Introduction
Dunkin’ Donuts has experienced massive success in this region, and the decision to open five new stores has just come at the right time. However, the success that has been experienced in the recent past does not guarantee that the firm will be successful once the five new stores are officially launched. In order to achieve success, it is important to have a team of dedicated staff, and a management unit that understand the internal and external environmental factors.
It is important to put structures in place that will help the firm overcome some challenges that it may face in these new locations. The decision of the owner of this company to promote me to the level of district manager in charge of the five new stores came as a surprise. It means that I have to deliver good results as the new manager of the region that is yet to be tested.
This is a big challenge that requires dedication and skills in order to meet the expectations of the investor. It news a clear plan that will be used in order to set up a functional system that will be as effective as the branch that I acted as its manager for the past few years. This plan seeks to define the job design, organizational design, recruiting and selection strategies, training, and performance appraisal that will be used to manage the five new outlets.
Job Design
According to Aaker (2001), developing an effective job design is one of the most important tasks when managing human resource. On one hand, a manager needs an employee who is dedicated to his work and is very efficient. On the other hand, an employee needs an understanding manager who gives them room to be creative in order to remain motivated in the workplace.
When developing the job design, the focus will be to ensure that the employees are well motivated and that they are efficient in addressing their assignment by assigning them tasks that they have the capacity to handle. The design will also help in eliminating cases of repetitiveness at work. Given the fact that the firm will be opening new outlets, it will be important to understand how the internal and external forces interact in defining job design at the new units. The figure below shows some of the major factors that will affect job design
The organizational factors are internal structures within the organization that defines job design. These outlets will offer a variety of beverages and donuts. When planning different tasks, the management will classify the tasks into five main categories. These categories include the cooks, the waiters, the accountants, nutritionists, and casual laborers. These tasks will be defined further in order to determine how each employee will be assigned different tasks based on job requirements and their personal capabilities.
Environmental factors will also influence job deign that will be used, especially when determining how to assign different tasks. Issues such as religion, language barrier, and general perception of the society will define who will be interacting directly with the customers and who will be assigned back office tasks.
Finally, the behavioral factors will also define job design at the new plants. Some employees may be talented at various tasks, but their behavior may be unpleasant to the clients or fellow employees. Other employees may be too shy to serve customers in an effective manner. The management will plan different tasks to ensure that such unique behavioral patterns are given consideration in job design.
Organizational Design
In order to achieve success in the new outlets, it is important to come up with an effective organizational design that will define how different employees will relate. The first step will be to define the leadership structure that will be used in this new region. The figure below shows the management structure that will be used at the firm.
At the top management will be the district manager. He will be responsible for all the policy development and supervisory roles at the district level. Under him will be the mid managers who will be at the unit level. At each unit, there will be a chief chef and the head of customer care service. Either of the two will act as the head of that unit depending on their experience, leadership skills, and their loyalty to the firm.
However, each one of them will have clear functions with a team of employees to command as shown in the figure above. The head of customer care unit will be in charge of all the front office activities that involve serving the customers. On the other hand, the chief chef will ensure that quality products are delivered to the customers in time. Below the pyramid and the junior employees who will be responsible for various tasks as shown in the chart above.
Other than the leadership structure, it will be important to define how different structure within this new division will interact in order to ensure that there are smooth operations. Technology has become a formidable force that can no longer be ignored when managing information and people. The figure below shows how these three factors should interact in order to enhance operational processes at this firm.
In order to coordinate activities of the employees are all the five branches, information will be of critical value. However, in the current society, information can only flow from one unit to the other using emerging technologies. At this district, we intend to integrate people, information, and technology in order to enhance coordination of various activities.
Recruiting and Selection
According to Bissonette, (2012), employees are very important to any organization. They implement policies that have been developed by the top management unit. It is important to have a clear method that will help in recruiting the right employees at various departments. At this firm, having a team of highly talented chefs, and presentable waiters is a critical issue in achieving success. We will make an effort to identify some of the most talented chefs in the region and approach them directly so that they can work with our firm.
We also intend to use conventional method of advertising for the vacant positions so that the process of recruiting the employees can be done in a competitive process. The focus during the interview will be on the skills and special talents, which will be tested practically during the interview. It will be important to ensure that at the end of the interviews only the best candidates are selected to work with the firm at these new outlets.
Training and Performance Appraisals
The market is changing rapidly due to changes brought about by the emerging technologies. For this reason, we highly value training and development of out employees. The management will organize on-job trainings for all the employees, especially the chefs and the waiters to ensure that they understand the changing needs of the customers. The management will also organize seminars where the employees will share their news ideas on how to approach different tasks.
Performance appraisal will be an important component of human resource management at this firm. Although we believe in self-motivation as suggested by McGregor’s Theory Y, we also believe that sometimes employees may avoid their duties deliberately as suggested in Theory X (Gottschalk, 2006). For this reason, the management will conduct performance appraisal on a yearly basis to determine if they are working as per the expectations of the firm.
Conclusion
The new Dunkin’ Donuts’ outlets will have to achieve success as per the expectations of the owner. However, achieving success in such a competitive market environment is very challenging. The management will first conduct an environmental research to understand the external forces. It will then conduct an internal review to determine its internal capacities.
With this information, a plan will be developed to ensure that there is an effective job design, organizational design, recruiting strategy, training structures, and performance appraisal approaches at this new firm. The management will develop this plan while paying attention to the relevance of the emerging technologies that are relevant to this industry.
References
Aaker, D. A. (2001). Developing business strategies. New York, NY [u.a.: Wiley.
Bissonette, G. J. (2012). Business: Strategy, development, application. Whitby, Ont: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
Gottschalk, P. (2006). E-business strategy, sourcing, and governance. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Pub.