This is a case study about a fast food company whose aggressive growth in thepast has left it vulnerable and unable to cope with the results of its expansion. Thisquickservice restaurant chain has been lauded by many business gurus for itsinnovation, efficiency and its focus on customer service. In the areas with TeamManaged Units in place, customer satisfaction went up, and crew turnover went down.The hectic pace of change within the organization, however, is creatinguncertainty and insecurity, making it impossible to function without true leadershiptaking over at the helm of the organization. The mission statement and the values ofthe organization have now fallen out of alignment, and are creating insecurity in thecompany leading to high employee turnover, poor service, and low customersatisfaction. Team Managed Units, are a misnomer- empowerment and teamwork areno longer prominent parts of the great service once available in the restaurants. Datashow a poor performance in customer rating scores and also in employee turnover.Customers, however, continue to return today- But the question is- "How muchlonger before the penalty has to be paid for a poor response from management?" Thecompany with a glowing past faces a rather dim future if the basic issues it faces arenot addressed immediately and if it fails to rally its staff behind the company vision.The company vision and stated values promote customer focus and integrity- theactions promote closed communication, high employee exploitation and resultantturnover. It talks about institutionalizing self sufficiency but places limitations by notproviding adequate training to new hires who are expected to be future mentors for theimplementation of that vision. The company's strategic and operational problems areto be analyzed to realize the inherent complications and to bring forth the actualunderlying issues by creating a holistic view of the system.Seven problems postulated by Steven Covey (1992) that stand out as thecause of the current situation are analyzed here, tied in with the basic need forreorganization required to create higher staff morale and job satisfaction. Thecompany needs to be wary of the adaptive learning trap that it has fallen into andrealize that everything revolves around customer service, and any effort to deliverservice in any market initiative must begin at the core- the employee. Systemsthinking is the only way to be able to integrate the dynamic, changing variables intothe whole, and to create synergy within the organization.Self directed work teams need to be reinstituted into the work concept withinthis organization- to realize improved quality, productivity and service. Workers areincreasingly demanding higher autonomy in the workplace. The ability to retain thebest people is enhanced, an important factor to be considered, given that the currentrate of turnover is at a huge 162 percent, with 91 percent leaving in the first 3 months!The company has to adopt strategies that will help implement the vision that it wants toachieve, as opposed to continuing down the path that it is currently following.
