Introduction
The application of change initiatives in business is as important as in any other branch of human activity. Sooner or later every company encounters necessity of applying changes in the organization due to changes that take place in the areas such as technology, corporate governance, evaluation of leadership competencies, and other concepts related to the sector of business including marketing strategies and sustainable competitive advantage.
So, the strategic change initiative should be thoroughly planned in order to result in successful changes in future regarding the period when changes should be implemented.
One of the strategic change initiatives includes vision of the changes with regard to the vision statement which shapes the whole strategy for changes, mission statement which justifies the reasons for change and indicates the highest point to strive for; finally, the change strategy is the set of approaches that should be used to reach the goals stated in the mission or at least to approximate to those.
The changes that should be introduced in McDonalds concern the attitude of customers, reputation of the company, and reaction of staff members.
Application Analysis
As suggested by Palmer, Dunford, and Akin (2008), each change implemented in organization should have its own image and should be built in accordance with a certain strategic change initiative vision. So, the application of changes with regard to vision of these changes should be analyzed in order to evaluate effectively the effects expected from this change, the way the change was applied, the attitude of employees in the process of implementation and final results of the change application.
In other words, it is necessary to take into account the change outcomes expected to be reached after application of strategic change initiative as reported by (Palmer, Dunford, and Akin, 2008), they can be intended (p. 25), partially intended or unintended (p. 26).
Thus, the change that should be introduced in McDonalds can be considered intended or partially intended regarding the nature of external factors that can shift priorities and attitude of employees including their understanding of importance of changes applied to this business.
Lessons Learned
The application of strategic change initiative requires certain sense of the situation because the change can be partially intended or unintended due to external factors and lack of underground for implementation of theoretical issues into practice. Besides, what is good for one business in terms of competitive advantage or corporate governance is not applicable to another business due to relation with customers, engagement of personnel, and other concepts.
A practicing manager could create a plan for application of strategic change initiatives with the help of vision concepts including vision statement, mission statement, and strategy in terms of approaches suitable for the case. The more thorough is the plan of application, the more successful can be its application to business because a practicing manager should identify some risks that can occur and be ready to solve problems related to strategic change initiatives application.
The strategic change initiative was applied in accordance with the plan including identification of vision and mission statements, and selection of approaches necessary for effective reaching of intended change outcomes. Some mistakes that could occur in this situation could be fixed with the help of a detailed analysis of every step taken before the changes occurred and identification of mistakes.
Reference List
Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2008). Managing organizational change. 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.