Human Resource Management Case Study

Case Title:

McDonald’s: Revamping Its Poor Employer Image

Abstract:
McDonald’s is a leading fast-food giant in the world. Since the 1980s, the company has been in the eye of the storm as a poor employer and for exploiting workers. The company faced several protests, boycotts, pickets, strikes, lawsuits and campaigns. In June 2003, a popular publication, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary included a word, ‘McJob’ and defined it as a ‘low-paying, unskilled, dead-end job’. It was also mentioned that such jobs were pre-dominantly found in the fast-food industry. Being the world’s largest fast-food company, McDonald’s initiated a campaign to redefine ‘McJob’ in 2005. The campaign focused on dispelling the misconception among people about McDonald’s image as a bad employer. A poster campaign in June 2006 highlighted the company’s investment in people status, flexible working hours for parents, competitive pay, promotion options and health benefits. Despite all these efforts, critics continued to call a ‘McJob’ an un-stimulating, low-paid job with few opportunities to grow. It was also pointed out that the company had a high staff turnover rate. It remained to be seen if the fast-food giant’s efforts to revamp its image as a good employer would pay off.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To understand the HR issues in the fast-food industry
• To study the problems faced by employees at McDonald’s
• To analyse the efforts of McDonald’s in changing its image as a poor employer
• To understand whether the initiatives taken by McDonald’s would help change its image as a poor employer.

Keywords :  Fast-Food, Exploitation, Workers, Flexible working hours, low-paid jobs, McDonald’s, HRM Case Study, McJob, Image, Revamp, Protests, Burger King, Wendy’s, Ray Kroc, McExploitation