Introduction
Organizational Behaviour at MC Donald’s will be evaluated in this report by applying required theories and models. Organizational behaviour refers to the division of management activities which is concerned with realising, forecasting and persuading people’s behaviour within organizations (Cooper et al., 2017). It is the study and application of knowledge about people’s actions within companies the concept is applied in every type of company to the behaviour of their people. In this report, the influence of culture, politics and power of an organization on a team’s behaviour and performance has been critically analysed. How effective application of behavioural motivational theories, concepts and models influence other’s behaviour has been critically evaluated. Team and group development theories have been analysed also to support the development of dynamic cooperation. A range of concepts and philosophies has been also evaluated to show their positive and negative influence on behaviour.
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Impact of culture on employees
Culture refers to the way of life of a group of people, such as their values, behaviours, symbols and value that are passed from one generation to the next generation. Organizational culture refers to the traditions, shared beliefs, values, principles and systems of working way are all of these have an influence on both individuals’ and teams’ performance and behaviours (Andrews, and Johnson, 2016). The influences are analysed beneath:
Individual learning company culture: This company culture emphasizes individual learning lifelong in order to ensure profitability, quality of goods and amenities and business through the improvement of individuals (Cooper et al., 2017). MC Donald’s encourage individual learning and arrange training and development program for them which makes their employees satisfied toward the company. Individuals get the chance to flourish their capabilities and build up a strong career that makes them gratified toward MC Donald’s because the company arrange development program for them. Individuals and teams remain highly motivated because of the culture and try to give their best to the company. It also increases employee retention in the company because individuals and teams can develop themselves in the company.
Controlled company culture: Well-organized company culture ensures that companies can monitor the speed of employees’ work (Pentland, and Hærem, 2015). MC Donald’s has controlled company culture, and they monitor the progress of employees’ work through an improvement matrix. They can monitor the performance of 205,000 employees with controlled company culture (Macro Trends, 2020). The company inspire individuals and teams to achieve the aims of company. Individuals and teams know that the company is monitoring their performance; therefore they work actively to attain the aims of MC Donald’s. They become more responsible about their steps and concentrate on their work. It helps MC Donald’s to maintain the quality of their customer service and customers remain highly satisfied.
Diversity and inclusion: Diversity refers to accepting different types of employees with different skills, attributes and cultures, and inclusion refers to the welcoming approach to diversity (Lee et al., 2019). MC Donald’s has diversity and inclusion in its organizational culture and it can deal with the diverse market with the culture. Employees of different types work in the company because of the company culture and team members can learn from one another because everyone has a different way of working. Individuals from different countries or cultures feel comfortable in the company which motivates them to give their full effort. Team members try to adjust with one another and learn new things that make them happy but sometimes it creates conflicts because of the differences team members possess. Leaders of the company take significant steps to prevent conflicts when it occurs.
Impact of policies on employees
Organizational power is the designation of power and the extent of suppleness in which people are allowed to exercise power (Chen, Chen, and Sheldon, 2016). There are two types of organizational power that exists within an organization such as positive power and negative power. Influence of the powers on individuals’ and teams’ behaviour and performance:
Positive power: Positive refers to the power of employees’ to take part in any significant decision-making of their organization and it creates higher employee satisfaction (Graham, Ziegert, and Capitano, 2015). The positive of MC Donald’s give the right to their employees to participate in significant decision-making, and it makes employees feel that the company consider them as their part. This feeling of individuals and teams encourages them to give their full effort to attain the aims and organizational objectives of the company. Employees stay highly motivated because of the positive power of MC Donald’s; therefore employees’ engagement increases and it makes the organizational goal-achieving process easier. Employees and teams help the company to take effective decisions by giving their valuable opinion and the independency of expressing opinions makes employees loyal to the company.
Negative power: Negative power refers to the process where juniors are not allowed to participate in decision-making and authorities dominate the juniors of an organization (Becker et al., 2012). Juniors have to accept the decisions taken by the authorities. Negative power has a bad impact on MC Donald’s employees’ and teams’ performance and behaviour. Employees have no right to participate in decision-making and have to accept the decisions of superiors that make them annoyed with the company. Individuals and teams think that the company does not value them which creates dissatisfaction toward MC Donald’s and employees do not work hard to attain the goals of the company. As a result, employee turnover decreases in the company. MC Donald’s has to minimize the level of negative power to ensure higher employee engagement and increase productivity.
Impact of power on employees:
Policies refer to the set of principles, guidelines and rules which are adopted by a company in order to meet its aims and attain long-term success (Miner, 2015). The policies of a company have an impact on individuals’ and teams’ behaviour including performance. Positive policies and negative policies, these two types of policies influence the behaviour and performance of employees.
Positive policies: Positive policies refer to the system in which companies set fair and same policies for both superiors and juniors (Brickley, Smith, and Zimmerman, 2015). MC Donald’s positive policies will help them to maintain good employee relations because superiors cannot dominate subordinates. Because of same rules and regulations for both parties, superiors encourage their subordinates to give better performance instead of undervaluing them. Juniors getting proper direction and help from superiors brings the best outcome for companies and companies will be able to increase employee engagement. It seems that MC Donald’s will be capable of maintaining its leading position by increasing employee engagement by establishing positive policies.
Negative policies: In this system, companies make policies differently for superiors and subordinates (Miner, 2015). Because of the difference in policies, seniors get the chance to dominate their subordinates unnecessarily that creates employee dissatisfaction. Employees do not work actively because they remain dissatisfied with their organization which decreases employee engagement. Employees are forced to complete their tasks; therefore do not work with full concentration just complete the work. MC Donald’s avoids negative policies because it increases employee turnover and the quality of their services will get hampered. The company take steps to enhance employee engagement, but negative policies decrease employee engagement; therefore, MC Donald’s does not make negative policies.
Application of motivational theories, concepts and models:
How to motivate employees:
Motivation is one of the best ways of creating job satisfaction and keeping employees loyal to an organization. It helps companies to transform employees’ talent and knowledge within their performance and doings. A few ways of motivating employees have been evaluated beneath:
Celebrating employees’ achievements: By celebrating employees’ achievement, companies can motivate their employees (Klotz et al., 2018). MC Donald’s motivates their employees by celebrating the achievement of their employees and rewarding them with one-time bonuses, bouquets, certificates, cash money and others. Others work proactively after seeing that one’s success is being celebrated, but they may go to any extent to achieve success and even break the rules and regulations of the company. Therefore, it may create conflicts among employees and the peace of the workforce may be hampered in MC Donald’s.
Sharing organizational aim with employees: Employees feel honoured when companies share their aims with them and they work hard to attain the aims (Wang al., 2015). It is one type of psychological motivation. MC Donald’s shares its aims with its employees which makes employees feel that the company considers them as the company’s significant resources. Employees make their own working plans and give their full effort to achieve the aims of MC Donald’s. When the company shares its aims with employees, it can expose the company’s plan to the competitors which create risk in the way of meeting its aims.
Flexible work environment: Flexible work environment makes employees motivated because it shows that the company trust their employees (Colarelli, and Arvey, 2015). It is the process in which employees have the right to make plan of their own work and execute them properly. MC Donald’s makes sure that the employees have a flexible environment and they can work independently, which makes them more dedicated toward their work. It makes MC Donald’s capable of delivering best food services to the customers.
Developing employee’s capability: Companies can send their employees to workshops or seminars and can arrange training and development programs to develop their capabilities which motivates them highly (Gelfand et al., 2017). MC Donald takes all the steps to develop their employees’ capabilities, and it makes their employees loyal to the company because they get the chance to flourish themselves.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is one of the most used motivational theories. The theory has five stages: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. How Maslow’s motivational theory influences others’ behaviour is evaluated below:
Physiological needs: Physiological needs such as water, food, sleep others are vital needs of humans and employees of lower income work to fulfil these needs (Wu, and Lee, 2017). MC Donald’s focuses on employees’ physical needs, give fair wages and shows that the company fulfils the physical needs of the employees. By fulfilling these needs, the company keeps their workers motivated and employees struggle to go to the higher level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Safety needs: Stability, security, health safety, protection, family safety, and others are safety needs. MC Donald’s meets the safety needs of the employees and provide safety in the workplace such as fire alarm, health insurance, maternity leave and other programs. Employees become more loyal to the company after seeing that the company care for their lives. MC Donald’s increase employee retention and increase the quality of their services that enhance their global reputation.
Love and belongingness need: Social needs fall in the needs of this category. MC Donald’s ensures pleasant supervising, organized work groups, and professional association to fulfil the needs of their employees. The company considers the employees as valuable resource and employees become more satisfied toward the company. Employees give their best to attain MC Donald’s aims that maintains their global reputation.
Esteem needs: Esteem needs refers to the needs for self-respect, self-esteem, appreciation and accomplishment (Ramlee et al., 2016). MC Donald’s meets these needs by appreciating employees’ work, rewarding them, passing constructive feedback, giving worthy job titles and other steps. All these steps increase employee retention, and the company can deliver outstanding services to the customers by utilizing employees’ increased experience.
Self-actualization needs: Self-actualization is the need to explore the inner talent of people (Gotsis, and Grimani, 2015). MC Donald’s fulfils the need of employees by offering them challenging work such as sales targets to fulfil and it motivates employees highly because they understand that the company believes in themselves. MC Donald’s welcomes the creativity of employees to help them to discover inner talent. It helps the company to provide best services to the customers with employees’ talent.
Process Theories of Motivation
Equity Theory
The main focus of Equity theory is human feelings and how honestly they have been rewarded in comparison with the reward others have received. Comparison of the factors that how much effort employees have given, and rewards they have got comparing to the rewards that people received is the perception of the theory.
Useful for companies: Companies get informed that employees count the rewards that the company have given for their work (Zhong et al., 2016). MC Donald’s will be informed about the expectation of employees that encourage the company to give fair rewards to the employees. When employees will see that they are being treated appropriately, it will encourage them to remain in the company for a long time. It ensures the best output for MC Donald’s because retained employees have high experience.
The theory causes outstanding outcomes: Companies ensure justifiable treatment for employees that ensure the best output from employee’s performance (Gotsis, and Grimani, 2015). MC Donald’s will be capable of ensuring outstanding outcomes by making employees highly gratified. Employees work more proactively when they get justifiable treatment from the company.
Employees’ gratification makes goal achieving process easier: Aim of MC Donald’s is to provide a safe environment for customers where they will enjoy quality foods (Mission Statement, 2019). Trough equity theory MC Donald’s will be able to treat its employees fairly, and employees will give full effort to fulfil the aim of the company.
Employee engagement increases: Companies ensure fair treatment for employees, and it increases employee engagement by motivating them (Leana, and Meuris, 2015). MC Donald’s will be able to keep employees highly motivated by rewarding them, and it will increase employee engagement. Employees will be more responsible toward their duties because they will get a reward for their contribution.
Different Team and Group Development Theories:
Belbin’s Team Roles
Team refers to a group where individuals work together in order achieve their goals. Companies make teams easily gain their objectives. Belbin’s Team Roles is one of the most effective theories of team and group development that MC Donald’s can use to build effective teams.
Belbin’s team roles model, by applying the model, companies can develop effective groups. In the model, rules for making an effective team have been assembled, including advice on their responsibilities. Belbin’s Team Roles refers that different types of characters and roles make an effective team.
Action-Oriented Roles: Belbin’s roles team theory refers to that sharper, implementer and completer finisher being categorized as action-oriented roles in a company (Ruch et al., 2018). MC Donald’s will be able to develop the challenges of teams which will make the teams capable of handling more challenging work and achieving success on the work. MC Donald’s can take action to implement different ideas, and the company can ensure that the employees will finish all tasks within the deadline. Application of Belbin’s roles team makes employees more responsible and increases employee engagement which will bring the best result of MC Donald’s teamwork.
People-Oriented Roles: People-oriented roles are played by the coordinator, resource investigator and team worker of a team (Senaratne, and Gunawardane, 2015). MC Donald’s will be able to encourage cooperation within employees. The company can also discover outsider opportunities, and MC Donald’s will be able to ensure higher growth by which utilizing the opportunities. Employees become able to create a positive work environment and positive power-sharing that will help MC Donald’s to maintain the peace of the work environment by maintaining positivity and constructive relation among employees.
Thought oriented roles: Thought oriented roles are played by plant, monitor-evaluator and specialist work within a team (Lehmann-Willenbrock, Beck, and Kauffeld, 2016). Identified skills are provided through these roles and it analyses the ideas within MC Donald’s. Team leaders in MC Donald’s will get the power to take significant decisions, and it is helpful to control the employees properly. The system may create problems also because team members may not accept leaders’ decisions which will create a massive environment in MC Donald’s.
Path-Goal Theory
How Path-Goal Theory Improves Team Performance and Productivity
Path-goal theory refers that the satisfaction of employees lying on the way the leaders behave with the employees (Dokony, Singh, and Arumugam, 2020). Leaders play an outstanding in keeping the employees gratified and motivated to ensure better performance. Main concept of path-goal theory is that leaders have the responsibility to show employees the paths and process which will help them to achieve organizational objectives. Even leaders have to identify different types of problems and teach employees how to prevent them.
The theory encourages leaders to conduct servant leadership approach: Path-goal theory indicates that leaders should not use power to influence employees, they should influence employees by making them satisfied (Farhan, 2018). If MC Donald’s apply this model, employees of the company will follow their leaders properly, which will help the company easily achieve its organizational goals. Though team members follow leaders, it ensures good team performance that increases productivity of companies.
The theory helps to increase employee retention: Leaders influence employees and control them after being aware about their satisfaction which makes employees more loyal to the company (Carroll, 2017). Employees’ satisfaction is valued in this model; therefore, employees remain in their companies if the company apply the path-goal theory. MC Donald’s will be capable of increasing employee retention through the application of the model.
It makes employees more focused on their work: Leaders identify different types of problems and show that to employees, and it helps employees take steps to prevent the problems (Jinfeng, Xuling, and Chunhong, 2017). MC Donald’s employees will be capable of solving different problems if the company use path-goal theory because leaders will show them the problems.
Obstacles of effective performance in MC Donald’s:
MC Donald’s faces different types of obstacles that make their growth slower. The company have to identify the obstacles to take significant initiatives to avoid them. Different types of obstacles are evaluated beneath:
Misapplication of political power: Misapplication of political power creates obstacles for an organization because it reduces employee satisfaction (Alfandari, 2017). When the power holder misapplies the power and dominates employees, it makes employees dissatisfied, and they do not work actively. MC Donald’s has to ensure that the power will be handed over to the right hand to prevent the problem.
Mishandling of HRM: If HRM fail to mane employees properly, they cannot ensure better performance from employees (Haji-Kazemi, Andersen, and Klakegg, 2015). HRM of MC Donald’s has to ensure proper management of employees to ensure the best outcome for the employees. HRM of the company have to arrange training and development programme to ensure the best performance through enhancing their capabilities.
Unskilled leaders: If the responsibilities of teams and handed over to an unskilled leader, they cannot increase employee engagement (Callistus, and Clinton, 2016). MC Donald’s has to be aware while handing over the responsibilities of employees toward and leader about the capabilities of the leader. It will help them to ensure the best employee management and increased employee engagement.
Lacking interpersonal skills: lacking interpersonal skills is the obstacle that reduces the chance of better performance (Ghobadi, and Mathiassen, 2016). If leaders and employees have lacked in these skills, they cannot communicate with one another effectively, which creates problems. MC Donald’s have to take steps to enhance the interpersonal skills of employees and managers to ensure best performance.
Conclusion
Organizational behaviour is one of the most significant portions of an organization that helps organizations to develop themselves. The concept of organizational behaviour is measuring human culture. Leaders are the people who play an outstanding role in developing employees and effective teams. The success of an organization greatly depends on the performance of teams and bad performance of teams makes the growth rate slower. The decisions taken by leaders have influence on both teams and operations of MC Donald’s therefore, the company have to appoint eligible leaders who have the capability of managing their staff. The company should use team development and proper motivational theories to ensure best performance from individuals and teams.
References
Andrews, R.N. and Johnson, E., 2016. Energy use, behavioral change, and business organizations: Reviewing recent findings and proposing a future research agenda. Energy Research & Social Science.
Carroll, B.J., 2017. Participatory action research: Identifying perceptions of leadership style and the use of path-goal leadership theory among child protection services social workers (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).
Klotz, A.C., Bolino, M.C., Song, H. and Stornelli, J., 2018. Examining the nature, causes, and consequences of profiles of organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
Zhong, L., Wayne, S.J. and Liden, R.C., 2016. Job engagement, perceived organizational support, high‐performance human resource practices, and cultural value orientations: A cross‐level investigation. Journal of Organizational Behavior.