TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
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Training and Development, Structure and Operation of the Learning and Development Function
McDonald’s organization is one the largest chain fast food restaurant in United States with more than sixty-eight million customers in all the States. The McDonald has its central organization in Illinois and operates as a franchise and chain enterprise. The primary menu of McDonald’s is chicken soft drinks, desserts, breakfast items, shakes, hamburgers, French fries, and Cheeseburgers. The organizational structure of McDonalds ensures the corporate symbol is present in all the products for efficiency in advertisement and creation of brand image (Shook et al., 2004, pp. 398-400). The structure of McDonalds involve a CEO as the overseer of the chain restaurant, under the CEO is the Brand manager, Human Resource, legal & Secretaries, Operational manager, Supply Chain & Franchising manager. The Brand managerial team deals with social media and control mechanisms of the McDonald’s business (Royle, 2004, p. 24). Human resource deals with diversity of employees that are competent in the areas of career choices (Mayo, 2004, 34).
The operations of learning and development function in McDonalds involve identification of the intended strategy (Harrison & Sullivan Sr, 2000, p. 140). The intended strategy undergoes implementation levers and strategic leadership in order to realize the emergent strategies (Hill, & Jones, 2011, 73). The structure and operations of McDonalds ensure proper control, coordination of information, decision making and activities of the organization (Shook et al., 2004, pp. 401). The functional structure of corporate office in McDonalds has finance docket, marketing & sales, operations and, research & development. The corporate office and the dockets help in organizing the activities of McDonalds. The learning and development process in McDonalds aims at creating professions in the line of specialities within the organization. McDonalds encourage the employees to have leadership skills for the purpose of career growth and investments. Learning and development needs interventions that are intrinsic, talent-driven and performance-driven (Cheese, 2007, 102). The interventions help the employees in understanding of the new technologies, in business operations and marketing strategies (Hannington, 2004, 17).
The competitive advantage of learning and development function has basis on the talent-driven interventions. The interventions promote long-term prospects of the McDonalds Company in terms of growth, change, attraction of specialist, innovation, and fulfilment of customers’ demands (Royle, 2004, p. 33). Learning on sales curriculum and process improvement is essential in the maintenance o the company in a competitive market. The skills within an individual in the McDonalds Company focus on the competencies of the person, behaviours and culture. The maturity of the company will lead in long-term investment after integration of career development and performance management. Learning and development function promotes McDonalds have a successful product value through good cooperation of the human resource team with the customers and the employees (Smith, 2003, 66). Innovative ideas within the McDonalds organization ensure the company remains competitive through production of new product line with varying tastes and trends (Royle, 2004, p. 52).
McDonald’s collaborates with stakeholders with the aim of diversifying the business and establishment of new business ventures. The challenges in the McDonalds decrease the process of diversity in terms of new business ventures and product development (Royle, 2004, p. 61). Business strategy of McDonald’s operations involves marketing, procurement and Information Technology services. Marketing involves satisfying customers’ needs after learning the marketing functions in a fast food restaurant (Harrison & Sullivan Sr, 2000, p. 142). The overall purpose of marketing is maintenance of the image and brand of the company. Procurement process involves acquiring the raw materials, services and goods at a manageable price in order not to transfer the production cost to the customers of the restaurant (Mayo, 2004, 38). The finance and procurement team need training on identification of cost effective and secure contracts that are essential in the maintenance of long term partnership. Information Technology services help in managing McDonald’s records, provide networks in the McDonald’s branches, and creation of efficient communication channels within the organization and the customers (Royle, 2004, p. 65).
Horizontal integration in business involves the production of goods and service that are alike with the competitors in order to acquire competitive advance in the market. Vertical integration involves production of unique products from the different units within the supply chain of the company. McDonalds employs vertical and horizontal integration process in management of the company. McDonalds employs vertical integration through inspection of suppliers and placement of some employees on a permanent basis in the company. The management team of McDonalds invests in supply infrastructure in order to reduce overreliance with local suppliers (Sadler-Smith, 2009, 120). Horizontal integration process in McDonalds involves creation of websites and games that the winner gets a reward from McDonalds. Creation of games and social websites enhance McDonald company reach many people from different platforms. Strategic performance of the company depends on mutual and cohesive relationship among the different dockets within the organizational structure of the company (Hannington, 2004, 24).
McDonald organizational structure requires good coordination among the marketing teams, finance, brand department, and human resource teams. Development of the company gets basis on the initial attempts of differentiating the prospects and perspectives of the company. Learning within the organization enhances adoption of new processes and tactics of running the company (Harrison & Sullivan Sr, 2000, p. 147). Behavioural changes are among the simple adaptation processes within the learning process in the organization. The outcome or action of the learning process has a link with the production output of the company’s products and services. Changes in the company ensure stability and development especially in a competitive market. The major competitive food restaurants of McDonalds are Starbucks and Burger King. McDonalds finds tactical support from the shareholders, internal environment, and external environment in order to enhance competence in the service delivery. The tactical support role requires the support of the CEO, Jim Skinner, and the Human Resource team of the McDonalds Company (Gould, 2010, 781).
Tactical support role of Skinner ensures an annual growth of the company at a rate of five percent. The support from the human resource team involve motivating the employees through training in order to prepare the company for the production of new products that need strategic ways of marketing (Mankin, 2009, 7). The buying power of McDonalds is a strategic change maker that allows franchisees of the company have best chefs, suppliers, and food scientists. The advertising agency of McDonald ensures the presence of varying adverts that are eye-catching and attractive to the customers (Gould, 2010, 784). The changes in McDonald Company affect the operational procedures in the company through packaging styles, customer relation and diversity of the products. The brand names of the products are not complicated hence making them easy to remember especially for new customers. Decentralization process of the McDonalds restaurants increases the market size and not diversity of the products.
The CEO of McDonalds aims at increasing the market share and profit of the company’s operation. The learning and development function ensures constant monitoring of the company. Monitoring and evaluation process of the McDonalds ensures efficiency in the supply and production process of the enterprise (Gould, 2010, 789). Learning and development intervention adds value on the organization through offering architectural role of the management team. The management requires efficient training before training the employees. The value of training is evident on the end product and services. The net profit of the organization increases through defining the roles of the employees in the organization. Learning and development function promotes scientific management that creates principles that are helpful in the productivity process. Leadership gives authority on designation of duties and definition of responsibilities of the employees. Leadership creates a link with the top management team of the McDonalds (Gould, 2010, 792).
Contribution of Learning and Development to the Success of the Organization
Power and influence of human resource management team has an influence in the organizational and personal growth (Mankin, 2009, 9). The higher person in the hierarchical organizational structure has the power of influencing the organizational operations. Outsourcing is acceptable as a form of trade in United States. Outsourcing is essential in the maintenance of a competitive advantage especially in fast food restaurant (Smith, 2003, 73). McDonalds industrializes its business through outsourcing of cheap labour from unskilled teenagers and high school graduates. The opportunities of the employees climbing the corporate ladder are few leading cutting cost on the operational management. The disadvantage of outsourcing is a lack of accomplishment in career growth. The outsourced employees lack chance of career growth and waste most of the precious time in McDonalds (Gould, 2010, 795). The competitive advantage of outsourcing involve application of third-party service in deploying services and managing the resources within the organization. The services from a third-party are at a flat fee and support training and development of the organization.
The success of learning and development occurs in changing the trends and choices that impact the McDonald’s organizational structure (Phillips et al., 2013, 14). The company eliminates the old brands especially the brands that customers are already aware of them. McDonald’s gain exposure on the business operations that influence the market size and price. The company maintains the required regulatory standards and ensures quality of the services. Learning and development ensure companies have healthy competitive advantage that sustains the quality of the final products. Changes in brand, customer care, and patent rules are helpful in maintaining the customers and creation of new markets. Managerial team of the divisions within McDonald ensures the change in the organization increases the customers’ trend in the company and adheres to the government developmental process. Learning and development function ensures technological advancement in outsourcing the financial assets and market position of the company (Phillips et al., 2013, 21).
Outcomes of learning and development lead in the creation of attention in the clusters of organization that bring change in relation with the desired results. Positive results are the major outcomes of learning and development. Employees obtain discretionary effort and willingness in conduction of duties without force. Cooperation among the employees and departments within the McDonald Company increases leading in increase, in sales of the final product. Efficiency of employees increases especially on general skills and job-specification skills. Studies show that, employees’ gains an effort of 17.8% after successful learning and development process. McDonalds excels in the business alignment process that leads in outperformance of the competitors (Gould, 2010, 797). The net income growth is fifty percent more than the income before undergoing the learning and development process. Productivity of the company also increases at a rate of twenty seven percent. The rewards of learning and development are creation of a strong foundation of the company on the basis of business value, strategy, legislation and good governance (Hill, & Jones, 2011, 78).
McDonalds maintains its vision through the daily operations of being the best in terms of cleanliness, value and quality. The customers get satisfaction of every service from McDonalds leading in increase, in the number of customers (Rae & Carswell, 2001, 153). The top management of investment in McDonald gets concerned with the total sales the company makes yearly. Declining of the sales results in the disappointment of the top management that greatly affect the production process of the services within the McDonalds Company. Getting international recognition help in the expansion of the McDonalds Company and makes strategic decisions. McDonalds Company is developing new offers that are as a result of consultation with top management in order to increase the target market. McDonalds achieves its objectives through vertical linkages and acquisitions. Investments present in McDonalds provide money that is essential in integrating new and interesting concept in the organization (Gould, 2010, 800).
Linkages in the business strategy help in expanding the small concepts within the organization. The short gains after learning and development function involve increase in social networking clients that play the most part in the evaluation process (Cope & Watts, 2000, 111). Social networking is insignificant in terms of gaining long-term support from the corporate team. Social networking is essential in the strategy management of discovering change of the organization after learning and development process (Armstrong, 2003, 44). Cooperating with large organizations like Wal-Mart assists the McDonald Company in gaining a store within the Wal-Mart building. The linkages are good performance indicators that show the success of the learning and development (Phillips et al., 2013, 30). Organizations that consider the scientific basis as the strategy of learning and development lead in gaining efficient delivery methods that help in succession of the business. Continuous improvement of the McDonald Company is also another performance indicator of the success in the learning and development function (Cheese, 2007, 114).
Benchmarking is a necessity in the evaluation process of a business enterprise. Benchmarking creates competitive advantage that favours competition in the global market (Rae & Carswell, 2001, 156). Ignoring the benchmarking analysis may lead in the loss and great devastation of the organization. Internal benchmarking ensures the organizational operations are successful and have mechanisms that make the recommendations from the top management easy to implement (Phillips et al., 2013, 37). A ten percent increase in final production units is a sign of improvement in the learning and development process. In terms of competition, benchmarking within McDonalds involves identification of mechanisms that directly affect the competitors in the productivity process. Productivity improvement is a positive indication of success in the learning and development process. Success stories on the top management are on other businesses benchmarking on the performance of McDonalds. Economists argue that it is not relevant for other businesses in benchmarking against McDonalds (Hannington, 2004, 37).
Good practices feedback from the customers and other stakeholders within the business operations are an indication of success in learning and development process. Learning and development process adds knowledge, skills and change of attitudes in the workers and top management team of the McDonald Company (Cope & Watts, 2000, 121). Good practices ensure organizational success that increase the product output in the production sector. The training process should be strategy-driven in order to achieve the final intention of the development process. The strategy-driven concept ensures the organization goals get achieved at the end of the session (Armstrong, 2003, 48). The business develops ways of ensuring the training is relevant towards the company’s objective especially in terms of gaining profit. The criteria of learning and development process define the success points of the organization (Sadler-Smith, 2009, 127). The timeframes of achieving success are essential in the evaluation process and grading system of the success of learning and development process. In addition, the organization should engage in developing programs that support the important strategies, and organizational goals (Phillips et al., 2013, 41).
Work cited:
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