Performance and Motivation in ‘McDonalds’

The practice shows that the full use of human resources of an organisation is one of the most significant advantages, which allow companies to occupy the leading positions in the world market. The ‘McDonalds’ company flourishes owing to the logical integration of the staff into the problem solving. The company adheres to the principle: ‘The result is done by a man’. ‘McDonalds’ examines its employees as the primary source of progress in the field of quality and productivity. This organisation has based its success on the motivation theories having altered only some aspects of them. ‘McDonalds’ adheres to four simple principles, which give the possibility to increase the performance of its employees:

1. The company must elaborate different systems of motivation for every department.

2. The personnel must have clear and attainable aims. It is better to have one aim per a person.

3. The aims must change: managers should have one aim for half of a year. For example, at first a manager examines the number of clients, then he/she examines the number of returning clients; and then he/she should analyze the increase in business sales. This method gives the possibility to find new abilities of employees and to check new methods of work.

4. The rise of salary amount must be sensible for an employee.

The ‘McDonalds’ company applies three components of the motivation system: financial encouragement, non financial encouragement, and social policy. All the three factors are described in Maslow’s motivation theory. However, Maslow states that all the needs must be fulfilled one after another. The research of the ‘McDonalds’ company, its strategy and structure shows that only a simultaneous fulfilment of employee’s needs will increase an employee’s performance. It is not necessary to fulfil all the needs of every level. In the reality an employee has a set of needs in every concrete moment.

Summarising, the ‘McDonalds’ company has effective motivation system that makes it possible to increase employees’ performance, and hence the company’s productivity. The situational approach applied by ‘McDonalds’ administration staff has turned out to be the most relevant to the current situation. The administrators have used the specific techniques on the basis of motivation theories. Having applied the procedure of assembly line in food preparation, ‘McDonalds’ has ensured the standard quality of the production and the high performance. Besides, the company has implemented effective motivation strategy that is based on the existing motivation theories. Consequently, on the basis of the research we can say that every company has its own system of behaviour explanation and every concrete case should be examined as the ‘McDonalds’ company case. Motivation theories, such as Maslow’s theory and Self Determination Theory should serve as the basis for elaborating a strategy which will direct manager’s forces towards the aim – employee satisfaction via intrinsic motivation and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs model.