McDonald's Case Study

McDonald's Case Study

As organizations seeks ways to increase profits by filtering into international markets, many turn to the field of public relations as a way of reaching cross-cultural markets. Factors such as values, cultural differences, language barriers, beliefs, etc…in order to successfully promote an organization's products and services. Public relations practitioners have the responsibility to be the mediator between the organizations and public(s). According to Murphy and Dee (1992), " Public relations makes organizations more effective by building relationships with stakeholders in the environment that have the potential to constrain or enhance the mission of the organization." This role also involves disseminating and seeking information to the public. This information/feedback provides the public relations practitioners and the organizations with insight as how the publics perceive the organization.

When the organizations forget/ignore the importance of public relations practitioner's role in the organizational structure, this may often result in dissatisfactions among the organization's publics and often react in a way that may harm to the organization. This conflict is characterized as activism, which when not dealt correctly, can end in harsh consequences such as tarnished reputation or decrease in profits.

1. McDonald's perspective in identifying their key publics in the Mclibel case.

It's very important to correctly identify and characterize the relevant key publics. Dewy(1982) first propounded a public is a group whose members face a similar problem, recognize that problem exists, and organizes something to do about it. Grunig and Hunt(1984) assert that there are three stages in th...

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... activism from the perspective of both the organizations and of the activists groups, which I feel it is applicable to this study of the McLibel case. In my research for preparing this assignment, I've came across more literature and disseminated information from the small activist group of London Greenpeace versus the large multi-national corporation of McDonald's. This study also points to the need of more studies that examine the special problems of international communication. The actions multi-national c McDonald's triggered activist conflict not only in London, but in

other different countries as well.

"If public relations practitioners are to assess issues successfully and identify publics that are likely to become active on those issues, they must look beyond the confines of their own culture and beyond the borders of their own country," Anderson (1992).