MacDonald Tutorial

1. In front of you is the McDonald’s crew member role description. Analyze it and find which Henry Fayol’s principles of management McDonald’s uses.

Esprit de corps :
- promoting teamwork to achieve restaurant goals so that assigned tasks are performed in a timely manner
- Assisting others when needed while demonstrating consideration for proper procedures.
- Look after yourself, other crew members, managers and customer who may be affected by what you do or do not do while at work

Discipline:
- Following basic people essentials (eg. uniforms, grooming and punctuality).
- Following McDonald’s practices as set out in the Crew Essentials handbook.
- Following critical standards for raw and finished product quality, service speed, cleanliness and sanitation

Authority:
- Following all reasonable instruction given by an authorised person (eg. Crew trainer, manager, licensee)

Subordination of individual interests to the general interest
- Being aware of the goals and targets of the restaurant. This ensures your actions contribute towards achieving them.

2. Is scientific management still in practice today? Give examples of the application of scientific management in McDonald’s.
Yes. E.g. manufacturing companies and fast food restaurants

For MacDonald’s :
- layout of the production department (kitchen): maximize efficiency
- recipe of food products: research and experimentation
- specifications on the quality and quantity of ingredients & equipment : standardization of product quality and production efficiency

3. How would you go about measuring the degree of bureaucratic orientation in an organization? What drawbacks do you think are likely to be encountered if you were to work in an organization with a bureaucratic orientation?

High level of bureaucratic orientation:
- Policies, rules and procedures 
- Precision in work
- Treat employees impersonality

Drawbacks:
- Red tape, inefficiency and slowness
- Barriers to innovation and creativity

- Frustration among employees and conflict between employees and management

4. Compare Taylor’s scientific management approach and Fayol’s administrative management approach.

- Two approaches are subfields of the classical school, of organization theory, they were concerned with the internal management of organization and both …
- However, the scientific approach focused on the work itself and required that managers cooperate with workers, and select, train and motivate workers through financial incentives to achieve maximum efficiency.
- The administrative approach focused on the management of the organization as a whole, Fa wrote from the viewpoint of a manger and advocated the use of rules and command to control subordinates.
- The prescriptions offered by Taylor and Fayol might at times appear to contradict each other.
- For example, Fayol insisted on the principle of unity of command but according to Taylor, a worker might have to work with different managers specializing in different areas of work, and in such cases, the workers would have to take orders from more than one superior.