Case Study: McDonald's: A High-Involvement Organization?

One experience most people in North America and Europe have shared is that of dining in the hamburger establishment known as McDonald's. In fact, someone has claimed that thirtieth-century archeologists may dig into the ruins of our present civilization and conclude that twenty-fi rst-century religion was devoted to the worship of golden arches. Your group, Fastalk Consultants, is known as the shrewdest, most insightful, and most overpaid management consulting fi rm in the country.

You have been hired by the president of McDonald's to make recommendations for improving the motivation and performance of personnel in their franchise operations. Some of the key activities in franchise operations are food preparation, ordertaking and dealing with customers, and routine clean-up operations. The president of McDonald's must always be concerned that his company's competitors, such as Burger King, Wendy's, Jack in the Box, Dunkin' Donuts, various pizza establishments, and others, have the potential to make heavy inroads into McDonald's market. Thus, he hired a separate market research fi rm to investigate and compare the relative merits of the sandwiches, french fries, and drinks served by McDonald's and the competitors and asked the market research fi rm to assess the advertising campaigns of the competitors. Hence, you will not be concerned with marketing issues, except as they may affect employee behavior. The president wants you to evaluate the organization's franchises to determine their strengths and weaknesses of how they manage their associates hoping their work will be productive. He is very interested in how the restaurants' management approach compares to high-involvement management and the impact on their approach on McDonald's. The president has established an unusual contract with you. He wants you and your colleagues in the fi rm to make recommendations based on your observations as customers. He does not want you to do a complete analysis with interviews, surveys, or behind-the-scenes observations.

STEPS: 1. Assemble into groups of four to fi ve. Each group will act as a separate Fastalk consulting team.

2. Think about your past visits to McDonald's. What did you see and experience? How was the food prepared and served? What was the process? Did the employees seem to be happy with their work? Did they seem to be well trained and well suited for the work? Did the supervisor act as a coach or a superior? Your instructor may ask you to visit a McDonald's in preparation for this exercise and/or to research the organization via the Internet or school library.

3. Assess McDonald's on each dimension of high-involvement management.

4. Develop recommendations for the president of McDonald's.

5. Reassemble as a class. Discuss your group's assessments and recommendations with the rest of the class, and listen to other groups' assessments. Do you still assess McDonald's in the same way after hearing from your colleagues in the class?

6. The instructor will present additional points for consideration.