Application of Leadership Theories at McDonalds

Emerging a market leader calls for organizations leadership to cultivate an environment where employees perform their roles willingly, competently and efficiently. The paper will employ leadership theories to demonstrate how Steve Easterbrook the Chief Executive Officer at MacDonald has been able to show leadership skills steer the institution ahead of its rivals. Under Easterbrook’s leadership, the organization has been able to develop a culture that guides all individuals to perform over and above-set targets. The paper will be keen to highlight how the institutional culture has facilitated seamless communication making everyone at MacDonald to feel essential and part of the bigger picture. Easterbrook leadership has seen all employees understand the vision and objectives of the institution while getting an opportunity to offer their input on how to improve McDonald.

This has led to an increase in income and revenue stream over and above high Return on Investment. The increase in the Chinese outlets enables the company to leverage on economies of scale, leading to less costly operations, with royalties and rent payments been more predictable hence high returns to stakeholders. Power and influence theories Easterbrook applies personal power by using his capabilities, expertise and individual skill to transform the institution. He is cited to implement turnaround ideas towards improving customer experience. His many years of experience inside and outside the company gives Easterbrook a good understanding of the business environment (Ahmed, Nawaz, & Khan, 2016). Since he took office as the CEO, Easterbrook has been able to move with speed towards designing tasks and implementation of rewards structures that enable both employee and firm growth.

Each executive manager is tasked with a role of planning tasks for his market segment. Such tasked are passed down to line supervisors who in turn translate the same to daily schedules. Each employee has a clear task every day, and his achievements are tallied against set time and deliverables (Vu, 2018). For instance, staff members in the top 10% of restaurants are entitled to a bonus for every hour they have worked. His leadership style inspires people to work hard and meet set targets. The CEO has put in place mechanism to train all the team to ensure they are up to speed with the requirements of their respective roles. This is critical in guaranteeing personal and career growth (Grant, 2017). The CEO has been able to align company goals with day to day happenings at franchise level.

Each employee is subject to performance evaluation after a given period. The transformation agenda was captured through the turnaround strategy that would help the company increase sales, revenues, return to shareholders and owner-operators as well as boost cash flow. The CEO would guide the company through a Velocity Growth Plan that was based on consumer insights on a global scale. The implication is that Easterbrook was acting from an informed point of view towards understanding consumer needs; hence designing the right approach to address the same, leading to loyal clients. Easterbrook understood the need to put in place a great team of leaders to help advance the growth plan. This great team identified growth accelerators that were key to drive growth beyond the regular planning cycle.

Evaluation Easterbrook has proved to be an effective leader and he applies systems theory at McDonald to achieve success He took office when the organization was facing stiff competition, and its growth seemed stagnant. He has been able to engage different systems in the organizations to bring a positive effect on how they relate to employees and customer towards achieving his transformational agenda. He analyzed patterns and events within the organizations to identify existing gaps and opportunities, and in the event, went ahead to put in place strategies to seal the gaps and leverage on opportunities towards making McDonald a great place for all stakeholders. Easterbrook works well within the frameworks of contingency theory of management in the sense that he makes decisions based on the situation at hand as opposed to a universal approach.