Academic Master

Business and Finance

Issue Handling at KFC Essay

KFC is restaurant chain of famously known for its fast foods. It specializes in fried chicken, and it was known as Kentucky Fried Chicken till 1991. 88 years ago, on March 20, 1930, it was found by Harland Sanders, till then it is running more than 10 thousand outlets around the world. With this huge figure of outlets, it stands second in the world after McDonald’s. This paper aims to explore the handling of current issues or crises by the senior management of KFC. The company has always left marks of smart handling of issues and crisis by it very talented senior management.

At KFC, the senior managers have their special perks and reward, and a great influence in the company affairs. The decisions of senior management at KFC have always been considered to have benefited the company on large scale. Normally, in most of the organization, being in a management role means to good have good salary package with other benefits. However, the managers at KFC apart from enjoying the good compensation packages also have great influence on designing strategies. The managers here pay the price for all the benefits and status by their in inputs in resolving tougher issues and crisis. Different issues have been confronted by the managers at different point of times. The senior management at KFC is analysing their current handling of issue. This paper attempts to explore some of those issues currently faced by the senior management.

Supply Chain Issue

Among the latest issues or crisis that KFC faced and found a way out resolve is the supply chain issue. In the start of this year, 2018, KFC fell short on chicken inside UK. The issue initially was noted by its senior management and they tried to respond to this issue considering it a temporary and minor issue, but the problem could not be solved on immediate basis. The severity rose with the passage of time as their supplier Bidvest Logistics was constantly failing. The situation seemed to have gone out of control as many KFC outlets in the United Kingdom closed their operations. The senior management decided to change their supplier. On February 14, 2018, the supplier contract was taken from Bidvest Logistics and given to DHL. This step somehow helped the company over the problem shortage and chicken, but gravy fell short after this. The company has 900 outlets in UK and Ireland and this market share of KFC is very crucial because huge revenue is coming from this region for the company.

Employees’ Performance Problem

One of the major issues for any organisation is the maintaining employees’ performance up to the mark. It takes the management to apply different ideas in different situation. At KFC, it has always been a tradition that the senior management do not compromise on the selection of right resource. They at the very first palace select the right candidates. The employees’ performance is measured by the set standards which are clearly communicated to them. Upon identification of a problem, the management immediately engages in the constructive feedback to avoid prolonging the problem and causing more problems. Employees, at KFC, are encouraged to share their ideas with peers and their bosses. This culture of encouraging communication in both top-down and horizontal way makes it easy for the company to spot any problem on time and take remedial action without a delay. If behaviour of an employee needs to change they first do it with immediate constructive feedback. If it does not change with that, management has more options at their disposal. The senior management has always recommended conducting clear and time-framed progressive disciplines that are believed to be more effective at KFC.

Termination of an Employee

Termination of any employee is always gut-wrenching for any manager in any organization. When you dismiss an employee you cannot fill that gap perfectly. Losing a human resource at a position can cause more damage as a newly selected employee would take a great deal of time to get the same level of experience and expertise to fill the deficiency. Dismissing an employee itself is a problem and mangers in most of the companies do not find it comfortable to do at all. The company has its policies clearly defined and training patterns which employees have to make compliance with. Sever conduct violation is dealt according to the policies. The HR team at KFC is well trained to conduct a discussion with the employee in a respectful way. The use of a consistent and fair process and satisfactory outplacement packages makes it easy for the company to smoothly carry out termination decisions.

Team Conflicts

Collaboration is all a company could want achieve its goals and strategic objective. As long as there is team collaboration in a company it will reap the benefits of team work by getting optimal level of outcomes. 1+1 can be equal to 2 but in the presence of a good collaborative team the result could be 3 instead of 2. Employees add more value working in teams than they do working individually. A rise of conflict in a team will destroy the team performance and he overall company performance. At KFC, team values are clearly shared with all the employees at the very initial stage of the formation. The management of KFC stresses that such conflict should not rise at all, if they do, the individuals involved in a conflict should be called on to engage in frank discussion. This way they believe a conflict can be eliminated at the very early stages before it cause any major loss for the company.

Task conflict and personal conflict are two different conflicts the farmer being in the betterment of an organization and the later causing loss. The senior managers at KFC believe that task conflict should be encouraged as it is healthier then personal conflict and it leads to the development of new ideas and alternatives. Task conflict makes the employees disagree with each other and present their own ideas or alternatives against what they reject. This way the mangers get to know about new ideas and the capabilities of their workers. Managers get to choose any of those ideas presented, and of course the best is evaluated and adopted by the managers. This is how conflicts are dealt at KFC according to the direction of their senior managers.

Recommendations

KFC being the second largest fast food restaurant chain in the world needs to consider a few changes that could be manageable for KFC not on very hard terms. These change decisions will give the company sustainable advantages. The company has prospects to grow at a higher rate than the current rate.

Integration

The company should go for integration option. Backward integration is ideal, because the company will have control over its suppliers. Short fall in supply could damage the firms in the industry where there are other powerful and giant companies ready to take the market share if see uncaptured. Company shall not want to experience any short fall like the one it faced in United Kingdom in the beginning of this year.

Employees Wellbeing

A satisfied customer is a walking advertisement for the company and one satisfied employee makes more happy customers. The employees who are working at touch points are the ones actually deal with the customers. These employees are the front liners and should be given more benefits and career opportunities. If these employees move up to the ladder, their contribution will be vital in designing better strategies. The culture of open communication at KFC is vital in to let the key information travel to the top management where decision making could be done on the basis of this information.

Product Development

KFC offers a range of products already but it is recommended to increase the variety by adding new product line. This way it will increase both its market share and volume of revenue. The employees in who interact with the customers can sense their taste and their expectations. Developing new products will greatly require inputs from the front liners.

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