2020, is a year of turmoil, the pandemic has caused the world economy to go down and people’s lives to be harder. I will use McDonald’s employee training as the main character to demonstrate how contingency theory and path-goal theory can be used in worker’s daily life.
As we all know, the most common definition for leadership is about how to organize a group of people to accomplish the same goal. When we talk about leadership and employee training in the McDonald’s restaurant, the leadership theory that should be choosing it would be the contingency theory and path-goal theory. (Northouse, 2019) This is because the restaurant will face a variety of different situations that will require the manager of the team to put more weight on the situation variables. The contingency leadership theory belief that successful leadership will change based on their situation, in one case it may be successful, but in another case, it may not be. The path-goal theory is about adjusting a leader’s behavior to motivate the followers.
Thus, when creating the employee leadership training, it should introduce the Hersey-Blanchard model and the Path-Goal theory but not the Vroom-Yetton contingency model, the Path-Goal theory would be the most recommended. This is because the Vroom model is focused on building the relationship between the manager and employee but would not be beneficial for the Fast-food restaurant since their employee turnover rate is high. (Hamel, 2021) The Hersey- Blanchard model will require more maturate team members, who are highly trained or have many work experiences and capable of working independently without the interference of the manager. Nonetheless, this is not the most case for the McDonald’s restaurant. Thus, the Path-Goal theory would work better, since it is focused on adjusting the manager’s leadership style to motivate the employee to work more efficiently and productively. What’s more, it is still important for managers to provide instant and objective feedback and to create a comity employee-employer relationship. (Northouse 2019) Even there are many limitations between the contingency theory and path-goal theory, but those are the most preferred and advanced theories that can be used. Then within those two, it is up to the leader and the situation to choose to use which theory.
References:
- Hamel, R. (n.d.). PSY 485 Lesson 6: Contingency and path-goal theory, Penn State University, 2021
- Yammarino, F.J. (2000). Leadership skills: Introduction and overview. Leadership Quarterly, 11(1), 5-9.
- Northouse, P.G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
I have personally experienced leadership theories in place as a former manager at a McDonald’s restaurant for 9 years. The path-goal theory suggests that leaders help followers achieve goals through behaviors that are suited to fit the follower’s need in specific situations (Northouse, 2019). The motivation within the path-goal theory stems from the expectancy theory of motivation which posits that followers are motivated if they believe their work results in specific outcomes, payoffs are worthwhile, and they are capable of performing their duties (Northouse,2019). As a manager at this fast-food chain, I was responsible in ensuring that employees were hired and placed in positions based on their capabilities, then proceed to train employees to enhance those capabilities.
As a leader, I often switched between directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership styles. As a directive leader, I gave employees instructions for the day and what our goals were to accomplish, while through the day the team and I used participative leadership by allowing employees to make decisions that affected how we met these goals (Northouse, 2019). As you mention, McDonald’s typically has a high turnover rate, but the franchise-owned restaurant that I worked at, continued to focus on building employee relationships through supportive leadership approaches, such that we interacted with friendly manners and were concerned for the well-being of our employees (Northouse, 2019). This contributed to employees staying with the franchise for 20 years or more, which seems unbelievable in the fast-food industry. Through achievement-oriented leadership, we established goals for our employees to meet certain times when serving customers and consistently set the goals higher for employees (Northouse, 2019). Because of this strategy, our franchise participated in several national competitions that McDonald’s holds for its employees with the winners taking home cash prizes and vacations.
While many people don’t realize the effort that the McDonald’s corporation puts into training effective leadership styles, they have a model that fits the path-goal theory quite extensively. They provide large amounts of training to their management teams and there is a structure to everything they do as an organization. I believe that this experience prepared me for how to adapt my behaviors based on situations and I enjoyed my time there. I built relationships with employees that still exist to this day, over 16 years since I left the organization. During my time with the organization, I can say that the employees were happy, we provided as many raises and bonuses as possible for their hard work, and our turnover rate was significantly lower than the other fast-food restaurants in the area at the time.
The next time you visit a McDonald’s examine the interaction between leadership and employees. You may begin to see a pattern between their behaviors and the processes they perform. If they are following procedures, one restaurant team should closely resemble the next in behavior styles.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice (8th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.