Leadership Development Term Paper

Leadership Development

This analysis will consider deferent leadership development systems at a structured organization such as McDonalds as well as an organization that operates in more of a creative space such as Facebook. The definitions of leadership in such organizations differ significantly and require different approaches. Facebook is looking for more out-of-the-box innovators while McDonald's is seeking leaders that can fulfill needed roles with the structures that they have already designed. The different requirements within these organizations produce an interesting dichotomy in perceptions of leadership development that can be studied to provide insights about leadership in general.

McDonalds

Career Development at McDonald's combines a focus on personal growth and development with talent management objectives in order to help employees to perform at their very best -- while experiencing personal career satisfaction. McDonald's has a well-developed leadership development program in place. McDonald's defines leadership development as (McDonald's, N.d.):

As the world changes and new business challenges arise, we need leaders who can inspire and guide McDonald's to new heights. Our future success requires leadership not just in management roles, but at all levels of the organization. We expect every employee to live McDonald's Values and demonstrate leadership, no matter what your level or position.

Career Development refers to all activities that we undertake as individuals and as an organization that contribute to learning, growth, competency building and/or movement from job to job.

The general definition that McDonald's gives for leadership development is well designed and seemingly tailored to their specific organization. However, much of the definition is somewhat vague.But since the organization is so large this is undoubtedly by necessity. The company promotes career development that is grounded in talent management and encompasses: career planning, Individual Development plans, career maps, succession planning, learning activities, etc. The process is defined in steps for the individual as well. The career development process includes (McDonald's, N.d.):

Know yourself

Know your options

Create your plan

Learn and develop

McDonald's leadership model is rather static and the model has specific leadership functions that it tries to fill. The organization is a fairly structure organization in general and leaders in this organization will serve as problem solvers rather than redesigning a significant amount of operations.

Facebook

Figure 1 - Facebook Organizational Departments (Facebook, N.d.)

Facebook is more of a creative organization than more structured organizations such as McDonald's. Therefore, they do not offer the same kind of structured leadership development program that can be found at McDonald's. Instead they offer more of a customized approach that support individual leaders and their career development of a more personalized scale. Although Facebook does not offer details about their leadership development approach directly, fortunately they are actually hiring for a "leadership development consultant" which provides insights into their particular development process. This position states that (Facebook):

Facebook is a culture of curious and adaptive learners, and our people are naturally thirsty for opportunities to learn new things in pursuit of building an incredible product experience for the people that use our….....