Consistency of Service across the McDonald's Brand

Question

Why is it important for McDonald's to organise and control

Answer

Crawford (2015) asserts that McDonald's have become a global success as a direct result of their ability to organise and control. Zaharia and Stoica (2014) explain that the McDonald's brand is synonymous with consistency of service, meaning that a customer can purchase from any McDonald's outlet anywhere in the world, and have the same expectations of service delivery. This is only possible because McDonald's are highly organised and have well established control mechanisms to guarantee the quality of both the service and food which they provide. Even though there may be a local variation in the choice of items on the menu in McDonald's (Crawford, 2015), the overall principles of consistency and control remain constant. This is extremely valuable to the global reputation of McDonald's. Furthermore, by controlling the overall delivery of their products and having consistency in the product range, this helps to control costs as there is little or no waste and limited concern as regards quality because this is managed throughout the supply chain (Rowley and McMurtrey, 2016). It means that by focusing on quality and consistency through organisational control, McDonald's also know that they have a proven mechanism for establishing new McDonald's outlets around the world, enabling them to continue to grow and expand into new market locations. Mahajan (2014) believes that McDonald’s have created competitive advantage by training their employees in organisational management and quality control. This has enabled them to expand and maintain their global presence, as well as ensure a loyal customer following.

References

Crawford, A., (2015) McDonald's: A Case Study in Glocalization. Journal of Global Business Issues, 9(1), 11. Mahajan, S., (2014) Competitive advantage through training and development in Mcdonald's: a case study. International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering, 4(10), 403. Rowley, B., and McMurtrey, M. E., (2016) McDonald's and the Triple Bottom Line: A Case Study of Corporate Sustainability. Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability, 11(1), 33. Zaharia, V., and Stoica, I., (2014) Monitoring quality in the management of food enterprises. Knowledge Horizons and Economics, 6(3), 13.