McDonald's ethical practices on the local communities

Question

What are the impacts of McDonald's ethical practices on the local communities surrounding their stores? How do the practices effect the function of the business as a whole?

Answer

McDonald’s works with an ample amount of charities, in order to sustain their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and also work within the heart of their community, along with specialising in their own charity – Ronald McDonald House Charities. Ronald McDonald House Charities UK was established in 1989. It is one of a network of RMHC 'chapters' operating in over 50 countries and regions throughout the world, providing services to support the wellbeing of children and families (McDonalds, 2016). However, to improve their demographic and develop further within being more socially responsible, McDonald’s will need to increase the amount of CSR activities such as representing more charities than they currently do, or involving themselves more into local community work. On the other hand, McDonald's has been accused of having a negative impact on the environment in more than one way, surrounding the fact that they have built hundreds of factories around the world to produce their products which therefore can lead to pollution within the surrounding areas. McDonald's is distributed amongst 119 countries, therefore the amount of factories and work involved to make their products and conducting their activities will have a negative impact on local communities due to noise and further air pollution produced. Furthermore, McDonald’s have been associated with unethical working conditions and abusing the rights of their employees and co-workers within various countries. This can have a damaging impact on their brand reputation, which could lead to consumers losing trust in the brand and potentially choosing more socially responsible fast food chains.

References

McDonalds (2016) Ronald McDonald House Charities [online] http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/Ourworld/Ronald-McDonald-House-Charities.html Accessed 8th July, 2016.