No / There is growing evidence that multinational enterprises (MNEs) increasingly develop organisation-based employment strategies, which promote the transmission of employee relations practices across national borders. This article provides an analysis of one MNE’s employee relations practice and what appears to be its preference for operating, where possible, independently of national industrial relations systems. The findings, which draw on a UK/German comparison, raise a number of questions about the adequacy of even highly juridifed national systems to protect workers rights in practice.

No / This paper is based on a comparative study of the UK and German operations of the McDonald’s Corporation. The main focus of the paper is the interaction between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the German system of co-determination. Commentators have suggested that industrial relations practices in host countries are particularly difficult for MNE’s to avoid because they are so deeply embedded in societal frameworks. However, there are also opposing global pressures for MNEs to impose their industrial relations practices across national borders in order to transmit ‘best practice’ to their subsidiaries. Ferner and Edwards (1995) suggest that Germany is something of a ‘test case’ for MNEs because of the strength of its legislative underpinning and institutional arrangements. Most analysis on the German system of co-determination has suggested that it is only small and medium-sized firms which avoid or undermine the German system (Lane, 1989). However, evidence brought together in this study suggests that along with other large companies and MNEs of different origins and across different industries, McDonald’s have been able to take advantage of weaknesses in regulation in the German system of co-determination. The paper puts forward a typology of possible ‘avoidance strategies’ within the German system.

In this research, I examine selected commercial videos promoting the American corporations Coca-Cola and McDonald's in the Russian market over the period 2007-2010. Proceeding on the assumption that the selected videos are typical TV commercials utilized by these two companies in the Russian market, my major goal is to determine the ways in which the ads attempt to make the given products appealing to Russian consumers. I found that the video ads of these two corporations revealed a strategy aimed at avoiding negative attitudes against the products (and their potential profits) because of their strong identification with America and everything that America might represent to Russian consumers. This challenge is complicated because a segment of the potential market, principally young people, undoubtedly would not mind an association with American values and would generally respond favorably to American and broad cosmopolitan (foreign, non-Russian) interests. Moreover, creating ads with exclusively Russian themes (for example, from folklore) could potentially reach customers in other segments of the population less enamored of American products. The challenge facing both companies was to make a foreign product acceptable and appealing to a Russian market. The strategies they used to do this are worth examining for the sake of obtaining insights into successful advertising campaigns in Russia in particular and in foreign cultures in general. Analyses will yield conclusions that may be useful to psychologists, linguists, cultural historians and members of other disciplines involved in advertising design and business strategies.

The McDonald's model of labour management has been widely adopted throughout the fast food industry. Literature that is critical of fast food labour management policy and practice often portrays employers as offering work that is low paid, unchallenging and uninteresting. However, others argue that the industry provides young workers with: a first resume entry, training opportunities, the chance to develop a career and a path into employment. This study interprets these two perspectives as reflecting either misalignment or alignment of employee/crew and employer preferences. Such an interpretation recognises that fast food work does not represent a career for many who do it but is short term or 'stop-gap' in nature. The study's research question is: to what extent does management preference for elements of work align with the preferred working arrangements of crew at McDonald's Australia? This research subjects McDonald's Australian stores to independent scrutiny. Previous research in this area has mostly used qualitative methods. Earlier studies, by and large, provide descriptive accounts of fast food employment however they often lack the rigour of an empirical investigation. The present research uses a structured survey method to obtain data from crew and managers. Results are analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings focus on three areas of labour management: industrial relations, work organisation and human resource management. Several themes relating to alignment of preferences in the fast food employment relationship are identified. These are: crew have scant knowledge of industrial relations, do not like aspects of work organisation, but respond positively to certain human resource management policies and practices; crew lack knowledge of labour management issues generally; crew work is simple and repetitive; and, many young crew seem to dislike aspects of fast food work as they get older but others, who have distinctive characteristics, appear to continue to like the McDonald's approach as they age.

The thesis offers a gastronomic meditation on the ambiguity and complexity of meanings signified by McDonald’s as one of the most powerful food symbols of the late twentieth-century Western society. Using an advance on the structuralist perspective, the thesis argues that it is important to understand food not simply as a surface representation of the social order but as a product of a constant, constitutive dialectic between order and disorder and a dual perception of order. The search for the complex meanings of McDonald’s is pursued firstly by bringing the concept of disorder to centre stage to form a dialectic relationship between order and disorder; secondly, by setting McDonald’s at the interface of modernity and post modernity, positioned in an intersection of two competing versions of the history of food and of order as expressed through food. Here the dominant historical narrative expresses the triumph of the order of the bourgeoisie through the work of Elias and ‘the civilizing process’, with the counter-narrative of Bakhtin’s theory of the carnivalesque highlighting the continuing importance of disorder. These narratives are explored at two key moments of food history, where the order/disorder dialectic can be seen to play a different role. The first is the interface of medieval ‘disorder’ and the coming bourgeois order of modernity, where Rabelais is the key text and secondly; the early nineteenth-century, where Brillat-Savarin is used as a marker of the triumph of eighteenth-century rationalism. It is only by reference to the order/disorder dialectic and the duality of order that the ambiguity of complex food symbols such as McDonald’s can be better understood, and thus become, importantly, a meditation on the nature of society in the pursuit of an examined existence. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Intresset för det valda uppsatsämnet uppstod av att se om det är kultur som påverkar varumärkesassociationer. Det var därmed intressant att fördjupa sig i två olika kulturer, nämligen USA och Sverige. Detta för att göra studien mer intresseväckande, då det handlar om en jämförelse mellan dessa två länder och för att ”verklighetsförankra” studien.</p><p>Uppsatsen grundar sig på en kvalitativ ansats och avser att studera konsumenternas varumärkesassociationer. Den komponent som har analyserats, för att undersöka vilka associationer som uppstår är kulturellt bakgrund. Studien har som syfte att utvärdera om den svenska och amerikanska kulturen påverkar hur konsumenterna associerar om varumärket McDonald’s.</p><p>Den teoretiska referensramen tar sin utgångspunkt i Hofstedes kulturmanifestationer och nationella kultur skillnader, men i uppsatsen ges även en inblick i Sveriges och USA:s kultur skillnader. Teori kapitlet avslutas med en egen undersökningsmodell som tar upp de relevanta delarna för studiens syfte.</p><p>Det empiriska materialet bygger på intervjuer med svenska och amerikanska konsumenter. Intervjufrågorna formades i huvudsak utifrån komponenterna i den egna undersökningsmodellen. Denna modell användes som ett verktyg för att analysera varumärkesassociationer, där koppling skedde genom att sortera den empiriska fakta som har erhållits, för att sedan applicera den till passande delar inom undersökningsmodellen.</p><p>Resultatet av analysen bildade en grund för de slutsatser och egna reflektioner som har presenterats. Slutsatsen redovisar att en människas tankar, handlingar och känslor är kulturella produkter och att den amerikanska och svenska kulturen har en inverkan på konsumenternas associationer.</p>

Intresset för det valda uppsatsämnet uppstod av att se om det är kultur som påverkar varumärkesassociationer. Det var därmed intressant att fördjupa sig i två olika kulturer, nämligen USA och Sverige. Detta för att göra studien mer intresseväckande, då det handlar om en jämförelse mellan dessa två länder och för att ”verklighetsförankra” studien. Uppsatsen grundar sig på en kvalitativ ansats och avser att studera konsumenternas varumärkesassociationer. Den komponent som har analyserats, för att undersöka vilka associationer som uppstår är kulturellt bakgrund. Studien har som syfte att utvärdera om den svenska och amerikanska kulturen påverkar hur konsumenterna associerar om varumärket McDonald’s. Den teoretiska referensramen tar sin utgångspunkt i Hofstedes kulturmanifestationer och nationella kultur skillnader, men i uppsatsen ges även en inblick i Sveriges och USA:s kultur skillnader. Teori kapitlet avslutas med en egen undersökningsmodell som tar upp de relevanta delarna för studiens syfte. Det empiriska materialet bygger på intervjuer med svenska och amerikanska konsumenter. Intervjufrågorna formades i huvudsak utifrån komponenterna i den egna undersökningsmodellen. Denna modell användes som ett verktyg för att analysera varumärkesassociationer, där koppling skedde genom att sortera den empiriska fakta som har erhållits, för att sedan applicera den till passande delar inom undersökningsmodellen. Resultatet av analysen bildade en grund för de slutsatser och egna reflektioner som har presenterats. Slutsatsen redovisar att en människas tankar, handlingar och känslor är kulturella produkter och att den amerikanska och svenska kulturen har en inverkan på konsumenternas associationer.

This thesis consists of two case studies which examine how Greenpeace, an independent global environmental campaigning organization, targeted major multinational corporations, McDonald’s and Unilever, in attempt to stop destructive agricultural processes in the developing world. This multiple case study examined how these corporations responded to activist pressure and offers prescriptive insight on how corporations can turn criticism in to an opportunity to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes when responding to activist pressure. These case studies will suggest that if public relations practitioners can create a dialogue with activists publics through two-way communication the profession of public relations can be a guiding force for creating more sustainable business practices, fostering corporate social and environmental responsibility, and creating positive social change. This paper examined recent literature on changing attitudes toward environmental issues, the credibility of corporate sustainability, and symmetrical communication. By studying the use of two-way dialogue in the practice of corporate communications with environmental activist organizations, these case studies will help to test the real world validity of theoretical propositions about symmetrical communication (L. Grunig 1992). Rather than directing its campaigns toward Cargill and other agriculture suppliers, Greenpeace chose to focus their efforts on McDonald’s and Unilever, two large highly visible international corporations using their products. Both companies chose to work with Greenpeace, pressured their suppliers to change their environmental policies, and worked toward creating moratoriums to end deforestation. / Department of Journalism

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2008. / A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Centre for Cultural Research, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2002. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-181)