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Welcome to

ASSIGNMENT PART 2

task 2 :  UNDERCOVER BOSS – FATBURGER S4EP12 

Three principles of SENGE (1990)

most relevant to the organization.

Keyboard and Mouse

1.0 Three principles of SENGE (1990) most relevant to the organization.

Personal mastery is the process of living and working purposefully towards a vision, in alignment with one's values and in a state of constant learning about oneself and the reality in which one exists." Personal Mastery and Self-leadership can be considered synonymous. Personal mastery is the process of living and working purposefully towards a vision, in alignment with one's values and in a state of constant learning about oneself and the reality in which one exists." Personal Mastery and Self-leadership can be considered synonymous. The foundation of the journey towards personal mastery is taking steps to build on personality, beliefs, values, strengths and areas for development. It is important as it gives you the thinking ability. It will help to shape to move forward on your journey towards personal mastery. Personal mastery is about living a life with purpose and meaning. Personal mastery is about knowing where you want to go and how you're going to get there. Andy Weber Horton is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Fatburger. Andy is a CEO who cares deeply about the effective quality of work. Andy has a mission and vision to develop more Fatburger branches across America. Andy knew that to realize this dream, Andy had to be aware of the various obstacles and challenges faced in some of the organizations that had developed. So, Andy goes undercover to find out the situation going on at some Fatburger organization. So our point here is not about undercover, but about Andy's intent to do disguise in an organization built by himself. We truly believe that Andy knows what he is doing, why Andy wants to do this show, what the purpose is. Andy already knows it in advance. This is because Andy has a very strong personal mastery in him. Personal mastery is not just about understanding oneself but also about contributing back to society and others. It is about understanding how you can best help the lives of others and taking steps towards achieving your goals. After finding out what happened at Fatburger, Andy became someone who understood the situation of the workers after Andy saw how their superiors oppressed the workers at Fatburger. The solution that Andy did was that Andy had established an appreciation system for the employees. This is so that long-serving employees feel valued and will increase their enthusiasm and motivation to continue working and contribute to its effectiveness.

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Mental Models

Personal Mastery

According to Senge (1990), mental models consist of generalization and assumptions on how we understand the world based on experience, beliefs, education, and actions.  In simple terms, mental models are how we handle the information and how we act on it. In a learning organization, mental models are important as they can be used as tools in decision making to solve problems ( Aşcı, Tan, & Altıntaş, 2016). 

Based on one of the Undercover Boss episodes, Ep 12 Season 4, Fatburger, mental models can be seen by one of the employees, Lisa, the shift leader. Just to let you know, the restaurant that Lisa worked in has problems with supplies such as meat, paper bags, etc. As she knows that the restaurant is always out of stores, she had to ask the cook whether the meat is available or not. If there is no more meat, etc., she had to tell the customer about the situation, and she knows that the customer will get upset, and even worst, the customers won't come back. In this situation, Lisa receives information from her experience that the restaurant always out of supplies. Lisa reacts to the problems by asking the cook or her co-workers first before taking orders and apologizing to her customers for the inconvenience. This situation shows how mental models help Lisa to handle the situation.

Mental models allow us to understand life and thinking tools to make decisions and solve problems. After Lisa told Andy about the issues that happen in the restaurant, he knows that the reason why the restaurant is underperformed is because of lack of supplies. Andy, the CEO of Fatburger, took action by giving the restaurant manager training to deal with the stores to avoid the problems anymore.

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Shared Vision

Another principle of Senge (1990) that is relevant in Fatburger restaurant is a shared vision. Based on the Uncover Boss of Fatburger restaurant, it can be observed that the organization is practising shared invention whereby the vision and mission of Fatburger's founder, Lovie Yancey, has been transferred and implemented by all members of Fatburger since 1952. Despite the replacement of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2003, Andy Wiederhorn still practices the shared vision of Lovie in the organization until now. The mission of Fatburger is fixed from the beginning where customers would be able to custom-order their burgers. In contrast, the task is best known for the fresh-never-frozen lean-beef, chicken, turkey and vegetables together with sandwiches, hand-scooped real ice cream milkshakes, homemade-from-scratch onion rings and build-your-own-burger experience. Besides that, there are three Fatburger's values which include knowledge, quality and taste. It is discovered employees perform their job tasks according to the shared vision, which has stimulated them to commitment and enrolment. For example, Manager Val and her workers in the Sherman Oaks, California franchise have always ensured that the ingredients of making burgers are high in quality, such as grilling the fresh patties and placing fresh vegetables and the right toppings in the burgers. Another evidence to show that this organization is applying the shared vision principle is supervisor Ramon and his staff practices in Puritan bakery, Carson, California. Ramon and his workers are committed to producing high-quality buns for the Fatburger's restaurant by ensuring that the buns are in perfect shape and size before packing them in the bun packaging. Therefore, the shared vision principle applies to Fatburger's restaurant as all of the members can understand the deeper purpose of the organization according to the founder's aspiration.

Marble Surface

In conclusion, our opinions on the clip of Undercover Boss for Fatburger may vary from one another on the organization of Fatburger helped us to understand that regardless of the experiences we have of a situation or problem. It is important to collect feedback and evaluation from people of related field, have a group discussion within the organizations for solutions, or even find external assistance to obtain different perspectives on various issues. When other views are collected and assessed, we can narrow towards the most significant issue that creates problems in the long run. Nonetheless, our group agreed on this – the organization of Fatburger's learning is likely to be formed based on personal mastery, mental models, and shared vision among the employees. Align with the notion that different individuals have different opinions when encountering problems in the organization, the CEO of Fatburger. Andy Wiederhorn is willing to disguise himself to be at the same level as his employees to speak up their minds comfortably. From this, we can see that the CEO himself, as the leader, practices personal mastery to encourage a learning environment in his organization. He wants to experience first-hand how his workers viewed his company. Through their feedback, he assessed their expectations and discussed with the management to find possible measures in creating a positive and safe working environment for employees in the franchises. He also evaluated underperforming at certain branches of franchises because he must have believed that every franchisee represents his product. Since he wanted to introduce new products to all franchises, he wanted to ensure everyone is on the same level through a shared vision. There were employees in the franchises who opposed the idea of new products because they know the customers' preferences better than the higher management themselves and presented the idea to let customers choose for themselves. This unintentionally allows mutual sharing of visions since the CEO was in disguise as the employees could openly view their opinions and gave suggestions worthy of being considered. It also allows the CEO to see the mental model employees based on work qualifity, teamwork and overcome the stressors in their workplace.

Understanding how a leader can influence the whole management through these three learning practices: personal mastery, shared vision, mental models, we believe these should be implemented locally in Malaysian organization, especially in the context of making decisions. When a problem in the organization requires immediate interventions, the higher management of the organization should give tasks to all departments to come out with innovative solutions and rewards them for their endeavours. When we look at the current state of companies during the pandemic, we can observe that many people were laid off, and businesses were shut down. People were confused at first and unable to comprehend what they would face in the future ahead because digitalization practices for most organizations are not fully implemented. We can understand that probably most organizations were too comfortable with their achievements that not many were ready to advance in the digital world. Hence, firstly, the leaders must embrace personal mastery by owning the innovation process together with other subordinates to achieve organizational learning. Leaders must look further and be clear on what is to accomplish in the organization. This ensures the organization utilizes every available resource systematically to avoid wastage. In addition, subordinates are not just merely followers who shared the same vision, but they should also be given equal chances of learning to become successful leaders as they embark on the act of implementing changes together. This builds the mental models of managers among the subordinates because they learn to identify which kind of problems cause unproductivity from the perspective of their leaders. The traditional practices of only those in higher ranks who are given the position as leaders can make decisions must change for the organization and other employees to experience and for an organization to achieve long-term goals. When an organization's decision-making process is decentralized, everyone feels responsible for the decisions made. When leaders engage their employees, they inspire them to innovate, communicate, and share their vision in the learning process, resulting in better ways to manage their company. By creating a safe environment for knowledge sharing, the company can see a significant increase in production and competence. When an organization's decision-making process is decentralized, everyone feels responsible for the decisions made. When leaders engage their employees, they inspire them to innovate, communicate, and share their vision in the learning process, resulting in better ways to manage their company. By creating a safe environment for knowledge sharing, the company can see a significant increase in production and competence. Mckenzie (2021) shared that an engaged leader must have a clear vision and inspire innovation teams to communicate and share their image in the learning process. Through the concept of "Three P" (purpose, passion, and perseverance), he believes that leaders must share and communicate their visions with their followers to increase their capacity to grow the learning process in achieving goals.

REFERENCES

Aşcı, H. B., Tan, F. Z., & Altıntaş, F. (2016). A strategic approach for learning organizations: Mental models. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 235, 2-11.

 

Mckenzie. K., (2021). 3 ps of leadership: Purpose, passion and persistence. Linkedin.com. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-ps-leadership-purpose-passion-persistence-kevin-mckenzie/

 

Senge, P.M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, NY: Doubleday Currency

2.0 Concluding Remark of Our Opinions and Ways to Implement Practices in Malaysian Organizations.

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