How to use leadership change assignment research techniques to identify strategies Mc donalds can adopt to prevent big-box store closures?

Question

Task: How to use leadership change assignment research techniques to identify strategies Mc donalds can adopt to prevent big-box store closures?

Answer

Introduction
The primary aim of the leadership change assignmentis to evaluate the relative application of numerous aspects of leadership along with its impact on a change process within McDonald’s. The focus will be towards determining the change which occurred within the firm and its effect on the organization along with its employees. Change management is determined to be the process of directing organizational change to completion from the initial phases of preparation as well as conception via adoption to resolution (Htike, 2019). Moreover, the paper will help in demonstrating the application of various leadership theories such as classical leadership theories, neuro-leadership approaches along with complexity science and leadership in the change process which occurred within McDonald’s. In this paper leadership theories will be explained as leadership theories play a major role in driving the process of change management efficiently and effectively by utilizing their skills and qualities (Oreg and Berson, 2019). Through the application of leadership theories, the leaders gain the ability to enhance their unique skills.Furthermore, the emphasis will be towards analysing the change process by providing practical examples. Therefore, the leadership change assignmentwill be focused towards determining the effectiveness of the leaders of McDonald’s such a CEO, supervisors and managers in managing the change successfully. The paper will focus on the change of communication with customers, the change in platforms of promotion and marketing and the increase in relevance of the company in the current market situation.

Theory Part
Importance of Leadership in Organizations
In order to analyze the relative application of different leadership change assignment theories in practical situation, various literatures have been reviewed. Leadership impacts the overall organizational behaviour, performance and affects the change management within the organization. As per Chen and Sriphon(2021), the right approach or style of leadership determines the change process within an organization. There are various theories on leadership and its style, but not every style suits every situation or organization. The right style for the specific situation marks the success of an organization. According to Philip(2021), leadership is a very crucial factor which makes an organization successful. Leadership is important to an organization because it facilitates effective functioning, efficient handling of work, influencing the people, i.e., employees and clients, increasing competency and productivity, etc. In the absence of leadership, an organization cannot function properly. The potential of an organization can be transformed into reality by leaders. Leaders make good managers and carve out good future leaders out of employees. Effective leaders keep their employees motivated and inspired and encourage team engagement. When there are situations where adopting a change could lead to tension among the workforce in an organization, a good leader would handle the situation rationally and sensibly and facilitate the change without hurting the sentiments of the employees.

Classical leadership change assignment Theories
There comprises of three classical leadership theories which have been applied by the leaders of McDonald’s which are explained below:

Trait theory
Theleadership change assignment trait theory of leadership determines that certain innate or inborn characteristics and qualities make someone a leader (Uygunand Gupta, 2020). During the change process the CEO of McDonald’s used his charisma, passion within the organization to articulate his vision to his employees.

Behaviour theory
It emphasizes upon the ways leaders behave and assume that these traits can be copied by other leaders. It is seen that the manager of McDonald’s possess people-oriented behaviour which helped the manager in motivating employees to perform efficiently. The actions were taken by considering the observable reactions along with actions of the employees within the firm.

Contingency theory
The leadership change assignmentdetermines that the effectiveness of a leader is contingent of whether the leader style fits to the specific situation. The emergence of the change process within McDonald’s challenged the leaders to manage the situation systematically and become successful in doing so (Hussainet al., 2019). Moreover, the leaders used different strategies to manage the situation and make the change process successful.

Transformational theory
It is considered to be a theory of leadership where a leaders works with followers or teams beyond their immediate self-interest to recognize the required change. By applying this theory the leaders of McDonald’s motivated the team members to perform efficiently (Paaisand Pattiruhu, 2020). They were highly focused towards increasing the morale of the employees and develop a positive change within the firm.

Neuro-Leadership Approaches
According to Iqbal et al (2020), the neuro-leadership approach was introduced by David Rock, the CEO of Results Coaching System in the year 2006. The leadership change assignmentconcept of neuro-leadership gained momentum because it helped in developing an understanding about how individuals could become better leaders. The way in which the leaders could contribute better towards the organization, be more effective at influencing and leading others and engaging the employees, are analyzed under neuro-leadership. As per Zhang, Jia and Yan(2022), the neuro-scientists realize the need for observing the live human brains for discovering various insights about how the brain functions and how emotions are developed. Understanding human brain and their way of thinking could help the leaders to lead in a better way. They could handle the stressful and crisis situations in organizations, while keeping their employees least affected or disturbed.

As opined by Saruhan(2022), the neuro-leadership aims at exploring the basis of leadership in neural terms and the foundation of management theories. The data collected from different sources like cognitive neuroscience, affective neuroscience, social cognitive, neurobiology, integrative neuroscience, etc. emphasize on the common fact that the development of leadership science would be effective for an organization. This should consider the physiology of the brain and mind so that it becomes easily accessible to the leaders who aim at improving self and the rest. As stated by Atencio Bravo, Ramírez Lora and Zappa Berastegui(2020), the soft skills required in professional growth are transformed into hard skills when the science behind it is known. The focus of neuro-leadership is on the ‘people’ and not the ‘management’ only. This approach of leadership focuses on the way people connect and how people are inter-related to one another. Neuro-leadership combines with the traditional leadership theories and helps the managers in the organizations to be better leaders and engage their teams. Effective implementation of neuro-leadership facilitates rational decision making, efficient problem solving, emotional regulation, collaboration with others and influencing them and fostering effective change management.

Complexity Science and Leadership
With the application of thisleadership change assignment theory the leaders of McDonald’s analysed the outcomes of the change process and the ways in which it will prove to be beneficial for the firm for achieving long-term success. The model focuses upon the significance of social interaction within a firm and determines the major role of the leader in bringing change (Russelland Smorodinskaya, 2018). Within McDonald’s the leaders demonstrated their effectiveness by responding to the internal along with external pressures by addressing difficult situations. By applying this theory the leaders of the firm such as managers and supervisors interacted with the organizational team members regarding the change process and asked them regarding their opinion regarding the change. This determines the capability of the leaders in adapting to different situations within the firm by connecting with the organizational members (Turnerand Baker, 2019).

Moreover, with the use of this leadership change assignmenttheory the leaders serve room for innovation along with change for its employees and also harness the outcomes of the natural interactions which take place within the firm. Furthermore, the application of this theory assisted in increasing as well as embracing the complexity of the firm to a greater extent (Rosenheadet al., 2019). With this the showed their effectiveness by enabling the organizational change efficiently. Another benefit is that it helped in fostering self-responsibility along with autonomy among the team members and the firm. Moreover, by applying this theory the leaders were able to conduct an empirical research regarding the change process by looking upon the entire system.

Impact of Leadership on Change Process Experiences in Organizations
As mentioned by Ashforth and Humphrey(2022), the leadership plays a crucial role in impacting the change process. Effective leadership facilitates change in an organization. Rational and good leaders try to make the process of change smooth, reducing the resistance to change. As per the leadership change assignment investigations the leadership in an organization is important because the leaders motivate the employees and encourage them to adapt to the changes. The leaders try to convey to the employees that in the absence of change, they will fall out of existence and lose their relevance. The organization will also not be able to sustain if they do not change with the changing external business environment. In order to incorporate innovation and development in an organization, change is inevitable. When the external business environment changes, the organizations and its managers realize the need for making changes in their process and operations, they fear the resistance coming from the employees. In this situation, the leaders need to motivate and inspire the employees and make them realize the need for adapting to the changes. A good leader conveys a right message and preventsresentment of employees. The big corporations and MNCs around the world have been able to adapt to new changes, incorporate innovative methods and techniques because the organisations have had great leaders. A leader lays the path which others can follow with ease. This makes the change management and change process smoother and simpler for an organisation to manage and implement.

leadership change assignment -Practical Part
Profile of McDonald’
McDonald’s’s Corporation is regarded as an American-based multinational fast food chain established in 1940 whose headquarters is located at US. By revenue it is regarded as the largest restaurant chain across the world which serves around 69 million consumers every day in over 100 nations. The company specializes in selling wraps, breakfast, coffee, hotcake, desserts, salads, milkshakes, soft serves, soft drinks, french fries, chicken and hamburgers. Moreover, the company has gained revenue of around US$23.223 billion with an operating income of around US$10.356 (McDonald’s, 2022). Furthermore, the number of staffs employed within the firm is approximately 200,000 as per the time this leadership change assignment data was collected.

One of the significant changes which occurred in McDonald’s is the closing down of locations inside big-box stores. It is seen that the chain started to wind down it big-box partnership with Walmart as well as closing number of its restaurants inside the Walmart locations (John, 2021). Furthermore, the emergence of the pandemic caused chaos on in-store dining as well as shopping, hence the chain took the prospect to shut down restaurants which rely upon consumers being on-premise and emphasized its efforts elsewhere. Due to this change around 150 countrywide McDonald’s’s locations will remain inside Walmart stores.

Analysis of examples
A change management process is determined to be a chain of responsibilities which are being outlined for a unified conversion from a present state of affairs towards a new one without suffering any damages or hindering the workflow (Stouten et al., 2018). Within an organization, change management is considered to be a step-by-step measure which is designed by a firm to make sure that arrangements made in significant areas are successfully managed without risking business operations. For example, during the late 1990s, McDonald’s was moving toward a wave of growth which has remained some four eras (John, 2021). Every year, the restaurant was supplementing new sites and at that time a new form of McDonald’s’s restaurant began to proliferate one situated inside Walmart centers. Even though, the partnership among the two American giants build strong outcomes for a certain period of time, but by 2010, the concept began to lose stem. It has been observed on this leadership change assignment that by 2012 to 2017, the number of McDonald’s’s locations within Walmart had reduced to 630 from 875. By considering this decline the company the restaurant chain decided to bring a change to shut down around 100 units of McDonald’s inside Walmart. It is seen that the shuttered restaurants of Walmart represent near about half of all closures of the fast-food chain which had undergone throughout that time. Furthermore, with more number of closures which has been planned during this summer, it is predicted that the chain will have around 150 residual sites inside the big-box stores. Due to this change most of the shoppers of Walmart are now purchasing their groceries online and have been declined into their trunk within the parking lot or served to their home by removing the requirement for them to move inside the stores. It is seen that the e-commerce sales within US increased by 79% during the most current financial year by the end of 31st January 2020 as compared to the previous year (John, 2022).

It has been analyzed on this leadership change assignmentthat in the change process, leadership play a vital role. As a practical skill or a research process, leadership entails the capability of an organization, group or individual to lead, guide or influence other individual teams (Farahnaket al., 2020). In the process of change management leadership play a major role by assisting individuals to buy into their vision for the firm. This form of communication requires taking place constantly, no matter whether it is more serious change program, regular issues or it is the mundane. In case of the change process which occurred at McDonald’sthe leaders within the firm clarified the vision and interacted it efficiently. The message conveyed to the organizational members regarding the change process was consistent and clear. For example, the owner of McDonald’s Chris Kempczinskileveraged the preferred communication methods of their customers to make sure about the receptivity (Repko, 2021). This indicates making the most utilization of different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and many more.

Organizational-chart-of-McDonald

Figure: Change leadership
(Source: Faupel and Süß, 2019)

The leaders within McDonald’s created a significant impact on the employees during the change by staying connected with them which showed their effectiveness. It is due to the fact as they have analyzed that fact that without this awareness, the organization along with the employees will face a critical time enlisting support and demonstrating their vision (Arifand Akram, 2018). Moreover, the use of the preferred social media platforms allowed the leaders within McDonald’s to interact with their customers as well as employees and gain a quick idea of what they were feeling or thinking regarding the change process of closing number of its restaurants inside Walmart locations (Cortellazzoet al., 2019). As a result, it helped in aligning the change management initiatives with the abilities of the organizational members.

It has been evaluated that the leaders within McDonald’s were highly transparent as well as accountable. For instance, at the time of developing a plan of converting McDonald’s’s locations into other forms of restaurants the leaders were made highly accountable for what is working and what is not working efficiently. It is observed on this leadership change assignmentthat being responsible helped the leaders within McDonald’s in fostering a commitment along with desire to fix the issues to gain the finest outcomes. Thus, by applying relevant leadership theories the leaders made themselves highly accountable for making the change process successful (Muthimiand Kilika, 2018). Thus, it has been observed that the accountable leaders within McDonald’s looked towards all the significant aspects of the firm such as staffs, management, procedures and culture to make sure that all are working optimally. With this they were able to admit the misalignment along with the gaps and took actions in order to overcome the shortcomings (Alhashediet al., 2021). It determines that the significant role of leadership within change management requires commitment, communication along with care. Hence, the manager and CEO of McDonald’s proved to effective as being a leader, they were the bridge among the company and the envisioned change (Karam and Tasmin, 2020). It has been analyzed on this leadership change assignment that the leaders of the restaurant analyzed their role along with the expectations around it and thus communicated the change process and clarified the vision effectively.

Furthermore, it has been acknowledged that usually managers as a leader analyze the dimensions of the change and take the staffs into their confidence (Horlingset al., 2018). For example, the manager within McDonald’s introduced the change process with the support of the HR manager and the involved every member in the decision-making by ensuring that the change process that is the closure of number of stores inside Walmart will prove to be beneficial for the firm in long-term. With this the top management within the restaurant made essential amendments into the policies and the processes in order to accommodate a change within the firm. The leaders within the restaurant showed their effectiveness by using their skills such as interpersonal and communication skills along with leadership qualities (Figueroa et al., 2019). The utilization of these leadership change assignmentresearch skills as well as the leadership qualities served potential benefits and created a positive impact on the firm. For example, with the closure of its stores the company becomes successful in generating more revenues.

Throughout the change process, communication proves to be highly essential as by demonstrating the implications of the change to the organizational members, leaders can build trust along with relationships to overcome barriers while implementing the change effectively (Helming et al., 2019). For instance, the CEO of McDonald’s effectively communicated with the organizational members regarding the change process and motivated them to move towards this path with full confidence in order to fulfill organizational goals.

Conclusion & Recommendations
It is concluded on this leadership change assignmentthat leadership play a major role in the process of change management within an organization. The paper helped in analysing the fact that within McDonald’s the leaders decided to bring a significant change in its business operations by closing hundreds of restaurants inside Walmart locations. The motive behind driving this change is to overcome from the issue of decline in revenue and maintain a position within the market. However, while driving this change the leader of McDonald’s showed their effectiveness by applying relevant theories as it helps in creating an impact on the change management and organizational performance and behaviour. During the change management process the leaders of McDonald’sapplied classical theory of leadership where it consulted with the massive group of people to make the decisions. Another major leadership theory is neuro-leadership approaches which proved to be helpful for the leaders to make rational decision, collaborate with each other and solve problems. While, the application of complexity science and leadership theory which helped the leaders in solving the technical problems which emerged from the change process.

It has been analysed on this leadership change assignmentthat the leaders created a huge impact on thee change process by applying the appropriate approach along with the value of flexibility. It also helped in engaging the team members within the change process and making them feel confident that the change process will prove to be highly effective for the firm and its employees.
However, in order to create a more positive impact on the employees and the organization, it is highly recommended that the leaders within McDonald’s must focus upon developing a management team who will be highly effective in creating a change management plan. It becomes crucial for the managers along with the supervisors to become highly equipped and prepared with relevant information regarding the change prior to the messages are being rolled out to all staffs. Hence, the emphasis must be towards preparing the management team to communicate a steady message as well as manage persistence resistance to the change and also demonstrate obligation to the change via behaviour. Most of the time employees resist to change that occurs within an organization. Hence, the leaders within McDonald’s are required to address resistance by creating an appropriate plan. It can be said that leaders within McDonald’s can address resistance to change by taking sufficient time to listen to the needs and concern of the organizational members. It is seen that staffs bring a unique set of emotion, knowledge along with experiences which can be analysed via conversation. Therefore, by listening and making an attempt to analyse diverse viewpoints, the leaders of the restaurant are not learning the key information but also showing their staff members that they appreciate as well as respect their unique contributions along with opinions.Furthermore, when leadership communication is executed properly throughput the coaching process than it will assists in resolving resistance as well as improving the outcomes of the change project efficiently and effectively.

Moreover, it is strongly recommended on this leadership change assignmentthat during the change management process, the leaders must focus upon coaching the employees. It can be said that coaching needs check-ins along with mentoring. The focus of the leaders must be towards implementing coaching as a practical intervention which can play a major role in assisting leaders along with managers in demonstrating the possible changes facing their teams. Providing effective coaching can help in enhancing the readiness level and also developing the ability of the firm in dealing with the problems effectively. The tools which can be used in coaching are meditation and mindfulness which will prove to be extremely helpful for those who are associated with the change process. It is also recommended that the leaders within McDonald’s must apply strategic change management practices in order to move a long way toward directing via change, supporting the change, assisting them in accepting the change and addressing their concerns. Therefore, it will provide more direction to those who have fewer experiences with the change process and thus seek to enhance their experience. With this leadership change assignment data, leaders will be able to help the organization in moving ahead smoothly with the change process.

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