McDonald’s, one of the largest participants in the fast food industry worldwide, is renowned for its hamburgers. Brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald started the first restaurant in 1948. A hamburger that costs just half of the competitors because the self-service method saved the cost of hiring waiters and customers to get their food quickly as burgers are prepared in advance, packed and then heated under a heating lamp. Instead, after seeing potential in their restaurant idea in 1955 Ray Kroc came up with a franc for the brothers and formed the company the same year, later buying out the brothers in 1961. The company has continued its domestic and international growth. To ensure that Mc Donald’s stakeholders work on the same priorities and objectives, it is crucial that they have the same way of thinking and communicating, principles and norms. Thus, the corporate culture of Mcdonald’s helps the business place its priorities for the industry. As the basis of corporate success, McDonalds’ corporate culture stresses the value of workers and customers. Moreover, the company’s corporate culture greatly influences many people’s practices, behaviors, and beliefs. There are five primary characteristics of McDonald’s organizational culture that lead it to success.
Firstly, McDonald’s promotes innovation and risk-taking characteristics. Given the continuity of McDonald’s operations, the organization doesn’t fear taking chances and tinkering with their menu. The original menu featured only a hamburger, fries, shake and drinks. Throughout the years, the chain has added breakfast sets, happy meals, nuggets and a lot. Failed attempts like McPizza and McSpaghetti have been made, but without those risks McDonald’s might not have developed into the multinational giant we know today. The reason McDonald’s is willing to take risk is because the organization knows that responding to customer needs and desires is important. For instance, as more and more people became more conscientious about their health, the company abandoned the oversize option and began offering healthier choices. In addition, the company offers regional programs based on local collections. The biggest change came in 1975, when a McDonald’s restaurant near an Arizona military base provided the first drive-thru service for soldiers who wore camouflage and could not leave their vehicles according to military law.
Besides, the second characteristic that captures the essence of McDonald’s organizational culture is people orientation. The organizational culture of McDonald’s puts emphasis on the need and growth of the employees. The core principles and professional behavior principles of the company highlight the significance of helping citizens. This is reasonable, given that McDonald’s is a service company. The organizational culture of the business allows workers to involve the administration to help develop processes and practices to support workers. Other than that, McDonald’s employees need to communicate with the public and their colleagues. Although friendly work conversations are vital to any company, here a few former McDonald’s employees who say their success was due to the friendly treatment of their co-workers. A case in point is Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge found that her working experience at McDonald’s gave her the opportunity to observe customers’ needs, give appropriate advice, apologize if something went wrong and stick to her principles if someone lost their mind. In addition, McDonald’s also provides executives the right to help team members succeed. As a former McDonald’s manager Andrew Card, chief of staff for President George W. Bush, said it is his role to decide how to help each child grow. If an employee is dissatisfied or incompetent at the cashier desk, manager may switch them to other position to leverage their strengths and interests.
127 our experts are availableright now
Additionally, aggressiveness is one of the characteristics of McDonald’s organizational culture. The organizational culture of McDonald puts emphasis on the significance of lifelong learning. Their conviction is that individual learning can boost profitability, quality and performance in business. The business offers training and growth opportunities through university, internships, global mobility and leadership development programs in Hamburger to facilitate individual learning. Such efforts ensure McDonald’s keeps a culture of company that inspires workers to continue learning. Since McDonald’s has so many branches, it is also in favor of organizational learning. McDonald’s seeks to use individual learning to build organizational knowledge and improve business development. Hamburger University acts as a training school, highlighting consistent restaurant practices, operation, efficiency and cleanliness. Franchise owners are expected to engage in the program to learn and fulfill the sight of Ray Kroc which promote input and sharing of knowledge among employees. Not only can the program enforce consistency but can also increase productivity and customer sense of belonging. For example, Mcfries have a look and taste that you can find almost the same, no matter where you are in the world. A strong brand identity helps McDonald’s develop trust and memories with consumers which will turn them into loyal customers and less likely to switch to other competitors.
Other than that, McDonald’s also promotes team orientation characteristic in organizational culture. The success of McDonald’s is the function of the team, not the effort of one person. McDonald’s does not have very tightly integrated teams, but without adequate teamwork and collaboration they will be unable to offer their goods and services. The team is better represented as a working team on the floor of a McDonald’s restaurant. During shifts, team members have an area of focus. If they quit their jobs or are not efficient, other members of the production line will not be able to complete their work and the production line will be affected. For instance, when a consumer orders with the cashier, the cashier inputs the order into a computer and the data is displayed in the restaurant’s sandwich and barbecue kitchen. The barbecue worker gets the meat ready and places it on the bun. The sandwich maker then assembles the sandwich by sandwich style and consumer special request. If the barbeque worker quit, another employee would have to take his place or the whole process of producing the food would stop. Consequently, the restaurant teams at McDonald are in turn interdependent. Although most workers are qualified to multitask in different positions, they still cannot do it all at once. Without a combined effort, without enough encouragement to deliver quality and fast service, all team members will fail. At the same time, the manager plays a very important role in improving the morale and motivation to lead the development of the team.
Lastly, McDonald’s organization is a detail-oriented company that includes detailed rules and steps on how workers should do their jobs, such as what hamburgers and beverages look like when they are ready. McDonald’s human resource management points out that diversity and inclusion are fundamental elements of the corporate culture of the company. McDonald’s acknowledges the importance of inclusion and diversity in leveraging the skills of human capital to support an increasingly global sector. Such a culture will have a strategic advantage for McDonald’s and help it stand out from other businesses. In order to encourage diversity and inclusion, McDonald’s corporate culture encourages staff, vendors, franchisees and customers to provide feedback, suggestions and complaints online easily for improvement.
To conclude, McDonald’s organizational culture has the benefit of helping the business to enhance service quality through people orientation, detail orientation, innovation and risk taking, aggressiveness, and team orientation. Hope McDonald’s will boost its business viability by continuing global expansion, especially in high-growth markets.
References
- Andrew Thompson, 2017, McDonald’s Organizational Culture Analysis [online] http://panmore.com/mcdonalds-organizational-culture-analysis?fbclid=IwAR0SMHHjsbVeFBC4ktbAX7aRfx4ct4GlbcLsdOfsXhuOHq9k01lGFgYJJOg [Accessed 21 04 2020].
- John Rampton, 2016, 8 Things McDonald’s Can Teach You About Business Success [online] https://www.entrepreneur.com/amphtml/271098?fbclid=IwAR38w9t-G4bM5KM4BatxrMEJNLMeiKesY6QFYcrfvzqkVHM-awM8RsuI4Gw [Accessed 21 04 2020]
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d., McDonald’s AMERICAN CORPORATION [online] https://www.britannica.com/topic/McDonalds [Accessed 22 04 2020]
- Eric Goldman, 2008, Observation of Leadership & Organizational Behavior at McDonald’s [online] https://www.ericgoldman.name/en/2008/observation-of-leadership-and-organizational-behavior-at-mcdonalds/ [Accessed 22 04 2020]
