McDonald's Essay: Tackling Sexual Misconduct Allegations.

McDonald's Mishandling of Hostile Work Environments

The report is a study on the current sexual misconduct allegations that McDonald’s Corporation is facing and analysing some business functions that are required to tackle the issue. To get into depth this paper will provide a brief context of the nature of business of the chosen organisation, that is McDonald’s before describing briefly the management challenge that McDonald’s is facing, in this case, sexual misconduct issues. McDonald’s, a public corporation, is known for being in the restaurant and fast food industry (Gheribi 2017). It is one of the largest fast food chains and serves nearly 68 million customers every day. McDonalds span 119 countries and the headquarters are located in the United States of America. The products of the company include hamburgers, fries, chicken nuggets, and vegetarian options like salads and rice bowls. In recent year, McDonald’s have been receiving heavy criticism over numerous cases of workplace harassment. The issue took a big turn when hundreds of McDonald’s workers took to protests and came out on road in parts of Chicago, Miami, Houston and Detroit, in 2021 (Kaplan, 2022). The protest was a reaction to the lawsuit that was filed by the parents of a 14 year old victim who worked as an employee and was sexually assaulted by her manager. The cases of sexual harassment by McDonald’s employee are not new and workers have often felt an inadequacy of responsibility by the fast food giant (Taylor, 2022). The recent protest marked as response to the years of inadequate actions by the corporation regarding the matter. To handle such serious and delicate issues the corporation needs to focus on their Human Resource Management and communication functions.

In recent years, McDonald’s have created a reputation of mishandling hostile work situations and sexual assault allegations by engaging in series of sexual harassment cases against women employees (Meisenzahl, 2022). McDonald’s conducted a survey in 2019, engaging 800 female employees working with both franchised restaurants and corporate. 75 percent of the participants agreed that they have been assaulted or harassed at their workplace and 71 percent said that they were reprimanded for reporting sexual harassment cases. The McDonald’s leadership were not convinced with the survey results and felt that the number of participants was too small and findings were inaccurate (Minor, 2022). However, the company came out with a regulated sexual harassment policy, which was merely a recommendation rather than a corporate requirement. Since 95 percent of McDonald’s restaurants are owned by franchises, the policy turned out to be a mere page in the employee handbook, never upheld nor reviewed. In 2021, following a sexual harassment complaint lodged by parents of a 14 year old victim, the patience of the employees broke all bounds. Hundreds of McDonald’s employees from Miami, Chicago, Houston and Detroit took to the road in protest of the series of sexual misconduct that has been prevalent over the years. It was found that the manager who assaulted the employee was a past convict and has served prison time for assaulting a child of 10 years. The protest was one of five strikes that McDonald’s employees have demonstrated over sexual misconduct and violence in their restaurants, in recent years. Surprisingly, McDonald’s have received criticism over their mishandling such delicate issues and overlooking the allegations each time. McDonald’s have also been on the news when it fired Steve Easterbrook, former CEO, for alleged sexual misconduct with several employees (Ton and Smith 2020).

New Set of Standards to Fight Sexual Misconduct and Discrimination

Existing code of conduct of McDonald’s states that every employee must be treated similarly and the company states a no tolerance policy. However, the series of allegations seem to counteract their stand point since McDonald’s have been notoriously candid over handling sexual misconduct cases. Last year, the new CEO Chris Kempczinski, pledged to stand by their women employees and rolled out a new set of standards to fight sexual misconduct and discrimination. The CEO stated that all 39,000 employees of McDonald’s including both franchised and company owned will be required to the protocols. The set of standards are said to be in motion from January 2022 and will oversee harassment allegations, retaliation, anti-violence trainings and annual surveys. The decision came through in a public memo after CBS, a new channel, reported a number of allegations of sexual assault by female staff. In an interview with CNN Business, CEO Chris Kempczinski stated that the company has pledged zero-tolerance policy. In retaliation of the allegations, he emphasised that every employee working with McDonald’s shall have a safe work environment. CNN reports that 90 percent of the corporation’s restaurants are owned by franchises and dozens of female employees working in these restaurants, whether company owned or franchised, have face similar workplace harassment and abuse. The CEO has been heard stating that these allegations are serious and the company will thoroughly investigate the matters. The global standards that the corporation is coming up with are not enough to change the landscape of serious allegations. The management requires thorough scrutiny starting from the basic organisational level and the Human Resources Management. The entire fiasco puts Human Resources at the spotlight and is a learning element that the corporation needs to closely evaluate. McDonald’s require strong leadership to own the allegations and work on them. The communications network of the Corporation is another business function that needs work, since many employees feel that they cannot communicate their grievances to the higher authority. Most of the restaurants of McDonald’s are franchised and this is where the problem lies regarding communication challenges. McDonald’s is facing a couple of lawsuits for discrimination and sexual misconduct and it is imperative to strengthen the communications systems so that employees feel a freedom to lodge complaints and freely communicate to the higher authority through certain communication networks. Besides the recent expulsion of former CEO Steve Easterbrook is an excellent opportunity for McDonald’s to show accountability for every employee and stage a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment in the workplace. These situations are good ways for HR in reasserting its responsibilities in the organisation and make the employees believe that they are shifting their strategies for the betterment of the organisation. McDonald’s fired Steve Easterbrook on account of having sexual relationship with another employee of the organisation. Although consensual, it is a direct violation of one of the long standing policies of the company. The company fired Steve Easterbrook after receiving a tip from an anonymous source regarding the sexual relationship, throwing a negative light on the HRM of the company and probable improprieties conducted by other employees. Many employees alleged that HR during Easterbrook’s leadership overlooked complaints regarding misconduct of employees and co-workers and some stated that there was fear of reprisal for reporting the harassment or assault. Such acts are bad examples of leadership and it can be noted here that if a company’s HR strategies are not strong and not in compliance with the employee’s wellbeing, such allegations of misconduct certainly justifies as a management challenge that the company needs to focus and work on.

HR and Communication Networks: Demands on Corporate Responsibility

Businesses require strong policies against sexual harassment as they can be held liable if they do not take responsible measures to curb the problem (Dougherty and Goldstein Hode 2016). There are a few business functions that are necessary to tackle sexual misconduct.

• Management involvement- The Board and CEO requires exhibiting a zero tolerance policy towards harassment and misconduct. The leaders of HR and top management must ensure that the employees are aware of strict punishment and that penalty for harassment applies to every employee of the organisation, notwithstanding employee position and status. The management should regularly oversee data regarding sexual harassment cases and reports and evaluate the average time it spends on resolving each case. The anti-harassment policy should be formally sanctioned and encouraged during training on workplace misconduct (Howald et al. 2018).
• Communication channels- Employees should have the liberty to access reporting channels and communicate their allegations in a discreet and confidential manner. Anonymous channels of communication make it safer and easier for employees feeling unsafe or scared to report misconduct. A two-way communication channel helps to investigate the matter further and also helps to build trust that results in victims disclosing more data. All employees must be ensured a discreet communication channel so that they do not feel threatened.

Sexual offense is a serious misconduct in any given workplace and the Human Resource Management teams must come up with strategies to keep sexual harassment and misconduct at bay (Tan 2020). This section recommends some strategies that McDonald’s should focus on, to reduce the harassment incidents.

• Making Sexual Harassment Elimination a Priority- the positive outcomes of Times Up and Me Too movements along with a myriad of harassment and assault cases in recent years have urged the growth of awareness and the increase in active measures to inform and educate employees regarding the behaviours and intentions that should not be tolerated in the work environment (Williams, Singh and Mezey 2019). The harassment policies must be reviewed regularly and communicated on a regular basis during meetings and trainings. It has been proved that communication should be strong and not in a tepid manner to prevent harassment, discrimination and bullying. These communications must come from the leaders and top executives along with the HR; only then the communications will be taken seriously by employees and followed by every staff.
• Conducting Sexual Harassment Elimination Training- It is often noticed that employees do not respond to outright communication that insinuate that they have done something wrong or they have engaged in offensive behaviour. Much of training on sexual harassment are emphasised on what should not be done, which insinuates that all the employees are part of the issue, and cannot be trusted. On the hand, prevention of harassment can be achieved by a positive approach that helps to convey the message and urge employees to create a safe and nurturing workplace. Positive messaging makes the employee want to achieve the goal of doing the right thing and engages them to prevent assault or abuse in the workplace (Roehling and Huang 2018).
• Confidential Reporting- a confidential channel of communication or electronic reporting medium permits an employee to make a complaint. This medium shall also ensure the employees safety and animosity throughout the investigative process. An electronic communicative medium also helps the victim to withhold report until another employee lodges a complaint against the same perpetuator. Other forms of reporting system can also be used if this is not viable, such as reporting to the managers or any authoritative person whom they feel comfortable sharing information. The managers are required to address the issues with utmost confidentiality and escalate the concern to the administration to take proper action.
• Third-party Investigators- a neutral third party entity shall be employed to investigate and resolve the matter through punishment, watchful monitoring, and tracking behaviours of perpetuators. A third-party body can be an internal board or independent board employed to oversee such matters and investigate the issues (Lawrence, 2020).
• Anti-harassment Policy- it is imperative for companies as big as McDonald’s to have a revised anti-harassment and anti-abuse policy for all its employees throughout the globe, complying with the regional laws. The policy must clearly define what sexual harassment is and what the types of sexual harassment are there. Germany has an Act known as the General Equal Treatment Act that signifies sexual assault as salacious jokes and comments, unwanted and inappropriate touching, sexual innuendos, and showing inappropriate and pornographic imagery. The company must use examples as case studies to explain the situations that can put an employee in uncomfortable positions (Desplaces and Ogilvie 2020). Along with this, the company must encourage reporting harassment and assaults through clearly specified channels of communication (Segal, 2022). The policy also must include appropriate punishment and actions that are to be taken if an employee is found guilty.

McDonald’s shall require training regarding anti-harassment and misconduct throughout all its 39,000 restaurants (Wiener-Bronner, 2021). The trainings should uphold a revised set of standards that shall focus on eliminating sexual misconduct, sexual abuse and preventing violence, taking employee feedback and opening ore communication channels for ensuring safety. Currently McDonald’s misconduct policy is a bit vague and do not comprise of strict disciplinary actions that should be taken. The policy is regarded as one of the recommendations out of the employee handbook that is never revised or upheld by the restaurant managers. The CEO of McDonald’s has promised to roll out a new set of standard in January, 2022 to address the grievances of victims and also to ensure that such misconducts to do not occur in future. McDonald’s has been neglecting the series of sexual misconducts over the past few years and now is the time to wake up from slumber and address the issue at hand or risk losing business (Crain and Matheny 2019). The consecutive employee protests and strikes all over Northern America and multiple lawsuits against the company have proved that the company can risk losing its business if they keep neglecting sexual harassment allegations (Clair et al. 2019). Stricter policy must be put in place to ensure that no such cases take place in the future and even if they do, strict actions should be taken. Along with training programmes and new standards the company also requires the top managers and leader to take responsibility of their employees. The employees will follow rules if the managers and leaders follow them and provide a clean and transparent communication. A proper communication channel is required to be built by the company to give a platform to the victims to voice their concerns (Quick and McFadyen 2017). This is an essential part of the anti-harassment elimination measures that the brand needs to follow. Anti-harassment elimination is an important step for the company to achieve a safer and productive, trustful work environment (Shaw, Hegewisch and Hess 2018). The employees should also be regularly trained and encouraged to maintain a healthy and positive work place. A positive approach towards sexual harassment prevention goes a long way in terms of business and management goals (Crain and Matheny 2019).

Conclusion

This report hence concludes that McDonald’s have overlooked serious allegations of sexual misconduct over the recent years and it has tarnished the brand to some extent as multiple mass protests line up each year consecutively. The brand has also suffered from serious laws suits and one of their former CEO has also been expelled by the company due to repeated sexual misconduct in workplace. Therefore, it is imperative that the company brings a strict universal policy for all its restaurants across the globe to prevent such mishaps from happening in future. The report suggests that numerous cases have been blooming in the past years and the company should put forward a positive stance regarding the matter and acknowledge the seriousness of the issue in order to expand their business and keep their reputation polished. The report provides a brief overview of the challenge and analyses the business functions needed to tackle the challenge in order to achieve a safe and productive workplace.

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