7-Case Study McDonald's Changing Organisational Culture

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CHAPTER7:ORGANISATIONAL CHAPTER7:ORGANISATIONAL

CULTUREANDCHANGE CULTUREANDCHANGE  Case

study: McDonald’s changing organisational culture

Organi Organisat sation ions s are very very aware aware now of cultu cultural ral differe difference nces s betwee between n differe different nt countriesandregions.YoumaythinkthataBigMacisrelativelysimilarinany ofthe32,000McDonald’soutletsinmorethan100countriesasitseemstobe symb symbol olic ic of the the orga organi nisa satio tion’ n’s s bran brand. d. Inde Indeed ed, , a bun bun with with beef beef woul would d have have effectivelysummeduptheofferingwhentheorganisationfirststarted.

InFrance,acountrynotpreviouslyknownforitsfast-foodculture,itisknown as‘LeBigMac’andisstrictlymadewithonlyFrenchbeef.InIndia,wherebeef isbannedinmanystates,theyhavetheirownversionswithvariouschicken andvegetarianoptions.ThekebabversionismostpopularintheMiddleEast, andinMcDonald’sinIsraelyouwouldnotbeabletopurchaseamilkshake drinkinakosherbranch.

Theglobalbrandhastransformeditselfsuccessfullytofitinwithlocalcultural differences and, as local culture has evolved, they have responded acco accord rdin ingl gly. y. A good good exam exampl ple e of this this is the the chan change ge to more more sala saladd-ba base sed d offerin offeringsin gsin the USA and and UKas custom customerprefer erpreferenc enceshavechan eshavechanged ged. . Inthe UKinparticularitisnowpossib UKinparticularitisnowpossibletohavefreeWi-Fi letohavefreeWi-Fi,eatfree-rang ,eatfree-rangeeggsand eeggsand drin drink k orga organi nic c milk milk. . This This is a long long way way from from the the very very Amer Americ ican an beefbeef-ea eati ting ng outletthatoriginatedinSanBernandinoover70yearsago.

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Questions 1. DoyouthinkthatMcDonald’swouldbeassuccessfulintheUSAtoadyif theyhadnotrespondedtochangingculturalexpectations? 2. CouldMcDonald’sactuallychangethecultureofacountrybyopeningup outletsinthatcountry?

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