McDonald’s is among the companies that once failed to adapt. In 1998, it launched the “Made for You” innovative process that involved customized food preparation considering the clients’ specific ingredient-related preferences (Pal & Mathew, 2020). It resulted in a major failure despite the management’s expectations. According to Weiss (2016), the five pillars improving change initiatives’ chances of success include strategy, structure, culture, systems, and leadership.
In the case of McDonald’s, culture and leadership were present in the form of employees’ openness to new practices and operation executives’ clear articulation of a vision for change (Pal & Mathew, 2020). Nevertheless, limited consideration was given to systems, structure, and strategy, resulting in innovators’ inability to predict customization’s impacts on waiting time for orders, queuing, and teamwork speed.
Also, there are multiple failure-promoting factors, some of which include employee opposition or resistance to change, inadequate focus, and change initiatives’ inability to go beyond promoting short-term local improvements. In the chosen case, there was no evidence of employee resistance. However, the leaders failed to treat innovation “as a strategic element for organizational success,” which resulted in customization at the expense of service speed (Pal & Mathew, 2020, p. 158). This exemplifies both the short-term/local nature of improvement and insufficient focus on the product delivery system in its entirety.
Employee empowerment (EE) can support productive partnerships between businesses and clients. EE in the form of flexibility and involving employees in decision-making is positively related to client satisfaction, which is achieved by increasing employee satisfaction (Shedid, 2019). Kanter’s structural empowerment theory posits that EE, being promoted by giving employees the resources, information, and opportunities for development, gives rise to employee commitment and accountability, which eventually results in better customer service (Shedid, 2019). In their EE theory, Bowen and Lawler argue that EE stems from authority delegation, knowledge, information sharing, and rewards (Shedid, 2019).
These factors can create organizational contexts that would be conducive to employee engagement, resulting in more effective customer care and communication. Agile organizations’ structures are non-hierarchical and allow for customer-centeredness and open communication (Balog, 2020). In line with the mentioned theories, these features promote data sharing and the delegation of authority, leading to empowerment and, consequently, effective partnerships with clients.
References
Balog, K. (2020). The concept and competitiveness of agile organization in the fourth industrial revolution’s drift. Strategic Management, 25(3), 14-27. Web.
Pal, P.P., & Mathew, J. (2020). The leadership essentials: A practical handbook for success. Blue Rose Publishers.
Shedid, M. (2019). Employee empowerment and customer satisfaction: An investigation from a UAE banking-sector perspective (Publication No. 842064) [PhD thesis, Robert Gordon University]. OpenAIR RGU Repository.
Weiss, J.W. (2016). Organizational change (2nd ed.). Bridgepoint Education.