Changing of a Negative Work Experience Using Taylorism, Essay Example

A lot of campus students search for a part time jobs since their expenditure surpasses their “parental or Scholarship” income or are thirsty for a Co-operate experience besides attachments or internships, I was one of the many toilers, hunting for one. Fortunately, I managed to a get a slot at a new local McDonalds joint which was opened near my home. As many of the successful candidates had applied for the job earlier even before the joint was opened, we undertook training at an “experienced” McDonalds joint which was the finest in the city for an entire month. During the training I made friends with one lady. We undertook grilling techniques that entailed preparing and cooking foods, service for a team which elaborated how to deal and communicate with customers and how to use the register, and finally drives-thru. The training experience was great since we were given the opportunity to work in under the supervision of the best of the best of McDonald’s management teams.

They literally burst our bubble when they trained us on a virtual; reality that every branch operates similar to the “training centre” McDonalds joint. We returned back to the new local McDonalds where we were made to work for eight hours straight every day of the weekdays. Personally, it was very difficult for me since it greatly collided with my academic schedules. However, I ignored the “virtual reality” situation and continued with the long shifts since I was income-oriented. Unfortunately, immediately a month after, the entire McDonald’s crew and its management settled in, this revolutionized the whole working environment that we had already adapted. With my attitude and character by putting a smile on everyone’s face even if it means me being left unhappy in the process, got me in a hotter situation then the King size burgers I made (Campling et al, 2008).

A management team of 15 manager where assigned out joint. There was a lot since can you imagine 7 managers on your neck while you are working as per protocol but they were all giving me orders simultaneously with no illustration as to how they want the work to be done. According to my judgement, they were just lazy to personally do anything. Each and every day of my working shift was like “Be quick, stop talking, don’t you have work to do?, do this and that, get me some cold water, clean the lobby its too dirty, stock this and that item or product, go and…..” you are now getting the picture of what I was encountering each working day. Many people may think that since it is McDonald am talking about, you should have prepared for it since it’s a very busy working environment. As much as we knew our rights, we were afraid of pointing them out and the all the managers took the advantage of that fact and neither did they care nor abide by the stipulated rules which we were sure that we followed them to the latter.

With the working environment that was being conceived at our local McDonalds joint by the management team, steadily, I was kept away from my campus academic activities to the extent of missing even several continuous assessment tests. That is when it hit me with a great force that I gathered my courage and put across a complain to the store and Area manger. Gladly, both managers showed great concern since it made them very disappointed at some of the swing and floor managers even ending up yelling at them on the fact that the management team entertained this. My friend and I noted that many of the management team members where life screw-ups whom luckily found themselves at McDonalds despite the fact that they don’t acknowledge the importance of education. This made us understand why they were turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to our academic related grievance.

I was considered a hero by my working mates but a stubborn factor to the yelled managers which made them eliminate my shifts from the worker schedule. You can guess what happened when I humbly requested the reason to their drastic action and they rudely and ironically uttered.” Since you are being overworked, you can now go to school without any interruption”. As you can remember the one month training we underwent, it was similar to the managers training. Subsequently I am a fast learner, I gathered a lot of McDonald’s education that the managers were not aware of. Therefore, I was in a position demonstrate to my coworkers how things were done and even rectify mistakes made by managers. But it made them mad due to the fact that I caught most things that they didn’t. Honestly I considered myself as the best worker since I knew all the rules, proficiently worked with my fellow crew member and above, I have a good communication with customers. This intimidated the managers by me because am bright and smart even at school but still they made that I feel worthless in their presence (Campling et al, 2008).

McDonald’s customer service was entirely about serving your order the fastest way possible and having good times of drive-thru. The serving procedure didn’t consider the customers at all since when I take may time to serve the customers right; confirming what is from the chicken the exactly what the customer(s) ordered but my concerns made me screamed at because I was consuming a lot of time when serving. I was shocked when I found out that some adult workers and even managers were supplying drugs and alcohol to the teenage workers beside it being morally and lawfully wrong. Also, some of the floor and swing managers had the guts to steal money from the cash register and blame the crew members for the very act resulting to either being accused, fired and put down. Basically you had to be watching your back constantly as the people can’t be trusted at all. Despite its damaging factor It clearly elaborates the reality of life and the understanding of people. Generally, I was disrespected, ordered around, yelled at, put down and pressurized every now and then. This experience though negative, it made me to shift my working perception from pleasing everyone for being concerned about doing the right thing in a proper and as per stipulated laws.

Scientific management is an orthodox approach branch. Taylor assumed scientific management is a setting which suggests individuals in a firm should be well acquainted with the stipulated rules of the company (McDonalds). This is what governs the day to day activities of a company. The managers should be in the front line of rule are acted upon by their juniors. As the scientific management principles suggest, organising the McDonald’s staff is not adequate, it is essential that the crew members are managed by the management team to perform their job efficiently. Using Taylorism to change the negative work experience at McDonalds is the best way since it will solve the major challenges that I faced as one of the many crew members in McDonalds (Campling et al, 2008).

I guess the concept of treating individuals like a machine was miss-conceptualized by the management team. By my personal understanding, the correct interpretation of this concept is to let workers like us to perform a task repeatedly which in return will optimise McDonald’s profit. McDonald’s Workers need to follow instructions to perform a good job, usually one individual per position. Workers don’t have to entirely shift a lot of procedures in their work environment. McDonalds need to have their own “personal Customization” systems, whereby a fresh meal is prepared when customer(s) make an order (Campling et al, 2008).

Ordering people scientifically to perform a task is another challenge I faced which is a vital aspect in scientific management, for instance, two workers equally undertake a task might not be efficiently done. Nevertheless, one worker should perform the main section of the task and the other should be a supporter therefore instilling efficiency in the working system, scientific distribution. In short, the management team needs to understand the goals of McDonalds and ensure effective implementation having the company rules in mind. During my training as a crew member, it is clearly put across that the rate of making burgers at a particular period of time; Hence, scientific management as an alternative of management of workers in order to realize their goal. With the introduction of the orthodox scientific system the crew members, me included would have to follow specific instructions to prepare food, hence, the system will save approximately 80% waste unlike before (Campling et al, 2008).

Another suggestion derived from Taylorism is using people management in organizing a minor group. With specific size limit; nevertheless it won’t be an easy task to manage a gigantic firm like McDonald’s. A perfect methodology that will suit this large firm is through scientific management. As we know, McDonald’s monitors each item produced in a specific cooking period, for instance, fries should take 3 minutes, 100 seconds for preparing chicken patty, 8 pieces 11:1 patties per grill, and 6 minutes for 5:1 patty. Therefore, each crew team training on all the above cooking procedures through performing their task. The management team ensure, in an ethical manner, that each crew follows the cooking protocol to ensure McDonald’s standard equality domestically, nationally and globally. Through crew obedience to the cooking procedure, costing price will drastically drop significantly and customers will enjoy the same service quality at any McDonald’s outlets worldwide (Campling et al, 2008).

Management team and several crew members including me, made feeling oriented decisions, instincts should not be relied upon. So when I make a comparison with that, utilization of a more efficient and accurate methodology is through implementation of a systematic analysis in McDonald’s. A systematic study is a key and man scientific management period. The department of marketing should research on their products; “what’s hot and what’s not”, and also gather Intel from customers randomly, Frontline workers and several publics. When they analyse the report generated from their research, the department of marketing achieves a more accurate and reliable information which is more useful than the mere day to day experience.

But as much as I have used Taylorism to dramatically the negative working experience I encountered, you can agree that actually perfection is only for God. Though the perspective of scientific management is a healthy system to adopt, there are still glitches in some circumstances. The “treat workers as machines” strategy is an effective one, if I was to foresee the future of my experience in McDonald’s on implementing this strategy, I would gladly say It is profitable to the company but at the end of the day workers will see themselves are robots. Therefore I didn’t embrace the working conditions at that period of time, this explains why companies dealing with fast food like McDonald’s obtain a great worker turnover frequency; because they mistreat young workers like me so we go there income and experience oriented.

One significant scientific management concept is copying; recapping task is the key duty of workers. It is good at maintaining low fault costs, but individuals remain in similar environment and replicating same operational from the past. This restricts innovation and creativity from both managers and workers. McDonald’s main menu hasn’t been changed for over 30 years; it’s hard for them to create new products. Also it will be a huge cost of getting a new line of new products because each product in McDonald’s has its own production line; such as special machine for buns, regulation on oven size, same size of patties and so on.

The bad scientific management features are specious when assessing the employees management and with the glitches that appear from portion rate imbursement system. In the earlier 20^th century, Taylor’s approaches for managing the crew members were not entirely observed. The scientific management principals are conclusively strict in that they adopt decision-making is greatest reserved at the top of the business for there is a lack of confidence in the capability of the teams. Taylor believed efficiency and productivity would both upsurge if there was a separation between staffs and professionals, and struggled virtually every the workman act must be headed by one or more elementary management acts. He also coherent that every individual need to be trained everyday by their seniors. This management style can be the facilitator for instigating anti-motivation and discontent amid workers. If employees feel as they are being preserved due respect devoid, several turn out to be dissatisfied with the corporation and decline to work to their supreme possible. Correspondingly, the part rate imbursement system might cause the proprietor to meet the encouraging staff problem to essence on amount at the quality expense.

The basic philosophy of any commercial organization is that customers run the business. Good product standards should be the very essence guarantee of McDonald’s; nevertheless customer might get bored with a static menu for a prolonged duration. McDonald’s should note that Procedures and Policy are the major aspects of company standardization sustenance, good procedures and policy reduces expenses and errors, but also reduces the development of employee skills and monitor them to understand more within McDonald’s. This makes workers discontented with their tasks assigned.

Conclusion

It is impervious to suggest that Taylorism has backed enormously to the fruitful management in the present business domain worldwide. The philosophies disseminated by Frederick Taylor in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century still have a room in the contemporary day management intellectual. It’s then prudent that each executive irrespective of the position one hold to acknowledge scientific management and utilize its prudently bearing in cognizance it is restricted to the mechanistic organization. It is also conceivable to make enhancements by judiciously learning the work procedures, scheming and applying pertinent changes. This is nevertheless likely when considered in an organization holistic.

Reference

Campling, J., Poole, D., Wiesner, R., Ang, E. S., Chan, B., Tan, W., & Schermerhorn, J. R. (2008). Management (3rd Asia-Pacific Ed.) Milton, Queensland: John Wiley & Sons.