Corporate Ethic of Fast-food Chain McDonald's
In modern cooperative society it has become increasingly clear that corporate ethics plays a vital role in the service sector.
Corporate ethics is a new area of knowledge and a part of management sciences. It singles out as a relatively new area of knowledge, corporate management, which explores general approaches, principles, laws, and patterns in management of large and complex organizations.
Topicality of the issue "Corporate ethics and attitude to employees" is that each organization has its own history, structure, types of communications within organizational traditions and myths. All these components form a unique corporate culture. Domestic managers are aware of the fact that excellent corporate ethic management can be a major competitive advantage. The main issue of the modern concept of "corporate ethic" is what this particular company exists for. It is important to identify an idea of company's future in a year or five years.
The object of this paper is corporate ethic of the fast-food chain McDonald's.
The subject of this paper is the formation of corporate ethic and attitude to employees.
The aim of this paper is to review theoretical aspects of corporate ethic and corporate culture within the analysis of fast-food chain McDonald's.
A manager plays a considerable role in shaping corporate ethic. Employees who are patriots of their company and are ready to work selflessly for the sake of its prosperity are the honey pot for any successful leader.
Factors contributing to staff becoming loyal to the company:
- The positive attitude of the administration to employees;
- Strong connection between the results and remuneration;
- An objective assessment of achievements of the employee;
- Opportunities for professional and career development;
- Healthy psychological climate in the team;
- A sense of significance, importance of work, a common ground with the direct supervisor.
As the management of McDonald's corporation expects a positive attitude of workers to the clients, the company itself has a healthy attitude to its employees.
Corporate ethic assumes that the manager did not guide employees by giving them orders, but by providing them with tips and assisting them on improving self-control. This increases responsibility of employees for their work.
One of the problems of fast-food chain McDonald's is high turnover of employees, which achieves 50%.
If to compare turnover rate with that of another worldwide chain Burger King, the latter's rate is only 30%.
Turnover of employees in McDonald's reached abnormal mark with a possibility of violating the normal rhythm of work and harming the reputation of a leader in the business environment of each particular restaurant. The issue of personnel management system creates obstacles in moving up the career ladder for employees. This means, that after a certain period of time, the work becomes not interesting to them. Seeing no prospects for growth and development, they start looking for another job.
Negative effects of long-term labor turnover include loss of profit due to slow entry into the work, lack of employee loyalty, general absence of skills, and poor motivation. The result is a reduced effectiveness.
It shows that in order to avoid high turnover of employees, it is important to improve the work in the following areas:
• Adaptation of newcomers;
• Training of staff;
• Motivation activities.
This version of adaptation of new employees can be recommended for the fast-food chain McDonald's.
To improve this aspect of corporate ethic as the attitude of employees to clients and in order to create mutual understanding between the staff and visitors of the restaurant, the personnel should address visitors by their names. All employees should be friendly. And if employees are motivated enough to perform their job duties (as in chain McDonald's), this will increase quality of service.
Any business requires high-performance of work. Labor efficiency should continue to increase, and this can be achieved by improving skills and training.
Restaurants often hire employees without any experience in this area, citing its position so that it is easier to teach a person from scratch. Employee training begins with the first day of work and it applies to absolutely all positions.
Recommendations to improve the corporate culture in the fast food chain McDonald's
are the following. For example, new employees must attend introductory lectures and training sessions. They must have experienced mentors who can help at the beginning of work and be acquainted with the peculiarities of the restaurant.
Every employee who works with clients must be able to pass the following trainings:
• Standards of professional performance with the aim to read and accept the standards supported by the restaurant;
• Service standards with an aim to understand basic principles of service to improve the quality of service;
• Conflict management with an aim to develop reading comprehension "signals" of conflict behavior in the starting phase, skills avoiding conflict, and its effective solutions;
• Etiquette with an aim to form ideas about etiquette in the restaurant business in accordance with the standards of service.
It is only possible to hold a prospective employee in the restaurant when he or she has the prospect of career growth, each new stage of which is accompanied by increased remuneration. For example, for a service of reception staff, the introduction of the bit: the administrator and the administrator of the first category, of the second category (in the performance of the same functions). Even a small difference in wages will increase motivation of new employees to improve their skills.
It is possible to see from the above discussion that the process of turnover in fast-food chain McDonald's can be controlled paying attention to three factors:
1. Selection - subject to strict employment rules and requirements.
2. Orientation - each selected employee must receive intensive training.
3. Education - a process of continuous learning and development of employees.
Corporate ethic is one of the most effective means of attracting and motivating employees.
Incentive motivation should be seen within two issues.
First - motivation through the incentives. Tangible incentives include cultural activities on the day of birth of the company, corporate meetings, New Year, February 23, March 8, and Halloween.
Second - the non-material motivation. A number of non-material incentives, which do not require an investment, but have great impact on the level of satisfaction of employees are recognition for the employee in the form of praise, gratitude, the title of "Best employee of the restaurant McDonald's of the year-end".
Motivation, as a result of the impact on corporate culture is characterized by the desire to meet staff ideas, earn the respect of management and colleagues, and feel their importance due to membership in the socially responsible organization. It is important to note the need for constant action and update intangible motivation methods.
It is also necessary to build a proper attitude of department heads and CEO to employees. Managers in McDonald's need to praise employees for work diligently: a few nice words can encourage people as well as it can become a motivation for further qualitative growth.
Employees should be considered as potential business partners, not wage earners. Such an approach increases personal responsibility of each employee.
In order to succeed in the fast-food business, to compete with other chains, to meet customer expectations, it is necessary to develop a system of service quality standards.
Standards of the restaurant should be a logical consequence of goals and motto.
All sorts of rituals, ceremonies, and traditions involving employees are very efficient means of formation, distribution, and retention of corporate ethic. They are designed to facilitate a transfer of positive professional experience, culture, relationships, and other elements of values orientation.
As a result, high level of corporate ethic allows a person to feel dedicated to the company, identify itself, and feel some emotional connection with organization.
Implementation of recommendations in the fast-food restaurant will bring good results to the management of the corporation in the creation of corporate culture and reducing the turnover of employees. Improving human resource management in fast-food chain McDonald's will improve company's competitiveness and service quality.
