International Practices and Diversity

MacDonald’s International Practices and Diversity

MacDonald’s is the largest fast food industry across the world. The company is headquartered in the U.S, but it has several offices in other countries. The organizations operate in more than 120 countries across the world, and its customers are approximately 70 million. The company was initiated by two brothers namely Maurice and Richard MacDonald’s in the year 1940 in California, America (Mirza, 2018). Initially, they had started the business as a small joint that dealt with fast foods such as hamburgers, milkshakes, and french-fries. The company kept on growing over the years, until a time they decided to franchise it. After franchising it in 1953, the business started to be referred to as McDonald’s Corporation. They later sold the business to Mr. Ray some years later, and he oversaw its global expansion (Mirza, 2018).

McDonald’s understands the significance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and thus it has developed several strategies of ensuring that its workforce is diverse. Though the company has faced several challenges over the years such as being accused of being the main contributor to the high obesity pandemic in America, the organization has still managed to maintain a good reputation (Singh, 2019). The good reputation is mainly contributed by its high regard to employee relations. The organization puts much emphasis on developing a positive corporate culture by employing diverse employees. Mainly, the organization has managed to maintain the top position in the fast food business globally because it understands the significance of diverse employees in helping it succeed in establishing its operations in foreign countries.

Factually, the latest statistics of the composition of the organization's workforce showed that 73% of the workforce consists of women, and persons of diverse color (Singh, 2019). The organization has established 298 charitable houses that offer hospitality to sick children. The organization spends over $250 million in managing the cost of these houses every year (Singh, 2019). The organization also observes diversity and inclusion while dealing with its suppliers and franchise team. The organization has introduced policies and practices that are aimed at ensuring it reaches its goals through the diverse employees.

MacDonald’s also shows its determination to enhance international practices by launching various initiatives for supporting marginalized populations. The Global women initiative of 2009 is an absolute example of the initiatives that MacDonald’s uses to enhance its international practices and diversity programs (Mirza, 2018). The organization’s values also evidence that it is determined to adhere to international practices and diversity by observing fairness, integrity, and honesty. According to (Mirza, 2018). The organization observes diversity and inclusion of employees from the junior level employees to senior level employees.

For an international organization to succeed in the international market, it has to adhere to internationalization principles. Employing diverse employees is one of the major goals that an organization that is planning to enlarge its operations to foreign markets should consider. Despite MacDonald’s experiencing challenges in the past years whereby it was criticized heavily for elevating the obesity pandemic in America, the organization remained unshaken (Singh, 2019). The main reason that enabled the organization to withstand the pressures effectively was the fact that it had already attracted loyal customers who were willing to stand by it. Generally, the organization apprehends the contribution of diversity and inclusion to effective internationalization, and therefore, it has used it to maximize its efficiency and effectiveness.

The international practices of MacDonald’s outstand those of its competitors because it manages to improve the cohesion of the diverse employees by organizing diverse training programs. Despite employing diverse employees, an organization may not manage to fulfill its objectives if there is discrimination of the diverse employees. Overcoming discrimination of diverse employees is one of the major challenges that organizations face while trying to implement international practices? MacDonald’s has, however, proved that training programs can be used to overcome this challenge, and thus organizations struggling to implement diversity and international practices in the workplace can follow the example of McDonald’s.

References

Mirza, B. (2018). McDonald's Makes Diversity Part of the Business | Blog.SHRM.org. Retrieved from https://blog.shrm.org/workplace/mcdonalds-makes-diversity-part-of-the-business

Singh, A. (2019). McDonald's Makes Diversity About the Bottom Line. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/csr/2010/09/08/mcdonalds-makes-diversity-about-the-bottom-line/#250d41a506a3