How Would You Describe Mcdonald’s Business Strategy?

1. Answer the questions for the case “integrating McDonald’s Business, Human Resource, and Staffing Strategies” page 49, Chapter 2. [ 15 Marks]

Questions 1: How would you describe McDonald’s business strategy? What are the foundations of its competitive advantage? Answer: McDonald’s business strategy is a specialization strategy. The organization is built on a foundation that gives it a competitive advantage and a business strategy that is consistent, flexible, and specialized. McDonald’s niche market is people. According to the case study, people are the company’s most important asset and its success depends on the satisfaction of its customers which begins with workers who have the attitudes and abilities required to work efficiently and provide good customer service. McDonald’s ensures that both customers and employees know how valuable they are. They make a people promise to the employees.

Question 2: How has McDonald aligned its business, human resource, and staffing strategies? The way in which McDonalds has aligned its business, human resource, and staffing strategies is by tracking key indicators. These include indicators that track product, service quality, speed, accuracy, turnover, productivity, customer satisfaction, sales and profitability. Question 3: What are some possible talent related threats that could eat away at McDonald’s competitive advantage? Would higher turnover or tight labour market in which it is difficult to find talented people be a problem? What would you recommend the company to do to maintain its competitive advantage over the next five years? There could most definitely be some real talent-related threats that will eat away at McDonald’s competitive advantage. These may include difficulty finding people with the right qualities and abilities to work in their restaurants. There is also a stigma attached to a job “flipping burgers” which is being sung and talked about by the rappers and R&B singers.

This will possible cause younger people to shun working in a burger king restaurant. People trained by the organization may also choose to leave with their skills acquired and work for other organizations. In order for McDonald’s to keep a competitive advantage to offset possible turnover as more jobs open up and the labor market eventually tightens up the organization has to come up with incentives to keep the young and older potential applicants from going elsewhere and also retaining the quality of employees that they possess. The best way for a brand such as McDonalds to attract and keep quality individuals is to offer incentives for growth within the company itself through education and leadership training. If McDonald’s can open the window for ownership by employees through a system of mentorship and promotion, the old stigma of getting a job “flipping burgers” would become more like a traineeship in entrepreneurial opportunities that every employee would welcome. If an employee doesn’t wish to eventually own a McDonald’s franchise but wants to lean on becoming and going into management within the company, a succession of internal promotions based on merit, longevity, production, and talent reviews should also be made available for these types of employees.

2. Discuss the types of Business Strategies. [ 10 Marks]
I. Cost leadership
This type of business strategy illustrates a way to bring about the competitive advantage of the organization. Cost leadership, basically means the lowest cost of operation in the industry. Firms pursuing this type of business strategy strive to be the lowest cost producer in any industry for a particular level of production quality. (Phillips and Gully 2009) The cost leadership is often driven by company efficiency, size, scale, scope and cumulative experience. A cost leadership strategy aspire to exploit scale of production, well defined scope and other economies, producing highly standardized products, using high technology. II. Differentiation Strategy

According to Jean Phillips and Stanley Gully, authors of Strategic Staffing, firm pursuing a differentiation strategy attempts to develop products or services that have unique characteristics valued by customers. The dimensions along which a firm can differentiate include the image of the firm’s product, product durability, quality, safety and usability.

Organizations pursuing this type of business strategy try to develop a competitive advantage based on product innovation. The strategy requires employees to continually develop new products and services to create an organization’s advantage in the market. These companies create and maintain Employmentan environment that encourages employees to bring new ideas into the company. III. Specialization Strategy

A specialization strategy focuses on a narrow market segment or niche and pursuing either a differentiation or cost leadership strategy in that market segment according to Jean Phillip and Stanley Gully. To be successful, businesses following a specialization strategy are required to know their market segment very well, and often enjoy a high degree of customer loyalty. The company can be successful using this strategy if it results in either lower costs than competitors serving the same niche or an ability to offer customers something that other competitors cannot.

Firms pursuing a specialization strategy often try to develop a competitive advantage based on customer intimacy and try to deliver unique and customizable products or services to meet their customer’s needs and increase their loyalty. This approach involves dividing markets into segments or niches and then tailoring the company’s offerings to meet the demands of those niches. IV. Growth Strategy

The growth strategy involves expanding the company to either organically or through acquisitions. The success of this type of business strategy depends on the firm’s ability to find and retain the right number and types of employees to sustain its intended growth. This growth can be organic, which means happening as the organization expands from within by opening new factories or stores. The firm may also grow through mergers and acquisition. This allows the firm to achieve growth and expand internationally.

3. Explain the Job analysis Methods that you studied in Chapter 4. [ 10 Marks]
I. Critical Incident Technique
This is a job analysis method that identifies extremely effective or extremely ineffective behaviors by documenting critical incidents that have occurred. By documenting critical incidents that take place in job an analysis identifies 1. circumstances leading to the event or the sequence of the event that occurred 2. Action taken by worker and

3. Consequences of the action taken

II. The Job Element Method
The job element method is used primarily with industrial occupations and lesser skilled jobs. It focuses on identifying the characteristics of workers who are able to do the job satisfactorily. It uses expert brainstorming sessions to identify the characteristics of successful workers. III. Structured Interview Technique

This type of job analysis method asks subject matter experts to provide information about the job verbally in structured face-to-face interviews. A subject matter expert is a person who exhibits expertise in a job. This method can be a good choice when only a small number of job experts are available to participate in the job analysis effort or if the job analysis must be completed quickly. IV. Task inventory approach

The task inventory approach relies on job experts to generate a list of tasks that are subsequently grouped into categories reflecting the job’s majour functions. The information is typically collected via survey. Then categories are evaluated on dimensions relevant for selection purposes, including the relative importance of each category of tasks and the relative amount of time a worker spends on each one. V. Structured Questionnaire

The structured questionnaire method involves using a list of preplanned questions designed to analyze a job (e.g., the Position Analysis Questionnaire or PAQ). This method is fast, cheap, and can be used for any position. It is also standardized so that different jobs can be compared. However, high reading levels are required. Information is limited and one may miss unique aspects.