McDonald’s is a food joint that was started in 1937 in the US. When it started, it dealt with hot dogs. It has transformed itself into a chain of food joints sprawling over several continents within the years. Clients from all over the world are impressed by the quality of service that McDonalds has to offer and hence the food joints receive many clients in a day whenever a McDonald’s joint is nearby.
When it introduced its entry into the market in the 1940s, consumers were used to the wayside drive through joints. This made McDonald’s to command a monopoly over the market. However, over the years other entrepreneurs have come forth with similar ventures and cut in the profitability levels of McDonald’s. This comes across as disastrous for McDonald’s signaling a strong need for change within the organization.
Any organization that intends to remain relevant in a market needs to consider a change strategy that improves its competitive edge. The lack of change in an organization is likely to cause the competitors of the business to improve their competitive edge and affect the profitability levels ( Wallace, 2009).This has been the case with McDonald’s over a number of years as other ventures come in with better strategies that cause employee and client turnover rates to rise.
Departments
McDonald’s has various departments that serve towards its common objectives. However, three departments that I feel require immediate changes are the production department, HR department, and operations department (Burter, 2001). The joint activities of these departments are vital as they contribute towards the overall performance of the organization. Over the years, these departments have operated disjointedly without clear direction and participation seeing the organization loosing ground to competitors.
The above mentioned departments need to anticipate the need for change. For instance, the managers of each department should begin to appreciate and understand that they need to change how they conduct their operations. For instance, since most of the clients happen to be travelers along specific routes, the increase for the driveway joints should be increased as well as improved services.
Immediately an organizational development (OD) practitioner gets introduced into the organization’s system, an unprecedented relationship crops up in the company. Such a practitioner should ensure that he formulates a chain of open communication, honesty, and an environment where there is shared responsibility between the people and the departments in the organization. A stable relationship within an organization is vital towards the achievement of organizational goals.
The diagnostic process is a stage where a practitioner contracted by McDonald’s will cooperate in finding the relevant information that will be vital for the change process. The information will be necessary towards identifying the potential problems that McDonald’s face. For instance, it would be important for McDonald’s to want to find out why it has been loosing its customers and employees to other competitors.
The final strategies for McDonald’s would be to develop action plans, strategies to carry out the change strategies developed, change intervention events within the company, and plans that focus on dealing with the difficulties that have been identified.
Finally, the need for self renewal, monitoring of change strategies, and sense of stability for the change programs introduced should be fostered. McDonald’s should be proactive in this phase to monitor the outcomes of the change process and stabilize the expected changes.
References
Burter, S. (2001).The McDonald’s. London: Prentice Hall.
Wallace, S. (2009). Organizational Change Management. New York: McGraw-Hill.