Being the District Manager of Dunkin Doughnuts
Jennifer Clifford
MGT330: Management for Organizations
Instructor: Michael Marticek
April 27, 2015

Being the District Manager of Dunkin Doughnuts
Introduction
For the last two years, I was the manager of a Dunkin Donuts location that has been ranked as the top performing store in the system. Recently, after review my performance over the last two years, they have promoted me to district manager and given me the responsibility of opening another five new locations over the next two years. With this new job, I will be responsible for structuring, staffing and operating these five new locations, which means coming up with job designs, an organizational design, the recruiting and selection of employees, and the training and performance reviews of the employees.

Job Design
“Job design occurs when managers determine the tasks needed to be done, who will do them, and the selection criteria to be used to choose employees and place them on the job (Baack, 2014). When coming up with the job design I need to look at every job that will need to be done at each location and what parts of each job will work well with one another. I do not want the job of a cook to be that of a drive through attendant as well, if I do they might burn the food.
Job design consists of job analysis, job description and job specification and each one of these is important to the job design. Job analysis is when the human resources department works with the managers of the departments to assign tasks to the jobs. In job description, they create an informal list of tasks that is used in two ways, one being used in the application process to applicants can see what they might be doing, and the other is generally in the company manual. Job specification is the list that the HR department uses as and is a list of requirements that an applicant must have to be considered for the job. “Enriched job design is a way to designing a job in a way to promote an employee’s performance and to challenge their skills and ability’s while helping them grow”, (Drach-Zahavy, 2004).

Organizational Design Now that I have laid out the job designs for the positions that I will be hiring for, I will need to come up with the organizational design for the locations to follow. “Organizational design is the process by which managers make specific organizing choices that result in the particular kind of organizational structure for the company” (Baack, 2014). By creating an organizational design, I will have laid out what kind of company I will be running and ensuring that each location will follow the same path to achieve this design.
The organizational design consists of division of labor, span of control, formalization and number of authority levels. Each one of these fields needs to be accounted for in the design process. Division of labor should be equal and oriented to the employee’s strengths, span of control means having enough managers for all the employees so they are not overwhelmed. Formalization is listing the rules of the job and the origination while number of authority levels pertains to the chain of command and making sure everyone knows this chain.

Recruiting and Selection Now it is time to start looking for employees to run these five locations, and this is the recruiting process. When it comes to recruiting it seems that social media is the key to finding possible candidates to fill the position. “Social media sites have become such a prevalent part of the recruiting process that most recruiting software providers are integrating them into their application tracking and assessment process.”, (Gale, 2013). Using sites like LinkedIn I can look through connections for people that fit the requirements of the positions that I am looking for and get in contact with them instead of waiting for them to come to me. There are job listing sites that can promote the positions that are open, and local sources like the newspaper is a good way to go as well. Once I have gather all of the applications I will start the selection process. This process means going through the applicants and looking at their qualifications to see if they meet the job requirements. Once I have found someone that I think fits this I would have them come in for an interview so that I can get to know their personality and attitude to ensure a good fit with the company. When it comes to applications, you can only see what is written about a person, their job history, education and skill set. With an interview can get to know the person themselves and compare to what the company is looking for.

Training and Performance Appraisals Once I have hired the employees needed for the positions at the new locations I will start training with them. This process can be done in a few ways, one being one-on-one or through technology. Each position will require different training and not all training can be done at the same time. For the general training, like the rules and OSHA standards and store policies, all the employees can be trained at one time. For each position though there will be different training periods and will only be given to those people in that position. Management training will be done separate from cashier training or cook training. The goal is to train each group of people so that when they start their job they have the knowledge to do the job accurately.
When it comes to performance appraisals of employees it needs to be done more than twice a year. “The weakness in the current appraisal process is that it minimizes the conversation about performance to one or twice a year. Discussing performance infrequently doesn’t lead to behavioral change because employees need constant feedback to improve”, (Freeman, 2014). Sitting down with an employee once a year and telling them how they have or have not improved in the last year is not beneficial. A yearly formal review should be completed, but a quarterly review would be more beneficial to the employee and can improve their production and attitude when they know they are doing their job correctly or what they need to improve upon.

Conclusion
Since I have been promoted to the District Manager position for Dunkin Donughts, I have had to figure out my plan for the five new locations they want to open in the next two years. Since the store I managed for the last two years was rated as the top store in the system, I feel that I have the skills to do this job. This new job requires me to be responsible for structuring, staffing and operating these five new locations, which means coming up with job designs, an organizational design, the recruiting and selection of employees, and the training and performance reviews of the employees. This plan for these new five locations is a universal plan, that if needed can be adapted or changed to fit the locations needs.

References:

Baack, D., Reilly, M., & Minnick, C., & (2014). The five functions of effective management (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Drach-Zahavy, A. (2004). The proficiency trap: How to balance enriched job designs and the team's need for support. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(8), 979-996. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224898795?accountid=32521

Freeman, C. (2014). Annual Appraisals Seldom Lead to Behavioral Change, Webinar Told. HR Focus, 91(1), 10-11.

Gale, S. F. (2013). In E-Recruiting, There’s a New ‘Recruit’. Workforce Management, 92(5), 20- 22.