MANAGING OPERATIONS ACROSS BORDERS

Managing Operations across Borders



Managing Operations across Borders

Introduction

The task of this paper is to complete an analytical report on cross-cultural issues of McDonalds, operating internationally and dealing with various cultural issues and obstacles in their business operations.

Background

Managing the business operations across borders is not an easy task. International management is a reality in today's business environment. When a firm decides to expand business across the border, it faces many challenges including management of diversity, language barriers, diverse regulations, diverse norms and traditions, and so on. Culture and business are very much inter-linked, until and unless a firm understands the culture of a new society where it plans to expand, it is impossible to achieve targets and objectives. Language barriers are one of the major issues faced by multinational firms. Cultures vary nation to the nation and continent to continent. The concept of fair business practices get even more ambiguous when one moves in to newer culture.

Culture is a shared set of meanings among community of people who develop a common model from shared experiences (Zapf 1991, 106). So, from this statement of Zapf one can say that culture for a different region must be different. This difference of culture plays a vital part in conducting the business smoothly while operating in multicultural teams.

Every country of the world has a distinct culture of its own. People living in a particular country relate to the norms and values of the society. There are values that are drastically different in various cultures and societies. The dressing pattern, languages spoken, colours, buildings, architecture et al differ in different cultures. People to America have different values as compared to the values in Russia. With globalization taking roots in the world economy and people having access to TV channels of the world, the whole planet has shrunk. People all over the world are now exposed to all sorts of cultures and values starting right from the very bizarre to very classic and highly educated. No one can now stay in complete isolation from other cultures and their impact. Now culture cannot be seen in complete isolation from the rest of the world. The mingling of cultures has given way to a new phenomenon of cross cultures where a blend of indigenous or local and alien or foreign values portray a unique picture where some values are common among all yet each one of them differ in various ways.

Company Overview

The first McDonald's was inaugurated in California in 1940. The fast food company is the largest fast food in the world with around 32,000 restaurants spread in more than 117 countries. McDonald's staffs consist of people from diverse background, which two- thirds of its franchises applicants are women and minorities. McDonald's started with its first diversity project in the late 1970's when the CEO Fred Turner decided to create the “Affirmative Action Department”. The first goal of the department was to create a diversified workforce. One of the main reasons Tuner decided to change ...