McDonalds Company Organizational Change - Assignment Example

McDonald Company Name Institution McDonald’s Company Organizational change is one of the toughest responsibilities that managers face in almost all organizations. The situation does not seem to be different when it comes to McDonald’s company. Implementing organizational change in this particular organization is likely to be faced with a lot of resistance. Employees are likely to resist since they prefer the status quo. This is because organizational change comes with its benefits as well as the sacrifices that have to be borne by members of the organizations. Nevertheless, change is very essential to every organization that is focused on attaining its long-term and short-term objectives. One of the best models known to be very useful in implementation of change is the Philip Kotter’s 8 step model. Step 1: Creating the Urgency The success of change implementation at McDonald’s begins with creation of the urgency for change. The relevant stakeholders must be made to understand that the proposed change is essential for the specified time frame. This must take place after the Executives of McDonald Company have analysed the market and the level of competition therein. This will include a SWOT analysis. That implies that the company must be cognisant of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the company. Creating the necessary urgency will ensure that all individuals are able to take part in the relevant activities. It also calls for motivation of individual members in the organization in order to put in the required efforts for the planned changes. This requires a well-designed program that will convince over 1.8 million employees all over the world to cooperate. This calls for the managers and other stakeholders to design a plan that will appeal to many employees in order to support the need for the required change. At the same time, it is worth noting that at this stage, the success of the proposed change is linked to the acceptability by senior managers. That is to say, at this level, if many managers are for the change, then chances are very high that this particular change will be successful. The whole organization can feel the urge for change the variation in performance and laid down objectives are communicated well to the employees. Step 2: Form a Powerful Coalition In initiating this step, leadership skills are very essential. Top level managers ought to have the ability to influence their staff towards the same direction. Change cannot be effected unless there is a specific category of people backing up the proposal. The executive officers at McDonald must mobilize a team of able leaders to steer the whole change program. This group must possess the energy, zeal and power to lead people towards the desired change. At this particular level, teamwork will increase the level of returns. The more members are committed to working together as a team, the easier it will be for them to convince other people. The managers are endowed with the responsibility of coming up with this kind of a team to steer the whole organization. This is the stage where most organizations fail probably because they do underestimate the difficulties embedded in the whole program meant to bring about change. One of the difficulties McDonald is likely to face in this phase of implementation is the diversity of its team leaders. McDonald operates over 34,000 restaurants in over 119 countries. With this, these people are from different origins that may not be easy to unite them for a common goal. Step 3: Create a Clear Vision The company must develop a vision specifically for driving the required change. This is meant to provide a roadmap to the company on how to execute the necessary change. The company will be required to come up with relevant strategies that will facilitate attainment of the required change. This helps the organization to be able to achieve what it aims to achieve. Failure to have a clear vision regarding the desired change may imply that some steps may not be followed up to date. The vision therefore restricts the leaders on what to embrace and what to ignore during the implementation period. At the same time, people must understand why they have to change certain aspects of their working. It has to be convincing to them in order to make it easy for them to accept the process. A clear vision for McDonald may comprise of what the company wants to achieve in essence. For instance, the company may be looking forward to reducing operational costs. Therefore, the company must convince the employees and other stakeholders on the need for reduction and possible ways of achieving that. That would probably mean that the strategies to be adopted may not fully appeal to all employees. Nevertheless, they have to understand the idea to be a worthwhile take. Step 4: Communicating the Vision After the leaders have developed a clear vision of where the organization is headed to, the next important step is to ensure it is well communicated to the relevant stakeholders. This may involve teaching the new behaviour that the organization has adopted. New systems and procedures used in executing some of the activities are the ones that define the new culture adopted by the organization. It definitely takes time and therefore must be communicated to the organization bit by bit. The change in operations for McDonalds may involve adjusting the modes of payment by customers. The company may be expanding payment bases for its clients as a strategy to increase the level of sales in its restaurants. To achieve this, the employees have to be trained on the best way this is to be implemented. At the same time, there is a need to make it a daily program for stakeholders to be updated on the vision the company is pursuing. It should not just be a single event’s program. It is meant to make sure that on a daily basis; stakeholders understand and embrace the vision of change. This is one way of mobilizing the whole organization towards a certain course. At this stage, the coalition team must work extra hard to ensure that the organization is propelled on the same road to achieve common goals. Step 5: Empowering others to Act on the Vision The company operates as a unit and therefore change is meant for the whole company. If the change is positive, it will definitely affect all people in the organization and vice-versa. There is a need for the vision to be understood and be embraced by all the people in the organization. For this reason, there is a need to remove every possible obstacle to attaining change. This is in the bid of ensuring that all people in the company are focused on the same agenda. In a McDonald’s company, the kinds of obstacles can be varied. For instance, one structural obstacle can be job description. Job description can act as an impediment in that it may limit what one is to do while promoting redundancy. The leaders must ensure that job prescriptions for all employees are reviewed in order to make sure that adequate responsibilities are assigned to each member based on their qualifications. Similarly, it may also involve reviewing rewards and compensation to ensure that the best efforts are rewarded in the company. This is to encourage performance in the organization. At the same time, the company can start encouraging risk taking in the company. This is to improve the level of returns throughout the organization’s performance. Step 6: Plan for Create short-term wins In all organizations, it is easier for success to be built upon success. When members have had a taste of the success of the change implemented, they will be inspired to pursue more success. It is only at this level that members will understand the essence of change that was being pursued. Therefore, leaders must ensure that the results derived from the propagated change can be felt within a short time. This is because whenever it takes long to realize part realize, members of the organization are likely to be discouraged on the way. At this stage, the leaders are supposed to focus on visible results more than the invisible. For instance, in the case of McDonald’s company, the leaders may choose to keep a close watch on the changes in sales in the short-run after implementation of a certain change. The variations and improvements felt in the short run can act as a tool to motivate the relevant participants. The short-term returns must also be embraced and celebrated by rewarding those who participated in the outcome. This is the perfect way through which the company will be able to realize the larger benefits of that change that was implemented. Step 7: Consolidating improvements and Producing still more changes As the company continues, the weaknesses and strengths noted in the change process will help reengineer and redefine the change process in the company. Learning from mistakes is one way of strengthening any process in any organization. This is the appropriate timing for changing systems and structures in order to pave way for more improved techniques. Improvements are aimed at ensuring the new system is good enough to be able to drive the company in future. It strengthens and stabilizes the whole process to make sure that it can withstand other variations in the environment within which the company is operating in. This may involve launching new products. The company may try out to launch a new product so as to ascertain how the change implemented has affected the level of performance. At the same time, the company must ensure it keeps on setting new goals so as to continue at the pace that has already been gained. The company can only ensure that the momentum is maintained by setting higher objectives to be met. This progress will continue until the company attains the desired performance level. This strategy will ensure that highest returns are achieved. Step 8: Institutionalize the new Approaches After all these procedures have been undertaken, the company has the duty of incorporating the new changes into the organization. This is the point where the organization absorbs the changes to be part of the culture and philosophy of the company. They will be used to define the organization in respect to its core values. Specific avenues must be created to make it possible for the new changes to be fully incorporated in the company. Regardless of the kind of change that was being undertaken, it is very critical for the changes to be felt by all relevant stakeholders in the company. Therefore, the change that was adopted should be reflected in most undertakings of the company. This stage should not make the leaders to relax having known that the change has already been implemented. They are supposed to continue supporting the change. This is because at this level, the change may not have been fully engraved in the culture of the company. Therefore, continued support from leaders will help solidify the change in the company. In doing this, the company must also communicate the relationship between the new behaviour and overall success of the company. Media Channels to Communicate Change In a large organization like McDonald Company, the communication medium must be carefully designed to ensure that they do not miss out on the targeted objectives. The need for selecting the best communication channel is as important as the change itself. In the circumstance where the company fails to align the best communication channels, it runs the risk of failing to meet the set objectives. This is one of the major causes of failure by an organization to implement change. It requires a deeper analysis to ensure that the channels selected effectively communicate the desired change to the relevant stakeholder. Use of Large meetings in the company The leaders in this company can utilize most of its large meetings to ensure that the key changes lined up are well communicated to the members. This is a good platform considering that most of the members will be present in this kind of a meeting. It helps communicate to a larger target audience since there will be less variations. In most cases, this platform does not provide an avenue for dialogue. It is an issue of letting members have a glimpse of the nature of change the organizations is planning to implement. This kind of an avenue should be preferred mainly for special occasions. This is because there is a special attention that meetings of this kind attract to the audience. Therefore, the company ought to be very selective to make sure that appropriate message is communicated. Use of Departmental meetings The company has the opportunity to communicate most of the changes being adopted. Departmental meetings are very useful when it comes to communicating departmental changes and others that do not directly affect the whole company. The same avenues are used to present reports on the on-going changes and problems encountered in order to forge the way forward for the company. It is an effective way of communicating critical strategies that mainly affect specific lines of operations. Using this avenue is usually preferred since it allows for dialogue between managers and members of the department. Emails and Weekly Newsletters Lastly, the company can use emails and weekly newsletters to make known some of the changes being implemented in the organization. This can reach to all employees working in various subsidiaries all over the world. Comparing how McDonald Company has been growing over time, use of emails will be a better medium that can effectively reach thousands of employees all over the world. At the same time, the use of newsletters is critical in communicating key indicators in the company. This may include short-term and long-term changes that the company is pursuing. Memo Communicating Change in the Company To all our employees It is with a lot of gratitude to your continued support that we would wish to notify you on a few aspects concerning our company. We all understand the need to make sure that meet the required objectives according to what was agreed up on during our last meeting. In order to make this a reality, the line managers and other departmental leaders have come up with a number of strategies that will help us realize this dream. Due to this, there are a few changes that will have to be adhered to make sure we all move in the same direction. This is the only way of ensuring we achieve common goals that were set at the beginning of this fiscal year. Once again we would like you to understand that that the changes are meant for the good of the company and our own good. The details concerning respective changes have been sent to your respective email accounts. Kindly go through them and contact the departmental head for any issue arising. Thanks. Description of reaction and feedback of employees Just as expected, changes will always have some resistance. This is because change has never been that smooth. It requires one to get out of their comfort zones. The same scenario is applicable to the McDonald’s company. The communicated change was definitely going to be received with mixed reactions. While there are those who will easily embrace it, there are those who will complain. All this is anticipated to take place. Timeline In drafting a timeline for events in an organization, it is determined by the nature of the activities. In this case, the change implementation timeline should be determined by the nature of the change being undertaken. Assuming this change to be in relation to customer relationship management, the timeline would be as follows: Type of change Creating the urgency Form a coalition Create a vision 4 change Communicate The vision Remove obstacles Create short-term wins Build on change Incorporate change into company’s culture Length of time in weeks 3 weeks 5 weeks 2 weeks 4 weeks 7 weeks 3 weeks 3 weeks 4 weeks References Bridges, W. & Bridges, S. (2009). Managing Transition: Making the most of change. Philadelphia: Da Capo Lifelong. Goldratt, E. & Cox, J. (2004). The Goal: A Process of On-going Improvement. Edinburgh: North Kotter, P. (1996). Leading Change. New York: Harvard University Press. River Press. Wolfe, N. (2011). The Living Organization: Transforming Business to Create Extraordinary Results. New York: Quantum Leaders Publishing. Senior, B. & Swailes, S. (2010). Organizational Change. New York: Prentice Hall. Read More