McDonald’s Organizational Culture: Introduction
Organizational culture refers to the “values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization” (Cameron & Quinn 2011, p. 13). It encompasses the expectations, values, and experiences that promote cohesion and achievement of organizational goals (Flamholtz & Randle 2011, p. 32). Generally, companies illustrate their organizational cultures through their methods of conducting business, staff management, providing customer service, and building relationships with the community.
Organizational culture is important because it influences various performance measures such as product quality, customer service, employee satisfaction, and profitability. It is against this backdrop that this paper analyzes McDonald’s organizational culture. The paper will begin with a description of the organization and its culture. This will be followed by the identification of the company’s goals and how organizational culture supports their achievement.
McDonalds Culture: Background
McDonald’s is “the largest food service retailer in the world” (McDonald 2013). The company was founded over 60 years ago in the US as a small restaurant. It has achieved a remarkable performance in the last six decades, thereby becoming one of the most successful companies in the fast-food industry. By 2012, the company had “34,480 restaurants in 119 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America” (McDonald’s 2013).
The company’s main products include “French Fries, Big Mac, Quarter Pound, and Chicken McNuggets” (McDonald’s 2013). In 2012, the company’s sales totaled $24 billion. Additionally, McDonald’s realized a net income of $4.9 billion in 2012 (McDonald’s 2013). This remarkable achievement is mainly attributed to the company’s strategic direction, as well as, the talent and commitment of its over 80,000 employees (McDonald’s 2013). The company’s strategic direction is based on a business model that aligns its operations to the activities of its franchisees and suppliers. This helps the company to improve its profitability by providing customer-focused services.
McDonald’s Organizational Culture
Commitment to Employees
McDonald’s culture of commitment to employees is characterized by the development of trust, respect, and collaboration between the management and the workforce (McDonald’s 2013). This culture promotes close relationships between the employees and their bosses. The company shows its commitment to the employees by helping them to achieve their career and other personal development goals. In this regard, the company trains its employees on various business functions at Hamburger University. Additionally, the company provides flexible work schedules that enable the employees to achieve work-life balance. The company also provides adequate performance-based remuneration to enable its employees to achieve their financial goals.
According to Hofstede’s cultural dimension model, McDonald’s commitment to staff development suggests that it promotes a masculine culture where personal achievement is very important (Jones 2002, p. 78). For instance, the training and monetary rewards provided by the company enable the employees to achieve goals that are important to them such as financial stability and advancing their careers.
According to the seven dimensions of culture model, the company’s commitment to employees shows that it promotes achievement rather than ascription (Jeffs 2008, p. 67). Specifically, the staff development initiatives motivate the employees to focus on earned success rather than ascriptions such as job titles. According to Denison’s culture model, commitment to employees is important in achieving the company’s mission.
In particular, the training programs enable the employees to understand the company’s strategic direction and intent, as well as, to internalize its vision. The performance-based remuneration system, on the other hand, motivates the employees to achieve the company’s goals and objectives. According to Denison’s model, the development of staff capability facilitates the creation of a sense of ownership and responsibility (Griffin & Moorhead 2010, p 89). The resulting improvement in staff commitment enables employees to develop a psychological contract with the company by identifying with its mission and vision.
The Process Culture
McDonald’s employs a simplistic, but very effective approach to operations management. This involves “standardizing products and processes; maintaining strict control on the quality of services and food, and enhancing cost-efficiency by employing young workers” (Schroder & McEachern 2005, pp. 212-224). McDonald’s culture emphasizes the importance of the system (the company, franchisees, and suppliers) over personal interests.
Thus, the company has organized work in terms of simplistic steps that improve the overall efficiency of the system. Moreover, the company’s norms are determined by its values, rules, and practices rather than the beliefs of individual employees (McDonald’s 2013). This has resulted in a command and control system in which decision-making is centralized. For instance, a majority of the employees are below 25 years and lack experience. Thus, they hardly participate in decision-making processes.
According to Hofstede’s model, the centralization of decision-making processes indicates that McDonald’s culture is characterized by high power distance (Flamholtz & Randle 2011, p. 91). This means that the distribution of power in the company is skewed towards the management. Moreover, the use of strict rules and procedures indicates that the company’s culture is characterized by high uncertainty avoidance index. According to Hofstede’s model, communities with high uncertainty avoidance scores use rules and clear guidelines to avoid ambiguity and mistakes (Flamholtz & Randle 2011, p. 92).
In the context of the seven dimensions of culture model, McDonald’s has a typical universalists culture where rules, laws, and values define the relationships among individuals (Witcher & Chau 2010, p. 113). According to Denison’s model, the process of culture can be viewed as a means of achieving consistency. Generally, the rules and values enable employees to develop a common perspective that facilitates agreement, coordination, and integration. This leads to consistency in various processes and product/ service quality.
Commitment to Customers
The company’s customer-focused culture is based on four factors namely, value, safety, quality, and cleanliness (McDonald’s 2013). The company improves its customer experience by providing fast services that are free from errors. This strategy is supported by the company’s simple decision-making process that enables the employees and managers to respond immediately to customers’ needs.
The company enhances process and product quality by maintaining control over its supply chain, operating well-maintained facilities, and keeping the restaurants clean (McDonald’s 2013). In most countries, the company incorporates the ideas of its employees and customers in its product and process development decisions (Khan & Khan 2011, pp. 27-29). For instance, it adapts its menu and restaurants’ interior designs to the tastes of each market.
Accepting new ideas implies that the company promotes a long-term orientation culture. According to Hofstede’s model, communities with high long-term orientation tend to accept new ideas from anyone to achieve innovation and progress (Griffin & Moorhead 2011, p. 117). According to the seven dimensions of culture model, the strategies adopted by the company to meet customers’ expectations suggest that it employs a typical internal direction culture. A community whose culture supports internal direction focuses on manipulating its environment to achieve its objectives (Jeffs 2008, 84).
This explains McDonald’s belief that it has to control its internal environment by aligning its processes and services to the needs of the market. Recognizing the ideas of employees also shows that the company’s culture supports individualism. In the context of Denison’s model, McDonald’s commitment to customers can be viewed as a means of achieving adaptability to respond to market needs effectively.
Commitment to Sustainability
Sustainability is an integral aspect of McDonald’s organizational culture. The company focuses on the sustainable provision of food services to avert resistance from the communities that it serves. To elucidate, McDonald’s is one of the major producers of wastes that pollute the environment (Peterson 2005, pp. 8-11). The wastes result from the company’s extensive use of non-biodegradable packaging materials such as plastics. In this regard, the company’s training programs focus on encouraging employees to internalize the culture of promoting sustainability in every business process (McDonald’s 2013).
This includes reducing the number of packaging materials used by the company and improving energy efficiency. The company also improves the welfare of its customers by providing financial resources to support the prevention and treatment of lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity.
According to the seven dimensions of culture model, the company’s commitment to sustainability is essentially a communitarian culture. Communitarianism emphasizes the importance of the group over the individual (Jones 2002, p. 97). This explains the company’s belief that the wellbeing of the community influences the achievement of its goals. Specifically, the company believes that it cannot exist without the community members who support it through the purchase of its products and supply of raw foodstuffs. In this regard, the company provides socio-economic support to the community members in exchange for their loyalty.
Critique of Organizational Culture Theories
Hofstede’s cultural dimension model sheds light on the types of culture that are likely to shape the behavior of employees in different countries. However, the application of the model is limited due to several reasons. To begin with, the cultural traits identified by the model are not likely to exist in every organization in a particular country. Specifically, no evidence supports the model’s claim that employees from a given country have the same culture.
Contrary to Hofstede’s model, most organizations have multiple cultures that are continuously evolving (Jones 2002, p. 102). Consequently, it is unrealistic to perceive national or organizational culture in terms of two contrasting positions such as masculinity versus femininity. In reality, cultural traits such as individualism and collectivism often coexist in organizations.
Denison’s cultural model is considered to be effective due to its focus on the behaviors that lead to high performance. In particular, the usefulness of the model is clearly illustrated by its ability to link various aspects of culture to organizational performance (Jeffs 2008, p. 91).
However, the model fails to highlight the importance of the beliefs and values of individual employees in the workplace. Undoubtedly, organizational culture and performance are not only shaped by mission, consistency, involvement, and adaptability. The “personalities, values, and beliefs of individual employees often shape organizational culture” (Jeffs 2008, p. 92). Thus, they have to be considered when developing an organizational culture that supports high performance.
The seven dimensions of culture model are important because it enables organizations to link their culture to management behavior. This can help in shaping the behavior of managers to achieve a particular performance outcome (Jeffs 2008, 109). However, the model fails to establish a link between various aspects of culture and organizational performance. Besides, the model is based on the unrealistic assumption that organizational culture often consists of two contrasting elements such as specific and diffuse.
McDonald’s Goals
McDonald’s mission is to “be customers’ favorite place and way to eat” (McDonald’s 2013). This mission statement suggests that the company’s goal is to become the best provider of food services in the industry. In this regard, the company has developed a strategic plan to help it achieve its mission. The strategic plan focuses on the achievement of five goals, which include the following. First, the company aims at attracting and retaining the best talent in the industry (McDonald’s 2013). This enables the company to achieve both process and product innovation to become the best. Second, the company aims at providing the best food and customer service in the industry (McDonald’s 2013). Specifically, the management of the company intends to create a strong brand image that is known for quality, consistency, and safety.
Third, improving customer experience by creating the best restaurant ambiance is also an important goal for the company (McDonald’s 2013). McDonald’s expects to create locally relevant customer experience by locating its restaurants in the most convenient places and to decorate them according to the local tastes and preferences. Fourth, McDonald’s aims at pricing its products competitively to gain market share (McDonald’s 2013). Finally, the company intends to improve its competitiveness through relevant promotional activities such as public relations and customer loyalty programs (McDonald’s 2013).
Financially, the company has three goals that it pursues in each financial year. The first goal is to improve its annual sales by 3% to 5% (McDonald’s 2013). The second goal is to realize an annual increase in operating income by 6% to 7% (McDonald’s 2013). Finally, the company expects to maintain its “return on incremental invested capital (ROIIC) in the high teens” (McDonald’s 2013).
Supportiveness of McDonald’s Corporate Culture
The company’s culture of commitment to employees supports the achievement of the following goals. First, it enables the company to attract and retain the best talent in the market. McDonald’s is known for its efforts to support young people by providing flexible job opportunities and helping them to achieve their personal goals. Consequently, most fresh graduates opt to work for McDonald’s rather than other firms in the industry.
The culture also enables the company to retain its employees (Simpsons 2007, pp. 23-26). Second, commitment to employees enables the company to achieve its desired product and service quality. Specifically, the training programs equip the employees with the skills that they require to prepare the best food and to offer excellent customer service (Simpsons 2007, pp. 23-26). Finally, commitment to employees facilitates the achievement of financial goals. Staff development initiatives are likely to improve employee motivation. As a result, productivity in terms of the amount of food produced and the number of customers served per restaurant will increase significantly (Simpsons 2007, pp. 23-26). Thus, the company is likely to achieve its goal of increasing sales by at least 3% annually.
The process culture facilitates the achievement of the following goals. To begin with, it enables the company to improve the quality of its products and customer experience. The process culture ensures consistency in food production, customer service, and the ambiance of the restaurants (Adams 2009, pp. 31-34). Consequently, the quality of the company’s services improves. Also, breaking down work into simple steps encourages high productivity and eliminates the chances of making mistakes among employees. The standardization achieved through the process culture facilitates the achievement of the net income and ROIIC targets.
According to Katsioloudes (2006, p. 214), standardization improves financial performance by creating economies of scale in production and cost efficiencies. Undoubtedly, an increase in production coupled with a reduction in operating costs will increase the company’s annual net income and ROIIC. Furthermore, the cost efficiencies achieved through the process culture will enable the company to realize its goal of selling its products at competitive prices.
Despite its benefits, the process culture is unsupportive in the following ways. To begin with, standardization results in too much routine. This leads to boredom and discourages innovation. Boredom will negatively affect staff motivation, thereby reducing productivity (Jeffs 2008, p. 256). This will minimize the chances of achieving financial goals. Low innovation, on the other hand, will limit the company’s ability to realize its goal of providing high-quality services. This risk is exacerbated by the fact that the process culture limits the participation of the company’s junior employees in decision-making processes. Thus, the company is likely to miss the opportunity to obtain brilliant ideas from its employees who make important observations by interacting directly with customers.
Commitment to customers facilitates the achievement of product and financial goals. The culture of improving commitment to customers enables the company to channel its resources towards meeting market needs. This involves conducting marketing research to identify customers’ needs. The insights gained through the researches enable the company to provide products that meet customers’ expectations in terms of quality, packaging, and pricing (Vignali 2001, pp. 1-12).
According to Jeffs (2008, p. 265), companies that can meet customers’ expectations often have high brand loyalty. This will enable McDonald’s to retain its customers and to achieve its sales goals. However, commitment to customers promotes adaptability, which in turn reduces the company’s ability to achieve standardization. Furthermore, a high level of adaptability is likely to have adverse effects on the company’s brand personality (Jones 2002, p. 281). Specifically, the company’s brand will not have consistent characteristics that customers can easily identify with. This will reduce the company’s ability to achieve its sales and net income goals (Jones 2002, p. 281).
Commitment to sustainability facilitates the achievement of financial and sales promotion targets. Strategies for ensuring sustainability such as reducing the use of non-biodegradable packaging materials enable the company to reduce its operating costs (McDonald 2013). This helps it to achieve its net income and ROICC goals. Corporate social responsibility activities such as creating awareness through public relations enable the company to promote its products in the community (McDonald 2013). For instance, the company publishes articles about obesity, which promote the consumption of its safe foods such as smoothies.
Mcdonald’s Culture: Conclusions and Recommendations
The organizational culture of McDonald’s is characterized by four major elements. These include a commitment to employees, the process culture, commitment to customers, and promoting sustainability. The company’s goal is to become the best provider of retail food services in the industry by achieving the goals of its strategic plans. The company’s financial goals include increasing annual sales, net income, and ROIIC. Generally, the elements of the company’s organizational culture highly support the achievement of its goals. However, the standardization created through the process culture prevents the achievement of the product and financial goals by discouraging innovation and reducing employee motivation.
Therefore, the company should consider the following recommendations to improve its organizational culture. First, the process of culture should be adapted to the needs of the employees and the business. In particular, task design should focus on improving employees’ engagement to prevent boredom. Moreover, junior employees should be allowed to participate in decision-making processes to facilitate innovation.
Second, the company should achieve an optimal balance between adaptation and consistency. This will enable the company to utilize its culture of commitment to customers by adapting its products to market needs without compromising the personality of its brand. Finally, the company should leverage its commitment to employees through increased investments in staff development. Apart from the training and career development programs, the company should introduce diversity and mentorship programs to realize the full potential of its workforce. Diversity programs will strengthen teamwork by enabling the employees to appreciate and to tolerate their cultural differences (Cameron & Quinn 2011, p. 239). Mentorship programs, on the other hand, will enable the employees to use their diverse cultural backgrounds to help the company to achieve its goals.
References
Adams, K 2009, McDonald’s and NPower Train to Retain: Companies Recognize Career Development is an Inclusive Business, Development and Learning in Organizations, vol. 22 no. 2, pp. 31-34.
Cameron, K & Quinn, R 2011, Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Flamholtz, E & Randle, Y 2011, Corporate Culture: The Ultimate Strategic Asset, Stanford University Press, Stanford.
Griffin, R & Moorhead, G 2011, Organizational Behavior, Sage Publishers, London.
Jeffs, C 2008, Strategic Management, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Jones, M 2002, Organizational Culture: Mapping the Terrain, Sage, London.
Katsioloudes, M 2006, Strategic Management, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Khan, A & Khan, R 2011, Informal Communication Style Benefits McDonald’s and Ford: The Way Ahead in an era of Social Networking, Human Resource Management International Digest, vol. 19 no. 7, pp. 27-29.
McDonald’s 2013, Annual Reports: FY2012. Web.
Peterson, J 2005, McDonald’s Jumps on the CSR Bandwagon, Strategic Direction, vol. 18 no. 9, pp. 8-11.
Schroder, M & McEachern, M 2005, Fast Food and Ethical Consumer Value: A Focus on McDonald’s and KFC, British Food Journal, vol. 107 no. 4, pp. 212-224.
Simpsons, P 2007, McDonald’s Serves Up better Customer Care, and Lower employee Turnover: Two-stage Training for More than 4,000 Staff, Human Resource Management International Digest, vol. 15 no. 1, pp. 23-26.
Vignali, C 2001, McDonald’s: Think Global, Act Local Marketing Mix, Strategic Direction, vol. 4 no. 2, pp. 1-12.
Witcher, B & Chau, V 2010, Strategic Management: Principles and Practice, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Social Media Impact On Teenagers In The UAE
Abstract
This research paper examines the impact of social media on teenagers in the UAE. Through primary survey research, it was established that social media has positive and negative impacts on teenagers. The research was based on a sample of 30 respondents through a mixture of direct interviews and questionnaires.
Introduction
Statement of the problem
Social media has played a central part in the liberalization of communication across the global village. As the world steadily embraces the use of social media, teenagers are not left behind. These teenagers communicate and use social media to interact with peers. Thus, this study attempts to openly analyze the effects of social media on the teenagers of the United Arab Emirates through a survey targeting 30 teenage participants who are frequent users of social media.
Definition of terms
Social media: A communication tool that is accessible by computers, mobile phone, and tables via the online platform.
Interaction: Exchange of information between two parties in the encoding and decoding of different symbols and elements of communication.
Hypothesis
- Null hypothesis: Social media has an impact on teenagers in the UAE
- Alternative hypothesis: Social media has an impact on teenagers in the UAE.
Scope and limitations
The scope of the research is to establish the relationship between social media usage and teenagers in the UAE. The research limitation is that the sample of 30 participants cannot give the true picture of the percentage of teenagers using social media. This means that a large sample would have given better results.
Significance
The findings of the research have unlimited uses by parties interested in reaching teenagers through social media. This means that the outcome of the study will be significant to these parties in improving or maintaining high standards of reaching this population by integrating the recommendations to the current communication strategies used by the youthful Saudis.
Literature review
Academic views on the topic
Scholars in the field of communication media are still fully glued to the well-distributed channel of communication known as social media to predict and explain the underlying factors that enabled certain cultural influences to be more popular than others and how these cultural influences were integrated into the society as part of society alongside the preset norms and regulations.
The current position of social media among the UAE youths
Due to the entry of technological advancement in the world today, social media has been the most common means of social media communication among youths. In fact, more than 59% of United Arab Emirates families’ youths have access to social media and are literate in its use, whether positive or negative (Norman, 2008). It’s been statistically established that youths spend more time in the social media watching news, commercial advertisements, blogging, and getting entertained than any activity, averagely taking a quarter of youth’s daily time. Social media communication has become affordable and very efficient in youth group interaction.
Positive effects of social media on youths
The positive effects are vital for the youth’s growth and development as the youth is basically at the developmental process in life (Kuh, 2009). Exposure is the main positive effect since the youth is in a position to express him or herself with confidence and freely speak his or her mind without the fear of drawing controversy or jeopardizing the family relationship. Through social media, youths get exposed to the current issues that happen regionally and the world at large without having to engage in continuous face-to-face communication with people around them.
Negative effects of social media on youths
Despite the technological breakthrough in internet media communication, face-to-face communication remains the most reliable means of expressing cultural attachment and affirming family and friends bond. Family being a unit and an institution, face-to-face communication remains the most trusted and sufficient means of expressing views, strengthening the union, and creating mutual understanding among members of this unit.
People’s understanding of the dynamics of society is represented in detail by the trusted family and society face-to-face interaction. During these interactive discussions, an open free atmosphere enables people to express their independent opinion on issues touching social realities. In relating to the above argument, it is in order to state that excessive preference of social media to interact will negatively and substantively put stress on existing society bonds (Kuh, 2009). Same as face-to-face communication, internet media can reverse a group’s view of life either positively or negatively. If the content directed to an audience is demystifying, the final effect over a period of time is the same. However, this results in strains in the relationship among family members as time and attention allocated for family interaction is limited (Norman, 2008).
Opinion about the topic
In my opinion, the use of social media has more advantages than disadvantages since it is global, cheap, and very dynamic. This means that social media has created a fast, effective, and proactive global communication platform for all teenagers from different walks of life just by a click of a button.
Agreement/disagreement with the literature review
I agree with the merits and demerits highlighted in the literature review. Social media has created an ideal, global, and affordable communication platform for youths across the globe, and the trend is overtaking other traditional forms of communication in the UAE. However, social media has come with its challenges, such as addiction, acquisition of bad habits such as pornography, explicit language, and other unethical acts.
Methodology
Type of research
The research will be conducted through a primary survey consisting of 30 teenagers. Since the proposed research study is focused, dynamic, and subjective, the researcher opted for qualitative analysis since it is flexible to accommodate different tools of data analysis. However, the method is not accurate in managing the margin of error. Besides, it does not allow for asking open-ended questions that might capture the opinion of the respondent (Blaxter, Hughes, & Malcolm, 2005).
Research question
The research question is;
- What is the impact of social media usage among teenagers in the UAE?
In order to answer this question, the semi-structured interview will be significant in identifying the frequency of social media usage among the targeted respondents (Blaxter, Hughes, & Malcolm, 2005).
Respondents
The respondents will consist of 30 teenagers from the city of Dubai. The respondents will be randomly selected and will respect the gender balance (Blaxter, Hughes, & Malcolm, 2005).
Questionnaire
The questionnaire for the study is summarized below.
Teenagers turn to social media out of boredom
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree.
Teenagers express their feelings through social media
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree.
Teenagers spend too much time on social media
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree.
Teenagers can live without the existence of social media
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree.
Social media has effects on teenagers
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree.
Social media is important to teenagers
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree.
The social network has negative effects on its users
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree.
Timeline of study
The timeline for the study is summarized in the chart below.
The study
Research question and hypothesis
The research question is; what is the impact of social media usage among teenagers in the UAE? The research hypothesis to prove is that social media has an impact on teenagers in the UAE.
Main ideas of study
The primary aim of the research is to establish the impact of social media on teenagers in the UAE in terms of how social media influence their behavior. The survey comprised of 7 questions on the youths’ perception of social media in their daily life. The 5 minutes long survey targeted both male and female participants. Since all the answers were ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree,’ the research will be in a position to generate uniform responses for all the questions. The researcher will proceed to organize for interviews and drop questionnaires once the respondents give consent. The interview and questionnaires will have a space for recording general responses that are not included in the guided research questions (Blaxter, Hughes, & Malcolm, 2005).
Findings
The response rate was 100%. All the respondents filled their questionnaire survey forms on time. This is summarized in the tables below.
| Gender | Number | Percentage (%) |
| Males | 15 | 50 |
| Females | 15 | 50 |
| TOTAL | 30 | 100 |
Summary of variable dynamics of respondents
Answer to the questions
| Question No | Strongly disagree %) | Disagree (%) | Neutral (%) | Agree (%) | Strongly agree (%) |
| Q1 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 | 60 |
| Q2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 70 |
| Q3 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 35 | 55 |
| Q4 | 90 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Q5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 75 |
| Q6 | 90 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Q7 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 15 | 80 |
Discussion
Generally, social media among youths provides a fertile ground for argumentative discussions on political, social, and religious aspects as the parties involved share unique ideas. In fact, their thoughts are well articulated to create desirable views independent from the societal conformity parameter. However, the interpretation of messages discussed is not inclusive of the interface between the audience, the message, and the existing culture.
This is due to the fact that the decoder may not have substantive information to make out since they fall in the same age group and may lack knowledge on the topic (Preiss, 2007). With the audience consisting of mostly people of the same age group, there is a connector between the audience and the message. However, this connection lacks the aspect of cultural behavior practiced by this audience who don’t have time to acquire the same from the family or society. Unless the message is integrated to factor in differences existing among the audience, the message is prone to misinterpretation or at the worst rejection by the society who will feel sidelined.
Social media has influenced how communication is passed among teenagers through the use of various channels on social media, as indicated in the findings. The channels used for communication include Facebook, tweeter, two go, and email, among others. These channels have enabled the youths to communicate easily with friends and family members in the shortest time possible (Burton, 2009). Communication through social media is easier, cheaper, and faster as compared to other modes of communication. Communication among teenagers is important, so they should be guided and monitored by ensuring they do not use abusive language.
When it comes to education, proper usage of social media as reference material can help to enhance and develop creative thinking of teenagers when learning. Creativity can be enhanced if the teenager is taught when a reference material is to be used when taking research (Kuh 2009).
From my findings, it is apparent that addition to social media has also been blamed on poor academic performance, which translates into strain in family relationships as the family will develop the perception that excessive time is spent on social media than in studies. As a result, the face to face interaction will be greatly affected as the youth is likely to develop a rebellious attitude. Excess in this area compromises the time that youths take consulting and doing assignments. In fact, most parents have faced a rough time in their quest to instill good studying habits among youths, as some are prone to studying while blogging despite protest from parents (Preiss, 2007).
Violence and aggression have also been identified as another negative effect of excessive dependence on social media as a means of communication. Since most of the youths who spend excessive time lack social etiquette and negotiation skills, they are easily angered, and responses may lead to abusive language and physical confrontation. This generally makes most youths to grow up with violent and aggressive behavior. Furthermore, these youths are often forced to emulate such characters and attitudes they obtain from social media rather than seek guidance on the real form of family and society (Ott & Leverette, 2009).
Limitation
The research methodology can be improved by increasing the sample to more than 200 to improve on accuracy in representing the position of the entire population. Besides, there is a need to carry out a pilot study to minimize the degree of bias that might exist in the findings.
Conclusion and recommendations
Conclusively, from the above study, it is apparent that over-reliance on social media as a means of communication negatively affect face-to-face interaction among family members, friends, and society for youths. Socially isolated teenagers are the major users of social media due to passiveness and other minor reasons. Here, the use of social media is largely determined by the behavioral patterns of the environment, which ignores them.
Specifically, those who are weak socially in this group are likely to use this mode of communication that those that are socially active. It is apparent that the expression of culture and affirmation of relationships are greatly compromised by social media communication as limited time is allocated on the same. Therefore, the family should discuss differences between desire and reality to tell the youths on facts about actuality and offer other alternative sources of information other than relying on social media. This is achievable through the creation of a general face to face interactive discussion among family members that include views of their teenage members. In general, social media is an important tool for interaction among teenagers in the UAE due to its affordability, global coverage, and ease of use. As a result, teenagers prefer this platform to other traditional communication platforms.
References
Blaxter, L., Hughes, C., & Malcolm, T. (2005). How to research. Berkshire: Open University Press. Web.
Burton, G. (2009). Media and society: Critical perspectives. New York: McGraw-Hill. Web.
Kuh G.D. (2009). What student affairs professionals need to know about student engagement? Journal of College Student Development, 12(24), 39-67. Web.
Norman, K. L. (2008). Cyberpsychology: An Introduction to human–computer Interaction. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Web.
Ott, B., & Leverette, M. (2009). Critical media studies: An introduction. London, UK: John Wiley and Sons. Web.
Preiss, R. (2007). Mass media effects research: Advances through meta-analysis. New York, NY: Routledge. Web.
Nursing Understaffing At Palmetto Hospital
Introduction
The problem addressed by the present project is nursing understaffing at Palmetto Hospital that is associated with a variety of negative outcomes in the staff cooperation and teamwork that, in turn, translate into the decreasing quality and safety of care provided to the patients of the institution (Rogowski et al., 2015). With an appropriate assessment of the problem, its nature, causes, and contributing factors, it is possible to plan and implement change designed to address the challenges created by understaffing. Further, as a follow-up phase of the implementation of change, an assessment is required showing whether or not the transformations put into practice have made a difference.
Analysis
As pointed out in the relevant academic literature, this connection is specific not only to Palmetto Hospital but is a common correlation observed in many different healthcare organizations (Hinno, Partanen, & Vehviläinen-Julkunen, 2012). In addition, some of the researchers noted that nursing understaffing in the healthcare organizations is noticed differently from the perspectives of the staff members and the patients (Medina-Mirapeix, Del Baño-Aledo, Oliveira-Sousa, Escolar-Reina, & Collins, 2013).
In that way, the engagement of the patients as another party providing insights on the problem could be beneficial as a part of such stages of change management as assessment and planning. In other words, one of the ways to assess the effects created by the organizational change is based on the engagement of staff members and patients of the organization for the purpose of obtaining their experiences and impressions of the implemented solutions. In particular, the perspectives of the aforementioned parties could be acquired by means of a questionnaire (standardized or specifically developed) targeting the respective experiences of the assessed sides – the perceived quality of care for the patients, and the teamwork and staff-related workplace impressions of the employees.
Another way of assessing the change and the effects it has or has not produced is with the help of organizational research focusing on the internal dynamics and issues such as the operations, costs, patient outcome statistics, the performance of staff, and the other indicators related to the implemented change. In fact, this type of assessment could be combined with the one targeting the perspectives of patients and staff members. In other words, internal organizational research could consist of two parts. The first part would focus on exploring the quantitative data presented by the statistics, cost (saved or lost since the beginning of the change implementation project), the organizational performance in terms of quality indicators and patient outcomes. At the same time, the second part of the assessment research could involve the collection of the qualitative data provided by the stakeholders through the questionnaires. The latter could include both closed- and open-end questions in order to ensure guidance and the acquisition of the most relevant information and also provide the respondents to express the additional ideas and points of view concerning the assessed aspects.
Conclusion
To sum up, the implementation of change based on EBP is a complicated process that requires thorough planning and a detailed follow-up aimed at assessing the effects produced by the transformations. When the implemented change targets an issue as broad as the nursing understaffing in a hospital, it is critical to evaluate its diverse aspects and dimensions indicating its qualitative and quantitative effects. In regard to the present project, the twofold assessment would include the perspectives of the organization’s staff and patients on the effects produced by the change and the quantitative data in the form of statistics and measurable outcomes and quality indicators.
References
Hinno, S., Partanen, P., & Vehviläinen-Julkunen, K. (2012). Nursing activities, nurse staffing and adverse patient outcomes as perceived by hospital nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21(11), 1584-1593.
Medina-Mirapeix, F., Del Baño-Aledo, M. E., Oliveira-Sousa, S. L., Escolar-Reina, P., & Collins, S. M. (2013). How the rehabilitation environment influences patient perception of service quality: A qualitative study. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 94(6), 1112-1117.
Rogowski, J. A., Staiger, D. O., Patrick, T. E., Horbar, J. D., Kenny, M. J., & Lake, E. T. (2015). Nurse Staffing in Neonatal Intensive Care Units in the United States. Research in Nursing & Health, 38(5), 333-341.