An Exploration of Diversity and Inclusion at McDonald's

The assignment provides a comprehensive framework for understanding diversity and multiculturalism in the workplace. It draws from various sources, including academic journals, business publications, and company histories. The content highlights the importance of embracing diversity and promoting inclusive environments to enhance employee performance and job satisfaction. The assignment also explores the challenges associated with diversity and multiculturalism, such as conflicts, biases, and stereotypes. Overall, it aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the complexities involved in managing diverse workforces and fostering a culture of inclusivity.

An Investigation into the effect of managing workforce diversity through
effective team- working: A case study of McDonald.
Dissertation Presented to Greenwich School of Management
&
Plymouth University
In partial fulfilment of The Degree
B.Sc(Hons) HRM with Information systems.
By
Olawunmi .A Oshodi
23.01.2017
Supervisor
Ngozi Onyejeli

Acknowledgement
Firstly I would like to express my great appreciation to my project supervisor Ngozi Onyejeli
for her patient guidance and valuable constructive suggestion during the planning and
development of my project. Her willingness to spare her time so generously was
genuinelyappreciated. Though it was difficult at the beginning, but her understanding of my
first experience in this project, encouragedme, thereby I thank you for assistance in keeping
my progress on schedule. I do also express profound gratitude to all members of staff at
GSOM, in Greenford including all my lecturers, support staff, the Liberians as they all
contribute to achieving my desired goal. Also I thank my course mates who are co-operative
and made GSM friendly environment from the beginning of my course to this point. Last but
not the least; I thank all my family for the support and assistance rendered during this my
academic journey.

Abstract
The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of managing workforce diversity through
effective team working, a case study of McDonald. With the increase in growth of global
economy, workforce has become increasingly diverse as a result. However the organisation
success and competitiveness depends on how to implement and manage team work
diversity effectiveness in the workplace. Workforce diversity in organisation has a common
place nowadays as it encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age and personality. An
assessment and evaluating the team workforce with managing diversity process which
includes employee survey will help determine challenges and obstacles. A good survey and
report must be measureable and attainable. An implementation of workforce diversity in the
organisation needs management cooperation and participation that will create a culture
conductive to the success of organisation plan, by encouraging employee to express ideas
and opinion as to contribute equal sense of value as well as possible formulating and
executing diversity initiative in workplace.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement....................................................................................................................2
Abstract....................................................................................................................................6
Chapter 1.................................................................................................................................7
1. Introduction....................................................................................................................7
1.1 Background of the study.................................................................................................7
1.2 Research aim and objective...........................................................................................8
1.2.1 Research aim...........................................................................................................8
1.2.2 Research objectives.................................................................................................8
1.2.3 Research questions.....................................................................................................9
Structure of the Dissertation.................................................................................................9
Chapter 1..........................................................................................................................9
Chapter 2..........................................................................................................................9
Chapter 3..........................................................................................................................9
Chapter 4..........................................................................................................................9
Chapter 5..........................................................................................................................9
Chapter 6..........................................................................................................................9
Chapter 2Literature Review...................................................................................................10
2.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................10
2.2.Workforce Diversity......................................................................................................10
2.2.2 Benefits:.................................................................................................................12
2.2.3 Challenges:............................................................................................................12
2.2.4 Diversity management models...............................................................................12
2.3 Team working...............................................................................................................13
2.3.2Diverse and Homogeneous Teams........................................................................14
2.3.4 Stereotyping...........................................................................................................16
2.3.5 Managing Team diversity.......................................................................................16
2.4 Team Workforce Diversity in McDonald.......................................................................17
Chapter 3...............................................................................................................................19
Methodology...........................................................................................................................19
3.1. Introduction..............................................................................................................19
Figure 1 The research onion..........................................................................................20
3.2. Research Philosophy and philosophical perspective..............................................20
3.3. Research Approach.................................................................................................22
3.4. Research Strategy...................................................................................................23

3.5 Research Design..........................................................................................................23
3.6. Research Method, Data Collection,.........................................................................24
Table 1Types of Mixed methods.....................................................................................24
3.5.1Survey........................................................................................................................25
3.6. Research Limitations and Ethical Issues.................................................................26
Chapter 4...............................................................................................................................27
Data Analysis.........................................................................................................................27
Gender category, age category, and roles of the participants............................................27
Table 2 – Gender Category............................................................................................27
Table 3 – Age Category..................................................................................................27
Table 4 –Role Category of employees............................................................................28
Relation to a particular team in the work place...................................................................28
Table 5 – Relationship to a particular team in the organisation......................................28
Diversity among the peer workers......................................................................................29
Table 6 – Diversity among peer workers........................................................................29
Ways in which the other workers are different....................................................................29
Table 7 - Differences among co-workers........................................................................29
Graph 1 - Differences among co-workers.......................................................................30
Perspective about the diversity in co-workers....................................................................31
Graph 2 – perspective about diversity............................................................................31
Conflict among employees due to the diversity among them.............................................31
Table 7 – Conflict with the diversity in others..................................................................31
Support from the management in such conflicting situations.............................................32
Table 8 – Management involvement in conflicting situations..........................................32
Impact of diversity on performing the job role of individuals...............................................33
Graph 3 – Diversity and job role.....................................................................................33
Team diversity and the job performance............................................................................33
Table 9 – Diversity and job performance........................................................................33
The comfortability with differences of team members........................................................34
Table 10 – Differences and un-comfortability.................................................................34
Support get for aligning with the diversity among co-workers............................................35
Table 11 – Support for aligning with the diversity...........................................................35
Chapter 5...............................................................................................................................36
Diversity management........................................................................................................36
Chapter 6...............................................................................................................................41
Conclusions and recommendations...................................................................................41

Chapter 7 - Critical evaluation................................................................................................44
List of Tables
Table 1Types of Mixed methods............................................................................................23
Table 2 Gender category.......................................................................................................26
Table 3 Age category.............................................................................................................26
Table 4 Role category............................................................................................................27
List of Figures
Figure 1 The research onion..................................................................................................19

Chapter 1
1. Introduction
This chapter will be discussing how workforce diversity management can be achieve
effectively through team-work using McDonald as a case study, and also giving insight and
background of McDonald .
1.1 Background of the study
The workforce diversity is a strategic management technique which could be applied to
enhance the effectiveness and the productivity of the employees. The workforce diversity
would be applied in the sense of teams because the teams are the most productive units in
an organisation (Maccoby, 2006). Then workforce diversity would be applied to the each and
every member in a team. The team diversity refers to the considerable uniqueness of the
individuals in a team. Thisdiversity could be identified in different ways. The classical
diversity in a team refers to the attributes such as sex, religion, race, or age (Chuang et al.
2004). But in the modern strategic management recognises the team diversity with the
additional attributes including the unique personality characteristic of individual employees
such as unique personality characteristics; liberals and conservatives (Cross,
2000).Research studies reveal these attributes considerably affects the team performance.
However, there is not enough evidence from literature to suggest how workforce diversity
can be effectively manage through team working. This research then intends to investigate
the possibility of achieving this by using McDonald as a case study. As a major employer
who is managing millions of employees, McDonald would apply the team diversity
techniques to manage its workforce. Then the effect of applying the team diversity strategies
would be investigated with regard to the current management practices, and the potential
strategies of McDonald while considering the literature of the workforce management with
the team diversity strategies. McDonald is a major player in the fast food industry holding the
major share in the market. Also it is ranked among the world’s second largest employer.
Hence the application of the team diversity policies and methods to its human and strategic
management policies will increase the performance of the company to great level.

McDonald is one of the major players in the fast food industry especially concentrating on
the American hamburger. It is a chain of restaurant having its business operations
throughout the many countries in the world. It was initiated by its co-founders, Richard and
Maurice McDonald, in 1948, but it was stood as hamburger producer and seller applying the
production line principles. The franchising strategy was the strategic method used for the
development of the business, and in 1953, it opened the first McDonald's franchise in
Phoenix (Thomas and Jay, 2004). After the well-grounded business operations around the
world, today McDonald is the world’s largest restaurant chain. It offers its service
approximately to 68 million customers daily in 119 countries across approximately 36,615
outlets. More importantly, McDonald is recognised as the world second largest private
employer employing over 1.9 million employees from whom 1.5 employees are under
franchises (Annual report, 2014).
1.2 Research aim and objective
With aspiration, the hope and intension of achieving end result is refer to as aim. Therefore
to be able to achieve aims, systematic steps must be considered according to
(Saunders ,Lewis and Thornhill Pg 44-45,2016 )such as specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic and time constrained(SMART) which are consider to be objectives.
1.2.1 Research aim
The overall aim of this study is to investigate the application of the team working in
McDonald as a strategic method of managing a diverse workforce. The research would aim
the current application of the workforce diversity in McDonald, and the potential strategies
that could be developed, and their effect on the strategic position and the workforce
effectiveness and performance.
1.2.2 Research objectives
- To investigate team-management techniques and models
- To establish the inter-relatedness of team diversity and workforce diversity.
- To suggest ways in which diversity can be managed through effective team working.
- To suggest the link between performance and team effectiveness

1.2.3 Research questions
According to(Jonker and Pennin,2010),it states that for achievement to be unique in terms of
argument, questions should be clear and focus mainly at the centre which must be
research. Blaxter et al (pg. 81. 2010) based on their view of effectiveness, there must be
clearer and focus questions, with also the methods adopted to answer them.
The below research questions are used for the effectiveness this project:
- What are the techniques and models for managing work teams?
- How is team diversity and workforce diversity inter-related?
- How can diversity be managed through effective team working?
- How does team effectiveness link to performance?
Structure of the Dissertation.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7

Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
The term diversity is the composition of teams with the people who possessed different and
unique characteristics. With effective management of people with these unique
characteristics the performance of the workforce would increase. (Maccoby,2006). Hence it
is not just enough to have teams with different people with unique personalities and
backgrounds but effectively manage them will enhance the performance.(Cross, 2000). Then
the way that the team diversity would enhance the performance, or the effects of the team
diversity in managing the workforce need to be analysed and investigated in detail. The
literature related to the team diversity in human resource management and strategic
management would provide the theoretical background and the other research work
performed in this regard. Then a wide source of literature including the research reports,
articles, text books, and scholarly documents could be used. Even the real business cases
are also expected to be analysed as they could provide a more practical inside to the
research problems
The effect of managing workforce diversity as an effective team management method
2.2 Workforce Diversity
The diversity of a team in a working environment could be identified as the uniqueness of
individuals in a team. . In other terms workforce diversity refers to the various
differencesamong the people in an organisation. The differences include gender, age, race
and many other factors. However, this necessarily does not require being the general

diversity factors such as religion, sex, age, or race. But, many other diversity factors such as
liberals and conservatives and introverts and extroverts are also important diversity factors
among the workforce (Wilson, 2010). Recent researches show various benefits and
challenges with the workforce diversity. Racial and gender diversities have positive impact
on the sales, customers, and consequently on profits. When the sales people, are from
different races and genders, the customer tend to buy more and frequently. Also, it is evident
that the customer satisfaction would increase when workforce is from above diversities.
Gender diversity has shown a positive relationship with the market share. Shortly more
customers would be attracted when the workforce is from different races. The different
perspectives and opinions from diverse people would make benefits through the creativity in
an organization. From the perspective of the recruiters, the recruitment based on the
experiences, qualifications, and skills would more benefits rather to be based on the various
diversity factors such as race and gender (Lynne, 2015).
Besides, the challenges faced with the workforce diversity are also important. The promoting
dignity and the avoiding the conflicts and tension are vital. People tend to be uncomfortable
when they deal with different people. For instance, females would be reluctant to
communicate or deal with males. Or people from a particular race would be reluctant to
move with people from other races. Thus, the building of the dignity and the conformity
among the diverse workforce would be more challenging. Even the language skills of the
people would create considerable issues. Some people would not be fluent in English which
is the major language in modern business organizations. Then the people whose first
language is not English could face issues in the work environment. Consequently, the time
and the effort of the management put for resolving the conflict and issues due to the diversity
factors would make extra costs to the organisations (Forbes, 2011).
Basically, these diversities among the team members are said to be linked to the
performance of the team as a whole irrespective of the individual performances
(Wildersmuth and Gray, 2005). It cannot be presumed that all these diversity factors would
contribute to the higher performances. The most important is the designing of the teams as
giving the most efficient structure of diversity within a team which would enhance the
performance (Singh. 2009). Then it is clear the successfulness of the diversity management
is the designing of the teams with diverse members which would result the ultimate
enhancement of the performances.
On the other hand, the specific business environment and the different business operations
in an organisation would be important to the required nature and type of the diversity in the
workforce and the required performance attributes (Parhizgar, 2002). For example, some

organisations would require teams which include a large number of employees. In such a
case, an excessive diversity among them could be led to unmanageable disputes among the
team members. When the members in a team are few, higher diversity among the team
members could help to increase the bond between the members while assisting them to
more concentrate on the performances rather to individual endeavours.
2.2.2 Benefits:
The different views of the diverse individuals would be more productive in an organisation.
With rapid growth of the global business environment, and ever changing business
organisations, these different views from different perspectives are vital (Thomas and Jay,
2004).Organisation’s encouragement on diversity will inspire the employees to perform to
their best ability which will result in higher productivity, profits and good returns on
investment.
2.2.3 Challenges:
On the other hand, the challenges thrown by these diverse forces within an organisation are
also crucial. The people who represent different religions, races, or ethnics could enforce
different arguments and expectations which are difficult to be managed (Johnson, 2016). As
it was already discussed the conflicts or the misunderstanding among these diverse
members need to be considered. Sometimes a simple argument or misunderstanding could
lead to big issue where organisational objectives are not respected. Based on others
differences some members could leave the organisational goals unmet (Griffin, 2010).
Hence the diversity of the team members could bring both benefits and challenges from the
perspective of the organisation. The managing the diversity for the maximum benefit of the
organisation could be considered as the real challenge from the strategic management
perspective
2.2.4 Diversity management models.
The management of the workforce diversity is the recognition of the differences among the
people and the application of these differences for being done the work more efficiently and
effectively. The Australian Centre for International Business (2002) introduces a business
model for managing the workforce diversity with four action areas including selecting and
structuring teams, working with existing diverse teams, resourcing diverse teams, and
measuring team performances. This each step includes the key steps that need to
undertake. The training and the support, of the management, regarding diversity among the
workforce is an important approach for managing the workforce diversity in an effective way.
As the management is entangling with different issues arising from the diversity, they need
to practice with the required skills, knowledge, and tactics.

The compliance model for workforce diversity stress that the individuals are hired based on
the uniqueness from the other population. Hence, they should have the rights for their
differences from the other people in the workforce (Harvey, 2012). The social justice model
mentions that the individuals who are outside the dominant group of organisations should be
given the opportunities as that are the right thing to do. Also, it explains that is not required
to establish by the law. On the other hand, the deficit model explains that the organisations
would experience higher absenteeism, lower productivity, and higher turnover due to the
lack of diversity in the workplace (Walck, 1995).
Mainly three strategic approaches could be identified with regard to the management of the
workforce diversity. The Liberal Change Model refers to enabling the employees to
compete freely and equally for the social rewards. The aim is towards having a fair labour
market backed by the laws and regulations (Fine, 1996). The Radical Change Model refers
to having a balanced workforce and the fair distribution of the rewards among the workforce.
Thus, this approach is focusing the outcome when compared to the liberal changes (Tatli
and Ozbilgin, 2009). The Transformational Change Model covers the equal opportunity
concept in the short term and long term as well. In the short term the equality would be seen
in the activities such as recruitment, promotion, and communication. In the long term, it
would be transformational change of the entire organisation (Harvey, 2012).
2.3 Team working
Team working could be identified as a group of people work together cohesively for an
achieving a common goal while supporting each other sharing weaknesses and strengths of
individuals. It is always accepted that the synergies of the team work cannot be achieved
through the individual efforts. Hence, the building teams in an organization would always
promise higher performances based on the collective synergies. However, the effectiveness
and the efficiencies of team working could be different based on the content of the team and
the atmosphere within the team. The diversity of the team could be identified as major
factors which decide the performance of the team (Human Resource Development
Quarterly, 2008).
However, team working involves its own benefits and limitations. The synergies created by
the team efforts are the major benefits as they increase the productivity and the efficiency of
the people. On the other hand, the conflicts between the members in a team and the
management time and effort on resolving them could be identified as the major challenges to
be overcome (Griffin, 2010).
Different teams could be identified within an organisation. Permanent teams are deployed on
permanent basis and they would not be dissolved with the achievements of the objectives.

Temporary teams on the other hand would be dissolved with the achievement of the relevant
objectives. Task forces are formed for achieving a special purpose or a project. Committee
would be formed for working on a special project on temporary or permanent basis. Self-
managed teams are working for a common purpose but without a common supervision.
They themselves are responsible for achieving the objectives. Virtual teams have been
created with the development of the communication technologies and people from long
distance would connect through the computer technologies and work as a team (Spolsky,
2006).
For managing teams, it could be seen various methods and techniques. The command and
control approach for managing the teams refers to giving the orders by the team leader to do
a specific job as per the instructions. Here the management style is authentic which results
the team members to de-motivate with reduced productivity. The engage and create method
seem more effective than the command and control method as it encourages the
participation of the team members in the work-related discussions and the decision-making
processes.
2.3.2Diverse and Homogeneous Teams
When the factors that lead to diversity among the team members, such as age, sex,
religious, and so on, are absent the teams are said to be homogeneous (Miller et al. 2010).
Compared to the homogeneous teams, the diverse teams tend to have many challenges,
benefits, and pitfalls. Also the conflicts among the team members could be seen in a diverse
team (Griffin, 2010). But as the HR theory suggest the conflicts and the confusions in a team
or in the work environment could be used effectively for increased performances (Canen and
Canen, 2001). Shortly these conflicts or the disputes among the team members would
maintain the activeness within the team. Then irrespective to the conflicts and
misunderstanding among the team members, the performance would go up. However, the
management of these conflicts in an effective way is more important, and that is a separate
area in the Human Resource Management (HRM).
The difference between the diverse team and homogeneous team could be easily observed
through the stereotypes such as gender and race. The physical and social differences are
the major ones. However, some of the workplace experience based differences would also
be important. Gender would be a more prominent factor. The communication among the
different genders in a group could have a significant impact to the performance of a group
through the interaction and the communication (Badhesha et al. 2008). The communication
styles, the perceptions on different things, and even sexual harassments are considerable
matters in a workforce. Race refers to a specific group of people who share general physical

characteristic and a common geographic origin. Then, racism is based on the belief that
these specific characteristics would have an effect on the behaviour and the abilities of the
individuals in a team (Cross, 2000). Culture is a broad concept where standard of social
interactions, and values and beliefs are commonly shared. This could have a considerable
effect on the individuals in the sense of their family concerns, the ways of communication
and interactions, and even the preferential treatments in the workplace (Chuang, 2004). Age
is also a considerable factor in the diversity of a team. The more and more older would have
a considerable effect in interactions, way of communication, level of experience, and some
of prejudicial treatments (Cross, 2000). Sexual orientation is also becoming significant
element in the team diversity. Today, the society is considerably diversified with the gender
minorities including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. Then, these differences of the
members in a team seek the common understanding, respect, and consideration. In the
absence of these things the blockage of the effectiveness and the productivity of these
members would be compromised (Chuang, 2004).
2.3.4 Stereotyping
Stereotyping could be recognised as an utmost important matter in the discussion of the
managing the team diversity in an organisational setting. Stereotyping refers to the belief
that all the members of a team or a group would share similar characteristics, traits, and
behaviours (Pledger, 2006). Then this has led to create categories based on the different
factors such as gender, race, religious, etc. It is evident that these stereotypes are effective
in some organisational settings to some extent (Thomas and Jay, 2004. However, in most
cases the detrimental conclusions about the people and those categories would leave
disadvantages to understand each other and dynamic attributes of other people. More
importantly, the matter is that, it cannot be recognised any conformity with people. People
are dynamic and subjected to continuous developments and changes (Badhesha et al.
2008).
2.3.5 Managing Team diversity
The managing of the diversity is then the most critical strategic function to overcome
challenges associated with the diversity in teams and to benefit to the maximum. That is,
everyone in an organisational setting is to be said having the responsibility in managing the
diversity in teams. From individual to the owners of the company have a specific role to
achieve these targets (Johnson, 2016). HRM has a unique role in evaluating the
performance with different teams which are having different diversity mixtures. They need to

record, process, and analyse the different strategies adopted to create different teams and
the results obtained through those compositions. The management also possesses a unique
functionality in involving to the functions of management related to the issue in teams
(Maccoby, 2006).
However, the team leaders who are responsible for the performances of each team could be
seen as the most prominent party in managing and addressing the issues related to the
teams. Team leaders have to drive the team to achieve the common objectives while letting
the individuals to maintain their uniqueness in the sense of diversity (Maccoby, 2006).
However, it seems the most prominent issue in organizational settings not the people’s
inability to perform their jobs, but to get aligned with other people. Sometimes the differences
in people could be viewed as a risk or a threat (Griffin, 2010). In this case, the team leaders
or the team managers need to have the skills to identify the people who are difficulty to
adapt to the situations and help them to come out of the trouble. The programs to improve
and develop soft skills, communication, and diversity within the people could be arranged
(Miller et al. 2010). The understanding of every employee that the working with others is a
must would benefit eventually.
2.4 Team Workforce Diversity in McDonald
The customer base of the McDonald is more than 60 Million and around 118 countries.
These customers represent different social, religious, ethnic, and many other different
structures. Hence, it cannot be considered as straightforward to serve this broad customer
base with a general workforce. Then the talent management, employed education and
development, and diversity in the workforce are critical matters for McDonald (SHRM, 2011).
Apart from the basic diversity factors, recent initiatives of McDonald shows that the company
is ready undertake more comprehensive and strategic diversity initiatives for meeting the
objectives of the company to the maximum. The best example is the concentration and the
steps taken to face the recent challenges for the nutrition issue of the fast foods industry
(Annual report, 2014). The public concern regarding the unhealthy conditions of the fast
foods has been increased. In response to these changes of the environment, McDonald has
decided to expand its diversity in the employees related to the food health and nutrition.
Even McDonald has hired a Director of nutrition and has initiated for collective education and
development programs with Hamburger University. McDonald has committed to the diversity
management and leadership development in variety of ways (McDonalds.com, 2016). Its
diversity involves in the areas of supply chain, informing consumers about nutrition,
community involvement, corporate responsibility, and external branding. Forbes (2010)
showed in which ways McDonald has been able to meet these objectives;

- Women and people of colour make up 73% of McDonald’s total workforce, 43% of all
franchise staff and 55% of suppliers.
- A majority of the senior management presenting at the meeting has been with the
company for over a decade,…
Ultimately, the inclusion and diversity department in McDonald was established as it was
timely requirement. The functions of the diversity department in McDonald are derived
formerly from HR and PR departments. Today, McDonald admits that the diversity
specifically among the workforce is central to almost all elements in the workplace and the
product line (SHRM, 2011). The recent formation of the Global Inclusion and Intercultural
Management team also could be viewed as a further extension of the diversity management
in the McDonald. Through this team it was intended to be accomplished charting
demographic metrics to managing employee resource groups (ERG), coaching and
counselling services, mentoring programs, career development initiatives as well as external
branding exercises (Annual report, 2014).
Further, statistics shows that McDonald employs in its workforce, 70% of women/minority in
US, 25% women/minority in leadership, 5 billion in diverse vendor spending, and 45%
women/minority franchisees (McDonalds.com, 2016).
Then it is clear, that many initiatives have been taken by McDonald to maintain its workforce
diversity. Therefore all these information would assist the research study to in order observe
what the current status of McDonald is, and how diversity of the teams in the workforce
being manage, their consequential performance changes, and further amendments to the
current policies. Further, the study intends to evaluate the success of the current team
diversity policies and relationship between the workforce diversity in the team levels and
performances of the teams.

Chapter 3
Methodology
3.1. Introduction
This chapter intends to discuss the methodology along which the work is performed with
regard to the research paper. According to (Saunders,Lewis and Thonhill 2016)
methodology is the systematic way that ascertain procedure through theoretical means that
consists of different ways that lead to field of study. This chapter essentially discusses about
the research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, research method, the way
data is collected and analysed, and imitation of the research and ethical issues, in the case
of conducting the research of an investigation in to the effect of managing workforce diversity
through effective team-working in McDonald.
The research study intends to research the existing literature related to the team diversity in
the process of increasing the workplace productivity. Then, the existing situation McDonald
would be researched using various sources of information which have already been
published. But more importantly, the reality of the team diversity management could be
different from the theory and what entities may be trying window dress. Hence, the surveying
the current workers in McDonald is also a crucial part in meeting the research objectives.
Basically, before initiating the data analysis, presentation of the results, and conclusion and
recommendations, it is worthwhile to establish the research methodology as it tries to
capture the flow of the entire research to a standard research study framework (Bryman and
Bell, 2007). Different research philosophies are analysed and try to match the best aligning

research philosophy for the research study. There are different research approaches,
research strategies, and research methods with their own pros and cons and throughout this
section it is try to capture the best suit research approach, strategy, and methods as it is
necessitated by the requirements of the individual research study (Creswell, 2007).Severally
there are layers in between research onion which ranges from research philosophies, the
techniques, as well as the procedure of such research, which will determine method
Figure 1The research onion
Source: Saunders et al
chosen on the topic. The focus of this research has been highlighted in chapter 1, which is to
investigate about workforce diversity through effective team working in McDonald by
answering, the below questions:
- What are the techniques and models for managing work teams?
- How is team diversity and workforce diversity inter-related?
- How can diversity be managed through effective team working?
- How does team effectiveness link to performance?
3.2. Research Philosophy and philosophical perspective
The research philosophy is very important concept that needs to be studied at the outset of
the research study as it assists in defining other research methods of the study (Collis and
Hussey, 2003). It could be recognized mainly three research philosophies according to
Saunders et al,(2012) epistemology research philosophy and ontology research philosophy

and Axiology.Ontology research philosophy refers to the collection of data from commitment
of the researcher. Then the outcome of the study would depend on the knowledge and the
commitment of the researcher (Robson, 2002).ontology consist of assumption within the
framework base on the study of realty in nature, this actually portray the way research view
the business world and management, therefore the researcher are able to choose and
determine what kind of project research needed to be carry out.Epistemologyis another
philosophical consideration in which acceptability, legitimate and knowledge is applied and
added to belief concepts by justifying the truth, Saunders et al, epistemology research
philosophy refers to the collection of data from the relevant field. Lastly Axiology
philosophical consideration is about the value and ethical role in the process of research.
According to Bryman and Bell (2001) there must be consideration to actual added
knowledge, its important with ontology and epistemology for research to be relevant. The
research studies of the managing the team diversity for increased workforce performance in
McDonald would be directed by the ontology research philosophy. Basically, ontology is
concerned with nature of reality. This raises questions of the assumptions researchers have
about the way the world operates and the commitment held to particular views. This could be
effectively applied with the reconsideration of the effectiveness of the team diversity in
workforce management for higher performance in McDonald.
On the other hand, the researcher at first intends to identify the current development of the
field of the management of the workforce diversity. Then, the research himself would commit
to gather the required evidence as per the original approach which was designed by the
commitment of the researcher. Further, reviewing the current literature would be mandatory
requirement as the researcher intends to acquire a greater level of knowledge by studying
the literature. However, the utmost importance is go to the data collected from the survey
method as it gives the real picture of the matter and a better inside to the underlying
concepts and issues.
The research study would be associated with both pragmatism research philosophical
perspective and Realism research philosophical perspective. The pragmatism suggests that
it is always important to answer the particular questions related to the research study rather
to useless debates with the existing knowledge (Saunders et al. 2009).In the same way,
through this research study it is intended to find out the real contribution of the team diversity
for the higher performance in the workforce. On the other hand, realism tries to gather and
analyse evidence for finding a realistic view of the research problems (Coomber, 1997).
Then, the relevant data would be collected through the primary and secondary sources in
order to reach a realistic conclusion regarding the effective workforce management through

team diversification and the corresponding higher performance of the employees at
McDonald.
3.3. Research Approach
When studying the literature of the research methodology, three different research
approaches could be identified: Deductive and Inductive Abductive approaches (Babbie,
2006). Deductive research approach would perform the research when an established
research theory is available. Hypothesis set out and tested throughout of the deductive
research approach. Possible findings are identified from the research results. This comes as
top down research approach (Gill and Johnson, 2002). Inductive research approach is
carried out based on the available observations regarding the research problem (Dees,
2003). The inductive research approach was considered as the more appropriate approach.
In the absence of a more established research theory in the field, the hypotheses are not
going to quantitatively be tested. But, with the inductive research approach is possible to
investigate the studies with the absence of theoretical background regarding the research
problem. Observations are used to set tentative hypothesis. Tentative hypothesis is used to
proof the theory in possible way. Therefore, inductive research approach is bottom up
process (Gillham, 2008).However abductive approach interfere logically by seeking the
simple explanation based on theory observation (Crewell, 2003)
The research study would be performed on the basis that the effective team diversity
management would enhance the performance of the workforce. This cannot be considered
as a theoretically proven concept, but could be applied as a tentative hypothesis. Then the
data could be collected and analysed for a more independent conclusion about the research
problems.
3.4. Research Strategy
Experiment, case study, survey, action research, ethnography, and grounded theory could
be recognised as commonly and widely applied research strategies (Eysenbach and Till,
2001). The survey research strategy is a commonly used research strategy. It is used to
collect data from large population (Saunders et al, 2009). In this research study, the survey
research strategy would be applied more importantly for collecting the data from the
employees of McDonald. Since the objectives of the research is basically linked with the
employees of McDonald and their performances, the data gathered from the employees
applying the survey strategy could be considered as more vital. On the other hand, the

realistic nature of the data would be aligned with the research approach and the guiding
perspective.
Archival research and grounded theories are very important research strategies in this
research study as most of these strategies are based on the secondary source of data
available as archived researches or well-grounded theories (Gill and Johnson, 2002).
Though some theories that would be applied, are not directly related to the research
questions they would be immense helpful reaching to a more realistic and insightful research
conclusion. Specifically, theories and archived researches in the fields of strategic
management, HRM, operations management, and social sciences would be discussed and
analysed.
3.5 Research Design
Also, as per Creswell (2007), it can be seen different research designs fundamentally related
to the purpose of the research study. They are categorised in the research literature as:
exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory research studies. The descriptive research studies
describe the key characteristics of the matters under the research question. Then the data
analysis and the presentation would be performed in a descriptive way. Robson (2002),
mentions that the object of descriptive research is ‘to portray an accurate profile of persons,
events or situations. Explanatory studies try to establish causal relationships between
variables. The emphasis here is on studying a situation or a problem in order to explain the
relationships between variables (Coomber, 1997).
It seems the descriptive strategy would be more suitable for the research work. The data
analysis and presentation would be more descriptive than being exploratory or explanatory.
3.6. Research Method, Data Collection,
Research methods/choices are described in the research literature in three types: mono
method, mixed method, and multi method (Babbie, 2006). When choosing the research
method, it would therefore either use a single data collection technique and corresponding
analysis procedures, which is known as mono method, or use more than one data collection
technique and analysis procedures to answer the research question which is also known as
multiple methods (Curran and Blackburn 2001).

Table 1Types of Mixed methods
Types of Mixing Comment
Two types of research questions are
developed
The manner in which the research
questions are developed
One fitting a quantitative approach and other
qualitative.
Preplanned(quantitative)versus
participatory/emergent(qualitative)
Two types of sampling procedures Probability Vs Purposive
Two types of data collection procedure Survey(quantitative)Versus focus
groups(quantitative)
Two types of data analysis Numerical versus textual or(visual)
Two types of data analysis Statistical versus thematic
Two types of conclusions Objective versus subjective interpretations.
However, it seems that the multi-method type would be the most effective research method
for the study. This refers to the application of both quantitative and qualitative methods for
collecting the data, and applying both the qualitative and qualitative method for analysing the
data. In this research study, it is appropriate to gather data from the quantitative methods
such as survey questionnaire. Also, qualitative data would be gathered through the
grounded theories and archived researches. These would be analysed qualitatively.
However, the survey data would be analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods.
That could be considered as the point where the multi methods defer from the mixed
method.
3.5.1Survey
Essentially, the survey questionnaire would be used to collect the data from the employees
of McDonald. Through these data, it is expected to get more meaningful and realistic insight
of the effective managing of the team diversity and the corresponding performances. The
responses for the survey questionnaire could be analysed and presented with the simple
quantitative and statistical tools such as tables, graphs, and percentages. These quantitative
analysis and presentation tools would enhance the usefulness and the understanding of the
research outcome. The data gathered from the grounded theories and the archived research
strategies would be analysed and presented descriptively.

The survey questionnaire would be distributed to 20 employees covering different job
categories within McDonald including crew members, helpers, waiters, chefs, cleaners, team
leaders, and customer care assistants. These people would cover 20 different franchisees
branches of McDonald. Since the survey is mainly designed for the employees in McDonald,
the highest position for distributing the questionnaire would be the team leader level. Then;
all the employees below the managerial level could be considered as the population. Next,
the purposive sampling was applied to select the employees as the selection would be
involved different discrimination factors among the employees. Hence, these conditions
automatically reject the sampling techniques such as random sampling, which is selected
the sample randomly from the population without considering any characteristics of the
employees and statistical sampling like the probability sampling which is selected the sample
based on the statistical guidance but irrespective of the purposes of the researcher about the
specific characteristics that need to possess the sample. Apart from the job role that each
person is performing, the sample was planned to cover different religions, races, age groups,
and sexuality (Saunders, 2009).
Basically, the data gathered through the survey questionnaire would be analysed with
statistical and descriptive methods. The descriptive statistical techniques and tools including
median, averages, variances, and mode would be applied with graphs, tables, and other
useful techniques and tools.
3.6. Research Limitations and Ethical Issues
Primary data uses for the research analysis could be more biased when arriving to the
conclusion and research finding (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Basically, the primary data is
collected from the survey questionnaire covering only 20 franchisees. Thus, the real case in
McDonald as a large corporation would be different from few franchisees when compared to
its large number of franchisees. However, the operating models cannot be expected to be
considerably different from place to place as the operations and the policies in McDonald are
highly standardised. The, it could be reasonably expected that the responses would not be
significantly different from the whole.
Also, the respondents’ personal information would not be revealed in any means as they are
collected with the promise of keeping the confidentiality.
Further, the secondary data that is intended to be used would be referenced appropriately
for avoiding possible breach of copy right regulations and the plagiarism.

Chapter 4
Data Analysis
Gender category, age category, and roles of the participants
Table 2 – Gender Category
Gender Represent out of 20 As a percentage
Male 9 45%
Female 10 50%
Other 1 5%
Total 20 100%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
As per the Table 1, it is evident that many of the participants to survey comprise both the
genders and other category represents the people who are not related to the both genders
but to transgender. This is also important as in the work place there could be people who
represent such minority genders.
Table 3 – Age Category
Age Represent out of 20 As a percentage
18 – 24 7 35%
25 – 29 8 40%
30 – 34 4 20%
35 – 45 1 5%
Total 20 100%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
The sample represents all the age categories. However, the young generation considerably
represent the workforce at McDonald as per the sample. This shows the diversification
based on the age level is apparent at McDonald (Personnel Today, 2016).
Table 4 –Role Category of employees
Designation Represent out of 20 As a percentage

Crew member 7 35%
Chef 2 10%
Team leader 3 15%
Customer care
assistant 4 20%
Helper 3 15%
Cleaner 1 5%
Total 20 100%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
Table 3 shows that the selected employees represent many of the job roles at McDonald at
operational level. Though it was not gone to specifically analyse their roles the general
nature of the involvement in operations would be important. At the same time, for a boarder
view of the evidence regarding the employee diversification related information coverage the
many of the job areas is important.
Relation to a particular team in the work place
Table 5 – Relationship to a particular team in the organisation
Are you related to a team in
McDonald?
Answer Represent out of 20 As a percentage
Yes 20 100%
No 0 0%
Total 20 100%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
Almost every employee is related to a team at the workplace. This is important as nobody is
involving in an isolated job role in the company while relating to any of its teams. Perhaps,
the role may be needed to be performed alone. However, the team to which the individuals
would be able to keep them linked to the organization in the broader perspective (Panmore
Institute, 2015).

Diversity among the peer workers
Table 6 – Diversity among peer workers
Do you see considerable differences
of the other employees that work with
you in your team?
Answer
Represent out
of 20 As a percentage
Yes 20 100%
No 0 0%
Total 20 100%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
Table 5 shows the employees awareness and the identification of the diversity or the
differences among the peer workers on various factors such as religion, gender, race,
experience & qualification, etc. Almost all the employees agreed that they are aware of the
differences among other people.
Ways in which the other workers are different
Table 7 - Differences among co-workers
Category
Respond of
20 for each
factor
As a
percentage
Religion 14 70%
Race 16 80%
Gender 8 40%
Sexual orientation (Gay, gender, bisexual,
etc.) 9 45%
Experience and knowledge 15 75%
Attitudes and perspectives 19 95%
Communication 8 40%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
Graph 1 - Differences among co-workers

0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100% 70% 80%
40% 45%
75%
95%
40%
Differences among peer employees
Table 6 shows the major factors on which the co-workers are different from the selected
employee. Then, the employees have responded that they experience the diversity in all
factors but some have relevant importance. Majorly, attitude and perspectives, race, attitude
and knowledge, and religion have received higher positive responses. But, gender has
concentrated at lower lever at their teams and workplace. Probably this could have been led
the fact that many teams such as crews, customer care representatives tend to represent a
particular gender. For example, crew tend represent the male gender and customer care
representatives tend to represent females. Hence, they would obviously be exposed to only
a particular category of gender (DiversityMBA, 2014).
Perspective about the diversity in co-workers
Graph 2 – perspective about diversity
A trouble More interesting Not special
35%
60%
5%
As a percentage

Graph 2 shows the perspective of the employees regarding the diversity among the co-
workers. The responses show that majority, 60% of the respondents are interesting about
the diversities factors in other workers. However, 35% shows that it is a trouble for them. 5%
holds the idea that they have no special perspective regarding the matter
(Workplacediversity, 2012).
Conflict among employees due to the diversity among them
Table 2 – Conflict with the diversity in others
Do you have conflicts with these
differences?
Answer
Represent out
of 20 As a percentage
Yes 16 80%
No 4 20%
Total 20 100%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
Table 7, show that 80% of the respondents agree that they have conflict with diversity or the
differences of co-workers. This is basically aligned with the many of the organizational
behaviour and people management theories as the conflict among the employees cannot be
avoided. However, from the perspective of the organizations what they could do is to
manage the conflict for maximizing the performances of the employees in their job roles.
Similarly, here employees agree that they have conflict with the other people specially based
on their diverse characteristics. But, 20% of participants mention that they have no such
conflicts (Greatplacetowork, 2014).
Support from the management in such conflicting situations
Table 3 – Management involvement in conflicting situations
Do you get support from your team
leader or manager in such conflicting
situation?
Answer
Represent
out of 16 As a percentage
Yes 9 56%
No 7 44%
Total 16 100%

Source: Survey data – December 2016
Table 8 shows that the involvement of the management in such circumstances is significant.
However, 44% of respondents say that there is no such intervention or support. But, this
needs to be addressed in the light of other matters such as the level of communication of
such matters to the management. If they do not aware of such matters, especially which are
hidden among the workers as the personal misunderstanding or issues that were not
triggered. Also, at this level it cannot be expected the involvement of the management in
every situation (Brandchannel, 2013).
Impact of diversity on performing the job role of individuals
Graph 3 – Diversity and job role
Encouraging to work Discouraging to work Not special
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
As a percentage
Interestingly, 55% of the respondents agreed that the diversity among the co-workers has
encouraged them to do their roles well. But, 30% mentioned that the diversity has affected
them negatively, while 15% special did not notice any special relationship. Though the
overall response was positive in this case, it is worthwhile note that from the perspective of
the organization (HRD Connect, 2016).

Team diversity and the job performance
Table 4 – Diversity and job performance
Do differences in other people make your job
easy or help to do your job more effectively?
Answer
Represent
out of 20
As a
percentage
Yes 12 60%
No 5 25%
Not special 3 15%
Total 20 100%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
Table 9 shows that 60% of the employees agree that the diversity in their teams help them to
perform their job roles effectively while 25% disagrees and 15% has no any specialty. More
interestingly, majority respond positively. However, from the perspective of the management,
the matter is about the productivity and the people management rather to the comfort of the
individual employees. Hence, the scope of this matter would be broad (CNBC, 2011).
The comfortability with differences of team members
Table 5 – Differences and un-comfortability
Have you been uncomfortable with your
differences from other members in your team
or workplace?
Answer
Represent
out of 20
As a
percentage
Yes 4 20%
No 16 80%
Total 20 100%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
As per the respondents, 80% of the participants are comfortable with the differences of
themselves from the other co-workers. This is a positive sign where are the people could
involve in their roles effectively as they feel free about their differences from others. The

sample of employees selected for the survey represent people with different backgrounds,
characteristics, and social groups. This supports the case that in McDonald, the differences
of the workers would be accepted and respected (QSR, 2011).
Support get for aligning with the diversity among co-workers
Table 6 – Support for aligning with the diversity
Do you get any training or support in order to
align with these differences?
Answer
Represent
out of 20
As a
percentage
Yes 14 70%
No 6 30%
Total 20 100%
Source: Survey data – December 2016
This was majorly intended to get the information regarding the support from the
management with regard to the enhancing the skills of the employees to deal with the
diversity among the co-workers. Table 7 shows that 70% of the respondents agree that they
get the support from the management to deal with the diversity among each other. But, 30%
of respondents disagree with this (QSR, 2011).

Chapter 5
Diversity management
The next part was to get the information regarding the ways in which these support is
delivered by the management. Specially, the training programs and workshops to develop
the skills and capabilities could be considered as important areas. However, the respondents
mentioned following listed ways as the support from the management in McDonald to cope
with the issue:
- Induction programs including the company culture and the variety of people from
different backgrounds and respecting to them.
- Leadership programs at every level to perform individual responsibilities and team
work while developing leadership skills
- Soft skills development training programs
- Customer care training programs
- Team building and team development programs including annual tips, event
organizations, and sports events.
With the comments of the respondents it is evident that McDonald is applying various
strategies to develop the people skills of the employees which are very important in the case
of managing the diversity among the employees and reducing the conflicts. Further, through
these various activities the strength of relationships at the team would be achieved.
However, it is worthwhile to note that the relationship among the team members would
enhance the effectiveness of the performance of employees. However, the useless
gathering of the people based on their personalpreference could also be resulted from these

activities. Then, the arrangement of such activities in an effective and result oriented way is
the responsibility of the management(Personnel Today, 2016.
In McDonald, the leaders are performing an important role in the diversity management. It
seems that the team leaders are the team level agents of the management. Mostly, the
communication at the operational level would be happened through the team leaders. But,
the ability of the employees to communicate with the general management is not
compromised. (Panmore Institute, 2015. Consequently, the teal leaders hold a major
responsibility in managing the diversity in the workforce as they would deliver the message
of the organization to the subordinates. On the other hand, the team leader is not a higher
level of employee in McDonald that other employees may keep the distance. But, team
leader is close to all the other team members as the any matter to be discussed with the
each other. (DiversityMBA, 2014.
Hence, in managing the diversity in the workforce, utmost responsibility is on the team
leaders. As the respondents to the survey and many of the publications and other
researches about McDonald reveal, many programs towards the diversity management
would be launched by coordinating the team leaders. The formation of the team in the sense
of diversity of the members, the required level of balance, the conflict among the members,
the areas to be developed with the individuals all would be noted and communicated by the
team members. For instance, when a special training program are arranged in McDonald to
develop the workers with regard to the soft skills, building relationships, or leadership skills,
the team leaders would provide the necessary and valuable information regarding the
employees (HRD Connect, 2016).
Nevertheless the team, levels the maintenance of the healthy atmosphere for every
employee is major role of the team leader. In McDonald, the team leaders have been given
the especially designed training in order for recognizing their roles in managing the diversity
in their team in different perspectives. In any difficult matter, the team members would
approach to the team leader for getting the guidance or assistance from an expert. Team
leaders are continuing with gathering of information from the employees regarding matters
related to the operation or the other co-workers. Team leader would get the contribution from
all the team members in decision making within their scopes. Team leaders would
encourage the team members to join with the different people in outside events to the job
roles such as lunch, coffee breaks, and supper. In this way, the team leaders would be
responsible for maintain the environment for growing the team spirit among the team
members(Annual report, 2015).

Interestingly, Forbes (2010) mentioned how McDonald has applied the workforce diversity
management in improving its bottom line in the income statement. When the perspectives
and accusations on bad food practices were beating the McDonald the company came to a
strategy change in the sense of recruiting people representing enough diversity based on
experience, cultural background, and qualifications. Specifically, McDonald hired nutrition
doctors to deal with the nutrition issues of the customers and products. Their ongoing
research about the products of McDonald and the nutrition issued would be addressed by
these skilled professionals. The inclusion and the diversity team could be considered as an
important part of the diversity management of McDonald. The team would provide the overall
assurance over the diversity related matters(HRD Connect, 2016).
5.1Recommendationswith regard to the formation of the teams and the management
of the workforce diversity
It was important the responses of the participants to the question of any recommendation to
the existing formation of the team in McDonald. However, many answers were concentrated
around major ideas as follows:
- The gender diversity in the teams should be well-balanced
- The gender should not be a matter for promotions and development opportunities
- The race or religion should not be factor for development with an organization
- Experience and qualification along with the performance of individuals need to be the
basis for performance evaluation and appraisal
- Personality attributes such as the way of behaving and communicating of individuals
should be accepted and respected
It seems that the participants are suggesting valuable information for the development of the
management of the diversity in the workplace. More importantly, they suggest the
importance of the formation of the teams with the well-balanced diversity factors. Even
though, they have concentrated on the gender, the other factors are crucial in this case.
Probably, formation of the groups with consisting everything would not be practical.
However, to an acceptable extent diversity in the teams could be achieved with the objective
of enhancing the performances of the teams..(Brandchannel, 2013.

For instance, as the respondents emphasize, not forming the teams with imbalanced gender
diversity, the minority gender in a team could be discouraged or isolated. For example, with
many males a very few females would be uncomfortable or backward. Though it is not the
very matter, the well-balanced team formation would assist the equal participation of
members and would avoid the negative impact on the other team members.
(Workplacediversity, 2012).
The other important area for the close analysing is the development of the employees with
the organisation irrespective of their differences from each other. Having said
that,importantly the factors such as, experience, knowledge and qualification cannot be
ignored in the matters of promotions, appraisals, and other employment related
opportunities. However, many of other factors including race, religion, and gender should not
be factors to determine the development opportunities (Forbes, 2011). In McDonald, it has
various internal programs and training sessions for the management, HR staff, and team
leaders to make them aware of the equal opportunity for the employees to develop with the
company. In McDonald, there is an internal complain system to report regarding any
unreasonable treatment or unfair opportunities for a kind of employees. However, it cannot
be assured these programs would be able to eradicate such type of incidents.
(McDonalds.com, 2016).
Moreover, in the management of workforce diversity for a higher productivity in the
McDonald, it is required to establish well organized performance evaluation and equal
opportunity system to ensure that every employee has the opportunity for the development.
Basically, the appraisals related to the performance evaluation are important elements of
employee motivation (Chuang, 2004). On the other hand, people would motivate based on
the how they are appraised and how peers are appraised. Hence, without a properly
conducted performance evaluation and appraisals in the team levels with the consideration
of the relevant factors would lead to a greater level of productivity as a part of the diversity
management.(Harvey, 2012).
The acceptance and the respect of the personal characteristics, religious or social norms,
and behavioural characteristics are utmost important in the process of diversity
management. Some people have different level of communication skills and boundaries. The
behaviour of the people in the sense of talking, walking, presenting, confronting would be
different (SHRM, 2011). However, these differences need to be accepted and respected
considering as their personality traits. Nevertheless, the corporate culture is also an
important area in organisations. Then the employees need to be adopted the corporate
culture to a given extent. Then, the differentiation of these two scenarios is important. More

importantly, sometimes the personal characteristics may not align to the corporate culture.
(Panmore Institute, 2015). However, for addressing such issues there are plenty of effective
ways such as inductive programs, soft skill developments, and other training and
development programs. In McDonald, it has effective induction programs for adopting and
familiarising the new employed to the company and to their teams. The subsequent soft
skills and training programs are extensive and proved the success. Even, at corporate level,
the cultural events organized by McDonald in regions are more effective in adopting to the
environment trying to align with the operating society.(DiversityMBA, 2014).

Chapter 6
Conclusions and recommendations
Throughout the studies and analysis conducted, it was clear that McDonald has taken
various strategic initiatives in order to manage the team diversity with the view to manage its
workforce. The research was designed capture the real situation with McDonald in different
angles. The data gathered from the employees through a survey questionnaire is utmost
important in this case. Apart from that, many of the publications of McDonald helped to get a
better inside of the real case within the company. However, the global presence and the
complex organisational structure are the facts that made difficult in arriving to the conclusion.
Nevertheless, McDonald is a well-experienced and a long-lasted company while having a
strong foundation of experience, knowledge, competencies, and resources. Its corporate
culture is strong and credible. Many of the international branches and franchises represent
the genuine brand and culture while maintaining a similar organisational atmosphere
(Panmore Institute, 2015).

The majority of the employees at McDonald were aware of the diversity factors of the other
per employees in the company. Many represent young age but employees representing all
age level could be seen. Attitude and perspective, race, experience and knowledge, religions
were the major diversity factors that the employees were aware about the other employees
(HRD Connect, 2016). Also, it was noted that the response for the gender diversity factors
had a lower level, 40%. Mostly, gender factor is major concern in team diversity of the
organisation, but here it is not the case. It could be presumed that this was caused by the
fact that some teams are engaging in works which are usually performed by a particular
gender category. In such a case the representation from the other gender would prevail at a
lower level. However, this could be treated as against the team diversification in the process
of effective workforce management (Chuang, 2004). The team diversity based on the
gender is a prominent diversity factor. Much effective results in the workforce management
could be attained through the gender diversification (Forbes, 2010). Hence, in McDonald the
team member’s gender diversification needs to be closely analysed and redesigned the
teams while mixing both genders to a level where the effective team diversity is attained.
The perspective of the employees at McDonald about the diversity of the co-workers could
be considered as positive since 60% of the survey respondent accepted that the diversity
among the other employees is something more interested. However, it is a sign of the
effective application of the team diversity in workforce management at McDonald.
nonetheless, 35% of the respondents admitted it as a trouble to them. This could be seen in
two perspectives. First is that this as a negative sign of the workforce management through
the lack of team diversity strategies. Second is that this is as a normal scenario where some
people not interesting in moving with others and often think that others’ differences are
annoying or offending them. In both cases, the management has a responsibility to direct the
teams and members towards achieving the objectives of the company rather to prioritising
their personal perspectives (Harvey, 2012). For this, it was evident that the different
programs including personality development programs, soft skills development programs,
leadership skills development programs are performed in McDonald. Further, the
management could recognise specific employees who require more extensive guidance and
skills in order to cope with other people and allocate them for specially designed programs
through the team leaders. Here, again the role of the team leaders could be emphasised
(McDonalds.com, 2016).
The other related matter to the above discussed is the conflicts among the employees based
their diversity factors. When concentrating on the results of the survey, it is evident that the
majority (80%) of the employees admit that they have conflicts with the differences of other
employees in their teams. As it was discussed earlier, the conflicts among the employees

usually lead to higher outcomes in the sense of their productivity. But, the management has
to be careful to manage and direct them to achieve the organisational objectives while
having those all conflicts. Then, with the response to the survey participants to the next
question, it is clear that support and the intervention of the management in such conflicting
situations are positive (Personnel Today, 2016).
More interestingly, 55% of the survey respondents admitted that this diversity within the
teams is encouraging to perform their day to day activities and responsibilities. But, the
management has to concentrate on the rest of 30% who do not take the diversity in the team
level as an encouraging condition to perform their duties. The management of McDonald
could get the feedback in an extensive level from the employees about their job performance
level with the different peer workers in the team. These findings would be more helpful in
determining the future strategies related to the workforce management through promoting
the team diversity at McDonald (DiversityMBA, 2014).
When considering all the facts and putting all together, it is clear that McDonald applies
various team diversity strategies to manage its workforce. Basically, as per the fundamental
theory of differences among the people would contribute to a unique mix of resources while
creating the competitive edges in modern organisations. There a considerable level of
evidence that McDonald is applying different and effective team diversity techniques in its
workforce management as an effective team management strategy. However, along the
strategies that McDonald applied it can be seen still there points to be developed and that
need further improvements as we have already discussed in this section. But, as a whole it
could be concluded that the application of the team diversity strategies to manage the
workforce at McDonald could be seen in an extensive level with required modifications to the
existing strategies (Greatplacetowork, 2014).

Chapter 7
Critical evaluation
The research was conducted in order to investigate the application of the team diversity in
McDonald as a strategic method in managing the workforce. As for the analysis and
evaluations performed it was concluded that the application of team diversity strategies is
more effective in McDonald though there are some areas which require further
improvements. However, there are plenty of areas in which the research topic to be further
investigated specially in order to come up with a more informed conclusion regarding the
subject area.
In the survey conducted to gather the data from the employees, it was evident that a
considerable number of employees faced deteriorated performance due to the diversity
nature or the differences with other peer employees. Then, finding more insightful
information regarding this issue could be considered as an area which could be conducted
further research studies which would be very useful to the users.
Further, the involvement of the management in conflicting situations among employees or
among employees and the management seems to be required extensive studies with the
relevance theoretical background and the practical application. As per the classic HR
modern HR theory suggests that the conflicts among the workforce would enhance the
productivity along with the proper management and direction. But, this is out of the scope of
this research study and it could be proposed as a useful area to perform further studies.
This research study only selected the employees for the survey within a limited geographical
area. Also, only the operational employees were selected up to the team leaders. But, with
the participation of the people in management level and other administration and supporting
divisions such as HR, diversity management team at McDonald could enhance the
effectiveness, relevance, and the richness of the research study. Hence, more extensive and
a professional research study could be conducted with wider level of coverage and the
participation of the relevant personal.

Reflection
Looking back, from the start, I will say that it has been an interesting journey, because I
summoned up courage not knowing what to face duringmy course, even though I had
previouslyattained Diplomain business studies, but not to the standard of Bachelor’s degree.
However I envisage challenges but I was determined to go through and gradually. At this
stage this is a triumph of hard work and dedication paid off at the end. My struggles
effectively result in subjects that personally change my thinking, and the skills gained have
added value to my personal growth, academic abilities and knowledge.
Age nearly stopped me from starting the course, thinking I was too old but on getting to
GSM,I found the place to be very diverse with people of different background and later found
out that some people are older than me, anyway age is no barrier to education.
My experience during the course, most especially during class presentation has given me
confident, it allow the best to come out of me, getting the right information and facts through
thorough using of solid information sources. Also with my assignment (coursework),it gave
me knowledge to research critically and analyse the information better, learned to re word
phrase to the report, have learn to organise my thoughts and words on the paper which has
worked well for me during this course.
The course in GSM have help me update and upgrade myself in knowing fully the meaning
and worth of Human Resource Management as my chosen future career I have formulated
ideas to improve on it based on what I have been thought and interaction through my course
mate by the way of diverse and studying with people of different cultural and ethnic
background.
As I have mentioned above, this academic journey is a good experience and interesting one.
It creates opportunities for me, being in the right place at the right time, it makes me to be in
strong position on how to shape my future. Having attended several GSM career guidance
and job mart I realise many opportunities after completion of my chosen course (HRM), each
step and direction of my choice, like setting up a business, employability or further studies,
this has been very helpful and eye opener to great choices one canembark on after
graduation.
As another chapter is about to begin in my life and pen about to be put on hold, Ican
confidently look back retract my memories how well utilise and timespent, examples meeting
good people, friends, lecturers and GSM staff, it has been a good two and half years of
pleasant experience and knowledge gained. Never, say Never and everything you put your
mind into,with focus, determination and hard work is possible to achieve in life.
And lastly, my dissertation writing is the biggest task of my degree course, having read other
people’s work, assimilating their reasoning andunderstanding which hasinfluence and impact
on my knowledge. My project lecturer and supervisor had been helpful in guiding me on the
right part in achieving meaningful result. Based on these and drawingconclusions,
knowledge acquired can influence and impact those behind me, and make worldvaluable
and meaningful to them.
Many thanks, to GSM and Plymouth University, for their support and collaboration effort in
getting me to this stage and beginning of new chapter in life.

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Appendices
Questionnaire
1. What is your gender?
a. Male [ ]
b. Female [ ]
c. Other [ ]
2. What is your age category?
a. 18 – 24 [ ]
b. 25 – 29 [ ]
c. 30 – 34 [ ]
d. 35 – 45 [ ]
e. 45 or above [ ]
3. What is the designation of the role in McDonald?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
4. Are you related to a team in McDonald?
a. Yes [ ]
b. No [ ]
5. Do you see considerable differences of the other employees that work with you in your
team?
a. Yes [ ]
b. No [ ]
5.2. If yes, what are the ways that they are different from you? (Please tick the relevant box)
a. Religion [ ]
b. Race [ ]
c. Gender [ ]
d. Sexual orientation (Gay, gender, bisexual, etc.) [ ]
e. Experience and knowledge [ ]
f. Attitudes and perspectives [ ]
g. Communication [ ]
6. How you see these differences?
a. A trouble [ ]
b. More interesting [ ]
c. No opinion [ ]
7. Do you have conflicts with these differences?
a. Yes [ ]