Cross Cultural Perspectives

Cross Cultural Perspectives

Jennifer Gadsby

ETH/316

March 31, 2015

Marlene Shaner

Cross Cultural Perspectives

Over the past century, many things have changed and evolved in the corporate world. One of these changes is how small companies have expanded into large corporation. Many of these large corporations strive to enter into the global market of foreign countries. The McDonald’s© Corporation is no exception. Although McDonald’s© has a code of ethics for the employees of the corporation to follow, this does not mean the code of ethics used in the United States will be ethical in a foreign country. When a corporation like McDonald’s© enters into a global market, the organization must view the ethical procedures from the cultural perspective of that foreign country and design an acceptable ethical business practice for all stakeholders.

In the United States, McDonald’s© has become a fast food giant recognized by the trademarked golden arches and uniformed menu options. This creates convenience for purchasing a favored type of food at any McDonald’s© location in the United States, but does this impact the ethical practices of the corporation. Although McDonald’s© advertises all beef patties, the consumer may not be aware that one beef patty can contain meat from several different sources of cattle (Gibison, n.d.). Technically the patty is considered all beef, but there is no way to identify which source of cattle it was produced from. This operation of producing the all beef patty may be legal, but is it viewed as ethical. This precedure is view as offensive to the Hindu faith, which views cows as a sacred.

The perception of ethical practices can change according to the culture it is presented in. For example, production of food products in China do not have as strict laws on packing and production quality as the United States. When a corporation such as McDonald’s© produces products in foreign country such as China, is the ethical practices used carried over from the United States or are they what is viewed as ethical in China. According to Fauna (2014);

 Dragon TV today [July 20] broadcasted a report claiming that over two months, an undercover journalist discovered widespread use of meat sources that have expired and gone bad at Shanghai Fuxi [“Husi”] Food Products Limited Company, the meat supplier for well-known international fast food chains such as McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken [KFC], and Pizza Hut. This company was exposed using such methods as recooking expired food products and changing expiry dates to process expired meat products and then sell the chicken nuggets, steaks, hamburger patties, etc. to the majority of fast food chains such as KFC, McDonald, and Pizza Hut. When the reporter questioned this, the workers even cheerfully said: “People won’t die from eating expired food.”