with a scope for advancement. However, it has been noted that the company confronts numerous issues. One among them is related to paying the workers with low wages and offering poor working conditions. It has been recognized that such grave issues tend to hamper the overall effectiveness of the organization. In order to resolve the issues, it is quite significant for the company to revise its strategies. It must also desire to focus upon the creation of sound incentive structures. It is also imperative to enhance the working condition of the employees. Top management needs to play an active role in this regard. Position The company that has been chosen for the study is McDonald’s Corporation. It is considered to be one of the biggest food chains in the globe pioneering in hamburger fast-food based restaurant. It is based in the United States, though McDonald’s has a global presence as at present the restaurant chain is operating in over 100 nations. In various places of the world where the company operates, it is either run by a franchise, an associate or the corporation itself. The company sells numerous products such as hamburgers, French fries along with chicken and other breakfast item (McDonald’s, “Mission and Values”). McDonald’s mission statement aims at becoming one of the favorite places for the consumers. Its worldwide branches and subsidiaries have been linked with the global strategy which is known as ‘Plan to Win’. The company endeavors to improve the experience of the customers each time they buy food items with McDonald’s and thus it also focuses upon improving the operations of its business (McDonald’s, “Mission and Values”). The company, McDonald’s tends to offer its customers with excellent food items in a hygienic environment at a great value. It puts greater emphasis upon the improvement of the talents in the organization and thus offers rewards. It believes in the fact that for the purpose of attaining success it is quite significant to have a trained workforce belonging to diverse backgrounds working in an environment as a team. The company assists its customers to build improved societies, endorses Ronald McDonald House contributions and thus these aspects positively impact upon their size, scope as well as possession to make the world a healthier place (McDonald’s, “Mission and Values”). The vision statement of the company is to be one of the top service restaurants offering speedy services to the customers. It wants to offer its customers with best quality, service, and cleanliness and value (McDonald’s, “Mission and Values”). McDonald’s is a business entity which is famous for its burgers and meals. The business of the company has been extended all over the world. The major stakeholders of the company are customer, employees, managers, financiers, and suppliers along with communities in which it operates (McDonald’s Corporation, “The Values We Bring to the Table”). Thesis Statement The main objective of the paper is to discover the problems faced by McDonald’s and to identify the ways through which the problems can be resolved. Sense It can be observed that McDonald’s has been developing and extending its operations all over the globe since past few years. Even though the company seems to be convenient, clean and cheap there are a number of negative aspects related to the company especially its operational procedure. Despite paying the employees of the company with low wages and impacting other culture negatively to a certain extent, it has been observed that the company has been capable of positioning itself as having a favorable image in America. The company stimulates its positive image as well as products with greasy fries, along with a clown called Ronald McDonald. However, the company faces problems related to certain immoral practices. Even though the company makes an attempt to endorse children with life-threatening illness, heavy consumption of the food that the company offers leads to certain illnesses such as obesity, asthma, heart diseases and mad cow diseases. When such unhealthy food items are being sold especially to the children, it tends to have a negative impact upon the health of the children to a greater extent (Gibison, “McDonald’s: A Good Image with a Bad Ethics”). McDonald’s practices have also given rise to a few environmental issues. In contrast to a fresh ground beef patty which is made available at a local butcher shop, a typical fast-food hamburger patty comprises meat which is made available from numerous cow sheds from five distinct countries (Gibison, “McDonald’s: A Good Image with a Bad Ethics”). There is probability of the patty being contaminated. Furthermore, it has been observed that instead of making use of locally grown potatoes, McDonald’s makes use of genetically modified potatoes (Gibison, “McDonald’s: A Good Image with a Bad Ethics”). This practice of the company to make use of the food items which are from extreme distances tends to be problematic environmentally. When the company makes use of the contaminated beef from various sources then it becomes quite difficult to monitor them. It has been observed that the company’s products not only harm the well-being of the individual as well as environment but also impact East Asian nations’ cultures where there are branches of the corporation. Quick spread of McDonald’s along with its fast-food competitors weakens indigenous cuisines and therefore assists in developing a homogenous, international culture (Gibison, “McDonald’s: A Good Image with a Bad Ethics”). The presence of the McDonald’s restaurant in Asian countries along with American cultural norms impacts the culture of Asian countries. In most of the cases, it has been observed that the evolution of the McDonald’s in Asia has led to alteration in the culture. Furthermore, it has also been evident that the customs of the past are being lost in the McDonald’s party packages as well as Big Macs which is ethically incorrect. The other problem that the customers had to bear was at Southlake McDonald’s due to a bacon ranch based salad. A lady found a dead rat in her salad after she ordered salad as well as ‘Happy Meal’ for her child. Such kind of unhygienic food may hamper the health of the customer adversely and would also affect the image of the company to a large extent (Gibison, “McDonald’s: A Good Image with a Bad Ethics”). Along with the health issues, it has been noted that the company also confronts problems with respect to its workers. It has been recognized that McDonald’s paid minimum wages to its workers whose main task is to conduct assembly line as well as factory-type work. Furthermore, the company also did not offer its employees with proper working condition. In around 31000 McDonald’s branches and subsidiaries all over the globe, it has been noted that the workers are paid with minimum wages despite the fact that the company is in a profitable stage (Gibison, “McDonald’s: A Good Image with a Bad Ethics”). Problem Statement The main problem that will be dealt with in the subsequent section of the paper is related to the use of improper working conditions for the employees. It has been noted that the company paid its employees low wages and offered them with poor working condition. Uncover In case of an organizational context, if certain sections of the employees are offered with low wages and poor work related condition then it can adversely impact not only upon the health of the employees but on the motivational level as well. Salary is one of the motivating factors for the employees in an organization. If the employees are served with poor work related condition then they might not be capable of working with full dedication and commitment in the organisation. On the other hand, low wage is also considered to be one of the grave issues in any organization. When such issues are faced by the companies then it is often found that the level of satisfaction declines among the workers, which in turn decreases the morale of the staff. It has been noted that because of low wages and poor working conditions in the workplace, the rate of employee turnover is higher. It is evident that the negative impact of low-wage earners is higher in terms of productivity in comparison to the high-wage earners. When the workers are paid low, the rate of job satisfaction tends to undermine and thus there is high intention for them to look for new jobs. Pay satisfaction is associated with the organizational outcomes. is Dissatisfaction of the employees related to the pay may lead to diminished motivation as well as performance, high absenteeism rates and turnover intensions as employees tend to look for new jobs where they can enjoy relatively better salary. Dissatisfaction of the employees related to wages may also give rise to more pay related grievances as well as lawsuits. Pay satisfaction as well as job satisfaction are two elements that generally balance out each other (Oeij & Weizer, “New Work Organisation, “Working Conditions and Quality of Work: Towards the Flexible Firm”). Furthermore, it can be observed that even the best compensation structure might seem to be worst if the working conditions are not hygienic. Therefore, it becomes quite significant for a company to offer both good salary as well as healthy working condition. Adverse working condition substantially minimizes the degree of job satisfaction along with the view of fairness of pay at the workplace. If McDonald’s is capable of offering its employees with good pay and proper working condition then in such circumstances the employees will be capable of improving their quality of life, augment their performance and thus raise the efficiency to a greater extent (NCBI, “Evidence on the Effects of Working Conditions”). When the work related condition provided in an employment is poor, employees generally feel that they are not adequately valued or considered by the management of the organization. This also gives rise to high job dissatisfaction among the workers. It is often observed that poor working conditions for the employees and low salary to the staff may create major difficulties and may also harm the reputation of McDonald’s. The stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, investors and among others of the company may be no more interested in the company. When the stakeholders lose interest from a company, it is often noted that the company tends to get hampered badly. It is quite significant for the company to maintain good relationship with the stakeholders of the company in order to generate revenues. In case of prevailing disputes and disruptions in the workplace, the shareholders might not be attracted to invest in the company any more (Chandrasekar, “Workplace Environment And Its Impact On Organisational Performance In Public Sector Organisations”). Such problem generally tends to arise because of improper organizational culture. Organizational culture tends to play a noteworthy role in the enhancement of the working conditions at the organization. The mission, vision and objectives of the company need to be aligned with the strategies of the organization. According to the values of McDonald’s, it has been observed that the company believes in maintaining an environment where the employees are given due emphasis and are offered with a working environment which is conducive to them. However, it is apparent that the employees in a number of the factories are not offered with adequate working conditions and the wages of the employees are quite poor. This represents misalignment of the values of the organization (Ioakimoglou & Soumeli, “Low-Wage Workers And The Working Poor”). The fishbone diagram will assist in comprehending the potential causes of the problem in a better way. The fishbone diagram illustrated above helps to clearly comprehend the problems that the company might have to face if it provides its employees with poor working conditions and lower wages. The various problems that McDonald’s might face as evident from the diagram are low morale of the employees, high rate of employee turnover, high job dissatisfaction and high rate of absenteeism. All the issues that have been identified tend to have a negative impact upon the company. Employees are considered to be the most precious assets for any organization. If any one employee leaves the organization then in such circumstances it is a big loss to the company, as training human capital to function competently is a costly and difficult task. Therefore, The company might have to bear huge cost in terms of employee turnover. It will have to bear huge cost when employing new staffs in the organization. It is quite imperative for the company to take adequate steps so that it can prevent loosing employees from the organization (FairPaymentNetwork, “The Impact of Low Pay in National Supermarket Chains”). In order to resolve the issues that McDonald’s might face, it is quite crucial for the organization to improve the working conditions of the employees and to pay them a fair compensation so that they are satisfied with the job. At the outset, the management of McDonald’s requires to comprehend the problems that the employees are facing. The management needs to understand the working environment that the company is serving its employees and the kind of environment that it must serve the employees with. It can take the suggestions and feedbacks of the employees on what kind of environment would be most appropriate for them to work and provide their best effort (Card & Et. Al, “Inequality at Work: The Effect of Peers Salaries on Job Satisfaction”). It can be stated that the management needs to play a chief role in recognizing the physical environment of the workplace and thus making it conducive for the workers. It is also significant for the management to modify its management style to suit the needs of the changing environment. This leads to numerous components such as commitment, behavior, ethics, and enhanced interpersonal relationship with the employees for the betterment of operational procedure. In the present day context, the managers are supposed to alter their style of functioning so that they can effectively handle certain adverse situations more skillfully. It becomes quite significant for the managers of the present times to monitor these components of the work environment. In order to do so, the managers need to delegate responsibilities, encourage teamwork, offer proper authority to employees and escalate their accountability (Pfeffer & Langton, “The Effect of Wage Dispersion on Satisfaction, Productivity, and Working Collaboratively: Evidence from College and University Faculty”). A manager needs to restrain the capability to micromanage and therefore demonstrate that he/she has confidence in the capability of his/her team members and trust them to do their work effectively. If the manager considers his subordinates as professionals then there is no reason for the subordinates to behave in a way that hampers the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall organization. With such an attitude of the employees, trust and loyalty within the employees can be generated. Moreover, the teamwork can be fostered and sense of ownership can be created as well. It can be mentioned that McDonald’s must focus upon creation of the work environment where the employees are productive to enhance the profits for the organization. It is often noted by the managers as well as the supervisors that the level of employee performance on the job is proportional to the size of the employee’s salary. This tends to be limited to few cases. The fact is that salary hikes as well as financial bonuses for performance tend to have a short-term impact. The degree of excellence of an employee’s workplace environment tends to influence the level of motivation as well as succeeding performance. How well an employee is capable of being involved within the organization has an impact to a greater degree on the rate of error in the assigned work, level of innovation as well as teamwork with other employees. It has often been noted that most of the employees leave the organization in which they work because of hostile relation with their immediate supervisors as well as managers (Sharma & Bajpai, “Salary Satisfaction as an Antecedent of Job Satisfaction: Development of a Regression Model to Determine the Linearity between Salary Satisfaction and Job Satisfaction in a Public and a Private Organization”). Employees are involved in creating meaningful objectives as well as performance measures for their work. This can be done in a casual manner between the employee as well as direct supervisor. It can as well be done as part of a performance management method of the company (Kara & Murrmann, “The Effects of Wage Differences on Employee Job Satisfaction in the Lodging Industry”). Information regarding the performance of the employees needs to be fed back to them. It comprises both positive as well as negative feedbacks. Positive feedback will state what the employee is doing right and negative feedback will identify the lacuna in the employee and can thus be helpful to offer suggestions on improvement (Okpara, “The Impact Of Salary Differential On Managerial Job Satisfaction: A Study Of The Gender Gap And Its Implications For Management Education And Practice In A Developing Economy”). Workplace incentives identify the motivational factors for the employees and thus formal as well as informal structures can be created in order to reward the employee’s behavior. The immediate supervisor of a company has a great role to play in enhancing the workplace environment. Supervisors can acts as a guide for the employees by collecting and dispersing the resources required by the employees so that they can perform appropriately. The salary of the staff needs to be discussed with the top management of the company. If it is beyond the scope of the company to offer high salary to the staff then in such circumstances, the companies can as well focus upon creating an attractive incentive system for its employees (Okpara, “The Impact Of Salary Differential On Managerial Job Satisfaction: A Study Of The Gender Gap And Its Implications For Management Education And Practice In A Developing Economy”). Solve Out of the numerous alternatives that have been identified in the section above, not all alternatives can be chosen in order to resolve the issues that McDonald’s confront. Choice of any one or two alternatives would be best for the company. It is very significant to pay attention to fundamental benefit providing aspects while making a choice of the alternatives. A wrong choice of alternatives may add to the cost instead of bringing a positive outcome for the company. From the variety of alternatives, two best alternatives can be suggested for McDonald’s. One of them is to offer workplace incentive to the employees through which the employees will be capable of earning extra money from their job. This will assist them in working competently so that they can perform better and thus gain huge incentives. Incentives have always been a motivational factor and one of the best performance indicators for the companies since many years. However, the incentive structure designed must be attractive enough so that the employees can feel motivated and energetic to work (Okpara, “The Impact Of Salary Differential On Managerial Job Satisfaction: A Study Of The Gender Gap And Its Implications For Management Education And Practice In A Developing Economy”). The other alternative that can be identified for improving the problems that McDonald’s is facing is the proper involvement of the management towards enhancing the working condition of the employees. Firstly, the management of the company is supposed to identify the root causes of the issue. Then, it needs to prepare strategies so that the problems can be resolved and thus efficiency can be regained. The strategies of the company must align with the corporate values and goals of McDonald’s. Misalignment of the goals will further give rise to new problems. In developing the strategies, the company is supposed to take the views of the employees in order to determine if the employees are comfortable with the new strategies or not. Restructuring of the compensation system will be of great help for the organization as it will help in comprehending the improvements that can be made in the compensation structure of the employees. It is a well known fact that the involvement of the top management in the affairs of the company can significantly assist in accomplishing the unattained goals. Therefore, the alternatives that have been chosen can be considered as best among other alternatives since they will assist in improving the working conditions of the employees in the company. The alternatives will facilitate to impede other issues from arising. A good compensation package might be considered as worst if working condition of the organization is not hygienic. Therefore, together with proper pay structure, McDonald’s needs to offer healthy working conditions. It is because of adverse working conditions, the degree of job satisfaction along with the insight of fairness of pay decreases (Okpara, “The Impact Of Salary Differential On Managerial Job Satisfaction: A Study Of The Gender Gap And Its Implications For Management Education And Practice In A Developing Economy”). Build The solutions that have been offered in the previous section can be stated to be among the most optimum solutions for the problems faced by McDonald’s. However, it is significant to determine the cost/benefit as well as feasibility of the proposed solutions. The cost associated with the alteration of the incentive plan is that certain substantial amount of revenue would be required to fulfill the strategy appropriately. It might lead to high cost for the company. The benefit associated with the implementation of the proposed solution is that the workers will get the chance to earn relatively high amount of money in comparison to what they earned previously. Hence, the level of job satisfaction will be higher and thus the overall productivity will increase. Involvement of the top management in the process of improving the working condition of the employees might lead to conflicts among the team members. If in case the top management depicts a biased nature towards certain section of the employees then it might lead to resentment and conflict. Furthermore, when bringing alterations in the working environment, it would be quite significant for the management to prepare a written draft and thus gain approval from other related personnel. When drafting the written information, the management might confront issues related to accuracy and validity of the document claiming to comply with the directives need. This implies that the management will require consent from all the parties concerned prior to implementing the actual process. Improving the overall working condition of the workers might assist in enhancing the morale of the employees to a considerable extent. It will further lead to increased productivity and high revenues for the company (Okpara, “The Impact Of Salary Differential On Managerial Job Satisfaction: A Study Of The Gender Gap And Its Implications For Management Education And Practice In A Developing Economy”). Ethical Aspect Involved In Provided Recommendations It can be mentioned that the implementation of the incentive plan needs to take place in an ethical manner. The structure of incentive must be fair for all the workers. There must be no prejudices involved in the incentive plan. In the similar way, the decisions and the strategies taken by the top management in order to alter the working environment need to be free from any biases. Ethical consideration needs to be paid due attention. Feasibility The recommendations that have been offered in this paper for the problems identified are quite feasible and can be easily implemented. The management would require considerable amount of money to successfully implement the proposed solutions, but they can be easily attained within a certain period of time. Achieve In order to improve the wages of the employees at McDonald’s, introduction of adequate incentive plan has been suggested. For improving the working condition of the employees, proper involvement of the top management has been recognized to be quite significant. It is vital to identify the steps involved in implementation of the proposed solutions. At the outset, it is quite significant to prepare the strategy. The strategy preparation step is one of the most difficult steps as it comprises the key decision areas to be included. It might take substantial amount of time to prepare the strategies on improving the working condition as well as pay system at McDonald’s. After having prepared the strategy, the next logical step is to gain approval of the proposed solution from the top authorities. Once they have approved the strategy then approval from all the other stakeholders, generally the employees of the company is significant. The step of gaining consent from the top management as well as the employees is quite significant as it will help in identifying the probable errors and thus problems can be rectified. Identifying training methods in the organization is quite noteworthy when bringing alterations in the culture of the organization. The last step is the implementation of the proposed solution in an effective way. Considerable amount of time as well as money is required in order to effectively implement the proposed solutions. It can be stated that McDonald’s might be requiring 5-6 months of time in order to implement the system. The finance department of McDonald’s needs to identify the total cost associated with the implementation of the solution. It must attempt to cut additional costs as much as possible. After having implemented the solution, the management of the company requires to monitor the performance of the workers after every 15 days. Both the issues identified are directly related to the performance of the employees. Hence, if the performance of the employees is raised because of the implementation of the proposed solution then it can be stated that the solution is effective. Otherwise, the management of the company needs to revise the strategies again and similar steps need to be followed until and unless the management finds out appropriate solutions for the intruding problems. Works Cited Chandrasekar, K. “Workplace Environment And Its Impact On Organizational Performance In Public Sector Organisations.” International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems 1.1 (2011): 1-10. Card, David. & Et. Al. “Inequality at Work: The Effect of Peers Salaries on Job Satisfaction”. May 25, 2012. Abstract, 2011. . FairPaymentNetwork. “The Impact of Low Pay in National Supermarket Chains”. May 24, 2012. Introduction, 2005. . Gibison, Aimee. “McDonald’s: A Good Image with a Bad Ethics”. May 24, 2012. Introduction, 2012. . Ioakimoglou, Elias & Soumeli, Eva. “Low-Wage Workers And The 'Working Poor'”. May 25, 2012. Eurofound, 2002. . Kara, Derya. & Murrmann, Suzanne, K. “The Effects of Wage Differences on Employee Job Satisfaction in the Lodging Industry”. May 25, 2012. Abstract, 2011. . McDonald’s. “Mission And Values”. May 24, 2012. About Us, 2012. . McDonald’s Corporation. “The Values We Bring to the Table”. May 24, 2012. Our Values, 2009. NCBI. “Evidence on the Effects of Working Conditions”. May 25, 2012. Results, 2012. . Okpara, John O. “The Impact Of Salary Differential On Managerial Job Satisfaction: A Study Of The Gender Gap And Its Implications For Management Education And Practice In A Developing Economy”. The Journal of Business In Developing Nations. Oeij, Peter, R. A. & Weizer, Noortje, M. “New Work Organisation, Working Conditions and Quality of Work: Towards the Flexible Firm”. May 25, 2012. Introduction, 2010. . Pfeffer, Jeffrey & Langton, Nancy. “The Effect of Wage Dispersion on Satisfaction, Productivity, and Working Collaboratively: Evidence from College and University Faculty”. Administrative Science Quarterly 38.3(1993): 382-407. Sharma, Jay, Prakash & Bajpai, Naval. “Salary Satisfaction as an Antecedent of Job Satisfaction: Development of a Regression Model to Determine the Linearity between Salary Satisfaction and Job Satisfaction in a Public and a Private Organization”. European Journal of Social Sciences 18.3 (2011): 450-461. Read More