But there also exists the chance that the Iraqi consumer will not make a major difference between the American fast food stores, but will compare them to the local food providers in the street. This would also bring about serious competition.
4. McDonald's Social Responsibility
McDonald's corporate website presents the user with a wide variety of reports on their implemented social responsibility practices. These include the employment practices, relationships with the suppliers, animal and environment welfare, corporate giving or educational programs and scholarships as well as the promotion of a healthy life style or the continual support offered to the development of the communities where McDonald's operates. The primary aim of these programs is to help the company better adapt and function in accordance to the changes affecting the micro and macro environments. While also recognizing the importance of the local communities, the social responsibility agenda is focused on integrating the corporate affairs under the global brand (Official Website of the McDonald's Corporation, 2008).
McDonald's efforts to create a social responsibility agenda have to be given the proper credit; however, the approach has not always been the most proper one. For instance, McDonald's pries on promoting a healthy life style, but they mostly sell junk food. And as this continues to negatively impact the American population, the company now wants to promote these practices abroad. The replacement of plastic bags with paper bags does indeed have major beneficial impacts upon the environmental health, but the recipients still contain fattening foods, damaging for the consumer. In this instance then, the process of creating a stronger corporate responsibility agenda should come from within the organization and should start with reanalyzing the foods on the menu.
5. Conclusions
Globalization is a contemporaneous force affecting the individuals at all corners of the earth. Due to their economic and cultural powers, the Americans have often been assimilated as the promoters of globalization to serve their own interests. An example of the ultimate U.S. organization...
Present in more than 100 countries through franchising or personally run stores, the company would still like to penetrate new regions, but encounters difficulties. Such a region is Iraq, where a couple of McDonald's stores have indeed been spotted, but only on the military bases. The company was asked to contract a franchise there, but refused on grounds that the country was not democratic. Today, they strive to enter it, but continually fail. The success of McDonald's in Iraq is conditioned by a variety of forces emerging from the economic, political and socio-cultural environment. The success of the organization is often explained through their social responsibility programs, which do indeed present a multitude of favourable outcomes, but which seem a bit conflicting with the junk food sold as the symbol of McDonald's.
References
Docena, H., October 24, 2003, Dying for a McDonald's in Iraq, Asia Times
Druckman, E., January 22, 2007, George Bush's New Iraq Plan Includes McDonald's of Baghdad, Associated Content
Goering, L., July 5, 2003, Kurds Offer Troops a Holiday Haven for Rigors of Iraq, Chicago Tribune
McCarthy, T., August 16, 2006, Golden Arches With a Twist: Iraqi Burger Joint, ABC News
Wilson, J., October 10, 2004, the Fast Food Phenomenon, the School of Russian and Asian Studies, http://www.sras.org/russian_fast_foodlast accessed on September 24, 2008
2008, Is There a McDonald's in Iraq? Answers Yahoo, http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060905213929AAvqsQNlast accessed on September 24, 2008
2008, Iraq, Central Intelligence Agency, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.htmllast accessed on September 24, 2008
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My Iraqi Culture, My Arabic Story, http://www.myarabicstory.org/IRAQ/iraqi_culture.html. Ast accessed on September 24, 2008
