Chick-Fil-A Organizational Structure

Overview of Organizational Structure and Design
The articles referenced below give an overview of the structuring of Chick-Fil-A. They detail everything from the way the hierarchy of positions is designed, to the way employees in the organization are treated to keep workplace morale high. The first article is very cut and dry, but also very informative. It lays out every position held in the company, from the CEO to the front line worker. The chart is very extensive, and shows just how many people are needed to run a corporation at this level of success and magnitude. Chick-Fil-A places a very high value on the personal growth of their employees, no matter how low the ranking. The second article is an overview of the entire company, but contains

good information on the departmentalization of the organization, the leadership style, and even the founder’s core values which are still respected to this day. This alone shows how strong the organizational culture of Chick-Fil-A is.
Article 1:
Org Chart Chick-fil-A. (2016)
This article details every position held within the company Chick-Fil-A. Positions are listed in order from top to bottom. Decisions within the company are made in a trickle-down fashion, so it is easy to tell who answers to whom. The founder, Truett Cathy, is listed even though he no longer holds an active position. This illustrates the amount of respect the company has for the person who set their core Christian values in motion. Chick-Fil-A resembles a tall structure of control, with a flat twist. In the broad scope it is tall, ranging from corporate executive to front line worker. In each individual location, however, it is more flat. There are store managers who oversee daily operations from the head, then there are team leaders, section leaders, and sections members. Everyone under the manager is considered almost equal.
Article 2:
Chick fil-a managerial analysis presentation. (2015)

This article gives pertinent information about why Chick-Fil-A operates in their unique way, and explains the internal structure and how it runs so smoothly. There is a large amount of focus around customer appreciation, encouraging people to bring their families in for meals, and tailoring their image to be friendly to people of all ages. The company runs its operations in a centralized format, meaning decisions are made from the top, in a trickle-down fashion. Rules and regulations are expected based on the Christian faith of the founder.
This means that Chick-Fil-A wants its workers to have integrity, and follow the regulations laid out for them for the right reasons, and not simply for fear of losing their job. Each employee can be tasked with multiple responsibilities, ranging from making food to serving it. These tasks are very clear, resembling a mechanistic form of organization. Chick-Fil-A also believes that promotions should happen infrequently in order to give each worker the opportunity to experience personal growth in each position held. This ties back into the founder’s core Christian values. Truett Cathy believes in leading by example, and structured his restaurant chain around that belief. The employee retention rate of 95% shows just how satisfied and motivated Chick-Fil-A’s workforce is.

Overview of Organizational Culture
The first article that is a piece about Dee Ann Turner’s, “It’s My Pleasure: The Impact of Extraordinary Talent and Compelling Culture” and about how “she (Turner) shares the secret sauce of Chick-Fil-A’s highly effective business model”; the company’s culture (Kruse). Kruse dissects some of the main points of Turner’s piece and ties them back to how organizational culture is a major key to Chick-Fil-A’s success. The second article spotlights three specific companies, Salesforce, Google, and Chick-fil-A, for their proficiency in “Creating an Organization Culture to Engage Employees”. The article provides excellent points on how Chick-fil-A effectively drives employee engagement, which is vital to having an effective culture within the company.
Article 1:
Kruse, Kevin. (2015). "How Chick-fil-A Created a Culture That Lasts." Forbes. Forbes Magazine
Kruse broke down Turner’s book into three main points in the article which most informed our research on Chick-fil-A relative to organizational behavior.

He first focused on recruiting for the culture and how it is important for Chick-fil-A to select not only the best talent, but the best fit for the company. Chick-fil-A processes their selection based off of three C’s: character, competency, and chemistry. Kruse then focuses on how Chick-fil-A nurtures the talent that they have selected by telling them the truth when it comes to performance, expectations, and other things of that sort. The final point is about how Chick-fil-A engages their guests in their unique culture. Kruse (2015) states that Chick-fil-A wants customers and any guest that walks through the restaurant’s doors to be “treated with honor, dignity, and

respect”.
This article relates to the course concepts about keeping a culture alive. Kruse’s first point directly relates to the selection process of keeping a culture running throughout the company. The fact that Chick-fil-A stresses importance on finding people that would fit in to the culture they have created really has a positive impact on how successful they have been over the years. With the employees complimenting the vibe and the culture, Chick-fil-A will continue to have growth not only externally with yearly awards and recognitions yet internally as well with satisfied employees.
Article 2:
Finnick, Rob. (2014). "Creating an Organizational Culture to Engage Employees." Employee Engagement Employee Feedback Company Culture Strategies the StackHands Blog. DISQUS
Engaging the employee in the culture is the main focus in the second article. Based on various interviews, case studies, and employee reviews, this article focused on the success of three companies with an efficient culture, one of which being Chick-Fil-A. The article breaks into a series of bullet points of how Chick-fil-A successfully drives employee engagement. According to Finnick (2014), some of the engagement drivers include having managers who are extensively trained on people skills, clear company values that are regularly promoted store to store, and a continuous training program that rewards high achievers quickly.
Those specific points became most useful in our research that are relative to creating an ethical organizational culture. One way that the article relates to creating that type of culture is how the managers have not only the functional skills but the people skills as well. With these skills the managers really stand out from the others, especially because of how guest oriented the culture is. As these managers excel at their position they become a visible role model for the employees and customers, which is a key component in creating an ethical organizational culture. Another way that the article relates to an ethical culture is how the organization rewards high achievers in their training programs. Visibly rewarding the ethical act of excelling in training programs is also a key component in creating the ethical organizational culture. This also provides motivation and confidence into the employee which helps with performance and the success of the individual restaurants.

Overview of Organizational Job Satisfaction:
These sources that go over job satisfaction in Chick-Fil-A provide an overview of the satisfaction of each job, the retention rate of employees, as well as the overall morale of the company.

The articles were very informative and they showed the statistics for employees within the company as well as certain aspects and culture the company portrays. Benefits, pay scale, and specific values for employees are explained and shown to be incredibly constructive to the overall performance of employees on the job. The first article is about the retention rate and the loyalty of the employees to the company. The second article is more about the value of the company and what the employees earn while working there, as well as the morale and dedication that drives them to work

hard.
Article 1:
Employee Loyalty and Retention Make Chick-Fil-A a Success. (2001). Retrieved March 22, 2016, from http://www.workforce.com/articles/employee-loyalty-and-retention-make-chick-fil-a-a-success

This article from workforce.com starts out by articulating the value of the company and how the retention rate at Chick-Fil-A is incredible compared to the national average. It explains that the company has this retention rate because the founder, Truett Cathy, implemented the “loyalty-effect economics early on in the beginning of the company. By having employees loyal to the company, it means the company will not have to look outside of its venture to find anyone it needs for any upper level management positions. The article then moves on to talk about how the store operators can make a large sum of money if they work hard to create a successful company in which they are proud of. These operators start out with a $30,000 base salary while also making 50% of the stores earnings. This creates and environment for hard work that will ultimately lead to success. After this section, the article goes on to talk about the scholarships they offer up to $18,000. This means the company is not only interested in how you do with the company, they are also interested in your own personal endeavors to make you a better overall individual.
From this article, there were multiple points of reference that specifically apply to course material that we covered in class. For starters, the good wages that the company offers as well as the benefits the company gives you are all important concepts learned in our organizational behavior class. These are intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that provide happiness on the outside of one’s occupation as well as happiness from the inside of the company that drives workers to stay focused and dedicated. Also, this article covered the company’s values such as how they prefer to have people who want to work diligently with the company and have no plans to leave the workplace for an alternative occupation. These are some of the course concepts covered in the first article for organizational job satisfaction.
Article 2:
Schmall, E. (2007, July 6). “The Cult of Chick-fil-A.” Retrieved March 22, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0723/080.html
This articles by forbes.com highlights the loyalty that employees of Chick-Fil-A feel towards their company. Many people apply to the company, but the founder has always made it clear that “If you don’t intend to stay for life, you needn’t apply.” This literally means that if you want to work for the company, you must have intentions to stay there and work hard until retirement. This is a huge reason for their incredibly low turnover rate of 5% compared to the national average of 35%. This article also talks about what it takes to open a franchise restaurant and maintain it to satisfactory levels. The founder has always said that he wants people who can manage their own personal life successfully before they can even come close to getting the chance to run one of his chains. To open one of these franchised restaurants it only takes $5,000, which is also incredible low compared to other fast food chains. With all of this being how it is, it makes sure that the employees are satisfied with their job while also giving excellent customer service to those who choose to dine with Chick-Fil-A.
This article relates to a few course concepts covered in class that are beneficial to the work environment. It goes over common core culture that is held in the workplace, specifically at Chick-Fil-A. This culture being one that praises God and works hard and diligently for a long period of time, not a short time followed by leaving the organization. It also talks about the values of each individual person, which is similar to the common core culture but slightly different because this is more of what the employee values in their own life that they bring into the workplace. Lastly the article also refers to organizational promotion. This is when an employee stays with the company for a long period of time, which results in the organization hiring from within for its higher rated employee occupations.