Question

On February 6th, we watched "The Founder", starring Michael Keaton. IF you were not able to make it to class (or had to leave early) then you should watch this film on your own. It is currently being streamed on NetFlix, in case you were wondering.

There are several reasons why this is a perfect film for a BUSN 101 class, but I primarily wanted you to focus on just a few ideas. You were asked to create a paper of at least 2-3 pages (minimum) that included the following:

- MANAGEMENT vs LEADERSHIP

-- thoughts? what's the difference between the two? which is more important (in your opinion) for a business to be successful? how does either of these apply to the film?

- FRANCHISING

-- what are the benefits of franchising? what are the drawbacks of franchising? did the McDonalds brothers do the right thing by franchising (in your opinion)? why/why not?

- BUSINESS/PERSONAL ETHICS

-- define in your own words. how does the role of ethics apply to the situations in this film? what were the ethical or unethical actions committed by the McDonalds brothers? Ray Croc?

- CONCLUSION

-- summarize...come to a conclusion...final thoughts on the real life experience of McDonalds

Answer 1

What Is a Manager?

A manager is a person in an organization who is responsible for carrying out the four functions of management, including planning, organizing, leading and controlling. You will notice that one of the functions is leadership, so you might ask yourself if it would be safe to assume that all managers are leaders. Theoretically, yes - all managers would be leaders if (and this is a big 'if') they effectively carry out their leadership responsibilities to communicate, motivate, inspire and encourage employees towards a higher level of productivity. However, not all managers are leaders simply because not all managers can do all of those items just listed. An employee will follow the directions of a manager for how to perform a job because they have to, but an employee will voluntarily follow the directions of a leader because they believe in who they are as a person, what they stand for and for the manner in which they are inspired by their leader. A manager becomes a manager by virtue of their position, and subordinates will follow the manager because of his or her job description and title.

Because managers are responsible for carrying out the four functions of management, their primary concern is to accomplish organizational goals. Managers get paid to get things done in organizations. As such, the manager is accountable for themselves as well as the behavior and performance of his or her employees. A manager has the authority and power to hire, promote, discipline and fire employees based on those behaviors and performance. Management is about efficiency and getting results though systems, processes, procedures, controls and structure.

What Is a Leader?

Perhaps the greatest separation between management and leadership is that leaders do not have to hold a management position. That is, a person can become a leader without a formal title. Any individual can become a leader because the basis of leadership is on the personal qualities of the leader. People are willing to follow the leader because of who he or she is and what the leader stands for, not because they have to due to the authority bestowed onto him or her by the organization. The leader will show passion and personal investment in the success of his or her followers reaching their goals, which may be different from organizational goals.

A leader has no formal, tangible power over their followers. Power is awarded to the leader on a temporary basis and is contingent upon the leader's ability to continue to motivate and inspire followership. Notice the shift in terminology here: managers have subordinates, while leaders have followers. Subordinates do not have a choice but to listen to the demands and wishes of their managers, but following is (and always will be) a voluntary choice for those who follow a leader. Those who no longer wish to follow the leader will simply stop. That is, if an employee initially sees his or her manager as a leader and eventually ceases to be inspired by that manager, the employee will still obey the manager, but only because the employee is required to do so, not because he or she wants to.

Leadership is about effectiveness through trust, inspiration and people. Leaders often challenge the status quo that managers spend much of their time upholding to bring innovation to organizations. Leadership is visionary, change-savvy, creative, agile and adaptive. Managers are concerned with the bottom line, while leaders spend time looking at the horizon.

FRANCHISING

Franchising is a business model in which many different owners share a single brand name. A parent company allows entrepreneurs to use the company's strategies and trademarks; in exchange, the franchisee pays an initial fee and royalties based on revenues. The parent company also provides the franchisee with support, including advertising and training, as part of the franchising agreement.

Franchising is a faster, cheaper form of expansion than adding company-owned stores, because it costs the parent company much less when new stores are owned and operated by a third party. On the flip side, potential for revenue growth is more limited because the parent company will only earn a percentage of the earnings from each new store. 70 different industries use the franchising business model, and according to the International Franchising Association the sector earns more than $1.5 trillion in revenues each year.

PERSONAL ETHICS

Personal ethics is a category of philosophy that determines what an individual believes about morality and right and wrong. This is usually distinguished from business ethics or legal ethics. These branches of ethics come from outside organizations or governments, not the individual's conscience.