LDR/531

Group discussion from all team member’s

(The yellow is the part you completed)

McDonald is among the leading fast food companies internationally. It acknowledges the significance of sourcing best people to offer excellent customer service (Anderson & Adams, 2015). Its hiring policy however, is bringing in first-time employees.

First-time employees may be those who are young but lack the work experience, perhaps fresh high school graduates. They may also be old people who may have language barrier. Language barrier may affect the ability to communicate with others (Anderson & Adams, 2015). The variation in experience or background creates barriers among employees. If there is no common ground, the employees may have difficulties understanding what other employees are talking about. The cultural variations may further pose problems in non-verbal communication, leading to mixed messages.

As the employees are new, they may not understand the company’s jargon. It is easy to get used to communicating with all the people as if they are knowledgeable about the company’s verbal and non-verbal cues. The listeners lack the understanding and may stop listening when this occurs. Negative attitudes also exist among new employees in that they are not used to fellow colleagues. When a message is passed, such an employee may not digest that message because of that negativity toward the speaker. Therefore, new employees might have lack the ability to communicate with others and work in a team setup.

The new employees may also not be aware about the company’s communication lines as well as information flow which may contribute to distorted information, not reading the message on time or not reading it at all for, example if the message was conveyed via email and not read the consequence may be failing to attend a meeting. The employee may thus, have inexperienced work habits.

The employees must be followed through after a discussion. For instance, the attendees might want to complete the tasks focused on the discussion. Works which are not finished are likely to be seen if the communication does not equip the employees with a sense about how to follow through with the actions. Some employees also have the tendency of carrying personal affairs into the work environment. Personal communications drift away from professionalism, which at times results in grapevine, reducing morale.

First-time employees may have customer service skills which later may not be favorable because they clash with the company policies and procedures. In other scenarios, an employee may start showing questionable behavior. For example, a new employee at Pac Company was offered time-off after getting involved in a car accident. After recovering, the employee started reporting to work late, going without permission for mid-day breaks, and leaving early. The employee was finally fired when the problems became unmanageable (Anderson & Adams, 2015). Poor attendance is a sign of issues. As soon as it is identified, it is important to discuss with the employee to figure out and solve the problem before it gets out of hand.

The employee may qualify the hiring process but after some time, starts ignoring company policies and procedures such as reporting to work while drank. Some may also talk ill about the leadership and the company at large to the customers and employees. Negative employees may affect work morale. Illegal activities may also become evident. At Tarpon Springs, an employee exhibited a negative perception and appeared distant in daily dealings with the manager (Moran, 2011). It emerged that the employee had imitated the database of the company and was attempting to assist a friend introduce a competing firm.

The other behavioral problems which must be taken note of are conflict, withdrawal, non-participation, monopolizing, and scapegoating. Conflicts begin as personal suggestions which change into disagreements in groups. Another problem is team members who do not participate. Motivating the employees that their feedback and suggestions are valued could stop them from withdrawal. Monopolizing is regarded as a communication problem which could lead to resentment. This occurs when a team member dominates a discussion. The other members begin to feel that they are ignored and stop offering feedback. Scapegoating is blaming others and can destroy credibility. For instance, a scapegoat is a person who is rejected by the group which in turn, opens room for being recipient of frustrations, ridicule, and anger. The recipient can feel bullied which can affect self-esteem (Skills You Need, 2019). The leaders should restructure the groups into sub-groups to minimize scapegoating.

The communication and group behavioral issues that may arise in an organization that hires employees for their first job. The issues that may occur when hiring new employees are lack of open flowing communication or using the wrong organizational structure (William, Pirraglias 2019). When new hires are hired on a job some employees that have been on the job longer feel they can boss the new employees around, because they don’t really know the organization and are just starting the job. I have had this happened to me on a job when I worked at McDonalds. I was hired for the job as a Drive-Thru Cashier. I was trained for the job maybe for a day which I learned a lot in one day with the Shift Manager. But the next day of my training I was on my own. I was treated like I should already know the position well and should move first like every other employee. One day on my shift a customer asked me to fix a mocha frappe. I didn’t really know how to fix the beverage, so I asked the shift manager and she started fussing at me in front of everyone. I didn’t really understand why she had got mad at me and I’m a new employee still learning my position and the company. When new hires are put in certain situations it makes them feel uncomfortable taking to management and would rather confine in another employee who they feel would understand them better. New hires sometimes feel if any supervisor or manager asks them to do a certain task then they must do it, because there are being told by someone in a higher position if they’re not told so in orientation. I feel some managers like to take advantage of new hires and make them help them with a certain task and know they have their own task they must do for their department. By the new hire helping the manager or supervisor out makes them lack their job task that they were hired for and now must deal with their department manager or assistant manager. Which sometimes would lead with the manager getting angry at the new hire and start fussing at them. Everyone can’t handle pressure, which sometimes would lead with the new hire quitting the job or going over the manager head to a higher manager.

An issue for a new hire on a job is the job there hired for could be their first job and job experience. And management would have to do more training with the employee one on one, because this is their first job. First job employees wouldn’t have the proper crew member skills like everyone in the company. Which means they would have to work even harder than others and deal with more criticism. All the new employee really knows is they want a job, gain skills, and earn money.

McDonald’s company sees the employees as an opportunity. The employees that works for McDonald’s are usually over worked, paid minimum wage, unhappy and mistreated. I believe that’s why the customer service is terrible at the fast food restaurant. The McDonald’s corporation puts out a show as they care for their employees faithfully, which is one of the reasons the job doesn’t mind hiring new employees without experience in order to help them develop strong team member skills that would help the employees in their near future while working for their company. The employers love to hire all types of demographics to work for their company to make a dollar. The company didn’t want to just receive feedback on their employees or business but having to share the publicity with team members wouldn’t be easy (Anderson, Robert 1991).

There will always be several problems with the group and separation if everyone doesn’t have the same understanding in the company about working together as a team whether a new hire or experience employee. There must be an agreement between the employees that everyone has the same goal to be successful and keep their jobs. New hires shouldn’t be treated any different from the rest of the team. Everyone should be treated equal. The issues often stem from organizational or management connection breakdowns that confuse team and personal goals (William, Pirraglia 2019). Its up to the leader to help bring the entire group as a whole and make sure no one gets separated due to their status. 

Reference:

Anderson, R. J., & Adams, W. A. (2019). Mastering Leadership. Retrieved from  https://phoenix.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781119147206/cfi/93!/4/[email protected]:0.00

 

Pirraglia, William. "Organizational Problems in the Workplace." Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/organizational-problems-workplace-12570.html. 11 March 2019 .

 

Your post is spot on and an enjoyable read. I also gather some informative information from (Pirraglia, 2019). Diversity in the workplace is on the rise in organizational structures. The world has truly become smaller, due to global trading. The problems that stand out in organizations is communication or the organizational structure is not relevant or cohesive for positive organizational growth. Individual employee issues can be on the top of that new employee’s, why. According to Pirraglia (2019), personality conflicts, supervisor issues, personal trauma, or company structure can lead to negative behaviors with new employees. Most of these issues can be cleared up through clarity in communication. Teams must be dedicated to the process and work toward the common goal. This is also a communication issue but normally stems from higher up in the organization. When a problem is identified in the team corrective action should be taken immediately. Organizational wide problems can be resolved through a leaders management skills. A leader will learn the cause of the problem prior to address the issue. Once a cause is determined then the leader can decide if the issues need further attention. If need be a leader can follow company disciplinary procedures. Which most are progressive to most issues except for work place violence or violating civil rights.

During my time when supervised seventy plus staff, I found progress disciplinary encouraged better behavior. Most issue can be resolved through this procedure because there is a written time line of employee behavior. It would problem be suitable if the process is a three step process.

Verbal/written, written, formal with reduction in pay or unpaid time off, or termination. When I had new hires come to my shift, I would pair them with someone who had at least five years on the job. Most times this lead to that senior employee having more than one person who was shadowing. I stipulated in no uncertain terms should this senior employee show the employee any short cuts. I informed the new employee they should write down what they did not understand and present the questions to me and their mentor. When I implemented those procedures, my employee call in rate went down and employee retention went up. There was more to the process but those are the ones that stood out for most of the new employees. They would always tell me the horror story's they heard about the organization. But by me having an open door, open mind, and an intense team spirit the new employees wanted to make the organization a part of their long term future.

In regard to our discussion we were tasked to use Global Shared Services, to find out what behavior issues a group might have when the organization hires new employees, which McDonald's is their first job. I identified several positives but could not clearly determine any negative outcomes. In my opinion and experience if this was another organization that do not have GSS in place the initially interaction with that employee may be a slight bit negative. McDonald’s culture has always been one that attract people who are seeking their first job. This organization embrace first time employees, for their potential. McDonald’s feel these employees are grow-able, coach-able, and have long term potential. Through GSS, McDonald’s takes the time to mold employees, by giving them advancement opportunity and one of the highest pay scales in their industry. All of those benefits lead to higher employee retention and dedication. Employee performance is an indicator of an organization’s efficiency and productivity (Colquitt et al. 2011). McDonald’s through GSS implemented the leadership circle. It brought new meaning to leadership team. This shifted the culture so that the organization would embrace openness, support trust, and high performance. The tea now focuses on individual and collective effectiveness. According to Adams, (2016) team members are empowered to mentor each other, talk openly about their opportunities, and gain support using common language. Implemented things through GSS does not allow issues to be ignored that could hinder progress, the team talks through problems.

              According to Adams, (2016) McDonald’s recognizes the importance of having good people in place in order to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Founder Ray Kroc, once said, “As long as you’re green, you’re grown.” In my opinion wise words for any organization to adhere too. If McDonald’s stick to and enhance their leadership model the future looks bright. The only behavioral issues I identified is, if you those new employees who have short term goals for their stay in the organization. When you have employees whether it is their first job or fifty-first job, just looking for a paycheck, they are less likely to embrace the culture. That type of employee makes it difficult for the team to groom them. If the leaders continue to use GSS leadership standards the only behavioral issues they should encounters is trying to communication with the different generations. As long as the team focuses on identifying potential and not personality, they can be confident minimal negative behaviors will be identified

     References:                  

Adams, R. J. (2016). Mastering Leadership; An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States of America : Wiley & Son.

Khahan Na-Nan, Kanokporn Chaiprasit, Peerapong Pukkeeree, (2018)  "Factor analysis-validated comprehensive employee job performance scale" , International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management,Vol. 35Issue: 10, pp.2436-2449,  https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-06-2017-0117

Here is my opinion on behavioral issues for first time hires:

A group behavioral issue that might arise in an organization with a new hire for their first job could be a person not participating with group efforts. When a person is new to an organization, most of the time, though not all, they tend to stay to their selves due to not knowing anybody. For some this creates the reactive mindset discussed in chapter 9. Being reactive with a group can cause a person to be a controlling type which can introduce problems when conjuring together for group projects or they can lean more towards the complying type which can cause for them to agree with everything that is said with no voice in any decisions. “Controlling types feel safe and worthwhile because they are in control and on top, and the Complying types feel safe because they do not have to risk being controversial and taking responsibility.” (Anderson & Adams, 2019, Chapter 9). Some of the percentage of first time hires also take their job for granted by not showing up on time or they lack a sense of urgency. Not all people experience this type of mentality but for a percentage of people who are first introduced into the working market, resentment and rebellious behavior usually sets in. Questioning hierarchy also comes into factor as a behavioral issue for first time hires. Not understanding how the business market operates for first time hires can be a frustrating time of their life. They experienced being rushed, yelled at, belittled, and customer dissatisfaction all in one setting so it can be understood why they would question everything that they are doing. Socializing with the bad apples of the organization is an issue that could arise with a new hire. All organizations, regardless of what rules are applied, have their group of individuals who are never satisfied and are trying to bring the mood of their co-workers down. New hires are sometimes dragged into these groups of unhappy people which can give them a wrong impression of an organization. If they allow the group to guide their decision of an organization, they too start causing work related problems which creates a domino effect.

Anderson, R. J., & Adams, W. A. (2019). Mastering Leadership. Retrieved from https://phoenix.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781119147206/cfi/93!/4/[email protected]:0.00

I totally agree with you about new hires wanting to stay to their self, because they don’t know anyone on the job. That’s how I’m sometimes when I start a new job, because I want to first get familiar with the company and then get closer to the employees. But I don’t think all new hires have behavioral issues. Yes, it’s always best to be careful who you socialize with as a new hire, because everyone isn’t for you.

One thing that may be missed with new hires, specially in an organization that values growth, opportunities and communication is that social difference. This can be seen in every decade. The norms of those who are now leaders, and the (I assume kids) new hires, may speak a completely different language. Stereo typing may also come into play due to assumptions or misunderstandings. It would be beneficial to continuously engage those new hires so that they become more comfortable with the staff.

For these differences, clear communication should be established. If McDonalds is indeed creating a growing thriving leadership circle, then the leaders should have a creative mind and work on a way to create an effective communication chain.

For lack of participation, it would be beneficial to clearly explain the group processes of how they talk about their weakness, struggles, or problems. While current team members have already learn to trust their team members, depending on how the new hires are raised (their ingrained beliefs) their reactive self will engage because that is what it knows. By constantly engaging the new members, they will learn to trust their new team. They will see how each of them participates in the team and slowly learn that it is about growth, opportunity, and creating positive relationships and skills that they can carry on to the next opportunity.

If there are those with behavioral issues, then they should be addressed and the source found. If it can proactively be corrected then there is progress. If it becomes a continuing problem then McDonald's probably is not the place for them. This corrective action communicates to new hires that this a team effort and that everyone needs to respect each other and maintain the team goals.

Reinforcing the goals of the team and that of the company will help create clear communication. There should be active listening when any and all concerns are brought up. And for new team members who are scared to ask questions, give them the opportunity to ask. They may not want to speak, but the more positive communication that comes from the group, the more willing the new hire will be to offer their idea or concerns.