- What kind of normative leadership style do you think Ray Kroc applied as a leader in the first years of McDonalds likely used? Explain you answer.
I think Ray Croc, the founder of one of the world’s most successful and recognizable fast food businesses – McDonalds, applied the corporate normative leadership theory. Normative leadership theory states that one of the primary functions of a leader is to make decisions. The leader should consider the relative importance of the decisions that they make as well as their acceptance by the people they lead. The decisions should also be considerate of those bound to be affected by those decisions in the future. Mcdonalds has more than 30,000 restaurants in the United States and serves more than 52 million people in the world each day! McDonalds owes its immense success to the corporate normative leadership style adopted by Ray Croc. Croc was a visionary leader who inspired many of his employees and other businessmen through his charisma. He based his leadership on the need to standardize an efficient and systematic restaurant model that could be replicated throughout the country. His leadership was goal-oriented and task-focused in the early stages of founding McDonalds. Ray Croc leadership was also committed to investing in the job satisfaction and the growth of its employees in order for them to realize their full potential and therefore that of the organization by extension.
Ray Croc’s style of leadership was founded on his conviction that the quality of a leader is reflected in the standards that they set for themselves. Having seen the potential in burgers, Ray Croc was fascinated on how the business could help him and others to make a steady flow of cash immediately. He shared his vision with other people and his leadership style included placing great value on talents. The once said that if his company was to go anywhere then it would require talent and that he was ready to spend to obtain talent. Ray Croc’s style of leadership was visionary, valued the human resources aspect of a business, and was anchored on standardization and great motivation to employees. His leadership therefore qualifies as a perfect example of a corporate normative style of leadership.
- What are the benefits of a corporate leadership style?
One of the benefits of a corporate leadership style is the creation of a sustainable corporate culture. A visionary leader teaches his employees the core values that they need to adhere to in order to achieve growth and realize his vision even after he has left the business. Corporate leadership style is anchored on the standardization of operations in order to maintain and improve quality of services and/or products. Corporate leadership ensures that systems to support the organizations are in place and can be replicated across board. This leadership also focuses on the human resources aspect of the business thereby attracting and retaining the best talents in their industry in order to help the organization weather competition. Corporate leadership style also creates strong, cohesive and highly productive teams that are able to push steer the company towards great prosperity. In the case of McDonalds, Ray Croc realized that corporate leadership was best suited for his company because he wanted to create a business empire that would survive and grow steadily in the years to come. He standardized operations at McDonalds and led by example teaching his staff to build the company on the foundation of excellence, hard work, integrity and respect for one’s own work. As such, the corporate leadership style, pioneered by Ray Croc at McDonalds is a shining example to the many benefits this style of leadership can bring to modern and future businesses.
References
Dardick, E. (n.d.). The Leadership of Ray Kroc and his drive to Catering Sales! | . | Passionate about Catering in Multi-Unit Restaurant Operations. Retrieved October 5, 2013, from http://erledardick.com/2012/03/17/the-leadership-of-ray-kroc-and-his-drive-to-catering- sales/
