To: Educational Development Unit
Date: 23/03/2022
Subject: Examining the external environment of McDonald’s
Introduction:
McDonald’s is a PLC (Public Limited Company) operating globally. They are the largest fast-food
restaurant in the world with restaurants in almost every country.
Culture
Definition of culture: A people’s or group of people’s views, traditions, and social behaviour (such
as a country, city, or even a school).
Definition of corporate culture: The shared values, attitudes, and norms within a business. It
determines behaviour of employees, management, and leadership. The strength of an
organisations culture can determine its commitment to core values, CSR (Corporate Social
Responsibility), ethics and its stakeholders.
Features of McDonald’s culture:
Handy’s classification of organisational culture is a tool used to highlight several types of
organisational culture, and the advantages and disadvantages of them. It is also useful for identifying
the suitability of a type of culture for a specific business and its external environment.
People focus. McDonald’s culture emphasises the importance of customers and employees. They
show this by serving food to exacting standards for customers and supporting them when they need.
They show the other side by promoting flexibility, opportunity, equality, and development.
Mcdonald’s has a remarkably diverse work force. Their theory is that happy employee's equal
satisfied customers as they will be offered a better service. They want employees to enjoy working
there. (McDonald’s, no date). Because of this they have a people culture, in terms of Handy’s
classification. They have a strong culture in which there are many forms of communication between
employees and their management. As proven by McDonald’s CSR activities, they have a strong focus
on their core values. McDonalds also has a strong recruitment team and process. Restaurant
employees complete a test as part of their application, and answer questions about themselves.
They then get a phone interview followed by an in-person interview. This process ensures that
employees are in line with McDonald’s core values and fit in with their culture.
However, McDonald’s has been known by many of its employees, to be a toxic environment. From
my research I have found that the culture of the company as a whole may be as they intend
however, the culture of each individual restaurant is dependent on its management. Many
McDonald’s restaurants demonstrate a toxic workplace culture. For example, a crew member in
Southend, Essex stated that their hard work was not recognised by their manager. They were never
promoted or praised, while the manager’s nephew who only worked for a month received a
promotion. (Indeed, 2022)
What the organisation says about themselves:
,we uniquely feed and foster communities. We serve delicious food people feel good about eating,
with convenient locations and hours and affordable prices, and by working hard to offer the speed,
choice, and personalization our customers expect. (McDonald’s, no date).
What stakeholders say about them:
An article stated that McDonald’s has a culture problem. This was due to the controversy with one of
McDonalds former CEOs (Chief Executive Officer) Steve Easterbrook. He allegedly had sexual
relations with three employees. An investigation was conducted which led to Easterbrook’s removal
from the company. Easterbrook was offered a severance package, which McDonalds then sued to
revoke as it surfaced that he may have lied during the investigation. James Brumley the writer of the
article stated that the situation was “a much bigger symptom of a bigger corporate culture
problem.” (The Motley Fool, 2020)
CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility
Definition - Integration of social and environmental activities within a business, to positively
impact the environment they operate in / a non-binding statement, made by a company outlining
how they will responsibly interact, with the social and environmental area in which they operate.
(Paraphrased from Ask traders, 2021)
With the rise of ethical and green investing, alongside increased pressure from stakeholders for
companies to be sustainable. A CSR policy can be a deal breaker for investors, future qualified
talent, and customers.
What the organisation says about themselves:
McDonald's state claim that they take social responsibility very seriously. McDonald’s has had a CSR
policy for many years, and even prior to that they were engaging in CSR related activities.
McDonald’s restaurants use low energy LED bulbs instead of conventional light bulbs that are less
sustainable. McDonald’s also incorporates a sustainable sourcing policy. They even partner with four
UK football associations to support coaches, children, and football players. Their CSR activities are in
line with their mission and values, as well as their aims and objectives. One of McDonald’s core
values is to do with community. Their mission is to make delicious feel-good moments easy for
everyone. (McDonald’s, 2019). McDonald’s started a charity called, Ronald McDonald House Charity.
They provide a “home away from home” for sick children, giving them free accommodation to stay if
they need. In 2021, they supported 3,916 families across 12 Houses for an average of 16 nights, for
who were living an average of 62 miles away from the hospital, helping to save families an average
of £1,240 in out-of-pocket accommodations costs (RMHC, 2022). Fostering communities is part of
McDonald’s mission and vision statements. Giving back to the community and supporting those who
cannot fend for themselves, is a catalytic factor in achieving this. McDonald’s does not receive
anything from doing this apart from a good reputation.
What stakeholders say about them:
There are mixed reviews on McDonald’s from employees. Some say management is horrible, it is a
toxic work environment, and the only positive was getting paid. Others say that other employees are
fun to work with and building relationships with co-workers is easy, the team is supportive, and they
are given good shifts (Indeed, 2022). Overall, it seems that the workplace culture depends on
management and franchisees. McDonald’s should be improving their interview processes and
training for franchisees, showing them how to pick good managers and manage themselves.
, Ethics
Ethics definition: moral guidelines that guide a person's behaviour or how they carry out activities.
Business ethics definition: Moral guidelines that determine appropriate business rules and
procedures on potentially contentious matters such as discrimination, corporate governance,
corporate social responsibility, bribery, insider trading, fiduciary responsibilities is referred to as
business ethics.
McDonald’s albeit extensively claims that they are ethical, and they contribute towards the
betterment of our planet and its communities, McDonald’s at its large scale does have a massive
impact on the world which is not always good. For example:
False portrayal of their products
A growing number of the population is concerned about their health, and people are increasingly
cautious about what goes in their bodies. It is a well-known fact that fast-food products are highly
processed and unhealthy. Because of this McDonald’s strategically advertises their food, to seem as
though it is okay to consume and even healthy. For example, they revamped their “happy meal” to
come with fruits and vegetables. Although this is does make the meal healthier, the option of fizzy
drinks is still available with the meal. These fizzy drinks contain exceedingly excessive amounts of
sugar, and the ones that do not include artificial sweeteners and chemicals. It is clear that
“healthier” does not necessarily mean healthy. McDonald’s ignores this and still markets their food
as a healthy option to include as part of your regular dietary lifestyle, rather than a once in a week or
so treat. McDonald’s use of psychological marketing is immoral and most definitely unethical, as
they are falsely advertising their products and trying to integrate their unhealthy product, into
people's “healthy” diets, making average people unhealthy and thus increasing their likelihood of
developing diet related diseases or even death.
McDonald’s being the fast-food giant it is has an exceptionally large carbon footprint. They release
53.7 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, into our atmosphere each year. Their carbon
footprint is so large in fact that they produce more greenhouse gases than the entire country of
Norway and the USA’s cement production (Bloomberg green, 2021).
Treatment of their workforce
Although it is an integral part of McDonald’s core values, and they consider employees among their
most important stakeholders. McDonald’s has been known by many employees as a substandard
place to work with poor management. However, others say that McDonald’s is a suitable place to
work with great benefits and hours. The treatment of McDonald’s restaurant workers depends on
their management, which is usually dependent on franchisees. The following reviews outline the
duality of treatment to McDonald’s workers in different McDonald’s restaurants. Someone in
Worcestershire said, “can be stressful at times, but overall pay definitely makes up for it, and its
more than fair.” they gave it 4 stars. Someone else in south Yorkshire said, “the only good part was
getting paid.” someone is Essex said that it was a “toxic work environment.” someone else said that
management was “supportive towards my flexibility and family situation.” (Indeed, 2022). There are
mixed reviews about working at McDonald’s and the biggest factor in determining the experience is
management. Again, McDonald’s should be improving their interview processes and training for
franchisees, showing them how to pick good managers and manage themselves.
