Strategic Management and

Leadership Skills in
McDonalds

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Executive Summary
Strategic management refers to widespread collection of processes and methods that are
basically used by business organization to implement major goals in compliance with
companys resources, objectives, mission and vision. In this competitive era of business,
strategic management process is a must that ensures the proper match between companys
resources and its objectives. The relationship between strategic management and leadership is
analyzed and described in respect to the McDonalds in this assignment.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task-1: The Relationship between Strategic Management and Leadership in McDonalds......3
Link between Strategic Management and Leadership in McDonald.....................................3
Impact of Management and Leadership Styles on Strategic Decisions in McDonalds.........4
Evaluation of Leadership Styles that can be Adapted in Different Situations in McDonalds
................................................................................................................................................5
Task-2: Application of Management and leadership Theory to Support Organizational
Direction.....................................................................................................................................6
Impact of Selected Management and Leadership Theories on Organizational Strategy in
McDonalds.............................................................................................................................6
Situational and Contingency Theory of Management and Leadership..............................7
Trait Theory of Management and Leadership....................................................................7
Leadership Strategy Framework that Supports Organisational Direction in McDonald.......8
Task-3: Assess Leadership Requirements..................................................................................9
Appropriate and Relevant Methods to Review Current Leadership Requirements in
McDonald...............................................................................................................................9
Planning for the Development of Future Situations Requiring Leadership in McDonald...10
Task-4: Plan the Development of Leadership Skills in McDonalds.......................................11
Plan for the Development of Leadership Skills for a Specific Requirement in McDonald. 11
Usefulness of Methods Used to Plan the Development of Leadership Skills in McDonald12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
Reference..................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Strategic management refers to widespread collection of processes and methods that are
basically used by business organization to implement major goals in compliance with
companys resources, objectives, mission and vision(Hersey and Blanchard, 2013). In this
competitive era of business, strategic management process is a must that ensures the proper
match between companys resources and its objectives. The relationship between strategic
management and leadership is analyzed and described in respect to the McDonalds in this
assignment. Ive also discussed the application of different management and leadership
theory to support organizational direction here. A brief leadership assessment of a plan for
developing leadership skill in McDonald is also described in this study.

Task-1: The Relationship between Strategic Management and Leadership

in McDonalds
The link between strategic management and leadership is discussed in respect of McDonalds
in this task of assignment. Here, an analysis and evaluation of the consequences of
management and leadership styles on strategic decision making process by McDonalds is
also shown.

Relationship between Strategic Management and Leadership in McDonald

McDonalds is now a brand name and it has a strong brand equity. By dint of continuous
success, the brand has now established a strong position in customers minds that they serve
better food than any other chain restaurant. They are now operating in 118 countries having
more than 34000 restaurants. Their management team has a strong purpose in mind that
they will offer different food offerings in different countries of the world and thus they will
gain a positive feedback from them. (Morison and McMullan, 2013). They also want to
create a buzz in food chain restaurants around the world making them convinced to have food
offerings from them only. The bevels of strategic management in McDonalds and facets that
follow the relationship between strategic management and leadership in McDonalds is to1. Set Goals and objectives,
2. Analyze the plan,
3. Formulate effective strategies to achieve goals,
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4. Execute those strategy,

5. Evaluate and review them.

Strategic management of McDonald consists of some widespread collection of continuous

activities and processes that are used by the companys management in order to align and
balance its resources with its goals, mission and vision, that is to satisfy customers with a
superior food experience than that of competitors. On the other hand, strategic leadership of
McDonald denotes the combined collection of formal and informal leaders who work
together with a view to attaining goals in a certain situation and thus add to organizational
success. In a sense, strategic leadership is one of the functions of strategic leadership and the
leaders basically assists the management team by impelling and motivating employees to
hold the same vision as that of companys management to fasten the rate of success.
Functions of McDonald include administrative/human resources, finance, customer/restaurant
service, legal functions, distribution/logistics, marketing, product development etc. The role
of strategic management is to keep a synchronization among all the functions. While
strategic leaders play the role of setting a vision, achieving the task, developing the
employees and building and maintaining teams. To coordinate resources and training
program, attend to customers and assure good quality are some of the major functions that
link both strategic management and leadership in McDonald. (Burian, 2010).

Impact of Management and Leadership Approach on Strategic Decisions in

McDonalds
There are mainly 6 management leadership styles, including1. Autocratic Leadership
2. Bureaucratic LeadershipS
3. Charismatic Leadership and
4. Laissez Faire Leadership
5. Transformational Leadership
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6. Transactional Leadership
In autocratic leadership, manager looks for having the most authority and controlling power
in decision making process. They tend to take responsibilities themselves, rather giving
others a chance. This type of leadership sometimes fasten the pace of decision making, but
the con is, it enhances dependence of individuals over the manager. (Lawlor and Kavanagh,
2013).
Bureaucratic systems actually develops over a long period of time. In such system, managers
exhibit a lot of power inherent in his position, supports formal relation between employees
and management, gives rewards to employees who abide by his authority, rules and
regulations. They want the ultimate controlling power.
Charismatic leaders seek to encourage and invigorate their subordinates and subordinates also
grow affectionate towards them. So they try their level best to show better performance. But
this process is lengthy.
Laissez faire leadership asks for room for authority of employees and least guidance and
direction from leaders. It requires full control of employees. It results in lower productivity,
workplace conflicts and more turnover.
As all the four styles have more or less cons, McDonalds management team has decided to
adapt transformational and transactional leadership approaches. (Mcdonalds.com, 2015).
They use a combo of these two, called democratic approach where they allow managers to
retail all power to run a branch but give full freedom to employees to share their thoughts and
innovation. Here, ideas and thoughts move freely among different groups and are discussed
thereby. The management team enhance employee productivity by letting them involved in
the decision making process. There are room for rewards and reinforcement for quick
establishment of companys objectives and fastening work pace.

Monitoring of Different Leadership Styles that can be Taken up in Different

Situations in McDonalds
After the leadership approaches have been thought of and implemented, McDonald then
monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of different leadership styles. Under the democratic
approach, employees are highly motivated to share their insights and thoughts with the
management team. (Wootton, et al, 2010). Managers, by delegating job tasks to employees
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and involving them in the decision making process, get them work towards the goal in full
pace. The managers try to eliminate the strong vertical barriers between employees and
management. Under close supervision of managers, employees learn a lot about their tasks
and can correct their mistakes by getting continuous feedbacks. Less control and more
responsibility make them comfortable in the workplace environment. This also helps them
understand the marketplace and customers as well. They learn to adapt to different policies in
different countries as McDonald now operates in 118 countries. Democratic leadership calls
for training programs and seminars to enhance employee understanding and productivity in
different situations. Under this system, the management team makes sure that turnover rate is
low and the workplace environment is peaceful, as content employees are the best employees.
The HRD team keeps an eye on employee development and they make them happy by
employee development program, such as, compensation facility, bonus, promotion,
emergency leave, extra payment, recreation bonus etc. Employees here can easily socialize
and communicate with each other, where new ideas are born. The work schedule is also very
flexible which makes room for different working shifts so that they can accommodate all
employees. They seek to reduce dissatisfaction of employees by hygiene factors and it offers
middle of the road type management with the goal of 100% customer satisfaction.
(Barlow, 2012).

Task-2: Application of Management and leadership Theory to Support

Organizational Direction
Here the consequences of popular theories on leadership and management style to support the
organizational direction has been discussed using relevant theories and analysis.

Impact of Selected Management and Leadership Theories on Organizational

Strategy in McDonalds
organizational strategy of McDonalds is highly affected by the management and leadership
and this is described, including situational and contingency theory of leadership and
management and trait theory of leadership and management:

Situational and Contingency Theory of Management and Leadership

Hersey and Blanchard demonstrated the situational leadership model. This model focuses on
followers readiness. Followers can either accept or reject the leader. This effectiveness relies
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on how followers respond to the leaders functions. Here, readiness is the degree to which
subordinates have the ability and willingness to complete a specific task.
Contingency model states that effective group performance relies on the proper combination
between leadership style and the extent to which the situation gives the leader some
responsibility and controlling power. It takes into consideration three situational factor
conditions, such as, leader-member relations, task structure and position power. With a view
to being an effective leader, one must one must adapt to leadership qualities of fitting into the
situation and changing the situational variables to fit the existing leader. Considerable
evidence supports the model, especially if the original eight situations are grouped into three.
But some drawbacks related in this theory is the logic behind the LPC is not well-understood,
those scores are not stable and contingency variables are complex and tough to determine
and measure. (Sadler, 2013).

Trait Theory of Management and Leadership

The marking off the key factors of a good and successful leader is clearly described in Trait
theory. In McDonalds leadership strategy is taken care in different ways following the
attributes of trait theory where they create a culture of leadership among the employees to
bring the best outcome from the employees. Considering different attributes and personal
traits of the employees, company teach leadership skills considering the every employees
self-personality and capability. The best effective thing of McDonalds is they created the
cooperative culture where the employees can easily learn the leadership and controlling
things that bring the best strategic outcome for the organization.

Leadership Strategy Framework that Supports Organisational Direction in

McDonald
Its normally strategical that if leadership style of an organization is effective and cooperative
then the strategic and productive output of the company will be better than others.
McDonalds always set the standard level of benchmark to measure the performance of the
employees and set some goals that should be met within a specific time frame. Their basic
goals are to increase the growth of the sales revenue and then making the both employees and
customers satisfied at higher level. Another thing is McDonalds always tries to accept the
complaint from the customers and their employees are trained like that so that all the odds are
easily managed.
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Here, all of the goals and benchmark is developed by the leaders hence the company
emphasize more on developing more innovative leaders who can move forward with the
better outcome of the organization. Leaders set the outcomes and finds the ways too to
implement the plan for the organization. For this reason, McDonalds emphasize on the
infrastructure of the company creating a good culture for all specially for the leaders who can
easily manage the tough situation and control the whole thing properly. McDonalds
leadership strategy framework consists of some important factors like balancing numerous
priorities of their business strategies and designing their leadership style to change it
positively.

Task-3: Assess Leadership Requirements

Current leadership requirements in McDonald can be reviewed by using different theories.
But here, understanding the situation of the McDonald, an appropriate method has been used
to review the leadership method:

Appropriate and Relevant Methods to Review Current Leadership

Requirements in McDonald
Success of big organizations like McDonald depends entirely on the skill that their top level
leaders have and the way those people direct organization resources to achieve the desired
and planned strategic outcome. Skilful leaders tend to drive the workforce quite efficiently to
help McDonalds to achieve its desired and expected strategic goal.
Major challenges and questions that the leaders face in this matter are effective and
working communication channel, innovative as well as skilful ideas, proper and correct
information transitory and effective time-motivation management. (Chen and Silverthorne,
2015). McDonalds has built e-leadership culture and infrastructure so that the leader can lead
their subordinates beyond the given time and place required for proper schooling, managing
and correctly developing employee skill. McDonalds present leadership style is, in a large
part, influenced by the 3 Es of leadership style i.e. essential, exceptional and ethical issues.
In every given situation leaders tactfully consider essential factors that are needed to
formulate any certain strategy and their used leadership style clearly reflects relevant ethical
consideration while implementing those taken strategies. (Northouse, 2012). McDonalds
builds their leaders trait and tries to make sure that exceptions among them exist so that in
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any situation they can effectively lead the organizational resources to the strategic goals.
Flexibility, in modern business world, is another requirement of McDonalds current
leadership style to cope up with any given situation leaders efficiently lead the workforce
which necessitates for retaining current strategic position in the retailing fast food chain
industry. McDonalds adopts various leadership styles to do the required tasks effectively and
support employees for successfully coping with unexpected situations and conduct planned
task affluently. Employee perception about the guidelines for different policy implications
and McDonalds designs proper communication framework in this matter to let the
participants be aware of their own assigned responsibilities so that they can carry out their
planned tasks properly and affluently thus contribute to achieve McDonalds objectives.
(Marriner-Tomey, 2014).

Planning for the Development of Future Situations Requiring Leadership in

McDonald
Next part provides a scheme for developing future facts requiring leadership development in
the given organization, McDonalds.

Figure

1:

Planning

for

Future

Leadership

Development

Source: (Goldman, 2015)

McDonalds should ensure that they boost up their leaders skill and increase their
capabilities in this matter to enable them to control themselves. Proper learning chances as
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well as a self-learning culture and style needs to be developed in this matter. McDonalds has
to help the creativity and innovative ideas of the future leaders and cooperative and
supportive management easily can raise self-awareness among the future leaders that is
needed for leading self. Leading system needs to be made convenient and effective
communication system essentially needs to get improved in this regard so that future leaders
can easily and effectively trace and understand the connection and real interrelation among
the various essential parts and systematically utilize them while designing and formulating
strategies in future. (McLeod, 2013). McDonalds should boost up a learning climate that
will help potential leaders and boost up their capabilities to lead other people. The job of
leading and completing works very effectively by engaging other people need to be
developed at the same time. Strategic alignment between the leading system and leaders
enhances organizational outcomes and gives proper learning opportunity and supportive
organizational atmosphere which enables employees to share values is necessary for
developing future leadership in McDonalds. (Aboutmcdonalds.com, 2015). Motivational
tools, in fact, should also be improved to ensure that it actually remains equally attractive to
the potential employees so that they become consistently encouraged to exert their highest
effort in order to attain desired strategic outcome by leading and directing others and
effectively aligning the necessary resources accordingly in order to develop leadership skill
among the employees and achieve desired outcome by retaining present employee
satisfaction in this regard to give their best effort and skill for attaining McDonalds
objectives. (Littlejohn and Foss, 2011).

Task-4: Plan the Development of Leadership Skills in McDonalds

Following part gives a detail plan for the building of leadership skills for a certain and
specific requirement in the given organization McDonald along with a detailed report on the
effectiveness of the methods used to make plan for the development of future leadership
skills in McDonald briefly:

Plan for the Development of Leadership Skills for a Specific Requirement in

McDonald
In this part a scheme for boosting up leadership trait for a specific and certain requirement i.e.
retaining current good position in the retail fast food chain industry through leading and
aligning the available resources in this matter has been discussed briefly. To enable
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McDonalds in retaining their current good position in the very industry creativity, growth
and innovation is fundamental that will help them to take competitive edge and competitive
edge opportunities customers purchasing decision making in favor of the selected company
while selecting and choosing one from available market alternatives. (Gold, et al, 2010).
McDonalds sustainable and existing leadership skill and present position sustaining
objectives needs a proper plan which will be initiated with the evaluation of the complicated
facts relevant to gain those necessities. Ideas are required to be communicated effectively and
in this matter proper communication frameworks need to be built and proper planning for the
communication to satisfy those requirements are required to be planned first. As McDonalds
takes a high standard of ethics and value on their policy making and enables transparency too
as an outcome of which their future leadership planning for future sustainable leadership trait
and retaining current good business position must clearly demonstrate higher level of honesty
and integrity among the leaders and total planning should clearly incorporate these issues
while actually developing plan. Planning, in fact, should be a final result driven one i.e.
performance measurement methods and performance evaluation methods need to be
developed at first so that the usefulness of plan can be measured. (Mcdonalds.com, 2015).
While planning for the sustainable future leadership skill development and retaining the
current bright business position should be an inspiring planning for the players and other
employees and proper scheming for motivational factors should also be described first so that
employees and other stakeholders become encouraged to give their best effort to gain
McDonalds good

position retention objective and boosting up leadership skill in a

sustainable way.

Usefulness of Methods Used to Plan the Development of Leadership Skills in

McDonald
Several frameworks can be used to build and nurture leadership skill in McDonald but all
them are not be equally useful for the company to be practically implemented and in this
section in respect to the given real life situation and usual real life practice among the
growing organizations like McDonald usefulness of the planed methods while developing
leadership skills in McDonald has been described briefly . The first and foremost duty of
methods used to aim the flourish in leadership features in McDonalds is that the decision
maker can quickly determine that the development scheme is in line with the McDonalds
basic vision and reflect their total business objectives at the same time. (Goethals, et al,
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2014). Another use of methods to plan for the flourish in leadership skills in McDonalds is
that it successfully reflects leaders traits and utilize his strength and boons while attaining
expected leadership skill. Various methods to nourish leadership skill also ensure matching
the planning with the certain organizational goals. Performances in business can be tested
when different frameworks are used to scheme the development of leadership because it
sustains positive leader attitudes, admit failure as well as weakness of the plan and make sure
that proper controlling thus decrease the discrepancy between the benchmark and desired
strategic outcome. When correct methods are utilized to make the leadership traits it can
work as a role model and renders others lifelong learning places which will boost up
leadership among future potential participants. (prezi.com, 2015). Varied methods for
scheming leadership development ensures motivational forces too and they are essential for
boosting up employee participation and helping them to provide their best effort here.
Methods for scheming the development of leadership traits are also useful as it continuously
educates potential managers and improve their leadership traits too thus ensure sustainable
leadership trait boosting up in the organization. (Charney, 2012).

Conclusion
Strategic management in the real world management and leadership skill in motivation are
required to ensure retaining current healthy position in the industry and while operating in a
largely competitive industry these serve as a major source of competitiveness in the industry.
McDonalds is one of the leading fast food chains operating in many countries in the world.
So it designs its management strategies which at the same time supplement its vision and
mission statement and enable the company to retain its current bright position in the industry.
Management functions, in today's world, depend largely on the leadership skill of the leaders
because leaders successfully direct and align company resources to enable the organization
to attain its desired strategic result within the time span. Throughout this study the ever
growing relationship between leadership and strategic management, real world application of
management and used leadership theories in McDonalds along with a detailed assessment of
McDonalds future leadership requirements and a brief plan for their future leadership
development have been described briefly.

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http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/leadership.html [Accessed 20 Jul. 2015].

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