Mcdonald's Stakeholders Case Study

McDonald’s corporation, which is a global fast food company will be the case studied in this essay. It has opened more than 200 restaurants in Hong Kong, which is a well-known fast food chain in Hong Kong. As a global fast food chain, it is inevitable that McDonald’s will encounter different conflicts of interest between shareholders and stakeholders, including philanthropy and food safety. It is vitally important for McDonald’s to cope with these problems as a global company, since a number of stakeholders and shareholders are involved in these issues.

According to the official website of McDonald’s , philanthropic programs such as environmental protection, volunteer works and Ronald McDonald House Charities are launched to give back to

Undeniably, McDonald’s is a global fast food chain which sells fast food to customers. So, the interest of customers of McDonald’s is harmed in this issue. Also, the interest of shareholders of McDonald’s is harmed in this issue as the reputation and sales of McDonald’s are adversely affected. Should the managers of McDonald’s be responsible for this issue? By applying the social responsibility suggested by Milton Friedman, it is observable that the managers of McDonald’s are unable to protect the interest of shareholders in this case. However, there is no responsibility for the managers of McDonald’s to apologize for this issue to the public as these expired ingredients were produced by Shanghai Husi Food limited company. Therefore, the government should be responsible for food safety and Shanghai Husi Food limited company should be responsible for selling out-of-date food. In this sense, the managers of McDonald’s should be solely responsible for the loss of interest of shareholders due to this issue. But the interest of customers will be neglected by McDonald’s if the concept of social responsibility of Milton Friedman is applied. Without McDonald’s, the number of customers consuming food produced by using expired ingredients will be fewer since McDonald’s is one of the majority outlets of

Also, it cannot be morally justified because it ignores the interest of either stakeholders or shareholders in the above issues. In contrast, Kant’s philosophy and Michael Jensen’s stakeholder theory not only cope with the problems arisen from these issues, but also being morally justified. To conclude, voting system derived from Kant’s philosophy and the responsibility of the managers of McDonald’s derived from Michael Jensen’s stakeholder theory are necessary to solve the conflicts between shareholders and stakeholders of McDonald’s in the above issues.

Reference:

Corporate Social Responsibility McDonald 's Hong Kong. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2016, from http://www.mcdonalds.com.hk/en/social-responsibility.html

Moy, P. (2014, July 28). McDonald 's misled Hong Kong food safety authority about rotten meat, says official. Retrieved May 14, 2016, from http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1561221/mcdonalds-misled-hong-kong-food-safety-authority-about-rotten-meat

Friedman, M. (1970, September 13). The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. The New York Times Magazine.

Drucker, P. (1984, Winter). The New Meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility. California Management Review,