StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Unethical Business Practices of McDonald's - Case Study Example

Cite this document
Summary
In the paper “Unethical Business Practices of McDonald's” the author analyzes the ethical issue associated with the food products offered by McDonald’s to the customers. The study will be focused on complying with a formal structure of gathering data and evaluating them through real-world evidence. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97% of users find it useful
Unethical Business Practices of McDonalds
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Unethical Business Practices of McDonald's"

Unethical Business Practices of McDonald's Analysing the Business Decision or Problem McDonald’s Corporation (McDonald’s) is one of the most successful and renowned fast-food retail chains with an extensive growth of its business subsidiaries almost each part of the world. Unlikely to the higher value and strong presence in the global fast-food industry, McDonald’s has also undergone acute ethical issues both in the context of its products and/or services provided to its customers, and concerns associated with its corporate values as compared to its major rivals in this respective industry. Conversely, McDonald’s has also been recognised to face number of issues associated with offering severely unhealthy food items, low employee wage and discriminations, ignoring its impact on the environment and animal welfare along with marketing and promotional issues linked with its different fast-food items served across the world. The major ethical issue that would be discussed in this research study is the concern associated with the food products offered by McDonald’s to the global customers. In order to determine the ethical concern the study will be focused on complying with a formal structure of gathering data and evaluating them through real-world evidences regarding the same. In this regard, the study will critically focus on the primary research question and the objectives in order to determine the ethical issues that are associated with the business of McDonald’s. Research Questions The key research question of this study is to identify and critically evaluate the ethical issues that have been faced by McDonald’s from its range of fast-food items offered to the consumers across different nations. In this regard, the key research question of the study will be addressed with the following research objectives. Research Objectives The research objectives to determine the ethical issues in McDonald’s in the context of its offerings to then global customers have been listed below: Identifying the type of ethical issues that have been faced by the company in terms of its fast-food items to the global consumers Critical assessment of the impacts that are experienced by the consumers from the offerings of the company Identifying and assessing the role of the company to mitigate such type of ethical issues Providing relevant evidences from valuable secondary information in respond to food related ethical issues faced by the company 2. What is already known about the Decision or Problem The literatures in this section will be gathered from different academic books and reports, peer-reviewed journal along with different online research and news articles. Parallel to this case study analysis reports relevant to the key research question and the objectives will be evaluated to increase the relevance of the study. Literature Review The empirical study of Gibison (2006), the fast-food items offered by McDonald’s to its global consumers have major contribution towards extensive form of health issues irrespective of their age groups. In this regard, major obesity, heart diseases along with asthma and higher possibility of mad-cow diseases are the major cases that are evident to be caused directly and indirectly from the food items offered by the company to its consumers (Gibison, 2006). Correspondingly, Stony Brook University (1998) has critically explored the diet contents in each McDonald’s products includes major health issues for the consumers especially the young adults. In this regard, the research report states that the meals offered by the restaurant chains of McDonald’s contribute major amount of fat and the level of sodium that can negatively affect the consumers’ health (Gagnon & Freudenberg, 2012). For instance, the report has illustrated the example of its new Spanish omelette bagel, which deliberately contains 40 grams of fat along with 710 calories and 275mg of cholesterol that can severely deteriorate the health condition of consumers. In addition, the presence of 1,520 mg of sodium in the product can severely make the consumer face a critical health issue (Stony Brook University, 1998). In addition, the article published by Jourdan & Baertlein (2014) in Thompson Reuters critically illustrates about the scandals in the company’s food safety process. According to the issues identified in the article, the local meat suppliers of the company often gets involved in major scandals of maintaining safety of the raw materials. The supply of contaminated meat items by the suppliers has been critically identified in the article that can also be considered as major unethical practices of McDonald’s to ensure health and wellness of its consumers (Jourdan & Baertlein, 2014). 3. The Overall Research Design – Evaluating Options The research design of the study consists of few major areas that include selection of an appropriate research approach, data collection, data analysis along with results and findings of the research. In order to accumulate the desired outcome of the study, the research will be conducted through a qualitative approach, which will help the study to obtain wide-ranging data linked with the research topic. In order to obtain the primary aim and objectives of the research, the study would further focus on conducting a case study method by gathering relevant cases associated with the food product related issues faced by McDonald’s in the global market. In this regard, the cases will be gathered from different secondary sources including survey of real case examples illustrated in the context of the issue. Additionally, the data collection process of this proposed study will primarily focused on secondary data collection method to obtain an extensive data relating to the key question and aim of the research. An overall illustration of the research design to be undertaken in the proposed study has been represented hereunder. The data collection process of the research will include gathering of relevant facts and information from secondary data sources ranging from academic books, journal articles, web pages and news articles among others. In relation to the data analysis function, the gathered information fact and cases will be evaluated through a descriptive case-study analysis, which will help the study to obtain the formulated research goals and objectives. In this regard, the case examples and facts collected from the secondary sources will be considered as primary data, which would further help to maintain validity and relevance of the proposed research. In order to evaluate the consistency and relevance of the primary data, the research study will also provide real-life evidence about the impact of McDonald’s food items on the consumers’ health. Moreover, the selection of sources 4. What are the Key Variables, How will you Measure them and how the Project will contribute to the Workplace/Industry? The key variables in the research will be the major factors that would be determined from the literatures that have undertaken in the study. In this regard, the variables will be selected in the context of the food related scandals of McDonald’s that cause major health issue of the consumers. In this research, the key variable has been selected observing the major health issues that have been experienced by the consumers from the food items offered by McDonald’s through its extensively growing restaurant chains. In this regard, the discussion will be highly focused on the negative impacts that are often resulted from the food items offered by McDonald’s to its global consumers. In order to measure the impacts resulted from the McDonald’s food items, the case study method will provide a major insight in the research. The evaluation of the relevant results obtained from the cases along with their evidences will help the study to obtain its desired goals and objectives. 5. Sample Requirements & Sampling Options In order to obtain a justified and valid result from the evaluation, a random sampling technique will be implemented in the research in the form of selecting relevant case studies associated with the food related unethical practices of McDonald’s. In this regard, 10 case examples will be undertaken in the context of food related information and facts that are usually offered by McDonald is in its global fast-food industry. 6. Ethical Issues In the context of ethical issues of the research, the study will highly comply with a strong set of guiding principles in each stage including data collection, data evaluation along with analysing findings of the research. In relation to ethical consideration in data collection process, the research activities would highly focus on complying strong codes of conduct regarding various possible issues in the research. In addition, the provision of avoiding biasness in collecting and analysing secondary data has also facilitated the overall research work to meet the ethical codes of conduct successfully. 7. References and timeline References Gagnon, M. & Freudenberg, N. (2012). Slowing down fast food: A policy guide for healthier kids and families. Retrieved from https://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/sites/default/files/resources/slowing_down_fast_food_corporateaccountabilityinternational.pdf Gibison, A. (2006). McDonald’s: A good image with bad ethics. Retrieved from http://www.neumann.edu/academics/divisions/business/journal/review_08/gibison.pdf Jourdan, A., & Baertlein, L. (2014). Yum, McDonald's apologize as new China food scandal hits. Retrieved from http://www.newseveryday.com/articles/2/20140721/yum-mcdonalds-apologize-as-new-china-food-scandal-hits.htm Stony Brook University (1998). The dangers of eating fast food. Retrieved from http://www.stonybrook.edu/heartlinks/fastfooddangers.pdf Timeline of the Research Works Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Unethical Business Practices of McDonald's Essay”, n.d.)
Unethical Business Practices of McDonald's Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/business/1684340-unethical-business-practices-of-mcdonalds
(Unethical Business Practices of McDonald'S Essay)
Unethical Business Practices of McDonald'S Essay. https://studentshare.org/business/1684340-unethical-business-practices-of-mcdonalds.
“Unethical Business Practices of McDonald'S Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/business/1684340-unethical-business-practices-of-mcdonalds.
  • Cited: 7 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Unethical Business Practices of McDonald's

Strategic Management Plan for McDonalds

He took keen interest in the business of McDonald and acquired its first franchise license (History of mcdonald's Restaurant::About McDonalds.... The journey of mcdonald's expansion went beyond national level penetration.... hellip; Its business is spread all over the world and people of all age groups are keen to enjoy this brand.... They started the business of fast food with a small shop in California.... Ray Kroc also thought of business expansion and opened another McDonald outlet in Illinois near Chicago in 1955....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper

Cross-Cultural Perspective - McDonalds

hellip; More than 80% of mcdonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and women.... CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE – mcdonald's Name Cross-Cultural Perspective – mcdonald's mcdonald's is considered to be one of the largest international chains of fast food restaurants operating around the globe.... ?? mcdonald's is the leading global foodservice retailer with more than 32,000 local restaurants serving more than 64 million people in 117 countries each day....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility

11 Pages (2750 words) Essay

International Marketing of McDonalds

McDonald's has frequently been accused of resorting to unfair and unethical business practices.... More than 70% of mcdonald's restaurants are owned and operated by independent local people.... While McDonald's has often been accused on various grounds, the beef-fries controversy in 2001 revealed the negligent and the irresponsible way that is unexpected of a global player of the magnitude of mcdonald's.... The author states that mcdonald's believes in one marketing strategy across different nations and does not adapt its marketing according to local needs....
6 Pages (1500 words) Assignment

Management (McDonald's)

mcdonald's statement of Social Responsibility states that "Being a good corporate citizen means treating people with fairness and integrity and sharing success with the communities in the way we do business".... The local business community was concerned that the aggression of the mcdonald's franchise was anticompetitive and was also not auguring well with other workers in Brazil.... The governments are related to them in the provision of business environment and tax collection....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Business Ethics: The McDonald's Beef Fries Controversy

hellip; McDonald's has frequently been accused of resorting to unfair and unethical business practices.... While McDonald's has often been accused on various grounds, the beef-fries controversy in 2001 revealed the negligent and the irresponsible way that is unexpected of a global player of the magnitude of mcdonald's.... The goal of the following study is to analyze the ethical value of business practices at McDonald's.... Specifically, the writer of the study will focus on the controversy surrounding mcdonald's 'beef fries'....
8 Pages (2000 words) Case Study

McDonald's Corp

hellip;  Thus despite being the number one in the fast-food industry, they have attracted criticism, hostility, and allegations because of unethical business practices and lack of social responsibility.... The paper "mcdonald's Corp" presents detailed information that mcdonald's Corp, headquartered in Oak Brook Illinois is the world's number one fast-food chain.... nbsp; Other allegation against mcdonald's is that the processed food that they serve contributes to obesity (Schröder & McEachern, 2005)....
6 Pages (1500 words) Case Study

Social Responsibility and Ethics in Marketing at McDonalds

In the paper “Social Responsibility and Ethics in Marketing at mcdonald's” the author discusses CSR programs targeting the environment, employees, and the community.... The report recommends that mcdonald's implements policies and programs that improve its protection of the natural environment, relationship marketing, and cause-related marketing.... mcdonald's is the biggest food corporation in the world and this status has come with many years of development and global expansion....
12 Pages (3000 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us