Motivation at work
The case of McDonald’s
Jeanette Tost
Supervisor: Jens Riis Andersen
Department of Business Administration
Number of characters including figures: 107.011
May 2013
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
Abstract
This thesis investigated the hypothesis that McDonald’s election as the Best Workplace in
Denmark can be explained by their way of creating job satisfaction by motivating their employees.
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The announcement was made by Great Place to Work , which is a consultancy company, who
offers to help to improve the company culture in other organisations. Their method of analysing
the companies was presented in the thesis and it was found that the important aspects for the
employees are trust in management, camaraderie and pride. Furthermore the company was
criticised for making the announcement, but since it was not the methods that were criticised, but
rather the sample of companies, the analysis of McDonald’s being a great place to work was
assumed to be valid.
The hypothesis was examined using different motivational theories. The theories explained what
motivates employees and how they are motivated at work. The connection between job
satisfaction and motivation was explained and it showed that both aspects are important for a
company. The motivational theories presented were both content and process theories and
included Herzberg’s two-factor theory, McClelland’s need theory, Porter & Lawler’s extended
expectancy model, the goal theory, the four drives theory and the motivating environment theory.
They were all evaluated on the basis of the aspects found to be important by Great Place to
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Work . Individually the theories included only some of the aspects, and therefore it was necessary
to use more than one theory in the analysis in order to explain how McDonald’s covers all the
aspects.
Furthermore McDonald’s policies were investigated and an interview was conducted with the
manager of a restaurant and also with an employee. This revealed that McDonald’s value their
employees as an important asset and therefore they are incorporated into the policies of the
company. The most important policy in relation to the employees was the People Promise, which
is “We appreciate you, your development and your engagement”. The policy was evaluated using
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a tool presented by Great Place to Work , which showed the criteria to measure effect of the
policy. According to the tool the policy was an effective policy, since it included all the aspects
necessary.
Page 2 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
Analysing McDonald’s using McClelland’s need theory, the expectancy theory, the four-drives
theory and the motivating environment revealed that McDonald’s policies included the aspects
that are necessary to motivate the employees. Furthermore the theories also included the important
aspects; trust, camaraderie and pride and this way the analysis supported the election of
McDonald’s as a great place to work. All of the theories included the trust aspect, which also
supports the fact that it is an important aspect, but it was best covered in the expectancy theory, as
fairness, credibility and respect, which are all aspects of trust, were all included. The camaraderie
aspect was best covered in the four-drives theory in relation to the drive to bond. In the four drives
theory the pride aspect was also included as it was covered in the drive to defend.
The conclusion of the thesis was that McDonald’s is motivating their employees in a way that
creates job satisfaction among the employees. This leads to a great working environment and it
can therefore be concluded that the election as the Best Workplace in Denmark is related to the
motivation that McDonald’s provides and therefore the election can partly be explained by the
way that McDonald’s creates job satisfaction through motivation. Consequently it can be
recommended to motivate the employees, since it will create a better working environment
through job satisfaction.
Page 3 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
Table of content
1. Introduction
1.1 Problem definition
1.2 Problem statement
1.3 Delimitations
1.4 Methodology
1.5 Outline of the thesis
1.6 Data sources
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2. Great Place to Work®
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2.1 About Great Place to Work
2.2 Company culture
2.2.1 Evaluation of companies
2.2.2 Best Workplace in Denmark
2.3 Critique of the “Best Workplace in Denmark” survey
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3. Motivation at work
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Job satisfaction
3.3 Motivational theories
3.3.1 Content theories
3.3.2 Process theories
3.3.3 Modern theories
3.4 Discussion
3.5 Conclusion
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4. McDonald’s
4.1 Introduction
4.2 About McDonald’s Denmark
4.2.1 Values
4.3 McDonald’s Paderup
4.3.1 Respect and recognition
4.3.2 Competitive wages and benefits
4.3.3 Resources to execute the work
4.3.4 Manager values
4.3.5 Learning, progress and personal growth
4.4 Conclusion
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5. Analysis of McDonald’s
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Theories and job satisfaction
5.2.1 Herzberg’s two-factor theory
5.2.2 McClelland’s need theory
5.2.3 Goal theory
5.2.4 Porter and Lawler’s Expectancy theory
5.2.5 Four drives theory
5.2.6 Motivating environment
5.3 Conclusion
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6. Conclusion
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7. References
Appendix 1-3
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Page 4 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
1. Introduction
This thesis is examining the problem of how to motivate employees. For the manager it is a
challenge to keep employees at their highest performance level, but at the same time it is
important in order for the company to gain fullest from their competences. The topic is interesting
to work with since businesses have become highly competitive and in order to participate in the
market a company has to work effectively and efficiently. As a part of this the individual
employee performance is important and therefore motivation at work is an important part of
everyday business for a company manager.
The focus for this thesis is going to be on McDonald’s in Denmark. The company has been
elected to be the Best Workplace in Denmark for large enterprises in both year 2011 and 2012.
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The announcement is made by Great Place to Work Denmark, who mainly bases the results on
an employee satisfaction survey, but also includes a culture profile of the company. The
consultancy company defines a great place to work as a place where the employees trust the
people they work for, where they feel proud about their work and they enjoy the people they work
with (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013b).
In a company like McDonald’s where the employees are working closely with the customers it is
essential for the company to make sure that the employees are engaged in their work. Only this
way they will do their best in order to provide a good customer experience through good customer
service. The company has to work with their employees in order to keep their attention and
engagement. This kind of work is motivation at work.
1.1 Problem definition
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The survey conducted by Great Place to Work is presented and discussed in order to understand
the important aspects. Afterwards both new and well-known motivational theories will be
introduced and explained in the thesis. The theories will be used to illustrate the connection
between the way McDonald’s motivates their employees and the job satisfaction among the
employees that has lead to the election as the Best Workplace in Denmark. The work will be done
as an external consultant looking at the McDonald’s Paderup as a representative for the
McDonalds’s chain in Denmark.
The way that McDonald’s Denmark is motivating the employees through their policies and
practices will be investigated. Furthermore a manager’s view on everyday motivation in the
Page 5 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
restaurant will be examined. The view of the employees will also be considered in order to
increase validity of the manager’s statement. The findings will be linked with motivational
theories which will help to show why the company and the manager are successful with their way
of motivating and therefore as a result of this has been elected as the Best Workplace in Denmark
two years in a row.
1.2 Problem statement
Hypothesis:
McDonald’s’ election as the Best Workplace in Denmark can partly be explained by their way of
creating job satisfaction by motivating their employees.
The hypothesis is going to be analysed by looking at the following questions.
How does the election “Best Workplace in Denmark” take place?
In order to evaluate how the election is correlated with motivation it is necessary to understand
how the election was made, including what kind of analysis the selection is based on. This is done
in order to show the aspects that are important for the survey and also to discuss the reliability of
the survey.
How can an organisation work with motivation in order to create job satisfaction among the
employees?
In order to find how motivation contributes to a good working environment it is necessary to
understand motivation at work and why it is important for a company. Furthermore job
satisfaction is assumed to be the connection between the motivation given by a company and a
good working environment. Therefore it is necessary to show the relationship between job
satisfaction and motivation. All this will be explained on general basis.
How does McDonald’s motivate their employees?
The next section is going to analyse the way McDonald’s is working with their employees. This
will be done on the corporation level and restaurant level, starting by looking at what is done for
the employees by McDonald’s Denmark. Examining how the corporation works with the
employees will show what McDonald’s does in order to motivate their employees. Looking at the
Page 6 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
restaurant level and analysing how the manager works with the team of employees will help to
show what is actually done for the employees on everyday basis.
Can McDonald’s election partly be explained by motivational theories?
The last section will answer the question by connecting the conducted analysis of McDonald’s
with motivational theories by choosing theories that can explain why the motivating path used by
McDonald’s works the way it does. Furthermore it will try to explain the reasons for the
company’s success and thereby verify or invalidate the hypothesis.
1.3 Delimitations
Motivation is assumed to have a large influence on company performance and working
atmosphere. As delimitation this thesis will only look at the motivation of the employees. There
might be other factors contributing to the reason why McDonald’s has been elected as the best
working place in Denmark, which will not be taking into account in this paper.
The thesis will only be working with one department of McDonald’s and their way of motivating
the employees. McDonald’s Paderup has been chosen as a case, and instead of working with all
the departments in Denmark, it will be assumed that this department can be used as a valid
representative for McDonald’s Denmark, since the restaurant was among the restaurants chosen to
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take part in the survey made by Great Place to Work Denmark.
Furthermore it has only been possible to conduct a single interview with an employee, which will
not show many aspects from the employees. But since different companies have done surveys for
McDonald’s showing that the employee satisfaction is high, it will be assumed that the employee
is a valid representative for the employees, as she is a satisfied employee.
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Even though the Great Place to Work survey is conducted using both the Culture Profile and the
Trust Index employee survey, it is unknown how the aspects included in the Culture Profile are
evaluated and furthermore it has not been possible to gain access to the actual Trust Index
questionnaire, therefore the examination of the survey is done from the aspects, which the
company mention to be important for a great place to work.
1.4 Methodology
The thesis is going to use known theory in order to examine the hypothesis. This means that
general principles are used in order to make conclusions in relation to McDonald’s. This is known
Page 7 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
as the deductive method, which simply means that the hypothesis is examined using general and
known argumentation.
The hypothesis says that good motivation results in a good working environment, since it is
assumed that a great place to work includes having a good working environment. This kind of
analysis will be made on the explanatory level. This means that it might be possible to make more
general conclusions about the relationship between motivation and working environment.
Therefore, if the thesis is successful in verifying the relationship by documentation it can be used
for future predictions. It will then be possible to say that good motivation will lead to better
working environment, and the other way around, that in order to avoid a bad working environment
it is necessary to motivate the employees (Andersen, 2008).
In order to analyse the motivation at the company the material given by McDonald’s’ website will
be analysed in correlation to the motivation of their current and future employees. This part of the
analysis will therefore be conducted with secondary data sources.
The everyday motivation will be analysed in one department of McDonald’s, where a structured
interview of the manager will be made. Also a structured interview will be conducted with an
employee. This should give an overview of the company and what motivation procedure the
department is using, and the data gathered will be qualitative, primary data.
Using interviews in order to collect data will provide rich in-depth data (Eriksson and Kovalainen,
2008). The interview will be constructed using the following sequence. From the purpose of the
investigation, which is given in the introduction, the interview is designed into an interview guide
(See appendix 3). Ethical considerations are made, like considering if any of the questions might
offend the interviewee. The interview is conducted using the interview guide, but even though the
interview is structured and has a systematic procedure, the sequence of the questions and the
questions themselves might change. After the interviews are conducted there will be made a
transcript and from this they can be analysed. The interview will be verified based on quality
criteria and in the end the interviews are used to report the findings (Eriksson and Kovalainen,
2008).
The thesis will be static, and therefore only examining the motivation process as it is at the
moment and there will not be full control over the examined department, since factors outside the
department might have an influence on the motivation of the individual employee.
Page 8 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
1.5 Outline of the thesis
The topic is introduced in the introduction. Next the survey conducted by Great Place to Work
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Denmark will be examined in order to find what issues are included in the election. It will be
followed by introduction to motivation at work and different motivational theories, which explain
what and how employees are motivated. The chapter will also include a part about job satisfaction
and thereby show why motivation is important for a company.
Next are an introduction to McDonald’s and their general policies concerning their employees.
This will lead way to the discussion about the department in Paderup, and how the policies affect
the employees in the restaurant.
In the end motivational theory will be connected to the motivation sources at McDonald’s and
thereby trying to explain why they have managed to be elected as the Best Working place in
Denmark two years in a row.
At last the thesis will sum up the findings and conclude whether the hypothesis is verified.
1.6 Data sources
The data about McDonald’s Denmark is found on their website and therefore it is secondary data,
just like the theories used to explain motivation. The theories used to explain the methods applied
by McDonald’s will be a mixture between widely acknowledged, well-known theories and more
recent introduced theories.
The objectivity of the data used in the analysis can be discussed. The secondary data found at
McDonald’s webpage was meant for new employees and information for anyone interested. As
some of the material is provided in order to attract new employees, it is in the best interest of
McDonald’s that the material is positive about the company and also that the company is valuing
the employees in the company. At the same time the material also has to be reliable in order for
the company to hold on to the employees. If the workplace was nothing like described most
employees would not get their expectations fulfilled and therefore they would probably not stay
within the company and McDonald’s might even be criticised publicly, since it is a multinational
company. So even though the secondary data is provided by the company themselves it is
assumed to be reliable.
The primary data from the interview made in the restaurant in Paderup came from a manager. The
manager has been working for McDonald’s since she was 13. This shows that she has the
knowledge necessary in order to answer the questions and at the same time the manager proves
that McDonald’s does provide education and reward the best with manager positions. On the other
Page 9 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
hand the manager is also influenced by the four drives, and she wants to defend her workplace.
Therefore it is assumed that even though there might be some negative things about working at
McDonald’s she would not be willing to reveal them. This is also the reason why an employee
was interviewed. Unfortunately it was only possible to talk with one of the employees, as the rest
was busy. But since the employee was a satisfied employee, who was happy to work at
McDonald’s, she had the same drive to defend the company. Fortunately the interview could still
be used to confirm some of the things presented by the manager. This is due to the fact that the
interviews were conducted on individual basis and therefore the interviewees did not coordinate
their answers. It is assumed that since all three sources of McDonald have presented the same
things the data is reliable.
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The next data source is the webpage of Great Place to Work , which is also a sales page. This is
where the company provides information about themselves, their products (consultancy tools) and
gives reasons for other companies to hire them. Again it is in the best interest of the company to
present all the positive sides and it is e.g. not possible to read about the price of their services. It
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was tried to create contact with Great Place to Work in order to see the questionnaire they used
to measure the employee satisfaction. Unfortunately the email was never responded and it is
assumed that the company did not want to participate in an analysis. There can be more reasons
for this, for example that the company does not want to reveal the questionnaire since it is their
“product secret”, and revealing this would invite competitors to provide some of the same services
as themselves. On the other hand, if the information given and if the tools used were not valid, the
customers would probably not return for further advise. Looking at the “Best Workplace in
Denmark” lists from different years, it is possible to see that some of the companies return year
after year. Therefore it is assumed that the company provides the correct information.
All in all the sources discussed are assumed to be reliable but they could have been more
objective.
Page 10 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
2. Great Place to Work®
Before evaluating McDonald’s it is necessary to look at what kind of survey the company has
been evaluated on. The company who made the survey and announced the Best Workplace in
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Denmark is Great Place to Work . In this chapter Great Place to Work will be introduced and
their method of conducting the survey will be analysed. Furthermore some critique of the Best
Workplace in Denmark survey will be introduced and it will be considered why McDonald’s
decides to enter the survey. The questions answered in this chapter are:
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•
What is Great Place to Work ?
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How are the companies evaluated in the Great Place to Work survey?
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Why does McDonald’s take part in Great Place to Work survey?
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2.1 About Great Place to Work
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Great Place to Work® is a consultancy company that helps other organisations to improve their
working environment. This is done in order to create an environment where the employees can use
their talent and competences. Instead of pointing fingers of the organisations that are not
performing well, the consultancy company has a positive approach and wants to help them. They
have worked with a lot of workplaces around the world, and this experience has helped to
understand what is important for a good working environment. They have found that trust is one
of the fundamental competences in order to create a great place to work. Trust is a condition for
cooperation and innovation and if it is present in a company, it can be seen on the bottom line.
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Great Place to Work claims that they have no competitors, since other consultant firms just help
to make small improvements, whereas they aim at changing the company culture. Their mission is
to create a better society by helping the workplaces to become better. They do so by identifying
and acknowledge the best places to work in a lot of countries around the world, helping leaders to
understand what a good workplace is by using concrete tools to evaluate, develop and improve the
workplace. They also arrange workshops, seminars and education for the leaders and employees,
where they share their experiences and best practices from workplaces around the world. They
claim that their lists of the Best Workplaces are independent and that every customer is unique
(www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013f).
Page 11 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
®
Great Place to Work defines a great place to work as a place where the employees trust the
people they work for, where they have pride in what they do and whether they enjoy the people
they work with. As figure 1 shows, trust is fundamental for a great workplace and it is created
through credibility of the management, together with the respect and fairness that management
shows to the employees. The figure also illustrates the relationship with the other employees,
which should be good in order to create a great place to work. Furthermore the figure shows the
fact that people should be proud of working for the organisation in order for it to be a great place
to work (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013b).
Figure 1 – Definition of a great place to work.
Source:http://www.greatplacetowork.co.uk/ourapproach/what-is-a-great-workplace
According
to
www.greatplacetowork.dk
(2013b) it is not necessarily what the company
does that makes them special, but the way that
they do it. Employees do not always point at the
companies with good salaries, impressive
surroundings and biggest company cars as the
best workplaces. Instead company policies and
leader practices are important for creating a
great workplace. When Great Place to Work
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evaluates programs, practices and methods in a company, the following criteria are used:
originality, all-inclusiveness, human touch, integration and variety, as can also be seen from figure
2. These criteria are also used when it comes to evaluating
benefits, so if the five criteria are reflected in the benefits,
then the effect of the benefits will be better.
Figure 2 – Criteria to measure effect of programs and
practices. Source: http://www.greatplacetowork.co.uk/ourapproach/how-do-you-do-it
2.2 Company culture
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Great Place to Work has identified nine areas, which are
important when it comes to creating a great workplace.
Page 12 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
These are inspiration, information, involvement, hiring and welcoming, celebration, appreciation,
development, care, equality and social responsibility. These are all focus areas in the Culture
Profile made by the company and will help an organisation to structure and prioritise the areas that
are important for them (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013c).
It is important in an organisation to have a common perception of what a great place to work is.
The Culture Profile might help as a communication tool within the organisation. It can help to
structure routines, actions and behaviour of the employees (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013e).
The last thing to do in order to create results is to create a systemic, self-perpetuating cycle of
workplace and business greatness. This means creating a culture where everyone is inspired and
has the opportunity to contribute with their talent (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013c).
2.2.1 Evaluation of companies
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When evaluating other organisations Great Place to Work has different tools that they normally
use. The most normal tools are Trust Index employee survey and Culture Profile evaluation. The
tools help identifying differences between what the employees experience and what the
organisation has as policies and practices (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013a).
The Trust Index employee survey examines the opinion of the employees. The survey consists of
59 questions about the employee’s experience of the workplace, especially concerning trust,
respect and fairness. The questionnaire is validated every year and is seen as a global standard for
the definition of a good workplace.
The Culture Profile is a tool, which gives insight to the values, initiatives and practices of the
organisation. It is split up in two parts. One of them is the demographic data about the employees,
whereas part two consists of open questions, where the company gets the chance to tell about their
philosophy and practices in areas like hiring, communication, employee development and
company arrangements (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013d).
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When Great Place to Work is working further with consulting an organisation, they use focus
groups and workshops to go more in depth with the employee survey, but the tools can also be
used individually for evaluation. The last tool the company has is a 360 degrees leader evaluation,
which can help to coordinate the management style in the organisation
(www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013a).
Page 13 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
2.2.2 Best Workplace in Denmark
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When Great Place to Work is hired to analyse the culture in a company, they offer the workplace
to take part in the yearly survey Best Workplace in Denmark.
If they decide to enter the competition, the two tools used are the Trust Index survey and Culture
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Profile. The employee survey accounts for two thirds of the Great Place to Work evaluation and
the last third is the culture profile (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013d). This shows that the
important aspects for the survey are the employees and their job satisfaction especially concerning
trust, respect and fairness. The practices in the organisation and the demographic information
about employees do also take part, but are not given as much weight as the employee survey.
At McDonald’s some of the restaurants are randomly picked to enter the survey. All the
restaurants work with the employee satisfaction continuously during the year, and for them the
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survey made by Great Place to Work is an extra survey in the year they participate (Stine
Halkjær, appendix 1, p.4).
2.3 Critique of the “Best Workplace in Denmark” survey
A social scientist from the Danish University in Aalborg, Henning Jørgensen is criticizing the
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survey made by Great Place to Work . He is critical against the method used by the organisation.
A representative sample of the Danish companies is needed in order to make a survey about the
Best Workplace in Denmark, but according to Jørgensen, in this case the segment used is so small
that it is not possible to generalise the conclusions. He is unable to understand how McDonald’s
can be satisfied with the announcement, since it is only a few companies competing for the title,
and furthermore they have paid to enter the competition. In 2012 there were 135 companies on the
list and other than McDonald’s the list also included companies like Novozymes, EnergiMidt and
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Irma. They have all paid an estimated sum of 50.000-70.000 DKR to Great Place to Work , and
Jørgensen finds it a small amount compared to the publicity gained if the company ends up in the
top of the list (Engelschmidt, 2012).
In 2011 the competition included 143 workplaces and also this year the announcement was target
of critique from different experts. These include the same social scientist, Henning Jørgensen from
Aalborg University, senior researcher Ole Sørensen from the National Research Working Centre
and Svend Erik Hermansen who is a work consultant at HK union. The last mentioned said that it
is good to have focus at the working environment, but that it is not possible to conclude that
McDonald’s is the best workplace, since they have all paid to join the competition and is a small
selection of the whole Danish economy (Batchelor, 2011).
Page 14 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
®
The critique is directed at the fact that Great Place to Work calls it an announcement of the Best
Workplace in Denmark. As argued above by different experts, the sample of companies needs to
be representative for the whole Danish market. In the survey this is not the case, since Great Place
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to Work is only evaluating companies, who have asked and paid for they consultancy. The
critique is therefore well placed by the experts, but it is a critique of the title that the company
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gains, not the survey itself. According to this, the survey made by Great Place to Work is not
invalidated, but the company should just have used a different title to the winner in order to avoid
the critique. The method used to evaluate the individual company is not criticised, and therefore it
is still possible to say that McDonald’s is good at creating a good working environment and they
are the best among the companies tested.
With this criticism of the survey, and the knowledge that McDonald’s is already conducting their
own internal employee satisfaction survey, one could argue that there is no reason for McDonald’s
to enter the competition. But as Jørgensen said, the companies that end up in the top of the list get
publicity, and this is the reason that McDonald’s Denmark chooses to enter the competition. They
want to create an image of being a great place to work, especially for young people. There are
some prejudices about working at McDonald’s, which they will get rid of. The prejudices can be
seen from the fact that Danes do not find any prestige in working for companies producing cheap
or unhealthy products, therefore it is seen as embarrassing to work for McDonald’s (www.epn.dk,
2013).
When being awarded as the Best Workplace in Denmark it makes it possible for McDonald’s to
use it to start the dialog and spreading the word that it is a great place to work. Even though they
already have their own survey, they cannot use it in public. The fact that it is another company
that analyses and selects the best, makes it easier to use and more trustworthy for the customers.
McDonald’s Denmark wants to attract young people to have their first job at McDonald’s and
possibly also get an education in the company or use the work experience as a way to get into the
job marked (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.4).
Page 15 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
3. Motivation at work
3.1 Introduction
Why do people choose to work instead of doing something else and how much effort do they put
into the work? This is one of the oldest and most difficult topics in psychology. There are many
explanations of what makes people work, such as goals, needs, incentives and rewards (Furnham,
2005). This chapter is looking into the topic of motivation by answering the questions:
•
What is motivation at work?
•
Why it is necessary for a company?
This includes how managers use motivation in order to get people to do their job. Motivation at
work will be explained by looking at motivational theories. In addition to this, the chapter will
also examine job satisfaction, and how it is related to motivation. This will show why motivation
and job satisfaction are important for a company. The chapter is working with the theories on a
general basis and therefore there are not made any connections to the case of McDonald’s yet.
According to Buelens et al. (2011) motivation is one out of three factors that influence work
performance. The other two factors are ability and opportunity. Looking closer at the two factors
there are no doubt that these also have a great influence on the work performance. Even though an
employee is motivated to work hard he would still perform weakly if the tools needed were not
provided, which is related to opportunity together with things like working conditions and
organisational rules. Ability includes things like age, health and level of education. This shows
that motivation is not the only factor affecting work performance, but it is an important part, and
therefore it is important for a manager in the company to motivate his employees. This is also the
reason why it is the focus of this thesis. For many years there has been a focus on how to get
employees to perform their task as fast and correct as possible. The following shows an overview
of the twentieth century, in order to illustrate how important motivation is and has been through
the years.
During the twentieth century the theory of organisation and leadership has changed a lot. In the
beginning of the century the leading theory was the classical social theory, which Max Weber was
a part of. He believed in bureaucracy in a company, which included division of responsibilities,
hierarchical organisation and objective personnel selection.
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
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BscB-General
This was followed by the rational viewpoint and Frederick Taylor, which focused on scientific
management and finding the best way of doing a particular job. The goal of this theory was to
increase productivity by standardisation and control. According to him there was a clear division
between managers and employees. The managers were supposed to do the thinking, while the
employees should only work and not think. It had a big influence on the mass production and
optimisation of the human machine. The rational view on the human nature was that economic
interests primarily drove humans and that their choices would maximise their self-interest. Since
this showed a conflict between the goals of the employees and the goals of the firm, the managers
had to direct, control and monitor. The way to get people to do their job was by giving them better
incentives. The rational view caused employees’ morale to fall and reduced the employees’
competences, since they only had one job task.
The human relations theory came as a response to the rational view. Because of the primitive view
on human needs companies only used economic incentives and no employee had influence on
their job. Therefore the human relations view started to focus on people, motivation, trust and
social needs. The Hawthorne study was the primary source to the human relation’s view on
humans, which was that they are primarily driven by social needs. Group norms and peer effects
are more important than incentives, and therefore the problems of motivation should be solved by
satisfying the needs of the employees, improving working conditions and improving the job
satisfaction.
This developed in the 1960’s into the human resources view, which focused on the self-actualising
being, where the manager had to motivate and develop his employees by giving them job
challenges. This included involving the employees and setting goals for them.
The latest view is the contingency view, which sees the human nature as a complex being. Here
the job of the manager is to place the right person in the right position at the right time, but the
“one best way to manage” view is no longer in favour and instead it is said that there are many
ways to motivate depending on factors such as the organisational context and the people working
there (Buelens et al. 2011).
This illustrates a development in society and in the concept of a worker, who has gone from
mostly being a worker doing his job at fabrics into an employee being an important asset for the
company. The work values have also shifted during the years, and it was found that a growing
importance is given to the opportunity for personal development in a job (Ester et al., 1993). The
development shows different views of humans and how to direct them to solve a given task, but it
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Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
also shows that there has been focus on the humans and motivation for many years. This focus has
lead to more knowledge about humans and motivation, and many theories have tried to explain
motivation. The next sections will look into some of these theories.
3.2 Job satisfaction
A famous quote said by Dwight D. Eisenhower is “Motivation is the art of getting people to do
what you want them to do because they want to do it”. Said with other words motivation is about
directing the behaviour of an individual without forcing it. This is an important thing, since it is
due to the fact that people want to do their job that they are happy and thereby a good working
environment is created. If the employees were forced to do their job, they would probably not be
satisfied with it, and it will lead to lower work efficiency. This shows that job satisfaction is
closely related to motivation and work performance, but also related to the working environment.
Furthermore it shows how important motivation is for the company in order to run efficiently and
thereby stay competitive.
Job satisfaction is related to positive and negative behaviour in an organisation. An example is
that it has a positive effect if employees are satisfied with they job and therefore it will positively
affect productivity and social affairs. On the other hand if people at not satisfied or even
dissatisfied with their job, it will negatively affect the employees for example to be indifferent
about the performance goals, committing theft or increase the absenteeism.
According to Furnham (2005) it is possible to divide the factors that have an effect on job
satisfaction into three categories: Organisational policies and procedures, which include things
like the reward system, supervision and decision making practices. The second category is specific
aspects of the job, such as overall workload, skill, variety, feedback and physical nature of work
environment. The last category is personal characteristics, including self-esteem, ability and
general life satisfaction.
Job satisfaction will be mentioned in more of the motivational theories, as it is an important factor
in connection with a good working environment.
3.3 Motivational theories
Motivational theories are split into two categories, content theories and process theories. Content
theories work with the question of what motivates people, whereas process theories look at how
people get motivated. This means that content theories try to explain the things that motivate
people at work like the need theories, whereas process theories try to explain the process of
motivation. In this thesis we are going to look at both categories, since the content theories will
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
help explaining what McDonald’s gives to their employees that motivate them. When explaining
the everyday motivation in the restaurant the process theories will become important, since it will
be analyzed how the manager motivates the employees. Furthermore modern theories are
discussed.
3.3.1 Content theories
One of the most well known content theories is Maslow’s need hierarchy. According to this theory
motivation is a function of five basic needs starting in the bottom of the pyramid with
physiological need and moving towards the top trough safety and security need, need for love and
belongingness, esteem-needs and need for self-actualisation in the top of the pyramid. Once the
bottom need is satisfied to some stage, the need above in the pyramid emerges.
Many people have learned about this theory during their study time, therefore the theory is also
widely used. Unfortunately there is little empirical evidence to support the theory (Berl et al.,
1984a).
Alderfer’s ERG theory is also a need theory, which compresses Maslow’s hierarchy needs into
three needs. The needs in this theory are Existence, Relatedness and Growth. All the needs emerge
at the same time, but in different combinations from person to person. Therefore there is no
hierarchical order, and the theory is supported more by research than Maslow’s hierarchy need,
but neither of the theories is well supported by studies (Berl et al., 1984a).
Herzberg’s two-factor theory
A content theory that works with job satisfaction is Herzberg’s theory. It is a two-factor theory,
which includes motivator factors and hygiene factors. The hygiene factors need to be fulfilled
before moving to the motivators. Hygiene factors concern all the extrinsic aspects of work, such as
pay, supervision, physical work conditions, rules and policies and benefits. If these are not
sufficiently covered, it will create dissatisfaction. Since Herzberg believed that satisfaction is not
the opposite of dissatisfaction, the hygiene factors cannot motivate and therefore if they are
sufficient the person will be in a place with no dissatisfaction but no satisfaction either. This can
also be seen from figure 3. Furthermore the figure shows that in order for the employee to move to
satisfaction, some of the motivators should be present in the job, since they create satisfaction if
sufficient. These include all the intrinsic aspects of work, for example achievement, challenge,
responsibility, recognition and autonomous decision. If no motivators are present in the job
design, then it will not create dissatisfaction, but again the employee will just stay in a position
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
with no satisfaction and no motivation, as can also be seen from figure 3. According to Herzberg’s
theory a manager needs to include both extrinsic and intrinsic aspects of work in order to create
job satisfaction and motivation among the employees (Herzberg et al., 1959).
Figure 3 – Herzberg’s two-factor model. Source:
https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/PSYCH484/10.+Job+Design
Also Herzberg’s theory is criticised. First of all when the study was conducted only people at the
medium or top level in the company were selected, therefore the general validity of Herzberg’s
theory should be questioned, when it comes to non-managerial or non-specialist positions.
Furthermore it is said that Herzberg were only looking for similarities and not differences, which
is also criticised. Secondly Maslow’s theory led the following thinkers to believe that people
would respond in the same way when exposed to a certain stimuli, and this is also the fact for
Herzberg and Aldefer (Scheuer, 2000). The main power of the need theories is that they explain
job satisfaction (Furnham, 2005). Some of the criticism has led the way to theories that include
more knowledge and overcome the flaws in the first theories.
McClelland’s Need theory
McClelland’s need theory is a content theory that is more supported by studies. The theory
consists of three needs; need for achievement, need for affiliation and need for power. According
to the theory each person has his own combination of the needs (Buelens, 2011).
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Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
Different people have different kind of needs, and this theory supports that some people have a
high need for achievement, while others have high need for affiliation and others again have a
high need for power. In the end a person has his own combination of the needs.
The need for achievement covers the desire to accomplish something difficult, to attain a high
standard, to rival and surpass others or to master or organise human beings or ideas. The high
achievers prefer to work on tasks of moderate difficulty, including moderate risk taking, personal
responsibility and getting feedback. The high achievers get personal satisfaction from
accomplishing a task of moderate character, which is solved by effort and not by luck.
People with high need for affiliation are social people. They prefer to maintain their social
relations, rather than working hard and will therefore not be the most efficient employers. This can
be explained by the fact that they have difficulties making hard decisions, since some decisions
will make others sad, and people with high affiliation will then worry about being disliked.
The last need is the need for power and it covers a persons desire to teach, coach, influence or
encourage other to achieve. People having a high need for power like to work and are concerned
with self-respect and discipline.
McClelland proposed that top managers should have a low need for affiliation together with a high
need for power. Furthermore he believed that people with high need for achievement do not fit in
top management positions. This is supported by studies (Stahl, 1983; McNeeseSmith, 1999).
A flaw with all the content theories is that they only tell what is motivating, but do not say
anything about the process of motivating employees. Even though people have the same needs
they strive to satisfy, they might not be satisfied in the same way for everyone. Therefore it is not
enough to look at the content theories, but also necessary to introduce the process theories, which
will explain how people are motivated.
3.3.2 Process theories
As already mentioned process theories work with how people are motivated. Here some wellknown theories are introduced.
Goal theory
The goal theory is a process theory. Goals can work as a motivating tool. Specific and challenging
goals lead to higher performance than easy goals or no goals. The theory has three steps; first the
goal needs to be set, afterwards the goal commitment needs to be achieved, before support and
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
feedback are given in the last step. This will according to the theory motivate the employees, but
the goals should not be too difficult, since the employee then will see the goal as impossible and
the performance level will go down. The reasons to provide goals for the employees are many.
This includes the fact that setting goals will direct the employee’s attention to the goal, regulating
the effort so it fits the goal and increase the persistence of the employee. Feedback is given in
order to show the progress in relation to the goal. Furthermore giving rewards when the goal is
reach is a good goal attainment (Locke et al., 1981). Clear and difficult goals have proved to
increase employee productivity, but the theory does not account for absenteeism, turnover or
satisfaction (Furnham, 2005).
Vroom’s and Porter & Lawler’s Expectancy models
Porter & Lawler’s Expectancy model is an extension of Vroom’s model. Vroom’s model is in
simplicity about the expectation of which level of effort is needed to get to a performance goal.
The value of the outcome to a person is what motivates him. Individuals have their own
perceptions and expectancy is the probability of a person getting from effort to performance.
Looking at figure 4, expectancy is the arrow from effort to performance and it is the first
relationship. The next relationship is performance-outcome instrumentality. This is to what degree
a certain performance lead to a desired outcome; it could be that finishing the task early leads to
leaving early. The last relationship is valence, which is the relation between the outcome and the
personal goals. It is the leisure that the person gets out of it, which ranges from negative to
positive; if the person does not succeed the valence would be negative and vice versa. In order to
reach the goal it is necessary to put some effort into the work and in order to reach the outcome
the performance need to be of a certain standard.
Porter & Lawler’s model introduces intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards are
intangibles outcome and extrinsic rewards are tangible outcomes. Whether a company is using
intrinsic or extrinsic rewards does not matter, according to the model it will motivate people just
as much. The extended model also introduces feedback loops, where a person learns from
experience what effort is needed in order to get to a certain performance. This can also be seen
from figure 4, which also shows that the future effort will be affected by the feedback. In addition
equity in rewards, ability and role perceptions are added to the model. Equity in rewards means
that the employees will compare their outcome with their peers. If they think they have been
treated equally, when comparing the effort, performance and the outcome, being in the form of
intrinsic or extrinsic rewards, their job satisfaction will increase. Ability means that people with
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
higher ability achieve higher performance for the same effort, than people with lower ability.
Likewise effort will give higher performance when the employee understands his role.
Figure 4 - Porter & Lawler's extended expectancy model. Source Buelens et al. 2011.
Even though the expectancy theory has been tested and showed that the theory does predict
performance, effort, intentions, preferences and choice, it is also criticised. The theory can be
difficult to test and measuring the relationships expectancy, instrumentality and valence can have
questionable validity (Mitchell, 1974).
3.3.3 Modern theories
Four drives theory
Nohria and Groysberg, who both are professors of Harvard Business School, have together with
Lee, of the Centre for Research on Corporate Performance worked with how to motivate
employees using a four-drives theory. According to them, being in an environment that meets the
four basic emotional drives will motivate the employees. The four drives are the drive to acquire,
the drive to comprehend, the drive to bond and the drive to defend. Nohria, Groysberg and Lee
acknowledge that earlier thinkers about human behaviour, such as Freud and Maslow, have taught
a lot about why people act the way they do, but they add that the old theories are only based on
observation, whereas now, modern brain science contributes to the understanding of human
behaviour and to their four-drive theory.
The drive to acquire is about obtaining goods that only exist in a limited quantity. The goods can
both be tangible and intangible. An example of an intangible good is a social status, which can
only be acquired by a limited number of people. The drive to acquire is relative since people
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
always compare what they have with what others hold, and they want to hold more than the
others.
Next is the drive to comprehend, which covers the fact that people want to make sense of the
world around them. In relation to work it accounts for the desire to make a meaningful
contribution. Motivation comes from challenging jobs that enable employees to learn and grow. A
talented employee who does not find the job challenging will often leave the company to find
challenges in another company. The drive to comprehend is therefore linked with employee
engagement.
The drive to bond and form connections with individuals and groups has the greatest influence on
employee commitment. When the drive is met it is associated with strong and positive feelings
and at work people feel proud of belonging to the organization, which will lead to motivation. The
drive can also be negatively strong and in a case where the company betrays the employees they
will loose their morale.
The last drive is the drive to defend, meaning protecting against external threats and promote
justice. We naturally defend ourselves, out property, family and friends, ideas and beliefs against
an external threat. When the drive is fulfilled it will lead to feelings of security and confidence,
whereas negative feelings like fear will occur if the drive is not fulfilled. At work this can be seen
from people’s resistance to change, where they want to defend the routines or the work team in the
company.
Even though the drives contributes individually to the overall motivation, the company will do
best by improving the satisfaction of all four drives and this way create general satisfaction among
the employees. Doing great in three out of four drives is not enough. The bad performing drive
will diminish the impact of the other three and lower the overall satisfaction. Therefore in order to
fully motivate the employees all four drives must be addressed within the company.
The drives can be satisfied through different systems. The drive to acquire can be met by an
effective reward system, where rewards are tied to performance and the best people get
opportunities for advancement. The best way to fulfil the drive to bond is by creating a culture that
promotes teamwork, collaboration, openness and friendship. Job design is important for the drive
to comprehend, as a meaningful, interesting and challenging job will address the drive. The last
drive can be met by constructing transparent processes for performance management and resource
allocation (Nohria et al., 2008).
Paul R. Lawrence, who is professor in Organisational Behaviour at Harvard Business School,
supports the four drives theory. The theory is according to him a part of the decision making
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Exam number 301800
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Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
process in the human brain. The four drives operate independently in the brain, each of them are
important for the species survival and they are each an equal component of good leadership. An
example could be when a CEO is in the situation that business has dropped 25 percent in the
economic crisis. Here the drive to defend tells him that it is necessary to cut staff in order for the
business to survive. At the same time the drive to bond tells him not to lay off loyal and
experienced employees. This show a conflict of drives, but the brain knows how to gather the
imperatives from the four drives together with knowledge and experience, and from this suggest
different courses of action that all are good enough for all four drives. This decision-making
process shows that the human brain deals with the complexity of the world by solving it as it
comes. Lawrence emphasizes that it is not a metaphor, but how the brain is actually working,
which he has backed up by examples from research (Lawrence, 2011).
Modern individual managers might find it difficult to work with all four drives, since the board of
directors require them to favour the drive to acquire and make money together with the drive to
defend in order to stay in business. But the four-drive theory says otherwise, since the human
beings has evolved to accomplish the most good together and with doing least harm to each other
(using the drive to comprehend and bond) (Lawrence, 2011).
As an additional thing, researchers found that the organisation does not have all the motivation
power or said in another way, the companies do not have monopoly on fulfilling the emotional
drives. The employees’ perception on the immediate manager also matters. Therefore it is not only
up to the company to motivate by making company policies, it is also how the manager
implements the policies and processes and how the manager works with the employees (Nohria et
al, 2008).
Motivating environment theory
The theories discussed so far show how employees are motivated, but does not tell much about
how the manager is suppose to work with his employees on a everyday basis in order for them to
be motivated and perform at their best. According to Capozzoli (1997) a manager cannot motivate
his employees, but they have to motivate themselves. Instead the manager has to create a
motivating environment and thereby encourage the employees to motivate themselves to perform
at their best. A motivating environment is where the expectations of each employee are to perform
the best at their capability. Capozzoli mentions eight conditions where the manager can contribute
to a motivating environment. The conditions are high standards, clear objectives, adequate
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Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
training, adequate management contact, adequate feedback, rewards that employees value,
adequate working conditions and effective leadership. The conditions are explained below.
‘High standards’ mean that the employees should be expected to produce at high standards, but
not so high that they are unreachable for the employees. The standards have to be understood by
the employees; otherwise they will not contribute to the motivating environment. Also the
employees want to be challenged, so setting the standards to low or not adjusting the standards to
the individual employee will be a loss for the company.
When the employees know what is expected from them then the ‘objectives are clear’. This also
includes the overall objectives for the company and how their job task contributes to these
objectives. This could be, knowing how their task is related to the finished product.
‘Adequate training’ is important in order for the employee to be able to conduct the task given to
them. If the employees are not trained they will become frustrated, since they do not know how to
do the job. In addition to training the necessary tools and resources also have to be available in
order to contribute to the motivating environment.
The next condition is ‘adequate management contact’. This covers the fact that the employees
want to know that the management is concerned with them, their problems and their interests,
meaning that the employees want to be more than a number in the company. As a manager it is
important to show interest for the individual employee, not only by talking with them, but also
listening to what they have to say, since every employee has different needs.
‘Adequate feedback’ is also a part of the contact with management. The employee needs to know
if he is doing something wrong, but also if he is doing something right. The last is important, since
if the employees are only given negative feedback, they will start thinking that it is irrelevant what
they do, it will always be wrong and the desire to produce will be lowered. Also it is important to
give the feedback close to the event, otherwise the employee will find it difficult to relate the
feedback to the event and it will not give the intended outcome.
Giving ‘rewards that the employees value’ is an important contribution to the motivating
environment. A manager does not always have the opportunity to give monetary rewards, but the
manager has to figure out what the employee value and what is at the manager’s disposal. From
this knowledge it should be possible to reward the employees in a manner, which they value.
‘Adequate working conditions’ cover for the equipment that is provided for the employees. In
order for the employees to provide quality work the proper tools and equipment have to be
available. If this is not the case the employee will get the impression that quality and productivity
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
are not important for the company. This will not contribute to a motivating environment, but
rather make the employees less productive.
The last condition is ‘effective leadership’, which is expected by the employees. They would like
to trust their leader and know that he tells the true. As a manager it is important to have integrity
and be trustworthy. This includes keeping promises (Capozzoli, 1997).
Creating this motivating environment should according to Capozzoli (1997) give the best
conditions for the employees to motivate themselves and thereby perform at their best capability.
3.4 Discussion
The well-known theories have been on the market for a while they have been tested various times.
The theories have all been criticised for different aspects, therefore using only those theories
would not have high validity. On the other hand the modern theories have not been published for
as long and therefore they have not been studied to the same extent as the well-known theories.
Therefore one could argue that the also the modern theories do not have a high validity, as they
are not well tested. Looking at the theories many of them carry some of the same characteristics
like drives or needs that should be satisfied or saying that a task has to challenge the employee.
For that reason the modern theories are not something entirely new, but they are developed from
already known facts about human behaviour and motivation. As a result of this the theories should
be better than the older theories, since the researchers have gained more knowledge. As stated in
the introduction to the four drives theory it includes brain-science to explain human behaviour, an
opportunity that Maslow and Herzberg did not have, as they could only build their theories on
observation. The development in theories is also related to changes in society, as it is becoming a
more individualised society. Now a days most of the population has a high level of consumption
that is way more that the necessities of life (Ester et al., 1993). Therefore it is assumed that the
modern theories have validity and that the conclusion of the theories can be accepted as a valid
outcome of the analysis.
®
In this case the important factors for the survey made by Great Place to Work are related to job
satisfaction and in detail they are found to be:
•
Trust in relation to management concerning respect, credibility and fairness
•
The relationship with the other employees should be enjoyable
•
The employees should be proud of their work.
When choosing theories to conduct this analysis, these aspects should be remembered. One the
other hand the criticism of some of the theories might make the theory less suitable. Herzberg’s
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
theory incorporates a satisfaction aspect, which makes it a possibility to choose this theory.
McClelland’s need theory includes the need for achievement, which could be related to trust to the
management, since the employee trust management to provide a challenging task. The need for
affiliation is closely related to the relationship with other employees and the need for power could
be related with pride, depending on how the need is satisfied.
The goal theory does not have relation with satisfaction, but there is a trust between the employee
and management that when the goal is reach, reward and feedback will be given.
The expectancy theory is also related to trust, since it is important for instrumentality that the
manager keeps promises. Also satisfaction is included in the theory, if the employee perceives the
reward to be equal or fair, another aspect of trust.
The four drives theory also covers some important aspects. The drive to bond covers for the
relationship with the employees, the drive to defend covers the pride, since people will defend the
things they are proud of. Trust will be covered by the drive to acquire and comprehend. The
employee trust the management that it is good for them to acquire something and they trust the
management that their contribution is meaningful.
The last theory, the motivating environment theory includes a lot of trust to the management that
they can provide and will keep on to provide this environment, as all of the aspects include trust to
the management.
3.5 Conclusion
The importance of motivation is shown from the fact that it has been focus of studies for many
years, also in connection with job satisfaction. More of the theories show that when people are
motivated, they will also be satisfied. Satisfied employees means happy employees and a good
working environment. This is important, as it will also increase the efficiency of the employees.
Different theories explain motivation in diverse ways. What motivates employees can be
explained according to content theories, but even though the theories are trying to explain the
same thing, they differ in their perception of what is most important. The theories do not agree on
how the motivational factors should be presented. Comparing Maslow and McClelland, it is
possible to see that there are similarities in their theories, but at the same time differences. Maslow
is of the opinion that the needs emerges one at a time, whereas McClelland says that they occur
different for every individual and that the needs can be more compressed. Herzberg is also of the
opinion that some factors need to be covered, before others can be satisfied.
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Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
Looking at the process theories, that tell how employees are motivated, the expectancy model and
the goal theory are alike, but they do not give importance to the same aspects. The expectancy
theory, as the name indicates, focuses on the connection between expectation and outcome,
whereas the goal theory focuses on the goals only.
The four-drives theory introduces brain-science in order to explain the human motivation path,
whereas Capozzoli shows another way of thinking about motivation, by not directing the
motivational factors directly at the employee, but on the work environment.
It is shown that the theories are related with the aspects found to be important in the “Best
Workplace in Denmark” survey. In order to know which of the theories will be better to explain
the relationship between the motivation and the election, it is necessary to know more about
McDonald’s. This will be introduced in the next chapter.
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
4. McDonald’s
4.1 Introduction
The focus of this chapter is McDonald’s and what they do in order to motivate their employees.
The company policies, which are relevant for conducting the analysis of how the employees are
motivated by the company, will be examined.
Furthermore the chapter will go into detail in a restaurant in Paderup, Denmark. A structured
interview is conducted with the manager of the restaurant and with one of the employees. It will
give an overview of how the manager is working in order to motivate her employees on daily
basis. This will introduce further knowledge about the procedures, than the policies made by the
company. The interview with the employee is made in order to confirm that the manager is using
the procedures that she introduced in the interview. This will increase the validity of the source.
More specific the questions that will be answered in this chapter are the following:
•
What kind of company is McDonald’s?
•
What policies does McDonald’s have concerning their employees?
•
What offers does McDonald’s give to the employees?
•
What kind of motivational activities take place in the restaurant?
•
How does the employees feel about their work?
4.2 About McDonald’s Denmark
It all started in the 50’s with a small hamburger restaurant in California. Today McDonald’s
servers more than 60 million people in more than 32.000 restaurants in more than 100 countries
worldwide (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013e). McDonald's Denmark Aps was established in 1989 as a
head office for the Danish restaurants. It is a daughter company of McDonald’s Corporation.
McDonald’s Denmark is in charge of the overall policies and strategies of the company on
national level. On a daily basis they work with the franchisers in connection with education,
marketing, communication, strategy, economy, and running the restaurant. The restaurants in
Denmark had a turnover of 1,6 billion Danish Kroner in 2011 (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013a).
The focus areas under the strategy of McDonald’s Denmark are the quality of their food,
modernizing their restaurants and offering a thorough training and education for their employees.
Modernizing the restaurants is in order to create a good environment for the customers, but also
for the employees working there (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013c).
Page 30 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
McDonald’s has four conditions that have to be fulfilled every day. These are quality, which
includes that their commodities are of the best quality. The next condition is service, which
includes a lot of different things that could be a smile, eye contact or fast and competent service.
Third condition is cleanliness, since it is what makes it nice to enter the restaurants and is also
important for the hygiene. The last condition is value, which covers the fact that the customers are
supposed to feel like they get value for their money (McDonald’s Corporation, 2007a).
McDonald’s Denmark wants to improve the performance at the restaurants and keep track of how
they are doing. This is done by an evaluation called store performance. The evaluation includes
different operational issues, but an employee satisfaction survey accounts for a big part. This
survey is conducted on a yearly basis for internal purposes only. McDonald’s wants to create a
good social environment with happy and satisfied employees, since it will create results in the
long run (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).
4.2.1 Values
According to McDonald’s (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013b) the company wants to be an attractive
workplace that can attract and keep competent and engaged employees. They continue to work
with developing their employees with training and personal feedback. They have a People
Promise to the employees, which is “We appreciate you, your development and your engagement”
(McDonald’s Corporation, 2007a). Based on this promise they focus on five areas that they find
important for the employees’ job satisfaction. These are ‘Respect and recognition’, ‘Competitive
wages and benefits’, ‘Resources to execute the work’, ‘Manager values’ and the final one is
‘Learning, progress and personal growth’.
By ‘Respect and recognition’ the company means that they appreciate and recognise the
individual employee and everyone respect each other and keep a good tone. In order to strengthen
the internal team they encourage doing activities together such as sports, competitions and parties
(McDonalds, 2013d). They also provide money for such activities if the restaurant wins a
competition set up by McDonald’s Denmark (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).
‘Competitive wages’ means that the employees get a salary equivalent or higher than in similar
jobs. The benefits include pension and discounts at different stores, but also the possibility to take
part in a lot of social activities (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.4).
The next area is ‘Resources to execute the work’, which includes that the employees are trained to
do the job professionally. The company wants to be flexible when it comes to working hours,
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
since the employees should also have time for family and hobbies. Education also has priority at
McDonald’s Denmark; so working hours should fit with the employees’ timetable at school
(www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013d).
‘Manager values’ are about open and honest communication among all employees. They
encourage the employees to suggest their ideas and discuss their problems at a rap session every
six months.
Furthermore McDonald’s is very interested in the attitudes of the employees, and therefore
McDonald’s conduct a survey each year in order to measure the employees’ satisfaction. This is
done for the internal purpose in the company and at the restaurants. When having the results the
restaurant managers are required to make a plan on how to improve the measures (Stine Halkjær,
appendix 1, p.3).
The last area ‘Learning, progress and personal growth’ covers the company’s focus on the
employees developing both professional and personal through their work. Therefore the company
offers individual growth and training through courses and education. This means, according to
McDonald’s Denmark that the employees gain valuable experience, which they can use in their
future career, whether at McDonald’s or not (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013d).
®
Thinking about Great Place to Work in connection with figure 2 showing the criteria to measure
effect of programs and practices, one could argue to evaluate the People Promise in order to give a
®
good indication of what Great Place to Work does when they evaluate companies. In order for
the People Promise to be good and create unity (gestalt) it has to include the five components
showed in the figure. Starting with human touch, it can easily be concluded that the policy is made
with a human touch, since it is made for the employees. Integration is if the policy is integrated in
the company culture as a whole. Since the company is building their values on this promise, one
have to say that it is integrated. Next is variety, which can be argued to be incorporated in the
policy, since the policy is considering different values, it does not just have one side. It is original,
since it is something that McDonald’s has made for their employees. It is incorporated because
McDonald’s want it to be present among their policies. The last component is all-inclusiveness.
There can be more aspects to this, like it includes all the employees or the fact that it includes all
aspects. It seems like McDonald’s has made the policy to cover both.
®
Since the policy covers all the aspects, it is according to the tool from Great Place to Work an
effective company policy, and this would be good for McDonald’s and their evaluation.
Page 32 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
These areas, which are important for McDonald’s Denmark in order for them to keep their
promise, will be discussed at restaurant level in the next sections.
4.3 McDonald’s Paderup
The restaurant with about 35 employees and 8 managers was a part of the survey from Great Place
®
to Work . On a daily basis they are about 7-8 people at work during the day and in the busy
evenings they are up to 20-22 people. The restaurant employs mostly young people, who starts
there as their first spare time job. Out of the employees, approximately eight of them have a
fulltime job, whereas the rest are working part time next to school (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1,
p.1).
4.3.1 Respect and recognition
Appreciating and recognising the individual employee is important for the company, including the
employees appreciating each other. In order to encourage this, the manager tries to solve issues
before they become big. This could be done at the performance sessions, but if an employee is
suddenly underperforming, the managers react to the situation. The reasons for underperforming
can be many, like busy at school or personal things, but might also be something at work, that
needs to be improved (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).
In order to improve the relationship among the employees McDonald’s Paderup make an effort for
the employees and managers to participate in social activities during their spare time. An activity
plan is made every year and includes an activity every one or two months. This includes activities
after a staff meeting such as bowling or eating out, but also sports evenings, parties and an
annually full dress award party, where different prices are awarded. The employees are nominated
in categories like employee of the year, employee with the best mood and employee with best
customer service. Furthermore they have a team-building weekend, which includes competitions
and sleeping outside. According to the manager all the activities contribute to people being happy
with the job (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2).
According to the employee the team is important at the restaurant and the employees feel
important in the team, since they each have their responsibilities to fulfil and the team members
depend on each other. The employees also help each other when it comes to personal things, like
after having a bad experience with a customer. Then the others comfort the unlucky employee and
help to move on (Mie, appendix 2, p.1).
Page 33 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
Another way of strengthening the team spirit is done by organising competitions. McDonald’s has
competitions for the restaurants and for the employees. This means that some competitions are
made by McDonald’s Denmark, whereas others are held in the restaurant among the employees.
The competitions made by McDonald’s Denmark often include a prize in form of money for the
restaurant, which can be used for social activities. McDonald’s Denmark uses this to improve
operational issues such as to long waiting time or introducing new products. Then it is up to the
restaurant what they will do in order to win. An example is when McDonald’s Denmark
introduces a new burger, and makes it a competition which restaurant sells most of them. Then the
individual restaurant might decide also to make a competition within the restaurant about who
sells most burgers.
The restaurant might also have other competitions like who is smiling the most or who is using the
most exact amount of salad in the burger. The winner sometimes get a price like candy or a pin for
their t-shirt saying ‘super seller’ or it might be tickets to a football match. In order situations it is
the worst performing people who are punished and has to do something funny, like running
around the restaurant (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).
Another competition or way to recognise the employees is that the restaurants announce employee
of the month and write a small text saying why he is a good employee, and what has made him
special this month. The reasons to get this recognition can be many, like a new employee doing
well, an employee developing with the job or an employee who helps the others (Stine Halkjær,
appendix 1, p.3). By recognising the employee of the month it is visible for everybody what
McDonald’s expects from the employees, and this way they assume to get employees to behave
the way they want them to (www.3f.dk, 2012).
Employees can also compete with themselves in the manner that when they are evaluated at the
workstation, they have a possibility to gain a pin for their nametag. This pin can be in gold, silver
or bronze. This makes it possible for them to make an effort to get a better pin than last time (Stine
Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2).
4.3.2 Competitive wages and benefits
There are different kind of benefits when working with McDonald’s, such as fitness at a
discounted price, discount at Apple products and discounts in different local shops. Furthermore
McDonald’s Paderup is a sponsor for the local football team and therefore they get tickets for the
games, which the employees have a possibility to get. The employees also get presents for
Christmas and chocolate at Easter (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p. 4).
Page 34 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
4.3.3 Resources to execute the work
It is important for McDonald’s that the employees are trained to do the job professionally;
therefore the employees are invited to a conversation with their manager twice a year. These
performance sessions are in order to get feedback on their performance and to discuss the future
development of the employee. The meetings are an important part in the employee development.
The employees are given a questionnaire they have to fill out before the session. This makes the
employees think about their strengths, weaknesses, what they like at work and what they would
like to be better at. This makes it easier to conduct a meeting with a successful outcome. For the
manager it is important that the employees are prepared before the session, but also that the
manager has something in return to the employees. This comes from an evaluation made by all the
managers in the restaurant. The employees are continuously evaluated and tested. This makes it
possible for the manager to give constructive criticism and let the employee know what is done
correctly, but also what should be better. At the performance sessions a plan for the future of the
employee is also made. According to the restaurant manager the employee is the only one
restricting his own development (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2).
McDonalds’s employees have different titles in the job. Most of them start working in the lobby or
as a cashier and then they work their way through the different stations at the restaurants. When
they are familiar with all the stations procedures, they have the possibility to further development.
The employee can gain titles such as trainer, hostess and area manager, which all gives more
responsibility. Before getting the titles there are some requirements, but it is possible to achieve
the requested (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2). Developing and learning new skills are also an
important thing for the employees and development should take place for as long as the employee
is working in the restaurant. The opportunities for development are really good at McDonald’s and
the chance to develop skills is important for the employees (Mie, appendix 2, p.1).
4.3.4 Manager values
In order to provide open and honest communication McDonald’s has, besides from the
performance sessions already mentioned, a thing called rap sessions. At the rap sessions at
McDonald’s Paderup they choose five employees to represent all the employees. Then all
employees fill out a questionnaire and hand it to the representative. This way the employees can
stay anonymous, and possible issues will be discussed at a meeting between the representatives
and the managers. From this there will be made an action plan, in order to improve such issues
(Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).
Page 35 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
4.3.5 Learning, progress and personal growth
In order to encourage both personal and professional growth, McDonald’s offers a range of
possibilities when it comes to education of their employees. They offer the option to take an
education in order to become a trainee, study single subjects or academic educations, become a
trade economist or end up as a manager of a restaurant.
The trainee programme has duration of approximately one year. It is mix between school and
practical work, but school is only four times with duration of one week each time. The education
is wide since you will be trained in economy and marketing, but the speciality is sales and service.
At school you will learn sales theory and techniques and at the restaurant you will use the theory
and thereby gain experience. The employee will receive wage during the education. The four
focus areas for the trainee education are stream of customers, stream of goods, stream of money
and stream of information (McDonald’s Danmark A/S, 2013).
The manager education consists of courses, which are internal at McDonald’s. These courses are
Basic Shift Management, Advanced Shift Management, Effective Management Practices,
Restaurant Leadership Practices, Business Leadership Practices, and Operation Consultant’s
Course. Some of them are held in Denmark, while others are in Chicago or London (McDonald’s
Corporation, 2007b).
Trade economists deal with purchase, sales and marketing and it is possible to take the education
while working at McDonald’s. The company pays the education, and since it only takes place in
Randers, where are some costs for the restaurant to offer the education. Therefore it is a decision
made by the restaurant manager, whether an employee can take the education. Furthermore it
works better for both the restaurant and the employee if the employee uses the restaurant as an
example when writing essays. A lot of the employees do accept the educational offer from
McDonald’s (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).
4.4 Conclusion
At McDonald’s their employees are an important asset and their People Promise “We appreciate
you, your development and your engagement” show that the company values the employees. The
values ‘Respect and recognition’, ‘Competitive wages and benefits’, ‘Resources to execute the
work’, ‘Manager values’ and ‘Learning, progress and personal growth’ are incorporated down to
the restaurant level, showing that McDonald’s is aware of their own promise, and they want to
keep it.
Page 36 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
At McDonald’s they offer the employees to develop in the restaurant together with a range of
educational possibilities. Other motivational activities worth mentioning are competitions within
and among the restaurants, recognition of employee of the month and benefits such as pension and
discounts at local stores. The employees at McDonald’s feel that it is a great place to work and the
development possibilities are good. There is always something to learn in the restaurant, which
keep them busy.
Page 37 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
5. Analysis of McDonald’s
5.1 Introduction
This chapter is going to link the policies and practices used by McDonald’s to the theory
introduced in the first part of the thesis. It will try to find theories to explain the fact that
McDonald’s has been elected as the Best Workplace in Denmark two years in a row. Explaining
the practices by using theory will help to verify or invalidate the hypothesis that McDonald’s’
election as the best working place in Denmark can partly be explained by their way of creating job
satisfaction by motivating their employees.
It is necessary to use more than one theory, since all the theories have flaws. The older theories are
all more criticised than the modern theories, this implies that the validity of using the modern
theories will be higher. The older theories will be explained briefly, while the modern theories will
be described more in detail.
More specifically the questions, which are going to be handled in this chapter, are:
•
What theories can explain the way of motivating in McDonald’s?
•
How can the manager’s way of motivating be explained by theory?
•
How can the success be explained by motivational theory?
5.2 Theories and job satisfaction
This section is going to evaluate job satisfaction. Using the theory of Furnham (2005) described in
section 3.2, the three categories that affect the job satisfaction are organisational policies and
procedures, specific aspects of the job and personal characteristics. This shows that it is not only
the job itself that has an impact on the employees’ satisfaction, but also policies around the job.
At McDonald’s they are concerned with their employees and incorporate them into the policies.
This can be seen from the People Promise that the company has made. This shows that
McDonald’s is concerned with the job satisfaction of their employees. The job aspects can have
many variations at McDonald’s, since there are different workstations. When the employee learns
all the stations, it might be that he finds his favourite place. Therefore if he gets to work at that
station, he will be satisfied with the job aspects. The personal characteristics are not something
that can be changed, but at McDonald’s they are open to difference among employees. They are
open to hiring people with a handicap in order to help them (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.1).
Page 38 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
5.2.1 Herzberg’s two-factor theory
Herzberg’s theory described in section 3.3.1 incorporates job satisfaction into the model and
shows how it is created. Therefore one could argue to look at the model in this case of
McDonald’s, as the most important aspect in the survey from Great Place to Work
®
is job
satisfaction among the employees. At the same time the model is criticised for not taking personal
differences into account. This means that the theory assumes that people respond in the same way
when exposed to a certain stimuli, which is not the case. The theory is also criticised for only
being tested on medium or top management people (Scheuer, 2000). Using Herzberg’s two-factor
model the job satisfaction among the employees at McDonald’s can be explained. According to
the model the company does the things that are necessary in order to motivate their employees and
satisfaction is a result of this. Looking at the People Promise from McDonald’s both intrinsic and
extrinsic aspects of work are included. They promise their employees that they will be satisfied
with working at McDonald’s. But in the case of McDonald’s the employees are mostly young
non-specialists, and even though it is possible to show that McDonald’s covers both the hygiene
factors and the motivational factors in the People Promise values, using the theory will not be
valid to use in this situation, due to the flaws in the theory.
5.2.2 McClelland’s need theory
The content theory, which will be used to explain the success of McDonald’s, is McClelland’s
need theory, described in section 3.3.1. The theory is chosen, since it helps to understand the fact
that McDonald’s is hiring a lot of different kind of people and still doing well. As this theory will
show the employees do not need to have a special combination of needs, since the policies at
McDonald’s will help to fulfil them all. According to the manager at McDonald’s they employ
students at different levels, different nationalities and also people having a handicap can possibly
get a job at McDonald’s (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.1). Furthermore it was shown that the
theory covers some of the aspects that are important in the “Best Workplace in Denmark” survey.
This theory consists, as already explain in chapter three, of three motivation needs, which are the
needs for achievement, affiliation and power. Linking this to the McDonald’s case will show
whether the company can fulfil all three needs, or whether there according to the theory are some
flaws in the policies that mean that McDonald’s should be hiring people with the same
characteristics in motivation needs.
Page 39 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
People with high need for achievement, can find challenges in achieving the announcement
‘Employee of the month’, getting a ‘Super Seller’ pin to wear for everyone to see or achieving the
goals set for the individual employee by the employee himself and the manager.
The tests that the managers make can also fulfil high need for achievement, since they will have to
do very well, if they want to achieve a gold pin for their nametag. At the same time the manager
will also give them feedback after the test and achievers appreciate this, since it will help them to
improve. This continuous development possibilities and challenges should be something that can
fulfil the need for achievement, even for those having a high need.
The need for affiliation is about making bonds to the people surrounding you, having a feeling of
belonging and feeling loved. At McDonald’s it is important for the manager that everyone
understands that they are a part of a team. If one employee does not perform, the whole team
cannot perform. Therefore the manager will talk with the employee who is underperforming in
order to solve a possible issue or help the employee with handling personal things. This creates a
feeling of belonging and being important to the rest of the team. For people having a high need for
affiliation the activities arranged to take place after work are also important. At McDonald’s social
activities are taking place between once or twice during a two month period. The activities change
a lot from time to time and therefore it should be possible for everyone to participate in something
they find interesting (Mie, appendix 2, p.1). This aspect is closely related with the Great Place to
®
Work survey, as they find it important that employees enjoy the people they work with.
The last need for power is related to the progress it is possible to make in the restaurant. The more
an employee performs and shows that he is capable of doing, the more responsibility he will be
given. At the performance session it will be possible for the employee to wish to climb higher in
the hierarchy at the restaurant. This includes gaining the titles as trainer, where the employee will
be in charge of teaching the newcomers how to do or being a hostess controlling the birthday
celebration of children. The need for power is also related to the education policy, since the more
education an employee take, the more power he will get. McDonald’s focus on the individual and
his progress in the system. An employee can plan his own education together with the manager
and work his way up to become a manager either inside McDonald’s or use the education
elsewhere in the job marked. The employees can start out by becoming an area manager at
McDonald’s controlling a few other staff members, and organising how the shifts are going to
take place in the kitchen. The education system of McDonald’s is recognised by managers of other
companies as being a good education (McDonald’s Corporation 2007b).
Page 40 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
The need for power will also be important in the team, since a positive side of power will be that
the employee will focus on accomplishing the goals of the team. All in all if a person has a high
need for power, it is possible to fulfil the need by working the way up in the company by taking
the education offered by McDonald’s.
McClelland’s need theory shows that McDonald’s has the possibility to hire people with different
combinations of needs, since it seems to be possible to fulfil the three kind of needs and thereby
get motivated employees. They do not have to focus on only hiring people with high need for
power, since their policies will help to cover all three needs that a person can have according to
McClelland. McClelland proposed that people with high need for power and low need for
affiliation are better in high manager positions. The fact that McDonald’s covers the need for
power very well will attract people who might be future managers. As they also manage to cover
the other needs many different people will be attracted to the company. According to the theory,
they will then have to find out who has a low affiliation need and high need for power, when it
comes to offering leader education.
As McClelland’s need theory and Herzberg’s two-factor theory are content theories, they only tell
what will motivate the employees, not how the company is going to do it. Therefore it is necessary
to look at process theories in order to explain how the practices that McDonald’s have, help them
to gain the title ‘Best Workplace Denmark’. Furthermore McClelland’s need theory only tells
about what satisfy the needs for different people, it does not include job satisfaction, but includes
trust in relation to achievement and camaraderie in relation to affiliation.
5.2.3 Goal theory
The first process theory described in section 3.3.2 that will be used in order to explain the
motivation at McDonald’s is the goal theory. This theory is chosen since it seems to be important
for McDonald’s that their employees are in progress all the time. They all have a plan for the
future, meaning what they have to achieve within the next couple of months. These are goals
made for the employees. The three steps of the theory can be found at McDonald’s. First they set
the goal at the performance session. The goal made in cooperation between the manager and the
employee. This way the manager can make sure that the goal is achievable and at the same time
challenging. This also allows the employee to get influence, and thereby making sure that the
employee finds it interesting. Afterwards the employee has to give the effort necessary in order to
achieve the goal, and at the same time the manager is aware of the goal and might be able to coach
the employee in the right direction if necessary. During the next performance session the
Page 41 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
employee will be given feedback on the work done and if the goal was achieved, the next goal will
be set (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2). This way the manager makes sure that all the employees
have a goal to work with and thereby keep them motivated.
According to the goal theory the employees at McDonald’s do have increased productivity. In
®
relation to the survey made by Great Place to Work the theory incorporates trust. This is due to
the fact that the employee has to trust the manager that he will be given feedback and a reward
when the goal is accomplished, otherwise the goal will not be motivating. The theory does not
include other employees, pride or job satisfaction, and therefore it does not give reasons enough
why McDonald’s was chosen at the best workplace.
5.2.4 Porter and Lawler’s Expectancy theory
Using the expectancy theory described in section 3.3.2 the aspect of job satisfaction is included.
According to the theory companies cannot motivate their employees directly, but they have to
create a good environment, where people get self-motivated. The employees need to feel that they
are a productive and involved in the work, and it is good for them to know how their contribution
helps with the company visions. Therefore it is important to pay attention to the three relationships
introduced in the expectancy theory, which are expectancy, instrumentality and valence (Buelens
et al., 2011).
The theory argue that employees will be motivated in accordance with what they expect to get out
of a certain level of effort. According to the theory the expectancies are important for the effort
given by the employee. Therefore by helping the employee to accomplish their performance goals
the company can enhance the expectancy and thereby the effort. This is done by coaching and
supporting the employees and given them challenging work (Isaac et al., 2001). In the case of
McDonald’s it is found that the employees are given support in the performance session on how to
improve and what to do in order to gain a new title, and the requirements for the employees seems
clear. According to the manager the employee gets a precise task that needs to be fulfilled before
the employee can expect to progress. This could be the employee wanting to become a trainer, but
who has to increase his own performance levels at certain stations. It could also be an employee
that wants to get a gold pin instead of a silver one, when being tested at a certain station. The
employee will then know he has to improve at the station and get a higher performance level
(Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2). This shows that McDonald’s is dealing with the effortperformance expectancy relationship.
Page 42 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
The next relationship is the performance-outcome instrumentality. Saying that an employee can
gain a new title if he improves his performance level includes a promise from the organisation.
The employee's expected outcome would then be, that if he succeeds with the task, then he will be
given a new title. When working with this relationship it is important to keep promises and giving
the employees fair treatment (Buelens et al., 2011). In the case of McDonald’s it seems that the
employees trust their manager to keep promises. This is seen from the fact that the employee
expects that if she does well in her tests, she will gain more responsibility (Mie, appendix 2, p.1).
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This aspect is also important in relation to trust in the survey conducted by Great Place to Work .
Looking at the last relationship between outcome and personal goals called valence, it is important
for the company to know what the employees value. Even though money is often used as a
reward, the content theories showed that people are motivated by other needs than monetary.
McDonald’s uses this fact, as money is not one of their main tools for motivation. Instead they
reward the employees with responsibility and possibilities for further progress. They also
announce “the employee of the month”, which for some employees can be valuable to be
recognised in such a manner. When talking about valence it is important to align the goals of
McDonald’s with the goals of the employees. It might be hard for McDonald’s to know what each
and every employee values, and therefore it might be difficult to offer something for everyone, but
the as the manager has holds the performance session, she should be able to tell what is important
for the individual employee.
Rewards come both as extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. The rewards mentioned in connection with
McDonald’s are mostly extrinsic, because they are related with public recognition (getting a pin or
gaining a title) but the rewards can also be intrinsic. These rewards are intangible and self-granted,
and could be daily or periodic goals that an employee have for herself, which she accomplishes
and therefore reward herself with satisfaction.
McDonald’s is a place where you can gain work experience and learn how to handle
responsibility, and according to the employee, it is a good thing to learn how to manage other
people and handle pressure and she will be able to use it in the future. For her the valence seems
positive and she therefore values the outcome (Mie, appendix 2, p.1).
Another aspect introduced in the extended model is job satisfaction, which is high at McDonald’s
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according to the surveys made by themselves and by Great Place to Work . Job satisfaction is
according to the theory created when the employees feel equitably rewarded. This means that the
employees feel like they have to put the same level of effort at the same performance standard into
Page 43 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
the task in order to get the same outcome. At McDonald’s everyone has a chance to progress and
they are rewarded according to their future plan, so this could be an explanation of the high job
satisfaction.
Also past experience influence the reward possibilities and effort of the employee. The employees
at McDonald’s feel that there is a good opportunity for development and if they succeed in
completing a task, they get rewarded (Mie, appendix 2, p.1). Therefore it seems that they have
good experiences with the effort and rewards. This can also be explained by the fact that many of
the employees are working at McDonald’s as their first job. There are therefore no bad
experiences to overcome, as long as McDonald’s keep their own promises and reward the
employees equitably.
All in all the theory supports the procedures at McDonald’s as being a good for motivation and job
satisfaction. It seems that McDonald’s gain from having a lot of young employees, since they have
no expectation level from other companies. Therefore the employees learn what is expected at
McDonald’s and as long as everyone gets the same treatment, it will lead to satisfied employees.
The theory also covers some of the important aspects of the survey, like trust and satisfaction, and
therefore explains parts of why McDonald’s have been elected. The three aspects of trust are
incorporated into the theory, since fairness is related to equity in rewards, credibility is about
getting what it expected and respect is about giving the employee a task that is possible to solve
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with his abilities. As not all of the important factors for Great Place to Work are covered in the
theory other models will be used to explain these.
5.2.5 Four drives theory
Modern theories use more than observations to understand the human behaviour, including how
people are motivated, as modern brain science can also contribute to understand the complexity of
humans. The four-drives theory described in section 3.3.3 is one of these modern theories, and it is
in simplicity saying that humans are motivated on the ground of four drives; the drive to acquire,
comprehend, bond and defend (Nohria et al., 2008).
In the case of McDonald’s the drive to acquire is covered by the possibility of acquiring a status in
the restaurants, since the drive to acquire is covered by an effective reward system. Again, this can
be the possibility of gaining a title, but it could also include the education system as the employees
have the possibility to become managers in the restaurants if they work their way up in the
hierarchy. According to the manager it is the best employees that are offered the manager
Page 44 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
education. As a result of this the employees who think they have an opportunity for advancement,
will strive to become among the best and since the reward system is tied to performance, the best
get a change of advancement.
The drive to comprehend is about making sense of what the individual employee contributes with.
At McDonald’s the employees can easily see how their effort contributes to the serving of
customers on the everyday basis. Without the cashier the customers cannot make orders, without
the kitchen employees, there is no food to serve, without the lobbyist the customers will not be
able to sit down, or might not even want to enter the restaurant if it looks like a mess. At the same
time the job task has to challenging and enable the employee to learn and grow. McDonald’s tries
to keep their employees motivated by making a good job design, which challenges the employees
through performance tests, progress and new tasks. This should be enough to cover the drive to
comprehend.
Bonding is important for McDonald’s, as it is important for company that the employees feel as a
part of a team. When the employees form a connection with the people they work with it will
increase the commitment and making the collaboration easier. Different activities are organised
for the employees to take part in at McDonald’s, which are parties, competitions among the
employees, but also team-building activities such as a weekend trip and competitions among the
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restaurants. One of the important measures that Great Place to Work used was the fact that the
employees are proud of working for the company. According to the four-drive theory a strong and
positive bond feeling will make people feel proud of belonging to the company. This shows that
McDonald’s are doing the right thing according to the theory, when improving the teamwork.
Defending is the last drive that should be addressed by a company in order for the employees to be
motivated. Fulfilling the drive will make the employees confident and let them feel secure,
whereas if it is not fulfilled the employees will worry and this way not be satisfied with their job.
At McDonald’s the employees make their future plan together with the manager. This should
make the employees secure in their job, since the plan involves that they keep their job. Defending
is also about defending their workplace from competition. In order for the drive to defend to be
fulfilled it good for the company to have a common enemy, like Burger King. The employees will
then defend McDonald’s against e.g. Burger King. This is also connected with pride, since the
employees will defend what they are proud of.
Another important part of the theory is the fact that it is not only up to the company to fulfil the
drives, as the employees’ perception of the manager also matters. So how the manager implement
Page 45 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
the policies and work with the employees are important aspects. At McDonald’s the manager is
also working as a part of the team from time to time (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.1). This forces
the manager to have a good relationship with the staff in order for the teamwork to function.
According to the manager there is a good relationship among the employees and managers, but at
the same time everyone knows who is in charge (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2). This shows that
the manager is working together with the employees and at the same time keeps a distance in
order to get respect from the employees.
All in all the four-drives are all mastered by McDonald’s. The company has to make sure that all
the drives are met at all times. It might be necessary to look through the practices, in order to
improve the drives. This could be in the case of a lot of new employees then it might be necessary
for the company to have more social activities than usual in order both for the new employees to
bond, but also for the rest to get to know and accept the new as a part of the team. In relation to
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the Great Place to Work survey, the theory covers for the pride and camaraderie aspects, as
already mentioned in the analysis. Further it should be mentioned that trust is important in order to
cover the drive to achieve and comprehend. Therefore this theory explains how McDonald’s got
high scores in those aspects and thereby creates job satisfaction.
5.2.6 Motivating environment
This theory described in section 3.3.3, says that the manager cannot motivate the employees, they
have to motivate themselves, but the manager has to create the right environment. A motivating
environment has expectations for the employees to perform at their best. The manager has to
include the eight conditions that according to Capozzoli contribute to a motivating environment.
The conditions are high standards, clear objectives, adequate training, adequate management
contact, adequate feedback, rewards that employees value, adequate working conditions and an
effective leadership.
Some of them have already been touch upon in connection with the other theories and in relation
with McDonald’s. ‘Rewards that the employees value’ have been discussed in connection with the
expectancy theory, where it was found that it can be difficult to know what the employees value,
but at McDonald’s the rewards mostly take form of public recognition.
Page 46 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
‘High standards’ is the next condition; this is related to the fact that McDonald’s has a clear goal
of having a measure that is higher than 85 %1 in all tests and surveys. This might differ among the
restaurants, as they might have set a higher standard for themselves, but the standard is present
(Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3). Therefore the employees know what the standards are supposed
to be, what the company expect of them and what the company is trying to achieve all the time.
This is also related with the next condition, which is for the company to have ‘clear objectives’.
Not only should they be clear, but the employees should also know them and the employees
should be able to se how their job contribute to the overall objective. McDonald’s Denmark has
the objectives that they want to serve quality, service, cleanliness and value every day. These
should be well known by the employees, since they are written in the material given to all new
employees.
From an employee starts McDonald’s gives what they believe to be ‘adequate training’. The
employee is given a schedule telling exactly where he is suppose to start and where he is going
next. Further they are given some material to read before starting to work at McDonald’s. Next
McDonald’s is using the employees who have recently been through the training themselves, to
train the new people. This is of course only if the employees have done well enough to gain the
title as trainer.
‘Adequate management contact’ is given through the rap sessions, the individual performance
sessions and during the everyday work, where sometimes the manager is working in the restaurant
next to the employees. This includes that the manager is a part of the working team and this will
decrease the distance between the employee and manager, and the employee will feel more
valued.
‘Adequate feedback’ is also to be found in the performance sessions, where the manager will talk
with the employee of how he has been performing during the last period of time. Also after being
tested at workstations the employees are given feedback. It might not be from the manager, but
can also be from the other leaders, who are also trained to give feedback to the employees.
In order to offer ‘adequate working conditions’ to the employees McDonald’s Denmark wants to
modernize their restaurants. This should both improve the environment for the customers, but also
for the employees. Furthermore McDonald’s has to replace the old equipment with new tools.
1
The measure is what the manager remembered it to be, unfortunately it is not known if it is the
exact number in reality. In the restaurant at Paderup the measure is 90%.
Page 47 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
This should be done so the employees can see that the work is important, so important that it is
necessary to provide new tools2.
The last condition is ‘effective leadership’. McDonald’s Denmark has their own education system
for the leaders to make sure that all their leaders are trained to be in the position as leader,
leadership being one of the fundamental training objectives. As mentioned when discussing the
expectancy theory keeping promises is also important. In this theory it is a part of the effective
leadership that the employees trust the manager. It is assumed that since the employee trust that
she is going to get a new title or a new task as soon as she has reach the level expected of her, then
she trusts the manager (Mie, appendix 2, p.1). Again trust is mentioned as an important aspect.
According to the analysis McDonald’s is providing the conditions at a level that is sufficient for
the environment to be motivating. Therefore this theory supports the practices at McDonald’s in
the sense that they are doing the right things for the environment and therefore doing the right
things in order to get motivated employees. All in all the theory supports that McDonald’s is doing
the right things in order to motivate their employees and therefore they gain success. Also the
aspects shows that the employee should trust their management, since the analysis shows that
McDonald’s incorporates trust into their policies and practices.
5.3 Conclusion
The first theory used to describe the way of motivating at McDonald’s was McClelland’s need
theory. This is a content theory, describing what McDonald’s does in order to motivate their
employees. The theory supported the policies well and therefore supports that McDonald’s
policies include the right things in order to motivate their employees. Unfortunately McClelland’s
need theory does not include satisfaction, which is one of the main factors in the survey conducted
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by Great Place to Work .
The next theories used were the goal theory and Porter & Lawler’s expectancy theory. These
theories were used in order to explain how McDonald’s is motivating their employees. The goal
theory is chosen since, it is found to have good relation with the practices at McDonald’s, but
since it does not include the satisfaction aspect either, the theory cannot be used to explain the
election of McDonald’s on this aspect, but as many of the other theories trust is incorporated in
the theory. As many of the theories include this aspect, it validates the statement from Great Place
2
Unfortunately the manager did not answer the question whether new equipment is provided, but
as the restaurants are renovated continuously, it is assumed that the equipment is also updated.
Page 48 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
®
to Work that it is an important factor. The expectancy theory’s three relationships expectancy,
instrumentality and valence were all analysed in connection with McDonald’s and it was found
that McDonald’s makes it clear what the employee can expect from a certain performance and
they keep their promises. The manager has to pay attention to valence, since it is hard to measure
what the employees value as rewards, she will have to figure out during the performance sessions.
At McDonald’s responsibility and progress are the reward used most, and according to the
employee interviewed the valence is positive. The last theory did cover all the aspects of trust,
since fairness, credibility and respect is incorporated into the theory.
Next the four-drives theory was used. The theory is built on observation and modern brainscience. The drive to acquire is covered by a reward system; if an employee does well he has the
possibility to progress. The drive to comprehend was covered by meaningful and challenging job
design and the drive to bond was covered by a range of social activities. The last drive to defend
can be covered by following the future plan for the individual employee and thereby defending his
job and furthermore it is also covered from the fact that the employees at McDonald’s have a
common enemy e.g. Burger King. Again trust to the management is shown from the drive to
comprehend and achieve, while the drive to bond covers for camaraderie aspect and drive to
defend covers the pride aspect.
Last theory was the theory of motivating environment, where all eight standards were fulfilled in
the case of McDonald’s. This will create a motivating environment for the employees and
according to the theory it will help the employees to motivate themselves.
McClelland’s need theory, the expectancy theory, the four-drives theory and the motivating
environment all contribute to the understanding of the success of McDonald’s. The theories
explain how the motivation is correlated with the aspects that are found to be important for Great
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Place to Work . Since the theories supports the policies and practices to do the right thing in the
right way, it can be concluded that McDonald’s is motivating their employees in a way that
creates job satisfaction among the employees. With satisfied employees a good working
environment will be created, where the employees trust the people they work for, where they are
proud at working and where they enjoy the people they work with. This also implies that
motivating the employees will create a good working environment.
Page 49 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
6. Conclusion
This thesis has been working with the hypothesis that McDonald’s’ election as the best working
place in Denmark can partly be explained by their way of creating job satisfaction by motivating
their employees.
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Great Place to Work has been evaluated and the methods they use to analyse the companies have
been introduced. It was found that the important aspects of the survey were trust to the
management, camaraderie and pride. Furthermore some critique to the survey was discussed and it
was found that the critique was not meant for the tools that the company uses to evaluate, but
rather aimed at the fact that they give the title “Best Workplace in Denmark”, based on a small
sample of companies.
In order to understand how companies can work with motivation the thesis introduced different
motivational theories, which it used to explain how the policies at McDonald’s are working. Both
content theories and process theories were introduced, some of them well known, while others are
modern theories. They all explain motivation in different ways and emphasize diverse aspects,
which have been important during the years. The theories were evaluated according to the
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important aspects of Great Place to Work survey. It was found that motivation is important for
the company, in order to keep the employees performing efficiently and create job satisfaction.
Introducing the policies and practices at McDonald’s revealed that the employees are important
for the company. It showed from the People Promise, which is used in order to incorporate the
important values that McDonald’s has, into the policies that concern the employees. The policies
were introduced at corporation level as ‘Respect and recognition’, ‘Competitive wages and
benefits’, ‘Resources to execute the work’, ‘Manager values’ and ‘Learning, progress and personal
growth’ and it was discussed how the restaurant incorporates the values into everyday work.
McClelland’s need theory, the expectancy theory, the four-drives theory and the motivating
environment all contributed to the understanding of the success of McDonald’s. McDonald’s
policies and practices contribute to motivating their employees and creating job satisfaction
among the employees. This shows that the reason for McDonald’s election is that they motivate
®
their employees in a correct way and the aspect emphasized by Great Place to Work are included
in the policies. Therefore it can be concluded that the hypothesis is verified and as a result of this
McDonald’s way of creating job satisfaction through motivation of their employees can partly
explain the fact that McDonald’s has been elected as the ‘The Best Workplace in Denmark’.
Page 50 of 53
Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
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Jeanette Hauge Tost
Exam number 301800
Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s
Bachelor
30/04/13
BscB-General
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30/04/13
BscB-General
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