McDonald’s Essay Example

Fast Food free essay

There are four functional groups in the presented organizational chart of McDonald’s. The first entity has Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in the face of one person. The CEO possesses three fundamental objectives.

• The first one is to lead the organization by establishing and directing the vision and mission of it (De Contreras, 2008). The rationale for this objective is that mission and vision are the building blocks of an organization, where CEO occupies the highest position in the hierarchy; hence he is the one who controls these two firm’s cores that keep an organization together. This objective could be measured by the way how each of the employee branches understands his/her role in the organization.
• The second objective of the CEO is to be a project manager by being responsible for setting up the operational duties. He does that by scheduling the utilization of the firm’s resources, including personnel and capital. The rationale for this objective is that CEO as a project manager of the whole company has the responsibility to be in charge with subordinate project managers and their activities. This can be measured by how many things are achieved by the CEO through the efforts of people in the organization (De Contreras, 2008).
• The third objective is to coach by picking people from the management team and counseling them so that they improve their performance (De Contreras, 2008). The rationale for this objective is that as the chief executive on the top of hierarchy, CEO has the right and responsibility to teach his subordinates because he apparently knows what needs to be done, how it should be done and who is the right person to do it. This objective can be measured by actual improved performance of the trained employees. An instance is a rapid increase in sales reported by one of the divisions, right when the new project manager was recently hired and started working on the project.

The second entity consists of such positions as Executive Vice President – Chief Restaurant Officer, Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Executive Vice President, and Global Chief Marketing Officer, etc. One of the objectives of the Global Chief Marketing Officer is to direct and coordinate activities of the whole division of marketing. The rationale of this objective is that this person is the most important individual in the field of promotion, advertising, positioning, etc. of an organization product. It can be measured by the way McDonald’s is positioned in the heads of its consumers and how well their needs are met.

The third entity of the organizational chart that flows directly from the central operations office consists of the Presidents that are responsible for operations of their own part of the world, such as Canada and Latin America, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, USA, and Europe. Each of them has an objective to operate with high performance in his/her particular region. The rationale is that they were called to perform similar function of the CEO but on a local level. It can be measured by the amount of profits McDonald’s makes a year at the specific area.

Finally, the fourth entity of McDonald’s corporation consists of the President, East, West and Central Divisions Chief Officers of the company in the United States only. These Officers are responsible for operations and performance of the restaurants exclusively in their particular region of McDonald’s home country. One of the objectives of these positions is to lead new projects suggested by the division. The rationale for this objective is that local Chief Officers are theoretically and practically knowledgeable of how the market operates in the area where McDonald’s functions. That is why they are the most suitable individuals in leading the innovative activities of the McDonald’s restaurants. Besides, they were most likely selected by the President and Chief Operating Officer of McDonald’s USA to perform that objective. It can be measured by the level of success of the project depending on its type. For instance, if the company decides to implement a new healthy food strategy and add a vegan menu to all the restaurants in the West part of the US, the measurement of success of this strategy would show in the amount of sales from that particular menu, and feedback from the customers. After that, depending on the result, the Chief Officer would decide whether to continue with this strategy or to abandon it.

All four entities of the organizational chart of McDonald’s are operating within the hierarchy. Each division has its own objectives that have their rationale and can be practically measured. Due to its structure and size, McDonald’s Corporation chose the most suitable organizational chart for its activities.

1. What type of organizational chart is illustrated for McDonald’s?

McDonald’s has the hierarchical type of organizational chart. It is ruled from the top by Chief Executive Officer to the bottom by vice presidents, presidents and executive division (Drkc).

2. What improvements could you recommend for the McDonald’s organizational chart? Give your reasoning for each suggestion.

I would recommend to McDonald’s creating the direct access of bottom management to the top executive chiefs. This way there would be better circulation of information and richer ideas generation. This does not mean that the top should be open for direct complaints from the very bottom of hierarchy, but to be open for sharing specific opinions and receiving feedback from them directly, without intermediaries. Direct communication is usually more productive than an indirect one.

3. What aspects of McDonald’s chart do you especially like?

The aspect of McDonald’s which I like the most is that they have human resourcing in the second stage right after the first with Chief Executive Officer. This means that they treat their employees as their customers (Drkc). Hence, when the employees feel appreciated, their performance is more likely to improve.

4. What type of organizational chart do you believe would best suit McDonald’s? Why?

I believe the hierarchical organizational chart suits McDonald’s best. The company is so large that it gets nearly impossible for only one person to be in charge of work of every single subordinate. Hence, the organization is divided into entities, where every other one is subordinate to the one at the higher position. Because this type of an organizational chart is most widely used by corporations, it is the most suitable for McDonald’s.