Business Ethics in McDonald's: An Analysis of Ethical Practices and CSR

This report analyzes the ethical practices and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of McDonald's. It examines the company's commitment to quality, employee development, and community engagement. The report also discusses the importance of ethical behavior in McDonald's business operations and its impact on the company's image and reputation.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Ethical environment changing the trend in MC Donald's............................................................................2
The ethical dimension of MC Donald's for both individual and society prospect........................................5
Individual prospect..................................................................................................................................6
Society prospect......................................................................................................................................7
McDonald`s CSR system on Global platform.............................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
This report is focused on the MC Donald’s CSR report in which all the ethical aspects which MC
Donald’s has followed in their work culture are being analyzed with their mission and objectives.
It is also focusing on the CSR activities in which MC Donald’s has truly given their contribution
which they have mentioned in their business operations. It is also focusing on the business
operation around the stakeholders of this organization like supplier, community, employees as
well as society in which it is functioning (Blomback and Wigren, 2009). This report is also
focusing on the importance of ethical which MC Donald's is practicing from earlier business
time to new implementations. This report also includes how strict is the management of the
McDonald’s regarding the laws of product quality because this organization believes that it is the
only trust which attracts a potential customer towards the organization and then converts them
into a loyal customer by forming a strong positive bond (McDonald's, 2017). This report also
includes the belief on which MC Donald's was founded by Ray Kroc that community is an
important part of our business operation and if we are getting so much from the community, then
it is our duty to return back something to the community.
Ethical environment changing the trend in MC Donald’s
As per the report of 2015, it was found that MC Donald's were operating their ethical practices
around four elements. First one is sourcing, the second one is people, the third one is community
and the fourth one is the planet. The company believes that eating is one of the most important
parts of human life and things related to it must be safe and of high quality. This is the first
priority of the company to provide guaranty to the potential customers that the products which
belong to this company is trustable and hence the company has provided quality department high
power to ensure that the product which is being manufactured and delivered by this company is
safe from human point of view (McDonald's, 2015). This company applies very strict standards
regarding the quality and is not ready to compromise in any portion of the standard because it is
connected to health safety of the community in which it is operating. MC Donald’s believe that it
is not only the business operation for them but it is also the desire and passion of the company to
offer safety and security. The company believes that a food company must include ethics in their
complete process right from the transport of raw material till the delivery of the product to the

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customer (Trienekens and Zuurbier, 2008). This company has not limited their ethical aspect
only in product manufacturing and delivering but has also maintained their ethical practices in
sanitation department also, they have to implement hygiene control system with standard
operating procedures in their all restaurants all over the world and are bound to offer a hygienic
environment to the customers. They also pay great attention towards the systems like washing
hands, equipment sterilization, checking temperature of the cooking, records related to expiring
dates of materials (McDonald's, 2016). Sanitation test is also carried out externally in order to
ensure that no unethical practices are going on in this segment.
MC Donald's believes that for any organization it is very important to develop their people in
order to achieve their growth because any organization does not run on their own, it needs people
to run. So, if the people get developed, it will automatically help the organization to achieve their
objectives. Here MC Donald's implements a development system which includes subparts like
expanding diversity, employee performance system, career development, self-realization forums
(McDonald's, 2008). In expanding diversity, the company is governing such an environment
which is full of cooperation and no discrimination is entertained on the bases of age, gender,
race, educational background. The company believed that it is the time to offer power in the
hands of women by offering more job opportunities to the women in the company along with
permanent posts (Lee and Shin, 2010). The management of MC Donald’s had put a lot of efforts
to change their mindset of male dominating work culture towards work for all culture.
MC Donald’s follows a completely fear policy of employee performance and on the base of this
standard they have connects the further development of the employees like upgrading the post.
There is no space for inner-group and outer-group, all employees are treated equally and so are
their work performances (Hooper & Martin, 2008). Earlier it was believed that every
organization consists of inner and outer group and members of the inner group are believed to be
close to their leaders as compared to members of the outer group and hence enjoy more facilities
in terms of decision making, promotion, and hike in salary and position. But such practice is
prohibited in this organization.
MC Donald’s is offering various opportunities to their employees to develop their self by
initiating challenging tasks which in turn offer various doors of development to these employees
by helping in learning necessary competency which is very essential in this business world

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(Smith, Gonin and Besharov, 2013). In this company, employees are motivated to put their effort
not for the personal gain but for the company objective as well as for the community in which
the company is operating. This company always motivates their employees to choose their target
which fulfills the ethical need of the company and offers them self-realization.
At present, MC Donald's has implemented a lot of changes in their business behavior and has
allied it with ethical commitments. They have brought some alteration in their core values as
compared to previous years with some portions unchanged like placing customers at the top of
core values, committed towards people and giving back to society. But at present, they have
brought abandonment to their standards code of conducts (Wigley, 2008). MC Donald's believes
that the code of conducts which are being followed in this company must be displayed to the
public in order to form a trustable business environment. Hence, this company directly display
all the standards of business ethics on their company websites because in past there were some
ethical issues related to the MC Donald’s related to child work and labor exploitation and as a
result of this-this bad image of company was spread all over the global platform which has
impacted their sales (Lee, Park and Lee, 2013). The company has also included an audit
committee or the board of directors which will regulate all the statements of executive officer on
the base of business ethics periodically.
MC Donald’s have introduced high living ethical behavior standards in their business operation
and this happens under the direct supervision of the Directors in order to understand whether our
ethical behavior are matching with the international ethical standards so that employee can live
high standards living (Roy, Nei, Orikasa, Xu, Okadome, Nakamura and Shiina, 2009). To take
care of this ethical compliance, the company has created a post of a compliance officer who is
responsible for a meeting of MC Donald’s policies with the business ethics. The company also
promotes additional responsibilities to the employees which are at supervisor post because these
are the people on which company can trust and have shares traits of motivators. Hence, the
company believes that these supervisor people have the additional duty of maintaining an ethical
work environment in the company along with mentoring the employees (Caldwell, 2011). It is
their ethical duty to ensure that the person who is reporting to them is well aware of all the
ethical standards related to the business committee of the company and just complete their
training related to all the business ethics that is being followed in the company. It is their ethical

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responsibility to make communicate properly all the ethical policies related to the company to
their employee in such a manner that they will get easily adapted to these standards by
understanding the need of these ethical policies. Company believes that supervisor must motivate
their employees to have a two way conversation so that business ethics related question can be
raised in order to have a deep understanding of these ethics and it also duty of the supervisor to
have a regular follow up on all issues which may be of unethical nature happing in their business
operations (Caldwell, Floyd, Atkins and Holzgrefe, 2012).
After analyzing past issues which has impacted the image of the MC Donald's on the global
platform. This company has introduced personal responsibility of their action in their business
operation and according to this standard, the company will be responsible for any kind of impact
which has been created by their actions in the market and is personally liable to actions (Johnson
and Kennedy, 2010). In any kind of business, there are up and downs, success does not remain in
the continuous process but a truthful company is that which is willing to accept all their faults
and are committed to taking the necessary actions to reposition their image in the market. As per
this standard, if any employee which be found out practicing any kind of unethical action related
to people, society or image of the company, strict disciplinary actions will be taken on that
employee which includes a penalty or even termination from the job (Fisher, 2008).
At present MC Donald’s is working on business honesty track in which company is raising their
voice in any kind of unethical practices happening in the business world by asking question even
if they can impact on the financial aspect of the company which will display companies
commitment in the business market (Payan, Reardon and McCorkle, 2010). According to this
standard, it is the ethical duty of each employee of this company to report any kind of violations
of ethical practices in the company as well surrounding around the company. A standard
operating procedure has to be followed in which high-level violation of ethics should be reported
to the compliance officers and if the matter is not that serious it must be reported to the respected
supervisor or HR department of the company (Stevenson and Wolfers, 2011).
The ethical dimension of MC Donald's for both individual and society prospect
For many organizations there are mainly two forms of business ethics one is descriptive which
includes the way in which a person makes their decision on understanding right thing to do and

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other is normative which is related to the principles that involve judgment and clams. But when
it comes to the dimensions of business ethics there is mainly four types of dimensions of
workplace issue, customer relationships, negotiation ethics, and corporate social responsibility.
Individual prospect
MC Donald’s focus on the development of an individual working in their company on the base
of ethical business dimension and ensure that growth of individual will have a positive impact on
the development of the organization.
Workplace issue
MC Donald’s ensure the safe working environment for the employee of the company because
they believe that if we take care about the safety of the customer, it also becomes our
responsibility of this company to offer a work environment which is free from risk and fear. Risk
and fear are the two main factors which will actually not only impacts the performance of an
individual regarding their personal as well as professional life but also will impact the
productivity of this company (Adger et al., 2009). It is the duty of the supervisor to solve any
kind of conflict which occurs within the company because it will create an environment in which
any individual will sense that company is no paying any attention towards their concerns and it is
possible that they may leave the company. It is the work environment of the McDonald`s which
helps an individual trust on other individual and offer support to each other in case of need.
Customer relationship
McDonald`s believes that an individual joins the company with the hope of career growth and it
is the company which offers a required platform for growth to these individuals. Here, this
company provides growth opportunities to these individuals by giving them a challenging task to
maintain customer relationship which forms the base of growth for any organization (McDonald
and Keys, 2008). McDonald`s permits these individuals to resolve the issues related to the
customers by their own so that they can learn from their mistake and later can use their this
experience to handle further issues which are very important for any individual growth.
Negotiation ethics

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McDonald`s motivates individual to follow ethics in their negotiation process so that it a win-win
environment can be created for both the parties and one cannot exploit other on the base of even
being powerless and will help in developing care for humanity in the values of the individual
which they can implement not only in their professional life but also ion their personal life
(Wals, 2010).
Corporate social responsibility
McDonald`s believes that every individual which are part of their direct process must be taken
care in the form of giving back what they have provided to the company through their years of
hard work. McDonald`s implements various training programs which ensure the sustainability of
an individual in this business world even if they will leave the company. This company ensures
that individual must get proper medical services for their family, education scholarship for their
children study and in case of financial crises they are being offered loans on very fewer interest
rates.
Society prospect
After facing a lot of issues related to the company image, McDonald`s has truly focused their
business operation towards the welfare of the society in which they are working.
Workplace issue
As the individual is the part of society, by offering health work environment McDonald`s
ensures the growth of the individual which in turn safeguard the health of the society. This
company believed that society and individual share influence connection with each other and if
anything bad happens with the individual which impact the health of the society (Reisch, 2013).
Customer relationship
McDonald`s believes that health customer relation will help in creating a relationship building
environment which is full of trust and confidence which is very essential for the development of
society. It will motivate the members of the society to trust each other in the environment of
trade
Negotiation ethics

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Through negotiation ethics McDonald`s ensures implementation of ethics even on negotiation
tables which will help in avoiding exploiting of one party from other party and help in forming
happy deal for both powerless and powerful by removing power regarding positional or post base
because in deal one party may be on the low side and another party enjoys being higher side of
the deal (Holmqvist, 2009). This will help in creating an ethical business behavior in the
community in order to prosper the business on the community level.
Corporate social responsibility
McDonald`s through their present business operation has ensured the effective utilization of
energy resources, avoid water waste and contribute some percentage of their profit in the
education and health of the needed population of the society which will help in offering high
living standards to every single individual of the society and safeguarding the growth.
McDonald`s CSR system on Global platform
McDonald`s believe that every region of the world is different so as is their requirement and
hence, the company cannot follow the same CSR system for every region in which they are
present. It this system the company mainly considers the macro business environment of the
region and prepares their CSR system accordingly. In the USA, CSR system of McDonald`s
mainly focuses on the energy saving with the help of business operational. Here the company
carry a yearly base energy survey and motivates their management to concentrate their work on
these aspects which helps them in reducing the cost of utility associated to their business (Kraak,
Swinburn, Lawrence and Harrison, 2011). Here they also focus on the paperless business
operation in order to save the tree from getting cut and also motivates their suppliers to
implement this strategy in their business operation. In Japan, McDonald`s CSR system focus
mainly focus on the charitable activities in the welfare of the society by offering financial
support to sports games like baseball and other sports which promotes healthy life of the
Japanese citizens. They also focus on providing free education classes to the society in order to
make them aware of healthy eating habits and information's about the materials used in the
manufacturing of the products.

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While in India, McDonald`s CSR system focus on the environmental prospect in which they
implement procedure like the recycling of waste products, offer training programs for the health
and physical safety of the employees during their employment in this company. As India is
known as one joint community so, here they sponsor some activities like a health marathon in
order to promote engagement between their employees, community, supplier and other partners
of the community (Matten and Moon, 2008). In some case, they form the partnership with some
social community in order to promote that McDonald`s is always there for their help.
Hence, McDonald`s has set up different CSR system to meet the different requirement of the
nation or particular region due to nations with different economic stability, GDP and climate
controls. For the growth of any nations it is very important to develop their individual first, then
the community in which this individual lives. This will ensure the stability of the nation will help
in creating a respectable image of McDonald`s on Global platform in this business world.
Conclusion
For years business is struggling from many issues which have actually changed the image of the
business in the eyes of the community. Instead of considering them a resource of opportunity
providers, many societies actually perceive business as a place of people which exploits nation
resources, manpower, and technology for their personal gain. This issue was analyzed by
McDonald`s and hence form their business operation around the benefits of the society by
offering high quality and safe products to the society. Strictly follows the ethical business
behavior in all the parts of their business and centric their operation related to the welfare of their
employees, society in which they are functioning in the form of CSR program activities on
Global level so that a better international business world can be formed which strictly obey the
ethical process in their business operations both in domestic as well as international level.

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