What are some of the main problems and related issues that you see within this scenario/case?

            The downsizing strategy adopted by John; the President of the company looks to be a major issue here with the decision-making process. It has been observed in so many cases that 50% decisions made by organizations do fail due to various reasons, so whatever an organization does; it should be proactive enough to avoid those failures or at least minimize their effect on the organization. According to Paul Nutt (2002), the organizations make decisions and spent money on those decisions, which have are not valuable for the organization at all, and most of the managers repeat this mistake several times. John has made the decision that things cannot be handled in financial terms, so the only option is to go for downsizing of the company. Apparently, the decision looks to be a considerable one, but when things will be analyzed rationally, it would be known that decision made by John is not an appropriate one. It is true that rational decision making does have both pros and cons, but process can be balanced in a way that only pros can be attained from the rational decisions (Heracleous 1994)

        John has made an estimation based on his perception that downsizing is the only solution to decrease in demand made by the customers, whereas there can be many other issues, which may have played their part in decreasing the interest level of customers. For instance, there can be situation, where marketing efforts are not good enough to attract customers. So, John is certainly wrong in his perception and going with a wrong decision. He must understand the fact that a decision cannot be made on perception, rather logic and rational needed to make any viable decision. If John wants to assess the situation that why things are not moving in right directions, then he should go for a proper evaluation of the situation. He should identify that where things are going wrong, then a rational decision should be made accordingly, which has some logic behind. In difficult situations, the leader must stand encourage his subordinates and ask for help to grow collectively, buy John did the opposite by sending a wrong message to his employees, which has created more panic and confusion. He must look for rational decision as it can be beneficial in so many ways. A rational decision is based on some logic and data, which means that decision, would be successful more likely. In addition to that rational decision works step by step in a sequence so that things can be in order (Simon 1979)

References of the main problems and related issues that you see within this scenario/case

emirates247.com. 2019. 5 major problems that McDonald's is facing. april 1.

GREGORY, LAWRENCE. 2017. McDonald’s Operations Management, 10 Decisions, Productivity. feb 05.

Heracleous, Loizos Th. 1994. "Rational Decision Making: Myth or Reality?" Management Development Review 7 (4): 16-23.

Lupo, Lisa. 2007. [Best Practices] The Quality 'Cs' of McDonald's. june 29. https://www.qualityassurancemag.com/article/-best-practices--the-quality--cs--of-mcdonald-s/.

Ovenden, James. 2019. McDonald's’ Supply Chain Success Shows The Benefits Of Collaboration. https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/mcdonalds-supply-chain-success-shows-the-benefits-of-collaboration.

Quain, Sampson. 2019. The Decision-Making Process in an Organization. Accessed March 31, 2019. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/decisionmaking-process-organization-21532.html.

Simon, Herbert A. 1979. "Rational Decision Making in Business Organizations." American Economic Review 69 (4): 493-513.

thomas, rachel. 2014. How Digital Technology is Changing McDonald’s Structure, Offer and Customer Relationships. april 17. https://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/digital-technology-changing-mcdonalds-structure-offer-customer-relationships-0851153.

ukeaasys.com. 2016. Innovation and Technology Strategies of Mcdonalds. 12 5.

ukessays.com. 2016. Quality and Systems Management in McDonalds. 12 5. https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/quality-and-systems-management-in-mcdonalds-business-essay.php.