Issues with McDonalds

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the next generation of management personifies the new approach (Kotter, 1996), and it is, therefore, critical that the company plan carefully to build a proper implementation strategy.

Managing the Internal and External Stakeholders:

A stakeholder is a person that is affected and affects the actions of any organisation. The participation of both external and internal stakeholders is crucial at every stage. The internal stakeholders are heavily involved at the planning phase (stages 1-3). During the change process (stages 4 and 5), the external stakeholders like the suppliers now get the organization’s vision and begin to synchronize their plans to it. When the process reaches its final stages (stages 6-8), everybody gets involved because the internal stakeholders are implementing the change while receiving feedback from the external stakeholders.

1. Internal stakeholders are groups within a business or people who work directly within the enterprise, such as employees, owners, and investors (Boundless, 2012). These people are going to be at the heart of the change process; it is paramount that they are show full commitment to it. The managers and leaders at McDonald’s must play transformational leadership roles. They have to lead by example and ensure that their subordinates buy into their ideas and schemes. They as managers also have to conduct a periodic evaluation of the staff commitment and individual qualities, to ensure that they remain useful to the organisation during and after the change process.

2. External stakeholders are outside groups or people that the actions of the organisation affect. They include the customers, suppliers, trade union, government, etc. These should be protected carefully, as they are the ones that build the market and its rules. McDonald’s should continually consult their customers for feedback, as their opinion would be imperative during the change period. Any information received from them can now act as a guide for them to follow.

Measuring the Success of Kotter’s Change Model

The success of a project is complete when all the stakeholders are satisfied with it. The results of implementing the plan must be measured in order to evaluate the degree to which the program and its implementation have been successful (Washington, 2011). There are various methods to measure the level of success of a project. One of the best is the Iron Triangle method, which measures the success using three parameters:

1. Time: Timeliness is essential in project delivery. If McDonald’s haven’t been able to achieve their goals before the deadline, the project could be tagged a failure.

2. Cost: McDonald’s would have to create a financial forecast based on their past and present financial status. Based on this estimate, they can now set their budgets. So, this change project can only be judged a success if it remains within the budget limits.

3. Quality: this last criterion is the most difficult to measure because it is based on human bias. A project can be seen as qualitative for some project members but a failure to others (De Witt, 1988), so this can only be assessed on a personal basis.

Questions to the key stakeholders

The key stakeholders in an organisation are the managers, owners and the investors, as they are the decision makers. In order to implement this change process, there should be certain questions asked to help refine the transition plan. They may include:

• Are you ready to implement a localised menu for your outlets, as a strategy to capture more market share?

• How much time can you spare to carry out a rebuilding process?

• What are your budgets like, and how much can u allocate to a change process?

• What new organisational qualities would you look out for at the end of this process?

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that McDonald’s as an innovative company has been trying to better their products every day, but there are still some significant changes to guarantee them 100% acceptance in the Nigerian food market. Hence, the company should make concerted efforts to improve their menus by including local delicacies in them. This inclusion alone would help redeem its image and also promote healthy feeding habits among its customers. McDonald’s should let customers know that their complaints can be heard, by setting up an efficient feedback system; from this feedback they can improve their service by adopting the good ideas, and also dealing with customer complaints.

Citations

Bordia, P. et al., 2004. Uncertainty during organizational change: is it all about control?. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13(3), pp. 345-365.

Boundless, 2012. Boundless. [Online]

Available at: https://www.boundless.com/accounting/textbooks/boundless-accounting-textbook/introduction-to-accounting-1/overview-of-key-elements-of-the-business-19/business-stakeholders-internal-and-external-117-6595/

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Choi, T. Y., 1995. Conceptualizing continuous improvement: implications for organizational change. Omega: International Journal of Management Science, 23(26), pp. 607-724.

De Witt, A., 1988. Measurement of project success. International journal of project management, 6(3), pp. 164-170.

Kotter, J. P., 1995. Leading change: why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, Issue March-April, pp. 59-67.

Kotter, J. P., 1996. Leading Change. 1st ed. Boston: Havard Business School Press.

Metre, C., 2009. Deriving Value From Change Management, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Scholarly Commons.

Pieterson, W., 2002. The Mark Twain Dilemma: the theory and practice of change leadership. The Journal of Business Strategy, 23(5), pp. 32-37.

Washington, U. o., 2011. Research Administration Performance Improvement and Development. [Online]

Available at: http://www.washington.edu/research/rapid/tools-and-templates

[Accessed 3 May 2015].

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