A Brief Insight into McDonald's:
McDonald's is a world-wide, leading fast food and family restaurant. The corporation was founded in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald, the McDonald's brothers.
In the early years, McDonald's was a fast, cheap and friendly restaurant for people to grab a 'quick bite to eat'. Fast forward 77 years and McDonald's now has over 30,000 restaurants over the globe which employs 72.000 people globally. (McDonalds) 2011. The first store to open was in San Bernardio, Southern California in 1940, and the first store to open in the United Kingdom in 1974, business has suceeded globally for the fast food giants.
McDonald's has a large impact where tourism is involved, surprisingly. McDonald's is fast, cheap, efficient, familiar and family friendly. Tourists looks to McDonald's for a cheap and familiar meal when they are abroad. In order to cater to the masses, McDonald's launch products in different regions to suit ethnicity and the needs of the demographic.
Research undertaken by Johns and Osman (2016) for a literature review states that many families use McDonald's for familiarity with children, many use it to sample different McDonald's cuisine across the globe. On the other hand, another view was 'imperialistic, cheap, and easy target for anti-globalisation activists.'
Over the years, McDonald's have catered to the Jewish, as you can see - A Kosher McDonald's. This would appeal to religious travellers, as well as the locals. This specific Kosher McDonalds is situated in Buenos Aires, Argentina (turismojudaico, 2011). McDonald's also change their menus according to the location, such as Cherry Blossom drinks in Japanese stores.
As well as being a familiar face across the globe, McDonald's has served the masses of tourists in sponsorship of the Olympics ever since 1976.
In 2012, McDonald's opened the world's biggest McDonald's resturant just feet away from the London Olympic Park in order to cater to the masses of tourists which would be visiting in the coming weeks. (Eccles, L , 2012) The store was built to serve 12,000 customers in one hour and set to serve 1.75 million meals within 29 days.
People: McDonald's
Within McDonald's they do not refer to staff as segregated levels, they refer to them as the 'people' of Mcdonald's.
Ray Kroc purchased the company in the year 1961 and made it into the giant that it is today. This opened doors to 'Franchises', which are a large part of the company. Within South Wales, stretching from Cwmbran to Camarthen is one of the biggest franchises in the UK (17 stores) - Owned by Ron Mournsey, a former dairy farmer.
McDonalds take pride in their customers, employees and what it provides for the world. They set their sights on constant improvisation and customer satisfaction. The Ron Mournsey Franchise 'Lonetree Limited' business statement is: 'Through developing our people, we will deliver and unparalleled restaurant experience.'
As a business, they do not just settle for 'fast food', they also organise parties, facepainting, sports days, charity days for RHMC and community enhancing events.
Management and Staffing:
Within a typical McDonald's store, there are roughly around 70-80 staff, these all vary between part-time, full-time, seasonal, hourly paid and salaried.
Throughout the stores there are various positions, firstly it starts with apprenticies, customer care assistants, crew members and crew trainers. These are the staff that work under management.
Management consists of Floor Management, Shift Management, Assistant Management and Business Management.
From there, head office are also in play, there are many departments such as Human Resources, Training Management, Supervisors, Operation Management, Pay Roll, Accounts, Office Management and finally, Managing Director.
The hierarchy is vertical, all aspects stem down the hierarchy to each department and management team in order to fill the needs of the business. There are pros and cons to this structure, Meckling and Jensen (1992) state 'Bringing diverse knowledge together to bear on decisions significantly expands the opportunity set because no one person is likely to possess the set of knowledge relevant to a particular decision.' meaning that this type of organisational structure is key in aspects, on the other hand, they argue that is could bring a debate for decentralization.
Management Theory:
McDonald's management is very 'Autocratic', the management team and the hierarchy are driven by targets set by higher authority within the company. Although management in McDonald's may be autocratic, it is encouraged to 'do your own thing.' McDonald's recently re-modeled their concept on the outlook on the work load, they brought out 'Vital Ingredients' a scheme which encourages the people to achieve the best they can achieve.
These consist of 5 categories, Be You, Enjoy What You Do, Fast and Friendly, Value and Respect and Make It Special. These encourage the employees to provide a good customer and work experience, encouraged by management. Armstrong (2012) states '‘Leadership can be descried as the ability to persuade others willingly to behave differently. It is the process of influencing people – getting them to do their best to achieve a desired result.’'.
Recruitment and Selection:
Every applicant gets a fair treatment upon applying to McDonald's. Every application is looked through throughly to ensure we are gaining what we are looking for. McDonald's recruitment and selection process is a lot like Rodger's Seven Point Plan (David E-books, 2011) and Fraser's Five Fold Grading (National College 2013), McDonald's looks for good physical make-up, although they do not judge on appearance, hygiene and cleanliness is important. General intelligence is also admired, you must have 5 GCSE's A-C in order to obtain a position, Motivation, an emotional balance and a good disposition.
Once an application is formed and submitted, they take into consideration all applicants, look thoroughly into the needs of the company and select. Once selected applicants will be subjected to an 'On The Job' interview to see interaction and motivation and then a one-to-one interview with an assistant manager.
Once employed, all new starters will be placed on a six month probation following that they fulfill the requirements for team work, customer interaction, speed, job fit, accuracy and personal interaction. (Lonetree Limited, 2016).
Health And Safety Within The Work Place:
Within McDonald's it is company policy that as an employee, they are in charge of their own health and safety, their co-worker's and the customers. This is an important factor for crew to remember.
Within the 'Employee Handbook' (Lonetree Limited, 2016), it is stated that all hazards must be written in the 'Hazard Reporting Sheet', reported in the 'Circle Meeting' and to management to prevent further risk. This is relevant to Heinrich's Health and Safety theory (Predictive Solutions, 2012). Heinrich inspired others to report small incidents and hazards to prevent any further incidents taking place and having large repercussions on staff.
Within McDonald's, many precautions are taken to avoid the risk of accident and incident, such as Protective Clothing, clear labeling, hazard awareness, e-learning, on-going and initial training on health, safety and food safety.
Equality and Diversity:
McDonald's is fair and diverse within employment, (Lonetree, 2015) Equal Opportunities Statements states that all employees are trained, employees, promoted not on a basis of their race, sex, orientation, gender, marital status nor disability but on their relevant skills, talents and performance. This is held at the responsibility of the Franchise owner and is monitored on intervals.
Marx and Engles agreed on a theory of diversity upon socio-economical classes and political interests that one should not be defined on a class or where they come from, this is in relation to McDonald's as they incorporate this theory in their organisation. (Balibar, 2013).
Communication:
McDonald's incorporate many modes of communication into their every day running, this interpersonal process in stores is crucial to the running of the business. A typical McDonald's have several modes of communication, these being the McDonald's Corporation Intranet, this is where stores find updates, events and information, the management diary where shift managers will pass tasks and information through shifts to the next manager, various facebook groups, email, phone, fax, notice boards, meetings of varieties and groups.
McDonald's communication is key, to find the information, think and ask questions/proceed. This links to a relevant theory, The Process of Enquiry in Communication, the 'Basic Model of Enquiry' by Millar and Nicholson (Foss and Littlejohn, 2008).
References:
Armstrong. (2012). Armstrong's Handbook of Reward Management Practice. 4th ed. London: Kogan Page. 3-6
Balibar, E., 2013. Masses, Classes, Ideas: Studies on Politics and Philosophy Before and After Marx. Routledge
David E-books. (2011). Rodgers Seven Point Plan for Career Development. Available: http://davidebooks.weebly.com/rodgers-seven-point-plan-for-career-developement.html. Last accessed 7th Jan 2017.
Eccles, L. (2012). McDonald's, supersized: First pictures inside the world's biggest fast food restaurant. . . yards from Olympic stadium Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2164517/Worlds-biggest-McDona. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2164517/Worlds-biggest-McDonalds-First-pictures-inside-Olympic-Stadium-fast-food-restaurant.html. Last accessed 7th Jan 2017
Foss and Littlejohn (2008). Theories of Human Communication. 9th ed. California: Thomson Higher Education. 7-9.
McDonald's. (2011). ?What Makes McDonald's?. Available: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/whatmakesmcdonalds/questions/running-the-business/facts-&-figures/how-many-mcdonalds-restaurants-are-there-in-the-uk-and-the-world.html. Last accessed 7th Jan 2017.
Meckling and Jensen. (1992). FOUNDATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY, Harvard University Press, 1998 CONTRACT ECONOMICS, pp. 251-274, Lars Werin and Hans Wijkander, eds., Blackwell, Oxford
National College. (2013). Selection and Recruitment. Available: https://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/transfer/open/csbm-managing-hr-in-schools/csbm-6hr-s2/csbm-6hr-s2-t2.html. Last accessed 7th Jan 2017.
Predictive Solutions. (2012). Heinrich's Theories Challenged. Available: http://www.predictivesolutions.com/blog/safetycary/safety-and-health/heinrichs-theories-challenged/. Last accessed 7th Jan 2017.
turismojudaico. (2011). Kosher McDonald's. Available: http://en.turismojudaico.com/contenido/140/Kosher-mcdonald's. Last accessed 7th Jan 2017
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