Cultural Diversity in McDonald's: A Key to Success

McDonald's implements a sound work culture by applying cross-cultural theories such as Hofstede, which helps in eradicating personal prejudices and biases. The company effectively supports diversity, adopts flexible leadership styles, and maintains competitive edge in the international trading economy. This leads to increased productivity, enhanced business operations, and expanded global presence.

Managing Across
Cultures

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Importance of understanding national culture in the context of international management. .1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Main challenges to the effectiveness of culturally diverse workforces..................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In the present era of hyper competition, conducting business operations in the global
economic environment is a tough task. The company needs to consider tremendous aspects in the
light of achieving the leading heights of success in an impressive way. One of such important
aspect is the good understanding and knowledge of varied cultures within the workplace (Chen
and Tjosvold, 2005). It has become an important and mandatory phenomenon in the present
scenario to increase the awareness of major cultural issues arising within the company in order to
make sure the effectiveness and efficiency of the business operations. In this globalised world,
there exists an emerging need of implementing common business culture across the organisation.
With regard to such an exotic fact, the present report highlights the importance of managing
cross border culture in context of international management. The report focuses on how
McDonald's lays significant concern over undertaking sound cross border cultures in the
workplace with the help of various cultural theories.
TASK 1
Importance of understanding national culture in the context of international management
Culture simply reflects a group of individual working together in an organisation with
different languages, backgrounds, norms, beliefs and languages. Culture exists everywhere and
plays a vital role in mapping the culture of an organisation in an effective and appropriate way.
In order to sustain long in the tough trading competitive business environment, the managers
along with the international business man should lay their considerable concern over
understanding and implementing the practical and sound cross border culture within the
organisation (Frost and Walker, 2007). Lack of cultural competency will result in drastic failure
of business operations in the corporate world in addition with unavoidable wastage of company's
funds. Having an in-depth understanding about different cultures within the organisation,
McDonald's' is clearly and impressively able to maintain competitive edge in the international
economy. The marvellous expansion and growth of the mention company across abroad
increases the significance of intercultural management. McDonald's thoroughly starts by gaining
insight learning about the national culture and its crucial impact towards the success and
achievement of organisation's goal (Graen, 2006). In order to implement a sound cross border
culture, the said company undertakes the use of various cultural models and theories in an
1

impressive way. The major theories of national culture adopted by McDonald's is explained as
follows- Hofstede's Dimensions of work-related values – Geert Hofstede developed cross-
cultural communication model which explains the crucial effects of a country's culture on
the beliefs and values of its citizens. It also explains the relation of such values with the
behaviour by using a systematic structure from factor analysis. The factor analysis
comprises of six main dimensions on which this theory lays its foundation. In context
with the present case scenario, McDonald's lays a significant concern over all such
dimensions in regard with the culture and norms of UK in an appropriate and systematic
way-
1. Power distance Index (PDI)- It deals with the issue that all citizens in the country
are not equal. It describes the framework of culture towards the inequalities
within individuals. This dimension clearly reflects the degree which expresses
that the less powerful citizens of the country or organisations have the tendency to
accept and expect that power and authority is unequally and partially distributed
within the country (Dickson, Hartog and Mitchelson, 2003). Based on a research
study, the PDI index is lower among the higher class in UK as compared to the
working class.
2. Individualism- The major issue addressed by this parameter is the extent of
interdependence a country maintains with its members. The citizens of the UK
prefer to live in high privacy. Children are advised to find their own unique
purpose of life at an early age. With regard to such fact, McDonald's provides its
customer with complete privacy in order to closely accomplish the highest level
of customer satisfaction in an impressive way (Grisham and Walker, 2008).
3. Masculinity & Femininity- A high score masculine represents that the country will
be driven by achievement, success and high competition. On contrary to this, a
low score feminine reflects that the vital values in country are premium quality of
work life and caring for other individuals. It explains that in order to achieve
success, building a quality life is of utmost important. Crowd of UK prefer to live
a premium class life by working hard and having a strong ambition to perform in
an appropriate way.
2

4. Uncertainty Avoidance- This dimension dictates that future can never be exactly
predicted. It reflects the degree to which the individuals of UK feel scared and
threatened by unknown or ambiguous situations and as a result have developed
institutions and beliefs in order to eliminate such situations (Caligiuri and
Tarique, 2012).
5. Long term orientation- It proposes that every individual in the country has to
establish and maintain its relation with its past in order to overcome the present
and future challenges. By using such a dimension, the major preference in UK
cultures is hard to determine.
6. Indulgence- This parameter reflects the degree to which members put efforts to
control their impulses and desires on the basis in which they are raised. People in
UK are optimistic and have a positive mind-set towards dealing with a particular
situation.
The below diagram clearly explains the impact of discussed six dimensions on UK in a
systematic way-
Illustration 1: UK's score on the basis of six dimensions of Hofstede
(Source: Grisham, 2006)
3

 Edward T. Hall's Cultural continuum – Hall in 1976 proposed a model which reflects
the interrelation of cultures with one another. In this model, he placed the cultures on a
continuum of low versus high context of significance in life. He laid considerable focus
on explaining that cultures are extensively high or low in regard to the general
characteristics. In the high context culture there exist various contextual factors that aid
people to understand the culture and norms. While in low context culture, more
explanation is given to make the individual a clear understanding of the major rules in
order to avoid misunderstandings. McDonald's makes effective use of this theory to
implement an impressive cross border culture across the workplace.
Therefore, with the help of such an exotic theory, McDonald's is clearly able to compare
and contrast the major cultures of individuals within the city. Doing this helps the company to
generate the best products by considering the cultures and sentiments of the individuals along
with the employees within the organisation (Hudea, 2014). This helps the company to meet
highest level of employee job satisfaction along with customer enjoyment which benefits the said
organisation to gain global exposure in the corporate world.
TASK 2
Main challenges to the effectiveness of culturally diverse workforces
Diversity can be described as recognising, accepting and understanding individual
differences without considering their race, age, gender, class, physical ability and ethnicity. Most
organisation, in the present competitive environment, undertakes diversity at their own
workplace. Doing this helps the company to adopt innovative ideas and major change within the
organisation. When the said company effectively manages its diverse workforce and train and
guide its employees about the awareness and sensitivity of the culture, the result which it gets is
the ideal workforce which produces high quality and premium products for the company as well
as for the target customers (Resick and et. al., 2006). Another advantage which it gets from the
diverse work culture is deeper ideas and broader perspectives. Different people with different
background possess different skills, knowledge and understanding towards a particular problem.
This helps the company to get varied thoughts about a certain situation. Apart from this, in the
global era of corporate economy, implementing a workforce which is diverse from country and
cultural perspective can broadly help McDonald's' to develop roots and establish its business
4

operations in the wide global market. The key benefits which the said company can avail with a
diverse workforce are listed below-
 Communicate impressively with the international business market.
 Developing strong relationships with suppliers and partners in non-domestic economy.
 Understanding the major cultural implications of performing business in different parts of
the world.
Apart from such fascinating advantages of workforce diversity, McDonald's also faces
negative impact of such workforce on the overall functioning of the business organisation. If the
differences in the employee’s ethnicity, religion, race and gender are not managed effectively
and properly, the company with no doubt loses its significant control from the competitive
international market (Robertson and Webber, 2000). If the work environment of the mention
company fails in supporting the acceptance and tolerance of differences, then it faces the major
challenges and negative effects of workforce diversity. Some major challenges faced by
company in this regard are explained below- Communication problems- The company recruits its workforce from across the globe.
As a result, it possesses wide range of employees from different countries having
different languages. This situation creates chaos and conflicts within the workplace. In
order to overcome such major issue McDonald's implements bi-lingual audience service
reps which helps the company to effectively handle the Spanish customer in their home
language. Motivation issues- Since the atmosphere of the company is purely diversified, it becomes
a difficult and challenging task for the leaders to implement effective motivational
practices. The leaders have to keep in mind the culture, beliefs and values of its
individual employee in an appropriate manner. This helps him to adopt the motivational
techniques in an impressive way which encourages the workers to attain a sense of
loyalty, trust and commitment towards their work which in turn helps them to bring the
best outcome in an effective way (Boxall and Purcell, 2003).
 Discrimination- The Company faces the major challenge of discrimination within the
workplace. Where the organisation possesses a diverse workforce with distinguishing
traits, it adopts a discriminating factor to select the employees of its own country and
5

culture in the prior list. In order to avoid such a challenge, McDonald's implements a
sound work culture which eradicates the root cause of personal prejudices and biasses.
With regard to the above mention challenges, the cited company effectively makes use of
Hofstede and other key cross cultural theories to implement a sound and practical culture within
the workplace. The effective implementation of such theory helps the management of the
company to support and think the fact that diversity will prevail in the company forever and it is
the prior obligation of the managers to consider its employees in a unique and special way. The
concerned organisation also lays its significant concern over adopting flexible leadership,
motivation and management styles so that the employees with different nation can easily adjust
themselves in the present corporate scenario of UK (Derr, Roussillion and Bournois, 2002). This
will help the company to impressively increase its overall productivity and enhance its business
operations effectively across the globe. Apart from this, with the help of such crucial cross-
cultural theories, Mc'Donald's is able to establish and maintain competitive edge in the
international trading economy. The fact that the company gains diverse experience which helps it
to attain alternatives and innovative products in the competitive environment leads the concerned
organisation towards the direction of closely accomplishing the company's objectives in an
effective way. Also, with the help of diversified workforce the said corporation is clearly able to
expand and develop its business operations across the world in a systematic and appropriate way
(Hogan, 2011).
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that McDonald's develop a sound and
practical cross cultural environment within the workplace. This helps the company to strictly
avoid major conflicts and disputes between the companies of different countries and between the
employees of same company. Apart from this, the report helps to gain an in-depth understanding
about major cross-cultural theories which help the company to implement proper cooperation
and coordination among the workforce which helps them to work together towards the common
goal of achieving organisation's success. Furthermore, the present report also laid significant
concern over the UK international market which benefits the company to understand major
cultural beliefs of individuals within the said economy.
6

REFERENCES
Journals
Chen, Y. F. and Tjosvold, D., 2005. Cross-cultural leadership: Goal interdependence and leader–
member relations in foreign ventures in China. Journal of International Management.
11(3). pp. 417-439.
Frost, J. and Walker, M., 2007. Cross cultural leadership. Engineering Management. 17(3). pp.
27-29.
Graen, G. B., 2006. In the eye of the beholder: cross-cultural lesson in leadership from project
GLOBE: a response viewed from the third culture bonding (TCB) model of cross-cultural
leadership. The Academy of Management Perspectives. 20(4). pp. 95-101.
Grisham, T. and Walker, D. H., 2008. Cross-cultural leadership. International Journal of
Managing Projects in Business. 1(3). pp. 439-445.
Grisham, T., 2006. Metaphor, poetry, storytelling and cross-cultural leadership. Management
Decision. 44(4). pp. 486-503.
Hudea, O. S., 2014. Cross-cultural Leadership. Manager Journal. 19(1). pp. 45-52.
Resick, C. J. and et. al., 2006. A cross-cultural examination of the endorsement of ethical
leadership. Journal of Business Ethics. 63(4). Pp. 345-359.
Robertson, J. M. and Webber, C. F., 2000. Cross-cultural leadership development. International
Journal of Leadership in Education. 3(4). Pp. 315-330.
Books
Boxall, P. and Purcell, J., 2003. Strategy and Human Resource Management. Plagrave.
Derr, B. C. Roussillion, S. and Bournois, F., 2002. Cross-cultural Approaches to Leadership
Development. Greenwood Publishing Group
Hogan, T., 2011. What is Global Leadership?: 10 Key Behaviors that Define Great Global
Leaders. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Online
Caligiuri, P. and Tarique, I., 2012. Dynamic cross-cultural competencies and global leadership
effectiveness. [PDF]. Available through: <
http://www.culturalagility.com/sites/default/files/Dynamic%20cross-cultural
%20competencies%20and%20global%20leadership%20effectiveness.pdf>. [Accessed on
15th November 2014].
Dickson, W. M. Hartog, D. N. D. and Mitchelson, K. J., 2003. Research on leadership in a
cross-cultural context: Making progress, and raising new questions. [PDF]. Available
7

through: < http://vnseameo.org/zakir/crossculture.pdf>. [Accessed on 14th November
2014].
8