New Working Arrangements
McDonald’s Workers Walkout in the United Kingdom
“Zero Hours Contract: Analysis of McDonald’s Zero Hours Contract Approach leading towards Demotivation, job dissatisfaction, and high-level intentions to quite”
Introduction: Leadership Challenge
Zero hours contract has emerged as a controversial issue, especially in the fast-food industry. McDonald, a prominent fast-food chain, is in the limelight due to this approach. The management of the company intends to depict work flexibility. However, it seems controversial, especially in the United Kingdom. Workers are going on strike due to the negative impact of this particular issue. The dispute over the zero-hour contracts has increased. The United Kingdom is a potential market for this fast-food giant. It pays high salaries to executives. However, bottom-line is still struggling due to low wage rate (Press Association, 2017). Zero Hour contract has increased the income gap in the industry. Also, it has been revealed that employees lack the job respect and fair wage in McDonald. It is creating hype in the United Kingdom, as workers are becoming frustrated (Economy.Org, 2017).
The impact of McDonald Zero Hour contract can be evaluated regarding motivation, job satisfaction, and employee turnover. In other words, employees are demotivated, dissatisfied, and intend to quit the job. The leadership team of the company has to play its role in overcoming the issue.
Identify the Impact of Leadership
The leadership team of the company must streamline its roles, as it can create a flexible work structure and shape the pertinent work culture. McDonald employees are motivated to stand against the company over this issue (Farrell, 2015). It has been revealed that the leadership has not provided a guarantee of the hours. Also, employees are restrained from joining the union. McDonald ‘s leaders in the United Kingdom are directing people regarding the work, efficiency, and productivity. However, employees, due to the vulnerable job, are not following these leaders. Flexible working conditions and fair wage rate for the bottom line of the company is a need in the United Kingdom (Clark, 2014). The management is looking to focus on domestic labour, and people are going on strike. It is a massive threat to the brand image and business sustainability as well. 80% of 100,000 employees is based on a zero hour contract (Farrell, 2015). Leaders have to identify the needs of employees early and shape effective employee strategies. There should be a related work structure of the company, which can satisfy workers and make them loyal for the long run. In this modern work era, employers, managing the business as leaders, have to tale short-term benefits. Zero Hours Contract is an appropriate option for the leader to flex the resources. The leadership of this fast-food chain has tried to make the job flexible.
On the other hand, employees have concerns over job security, financial planning, and unfair wage rates. They are struggling to live on zero-hours contracts (Channel4.Com, 2018). Unfortunately, employees do not agree with or understand this strategic consideration of the leaders in this fast-food chain. For Instance, the leadership team wants to maintain the home and work lives of workers to keep them loyal and satisfied. It seems an initiative to enable the work-life balance. Leaders are struggling to streamline the whole picture to satisfy employees because they think zero-hours contracts are unethical (Tsolakis-Franka, 2017)
Specific Attitudes and or Behaviours of Followers
Employees are working under the management in the company. The management is playing a role of the leadership, and employees are depicting them as followers.
Interestingly, followers portray several attitudes and behaviours. The administration has decided to retain the zero hours’ contract policy for employees. They made this strategy for almost 80,000 employees in the United Kingdom. Interestingly, employers are not obligated to pay employees if they are not working. On the other hand, employers are not forced to accept the offer. If they are free, they can work for the company. It shapes the attitudes of followers or employees. In the United Kingdom, McDonald employees have been changed due to the negative impact of the policy. A labour union is providing a boost to create the hype against the company (Phelan, 2017). They usually create resistance, especially in the change process. They want permanent job benefits like other fast-food companies in the United Kingdom. Conversely, the behaviour of the organisation or leadership has also been changed to workplace or employee management trends.
· Demotivation
McDonald working arrangements are remarkable. However, retaining the zero-hour contracts is a big challenge due to Demotivation of employees. Employees do not know how many hours they have to work in a week. Also, they cannot contain a financial plan because they do not know the certain income level. McDonald has made employees and jobs vulnerable. People are not getting enough to meet the needs of this fast-food chain. Benefits, rewards, and many other incentives are given only to executives or permanent employees. McDonald claimed that it shaped the zero-hour contracts for young people. It wanted to create flexible working conditions for a significant number of employees. According to summer 2015 EO, 49% zero hours contract employees only earned less than £15,000 annually and it is comparatively less than regular employees (CIPD, 2015)
· Lack of Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is essential to increase efficiency, production, and motivation. McDonald has successfully created attractive and flexible working conditions for employees. However, unfortunately, it is not a single motivating factor. People want value, permanent income, and permanent employment. People want to spend more time in the company if the job is less vulnerable. McDonald intends to offer the right position to the right person, which is also a key job satisfaction element. Attractive salaries, performance rewards, and appreciation are also important job satisfaction factors. However, a leader has to see the whole picture and satisfy the employees through pertinent working hours or work structure. McDonald desperately needs to satisfy employees through suitable working arrangements in the United Kingdom (Worstall, 2016). It has to create a win-win situation to enable business sustainability. Employees get job satisfaction through work-life balance, as it is a modern work approach practised in many companies. If the firm adopts the flexible work structured, it can implement the work-life balance (M.Acas.Org.Uk, 2015)
· High Levels of Intention to Quit
Fast food chains, including McDonald in the United Kingdom, contain an immense range of employee. The fast-food industry has contributed to the service sector of the company. Young adults usually have to work in flexible working conditions to navigate several options. It opens the way for career development. If a worker knows he cannot make a shift next week, he may decide accordingly. Also, intentions to leave the company are quite high, especially among young adults, to contain better financial planning and secure career development. People like to find a job which is safe, permanent and attractive. Thus, all these elements increase the intention to leave the job.
Theories to Resolve Issues
Transformational
McDonald management can adopt the transformational leadership to resolve this issue. Employees on strike on a regular basis can become a threat to the company. Transformational leadership is a process of working with teams to identify the change need and executing the change process (Shelton, 2012). The significant change that the company may initiate is to find an alternative to the zero-hour contracts. The change process triggers this leadership theory, and the management of the company has to create urgency by collaborating with teams and finding loopholes in the current working policy and structure.
For Instance, McDonald can propose the range contract for employees to get workers back to work and sustain the business process. It is an immediate solution that can be implemented by this leadership theory or style. The management of the company must design a range cpmn6ract, ranging 20-30 hours in a week. Also, the firm may provide an option to select range contracts or permanent contracts (Jones, 2017) However. The company can call employees to work even more than 30 hours in case of need. The transformational leader in the company may work with the financial department to evaluate the feasibility of this strategy, idea or solution.
Now, McDonald management or leadership team has to create the urgency through creating the vision. The firm may communicate this vision to all key stakeholders, including employees. Now, McDonald leadership will depict its commitments to the vision and align it with the strategic vision of the company (Yukl, 1999). McDonald will integrate with all qualities of the transformation leadership process to create the influence. Range contracts for employees can make them satisfied. Workers will have to work in the company for reasonable work hours in several restaurants.
The management can model the vision by streamlining benefits for both employees and the company. For Instance, the leader may work with a group of employees to estimate the income through the range of contracts. The leader may guide employees to understand the need for this contract with the perspective of employees. The firm must target young customers through a range of contracts. Still, they will have the time for a social life or other jobs. The best thing that a transformational leadership of McDonald can do for employees is to make the job less secure. It looks at the change process because the firm aims to change the nature of the work contract completely. It can enhance the visibility of job satisfaction and motivation. Also, people will not want to leave the company because they will get the expected income.
Leader-Management Relation Theory (LMX)
The issue can be resolved by adopting the leader-member exchange theory. It is necessary for the McDonald management to build a strong relationship with employees to reduce their resistance and make better strategies in this modern work era. Two-way relationships between the management or leadership and employees are sufficient to reach an effective solution (Stone, 2017).
For Instance, the company can decide to reduce the workforce in different restaurants and only hire permanent employees. The management intend to remove the hour contract to eliminate the possible resistance of employees. It is a practical approach or suggestion that can provide a lead to employee satisfaction, motivation, and sustainability. The company can make ten long employee strategies to meet their needs. It seems a proper employee development, which is needed in the United Kingdom.
LMX leadership is a suitable approach, which is divided into two different groups. These are In-Group and Out-Group. In-Group will contain employees with critical skills, experience, and qualifications. The leadership team will work these followers regarding the employee policy, performance management and several work arrangements, especially possible working hours for each employee or a follower. McDonald leadership can derive several ideas reservations, and concerns of these followers to make the best strategy at the end. These followers are going to make the permanent part of the organisation (Durarajen, 2010)
Conversely, Out-Group is essential. These followers are to be terminated to provide a space for permanent employees. However, the leadership must retain strategic relations with these followers. These followers will not require permanent job responsibilities. For Instance, on different events, the form may call these employees by knowing their availability to work hourly. Attractive wages can be provided to these followers to work without any resistance. The most important thing is to make a portion of the bottom-line less compatible with the leadership to shift the focus on In-Group followers
Employees on strike in the United Kingdom will become followers when the firm shapes the group. These are in-group employees, selected from the current workforce. Initially, the administration will assess the right person for the right job for the estimated number of hours. Acquaintance depicts the interaction with followers. In the third stage, McDonald will find all these employees as work partners, as they will prefer the work and group performance instead of making strike calls.
Conclusion
In the end, it is to conclude that McDonald can use both suggestions and recommendations to get rid of this issue. However, the successful execution of these solutions along with the possible adaptation of transformational and LMX leadership theories is mandatory. By using LMX approach, the division of employees or followers is the best move to increase job satisfaction and reduce employee turnover.
References
Channel4.Com, 2018. The McDonald’s employees struggling to live on zero hours contracts. [Online] Available at: https://www.channel4.com/news/the-mcdonalds-employees-struggling-to-live-on-zero-hours-contracts [Accessed 2 December 2018].
CIPD, 2015. Zero-hours and short-hours contracts in the UK: Employer and employee perspectives. [Online] Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/zero-hours-and-short-hours-contracts-in-the-uk_2015-employer-employee-perspectives_tcm18-10713.pdf [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Clark, V., 2014. Zero hours contracts: pros and cons. [Online] Available at: https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/zero-hours-contracts-pros-cons/ [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Durarajen, A., 2010. Leader-member exchange (lmx)and job satisfaction. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.
Economy.Org, 2017. Have workers had enough of zero-hour contracts? [Online] Available at: https://www.ecnmy.org/engage/why-mcdonalds-workers-have-had-enough-of-zero-hour-contracts/ [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Farrell, S., 2015. McDonald’s UK boss defends company’s use of zero-hours contracts for staff. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015
/aug/26/mcdonalds-uk-paul-pomroy-defends-zero-hours-contracts [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Jones, A., 2017. McDonald’s faces strike for first time in UK as workers take action over pay and zero-hour contracts. [Online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/
home-news/mcdonalds-strike-action-uk-pay-working-conditions-zero-hour-contracts-cambridge-crayford-a7927581.html [Accessed 2 December 2018].
M.Acas.Org.Uk, 2015. Flexible Working & Work Life Balance. [Online] Available at: http://m.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/3/1/Flexible_
working_and_work_life_balance_Nov.pdf [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Phelan, C., 2017. McDonald’s concession on zero hours contracts is a boost for unions and the Labour Party. [Online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/mcdonalds-concession-on-zero-hours-contracts-is-a-boost-for-unions-and-the-labour-party-76734 [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Press Association, 2017. McDonald’s employees vote to strike over pay and zero-hours concerns. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017
/aug/18/mcdonalds-employees-vote-to-strike-over-pay-and-zero-hours-concerns [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Shelton, E.J., 2012. Transformational Leadership: Trust, Motivation and Engagement. Trafford Publishing.
Stone, N., 2017. Leader-Member Exchange ‘LMX’ — What Is It and Why You Should Care? [Online] Available at: https://medium.com/@nigelstone163/leader-member-exchange-lmx-what-is-it-and-why-you-should-care-7e59825d9753 [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Tsolakis-Franka, R., 2017. Zero-hours v casual contracts. [Online] Available at: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/voices
/comment/zero-hours-v-casual-contracts [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Worstall, T., 2016. McDonald’s Workers Are Just Lovin’ Their Zero Hours Contracts. [Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/
2016/04/18/mcdonalds-workers-are-just-lovin-their-zero-hours-contracts/#42ba10ba770e [Accessed 2 December 2018].
Yukl, G., 1999. An Evaluation of Conceptual Weaknesses in Transformational and Charismatic Leadership Theories. The Leadership Quarterly, 10(2), pp.285-305.
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