Leadership at McDonald's (06 Marks) Do you want fries with that? This ubiquitous phrase is heard by nearly 50 million people in more than 119 countries each day. McDonald's has achieved the status of one of the most recognizable franchises across the globe through a mixture of successful marketing, consistent service and products, and strong leadership. Ray Kroc was a visionary leader. He saw the potential for standardizing an efficient, systematized restaurant model and replicating it across the country. He began as the distributor of the mechanized milk shake maker, the Multimixer. At the McDonald's hamburger stand in California, Kroc saw a restaurant that used not one, but eight Multimixers and served a record number of people in the shortest amount of time imaginable. He proposed the idea of opening up several such restaurants to the brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, and in 1955, Kroc opened the first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois. The rest is history. Not only was Kroc a visionary leader who inspired others with his charisma, he possessed a strong initiating structure. He is quoted as saying," If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean," which highlights his goal-oriented and task-focused leadership style that still exists today. McDonald's global business strategy ___ Plan to Win ___ encompasses five areas: place, products, price, promotion, and people. Part of the commitment to people is providing employees the resources to get their jobs done. This includes adequately staffing restaurants to allow for a good customer experience as well as to provide schedule flexibility, providing employees the proper tools to serve the customer, and training employees in job skills including customer service, responsibility, teamwork, time management, problem-solving, and communication at Hamburger University. Such a philosophy follows the Path-Goal theory of increasing employee motivation through clarifying desired behaviors and company goals. This philosophy has proven successful in producing future leadership for McDonald's, as over 40% of its top management started as crew members, including CEO Jim Skinner. "If you work just for money, you'll never make it, but if you love what you're doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours." - Ray Kroc Another side of McDonald's Plan to Win embodies the more people-oriented facet of consideration-based leadership. McDonald's espouses a commitment to investing in growth and job satisfaction of its employees so they can realize their full potential. This includes a commitment to an inclusive, supportive workplace environment that recognizes and rewards good performance. Managers are encouraged to treat employees as they would want to be treated, act as coaches as opposed to policemen, promote teamwork, and communication openly, listening to understand, and valuing others 'opinions. Like many successful organizations, McDonalds has found great success by promoting corporate leadership style that combines a high initiating structure and high consideration. Such a combination will allow them to weather the next 50 years of selling Big Macs. Questions 1.Where does leadership at McDonald's fall on the Leadership Grid? Explain your answer. 2.As a leader in the first years of McDonald's, what types of power (Legitimate power, Coercive power, Reward power, Expert power, and Referent power) did Ray Kroc have? Justify your answer. 3.What are two leader styles in the Path-Goal theory that may have been used by McDonald's to motivate employees 'job satisfaction